London’s £4.5 billion Thames Tideway Tunnel has done more than tackle sewage pollution, it’s reshaping the city’s riverside. On a recent walk with the Ramblers and local residents, I explored new public spaces in Chelsea, Vauxhall and Nine Elms created as part of the super sewer project. From uncovering the stories of the lost rivers Effra and Tyburn to discovering new public art and wildlife habitats, this is a tale of engineering meeting ecology, and of how infrastructure can give something beautiful back to the city.
London’s Super Sewer
On Saturday 18th Oct I joined Ramblers, walkers and local residents for a riverside walk exploring brand new public spaces in Chelsea, Vauxhall and Nine Elms created by London’s brand new super sewer.
The Thames Tideway is a peculiar public infrastructure project inasmuch as it has been generally perceived as a success. Since being designated a Specified Infrastructure Project on 5 June 2014 it has survived 5 Prime Minsters, Covid, Brexit, the discovery of the 130-tonne Whitechapel fatberg and the Colin v Cuthbert caterpillar-cake legal spat.
Whilst HS2 has been stumbling around the country like an embarrassing uncle at a wedding – Tideway has been quietly borrowing a 25km tunnel, 70 meters under London.
Even more shockingly, it’s doing what it said it wanted to do – reduce sewage pollution into the Thames.
But that’s not all it has achieved, Tideway is creating three acres of public realm and opening up sections of the Thames Path currently closed to the public.
On a mild autumn Saturday morning it’s immediately apparent how precious this sort of public space can be. Countless running groups passed our large group with ease along with dog walkers, cyclists and the occasional oligarch.
London’s Lost Rivers
Along our 3 hour circular walk led by the wonderful Des Garrahan, we crossed the river more times than we did roads. We paused at various spaces where Des imparted several historical nuggets for us to digest. Lost rivers has been a passion for Des for a while and this walk featured two rivers that feed into the Thames, Effra and the Tyburn.
The Effra rises around Norwood and runs beneath Brixton and empties into the Thames at the newly created Isle of Effra, just by MI6
There aren’t too many streets or places named after the Effra apart from a couple of roads in Merton and Brixton so the new addition is a pleasing nod to one of London’s lost rivers. Head a couple of minutes down the Thames path by St George Wharf Tower, look across the river to Tyburn House and Rio Cottage and you’ll see where the culverted Tyburn reaches the river.
The Tyburn rises at Hampstead Heath, slipping under Marylebone and meeting the Thames at Westminster. The route is noted on a plaque commissioned by London Town plc in 2000 which reads
River Tyburn
Shepherds Well Belsize Park Swiss Cottage Regents Park Marylebone Oxford Street Mayfair Green Park Westminster Pimlico Tachbrook Street River Thames
Tideway signage
To announce your arrival at the new areas of public realm Tideway have installed a series of rather pleasingly designed signs.
There’s information on the project, heritage and the art installations.
In fact on the Isle of Effra sign there’s a rather wonderful illustration – Monster Soup, which provided the inspiration for an artwork by Ranger Elly Platt.
The signs also show a map and point in the direction of nearby points of interest.
I do feel there’s a missed opportunity here when it comes to wayfinding. These new spaces have helped open up the Thames path and make it an even more enjoyable walking route, the art and even the benches add to this.
It would’ve been nice to have walking times added to the nearby points of interest. A slightly more ambitious addition would be an art trail or official tideway walking route.
Tideway Public Art
Tideway’s public art programme brings new work to the river’s edge, celebrating the Thames, its histories, and its hidden tributaries.
Florian Roithmayr was commissioned by Tideway to create Moving In for the public realm at Chelsea Quay. This tactile artwork uses glazed brickwork integrated into vertical surfaces, steps, intertidal terraces, and the river wall. The bricks are set in specially developed patterns, with colours that nod to the annual Chelsea Flower Show and the 18th-century Ranelagh Pleasure Gardens.
Poet Dorothea Smartt was commissioned to write poems for the ventilation columns at nine Thames Tideway Tunnel sites, all accessible for the public to explore up close. Each poem is thematically linked to London’s lost rivers and responds to its specific site, drawing on stories of people living or working nearby.
Habitat creation
The legacy of the project reaches well beyond new riverside spaces in central London.
Beyond Vauxhall, excavated material from the super sewer has been repurposed to create a 110-hectare habitat at the RSPB nature reserve at Rainham Marshes. Around 1.5 million tonnes of clay and chalk were transported east and carefully shaped into basins, islands, bunds and gentle slopes that hold and move water in different ways. This engineered topography creates shallow scrapes, seasonal pools and drier ridges, supporting a mosaic of wet grassland, reed and open water, and boosting flood resilience along the Thames estuary.
The result is a clear green transformation. New water margins and invertebrate-rich mud provide feeding grounds, while raised areas offer safer nesting sites away from disturbance and high tides. Wildlife is responding, with Lapwing, Little Ringed Plover and Redshank increasingly seen feeding, nesting and raising chicks across the reconfigured landscape.
For people, the benefits are just as tangible. The added habitat extends the reserve’s nature experience, linking to paths, viewpoints and learning opportunities. It shows how major infrastructure, handled thoughtfully, can deliver nature-positive outcomes, turning construction spoil into long-term gains for biodiversity, climate adaptation and community access to nature.
A good news story for London
In the midst of a polycrisis it’s sometimes hard to find good news stories. However I do think the Tideway project offers us a little glimpse of what can be achieved with the right amount of political will. It could’ve just been a tunnel but adapting service holes into new public realm spaces, spoil into a nature reserve and ventilation shafts into art is a pleasing outcome.
If you have Battersea Power Station on your to-do list why not take a walk from Vauxhall, along the Thames path and enjoy a taste of Tideway.
Explore the Thames Path and the Walk London Network on Go Jauntly
