Lost London: Walking the River Walbrook
Part 3: Mayors, Mithras, and Mud
The final stretch of the now subterranean river was once its most functional, and gave its name to the surrounding area: the Ward of Walbrook. In medieval times the area would have been home to founders, skinners, grocers, apothecaries, and poulterers – the latter remembered in the current street name of Poultry, perhaps now most famous for the postmodern wonder/monstrosity that is No. 1 Poultry. Passing under this construct, and then across Queen Victoria Street, the walker following the Walbrook comes to Bucklersbury; to one side is the City of London Magistrates’ Court, and ahead is Mansion House, official residence of the Lord Mayor of London.
The route turns away from these though, and down Walbrook. Whilst the street is named after the river (as it the church of St Stephen Walbrook), the river itself runs parallel to the west.
One side of the modern street of Walbrook is almost entirely occupied by the recently constructed headquarters of Bloomberg, within which can be found the London Mithraeum, the remains of a Roman Temple of Mithras. The cult of Mithras, which only admitted men, worshipped Mithras as a sun god, and every Mithraeum’s centrepiece was a representation of the god killing a sacred bull. This act supposedly took place underground, so all temples to Mithras were built either in subterranean locations. The London Mithraeum was unearthed in 1954 during the clearing of a bomb site in the post-war redevelopment of the City of London. Originally, the ruin was reassembled at street level 100 metres away, for open-air public display, but it is now back in (roughly) the correct place, seven metres below modern street level, and accompanied by a museum exhibiting artefacts found preserved in the Walbrook’s mud.
The other side of Walbrook is dominated by the Walbrook Building, its exterior vaguely reminiscent of flowing water, its interior filled with trading floors.
Passing swiftly by, then past Cannon Street station, the walker then turns right along Cloak Lane, and then left along College Hill. These two streets were once known by the single name of Elbow Lane, which may have referred to a sharp bend in the Walbrook’s course as it continued down towards the Thames.
Cloak Lane is home to the Tanner’s and Cutlers’ Halls, and a monument marking the reburial site of bodies removed from the graveyard of St John the Baptist upon Walbrook, which was dug up to make way for the District Railway in 1866.
On College Hill, two plaques mark both the house and a church – St Michael Paternoster – founded by London’s most famous mayor, Richard Whittington – who was, contrary to popular belief, actually four times Mayor of London. He was also buried at St Michael Paternoster, though his tomb is now lost, and the church has been rebuilt following both the Great Fire and the Blitz.
Passing through Whittington Gardens, across Lower Thames Street, and then down Cousin Lane, the walker is now in sight of the Thames. The last above ground section of the Walbrook was found near to here, in the form of the Dowgate inlet, once a major City port. The free trade enclave of Steel Yard was also around this location – it was practically an independent state run by merchants, with its own currency, and another place along the route of the Walbrook that only admitted men.
At the end of Cousin Lane, a set of slippery steps plunge into the Thames – or at least, they do at high tide. At low tide one can apparently walk along the muddy Thames foreshore though that would mean getting closer to Walbrook Wharf, the last operational dock in the City of London, where refuse is carried away on barges. If you can bear the smell though, you might be able to find the Walbrook’s storm drain outfall, the only place left where any of its waters can – if only rarely – be seen to flow.
