Discovering the Norbury Brook with John Rogers

Another lost London river walk with John Rogers. As his YouTube blurb explains:

This week we follow the beguiling Norbury Brook as it wends its way through South London from Selhurst through Thornton Heath to Streatham where it becomes the River Graveney. The Norbury Brook is the most significant tributary of the River Wandle.

We first encounter the Norbury Brook in its culvert on the far side of Heavers Meadow, in the London Borough of Croydon, where it emerges in its concrete culvert from beneath the Selhurst Railway Sidings. It's believed that the brook rises somewhere on the far side near where the Croydon Canal once passed through the area.

From here the brook passes between houses and we have to take a detour around Selhurst Station, where we see Maud Milton's wonderful mosaic roundel. Our route takes us near the famous Brit School where Adele and Amy Winehouse studied, and then through the streets of Thornton Heath where we glimpse the brook flowing along the backs of gardens and beside driveways. 

We get a clear view of the brook as it runs along one side of Thornton Heath Recreation Park and then a little further on, in Norbury Park. When it emerges from the Park onto Streatham High Road, at Hermitage Bridge it becomes the River Graveney through some kind of strange suburban magic. I followed the Graveney as far as Streatham Vale before the light gave way and I caught the train to Victoria from Streatham Common station.

John has a Patreon account to support his videos and blogs at The Lost Byway.