Tyburn (stream) - Course

Course

Before it was culverted, the Tyburn rose from the confluence of two tributary streams from the hills of South Hampstead. Between St. James's Park and Buckingham Palace the waters divided to create two distributaries, creating Thorney Island on which Westminster Abbey was built. Enclosed by concrete, bricks, parks and roads the Tyburn flows through underground conduits for its entire length, including one underneath Buckingham Palace and its course has been used for local sewers which connect to the London sewerage system. Marylebone Lane (W1) that defies the grid pattern of streets follows the course of the Tyburn on what was its left bank through Marylebone village.

From its source at the Shepherd's Well near Fitzjohns Avenue in Hampstead it flowed south through South Hampstead (Swiss Cottage) under Avenue Road to Regent's Park. To enter the park's perimeter the Tyburn is carried in an aqueduct over the Regent's Canal then culverted.

The Tyburn gave its name to the former area of Tyburn, a manor of Marylebone, which was recorded in Domesday Book and which stood approximately at the west end of what is now Oxford Street, where from late medieval times until the 18th century traitors where left following hanging. Tyburn gave its name to the predecessors of Oxford Street and Park Lane — Tyburn Road and Tyburn Lane respectively.

Grays Antique Centre near the junction of Bond Street and Oxford Street claims that the body of water which can be seen in an open conduit in the basement of its premises (pictured) is part of the Tyburn. From this point the river loosely followed the course of Bruton Lane, Landsdowne Row, the top of Curzon Street to Shepherd Market (Mayfair W1), Carrington Street and across (now under) the southeast path of Green Park to the front gates of Buckingham Palace from where one mouth used the depression of St James Park Lake to the river and Downing Street and the other mouth cut across the present grid layout towards Thorney Street close to Lambeth Bridge.