Phil Follows the Fleet

Not like that.

 

                                            






Nope, not like that either.

It went like this: Klauser's dear friend Cynthia -- now our friend as well -- invited Phil to follow the Fleet River, after which Fleet Street is named, from its source in Hampstead Heath to its mouth at the Thames. Theoretically this is a walk of about 6 miles, but almost all of the Fleet is now underground. It is a hidden river, so following it involves a certain amount of sleuthing, backtracking, and general lostness. Six miles is well outside my comfort zone, so I joined them for only the last mile or so. Here's their route:

The Pergola near Hampstead Heath
 (they got a little sidetracked)



A pond in Hampstead. Source of the Fleet? Probably not.
 



 

Garden near the Pergola

Saturday market in Kentish Town

Old alleyway with dog, Kentish Town

Canal fed by the Fleet

Beneath this manhole, the first sight and sound of the Fleet,
in the midst of a wedding party

Tree in St Pancras churchyard, where Thomas Hardy moved
coffins and headstones on the orders of his boss in the 1860s.
He claimed one of the excavated skeletons had two heads.

St  Pancras churchyard grave of William Godwin and
Mary Wollstonecraft

St Pancras church

Houseboats on canal at King's Place



Second hearing and sighting of the Fleet
as it rushes toward the Thames, in Clerkenwell





After I met the walkers at King's Place, we went to hear Cynthia's nephew Max Porter, author of the just-published and already-bestselling Grief Is the Thing with Feathers, speak on animals in literature. He was joined by philosophy professor Mark Rowlands, who has written a book about living with wolves (or wolf-dogs, really). Linking the two books was a bit of a stretch, but Max did so with grace and lucidity. We met him afterward and bought a copy of his book, which looks fascinating.



We capped off a week of walks and lectures by going to hear Klauser speak to a class at the British Film Institute on surrealism in film. He too was articulate and delightful, managing to link films as diverse as Le Chien Andaluse, Bimbo's Initiation (featuring an early Betty Boop, who at that point had dog ears!), and Being John Malkovich. The class was engaged and asked excellent questions; it was both informative and highly entertaining.


Our pub for the week (a short week, as we leave tomorrow for parts warmish and sunny):




The Bishop's Finger, with a special ale that
is only brewed on Fridays



 

The Bishop's special friend