London's Lost Rivers - Book and Walking Tours by Paul Talling
  • Home
  • London's Lost Rivers
    • River Peck
    • River Effra
    • River Moselle
    • The Black Ditch
    • Bollo Brook
    • The Cock & Pye Ditch
    • Counter's Creek
    • Earl's Sluice
    • Falcon Brook
    • Carbuncle Ditch
    • River Fleet
    • River Neckinger
    • Parr's Ditch
    • Hackney Brook
    • Pudding Mill River
    • Rotherhithe Mill Streams
    • Stamford Brook
    • River Tyburn
    • Tyburn Brook
    • River Walbrook
    • Muswell Stream
    • River Westbourne
  • London's Lost Canals
    • City Canal
    • Croydon Canal
    • Cumberland Arm
    • Grand Surrey Canal
    • Grosvenor Canal
    • Kensington Canal
    • Romford Canal
    • Royal Arsenal Canal
    • The Royal Gunpowder Mills Canals
  • Author's Guided Walks
    • River Fleet Walk
    • River Westbourne Walk
    • River Tyburn Walk
    • Lost Rivers of Hampstead Walk
    • River Moselle (aka Moselle Brook) walk
    • Battersea's Lost Rivers
    • Lost Docks of Wapping Walk
    • Grand Surrey Canal Walk
    • Woolwich - Dockyard & Royal Arsenal Canal Walk
    • Isle of Dogs Canal and Millwall Docks Walk
    • Derelict Limehouse & Poplar Walk
    • Derelict Silvertown walk
    • River Peck/Earl's Sluice
    • Bow Creek
    • River Neckinger walk
    • Croydon Canal Walk
    • Hammersmith Walk
    • East Finchley to Gospel Oak
    • Whitechapel and Bethnal Green walk
    • Minories to Poplar
    • Bridges of London
  • London's Lesser Known Rivers
    • Beverley Brook
    • Bow Backs Rivers
    • River Brent
    • River Ching
    • River Crane
    • River Cray
    • River Darent
    • Dead River
    • Dollis Brook
    • Duke of Northumberland's River
    • River Ember
    • Hogsmill River
    • River Lea
    • River Mole
    • The New River
    • River Pool
    • River Ravensbourne
    • River Roding
    • The Silk Stream
    • River Wandle
    • Yeading Brook
  • Buy The Book Here
    • Sample Chapter
    • Reviews
  • Contact/Mailing List
  • Advertising on London's Lost Rivers
  • Privacy Policy/Cookies
  • London's Lost Music Venues
  • Home
  • London's Lost Rivers
    • River Peck
    • River Effra
    • River Moselle
    • The Black Ditch
    • Bollo Brook
    • The Cock & Pye Ditch
    • Counter's Creek
    • Earl's Sluice
    • Falcon Brook
    • Carbuncle Ditch
    • River Fleet
    • River Neckinger
    • Parr's Ditch
    • Hackney Brook
    • Pudding Mill River
    • Rotherhithe Mill Streams
    • Stamford Brook
    • River Tyburn
    • Tyburn Brook
    • River Walbrook
    • Muswell Stream
    • River Westbourne
  • London's Lost Canals
    • City Canal
    • Croydon Canal
    • Cumberland Arm
    • Grand Surrey Canal
    • Grosvenor Canal
    • Kensington Canal
    • Romford Canal
    • Royal Arsenal Canal
    • The Royal Gunpowder Mills Canals
  • Author's Guided Walks
    • River Fleet Walk
    • River Westbourne Walk
    • River Tyburn Walk
    • Lost Rivers of Hampstead Walk
    • River Moselle (aka Moselle Brook) walk
    • Battersea's Lost Rivers
    • Lost Docks of Wapping Walk
    • Grand Surrey Canal Walk
    • Woolwich - Dockyard & Royal Arsenal Canal Walk
    • Isle of Dogs Canal and Millwall Docks Walk
    • Derelict Limehouse & Poplar Walk
    • Derelict Silvertown walk
    • River Peck/Earl's Sluice
    • Bow Creek
    • River Neckinger walk
    • Croydon Canal Walk
    • Hammersmith Walk
    • East Finchley to Gospel Oak
    • Whitechapel and Bethnal Green walk
    • Minories to Poplar
    • Bridges of London
  • London's Lesser Known Rivers
    • Beverley Brook
    • Bow Backs Rivers
    • River Brent
    • River Ching
    • River Crane
    • River Cray
    • River Darent
    • Dead River
    • Dollis Brook
    • Duke of Northumberland's River
    • River Ember
    • Hogsmill River
    • River Lea
    • River Mole
    • The New River
    • River Pool
    • River Ravensbourne
    • River Roding
    • The Silk Stream
    • River Wandle
    • Yeading Brook
  • Buy The Book Here
    • Sample Chapter
    • Reviews
  • Contact/Mailing List
  • Advertising on London's Lost Rivers
  • Privacy Policy/Cookies
  • London's Lost Music Venues
London's Lost Rivers - Book and Walking Tours by Paul Talling
Earl's Sluice

​London's Lost Rivers - Earl's Sluice

Earl's Sluice - a mural on the wall of a former  civic centre on the Old Kent Road depicting a scene of St. Thomas a Watering
St. Thomas a Waterings where Chaucer's pilgrims in the 1300’s halted to water their horses in the stream
Earl's Sluice - A pipe carries the Earl Sewer over the railway line near Rotherhithe New Road
A pipe carries the Earl Sewer over the railway line near Rotherhithe New Road
 Earl Pumping Station - The Earl's Sluice became the Earl Main Sewer in 1820-23.
The Earl's Sluice became the Earl Main Sewer in 1820-23.
The Earl's Sluice runs from Ruskin Park in Denmark Hill through Camberwell  & turns  right at  Burgess Park then crosses the Old Kent Road where it is joined by the Peck near South Bermondsey station, skirts Millwall FC's New Den and then finally on to the mouth of the stream on Thames alongside Greenland Dock at Deptford. Built in the 17th century this is the largest survivor of the Surrey Docks and was once used to berth sailing ships and Arctic whalers. 

The Earl’s Sluice takes its name from the 1st Earl of Gloucester, illegitimate son of King Henry 1, in the early twelfth century, who was Lord of the Manor of Camberwell & Peckham.

The Sluice served as a parish boundary between Camberwell and Bermondsey and, further along its course, between Rotherhithe and Deptford. It was also the county boundary between Kent and Surrey. In 1934, where the Sluice crossed the Old Kent Road evidence of a medieval bridge was exposed in a trench beside St. Thomas a Waterings where Chaucer's pilgrims in the 1300s halted to water their horses in the stream and to  decide who should tell the first of the Canterbury Tales. It was for several centuries a place of public execution. The Vicar of Wandsworth, his chaplain, and two other persons of his household, were hung, drawn, and quartered here in 1539 for denying the supremacy of Henry VIII. The building that, until recently, housed Thomas A Beckett pub still stands beside this spot.

These days there is not much evidence of the Earl’s Sluice apart from a mural on the wall of a former  civic centre on the Old Kent Road depicting a scene of St. Thomas a Watering. A pipe carries the Earl Sewer over the railway line near Rotherhithe New Road and further up at Rotherhithe there is the Earl Pumping Station and a sewage outlet is visible on the Thames foreshore at St Georges Stairs on the Thames at Rotherhithe. 
Earls Sluice - sewage outlet warning sign on the Thames foreshore at St Georges Stairs on the Thames at Rotherhithe.
Earls Sluice - sewage outlet visible on the Thames foreshore at St Georges Stairs on the Thames at Rotherhithe.
Earls Sluice - sewage outlet on the Thames foreshore at Rotherhithe
London's Lost Rivers by Paul Talling. All images are copyright.