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showing the course of the rivers
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The Mitchell and Harlesden Brooks
The Kilburn River
Other minor brooks
The Mitchell and Harlesden Brooks are minor streams feeding the River Brent. Up to the 19th century they took their separate routes to the river, but later were diverted to their present courses to suit either the need of the Stonebridge Farm, or perhaps to facilitate the construction of the canal feeder. The Harlesden Brook was straightened and combined with Mitchell Brook at what is now the south end of Woodheyes Road, then running west, the shortest way to the Brent.
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Harlesden Brook starts close to the junction of Chamberlayne Road and Leighton Gardens, and also to the east end of Park Parade, and runs towards Woodheyes Road and its subterranean meeting with Mitchell Brook. The latter (also known as the Slade) is born just outside the north east of the borough of Brent. |
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Gathering together many small streams in the area, it runs past Gladstone Park draining high land along Dollis Hill Lane, passing Neasden Station to join Harlesden Book. The combined waters flow into the Brent River near Tokyngton Recreation Ground.
 The Mitchell Brook emerges from its long underground passage |
Since both streams were once used for waste disposal, as the area became more built up, they became more and more a public hazard. When main sewers were constructed in the 1870s, the brooks were then only used for surface water drainage. In the early 20th century, many lengths of these brooks were covered in, not only to improve the flow, but "necessitated by the nuisance caused by fouling of the watercourse". Today, there is little sign of actual water, except for a short sections near the Brent. |
Gradually, these old streams were forgotten by most of the population. However, sometimes even today they flood and remind us of their presence (for example, the Kendal Road area flood of 1982).
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 Mitchell Brook is the diviging line between tthe Mitchell and the Kingfisher housing estates |
Mitchell
Brook gave its name to this North West London Street,
as well as to housing estate of the same name
The Kilburn (or Kilbourne) River - previously known in the 19th centurey as the West Bourne and Ranelagh Sewer, runs unseen along the extreme east of the Borough of Brent, but only for about half a mile of its length. The main catchment area for this river is the high ground towards Hampstead and Frognal. It enters Willesden in a southerly direction, under the unmarked Kilburn Bridge in the High Road, crosses the site of St.Augustine's School and runs down Kilburn Park Road. Here it is joined by a tributary rising in Kempe Road Kensal Rise, one from the southern edge of Paddington Cemetery, and another from east of that cemetery in Willesden Lane. At Shirland Road the Kilburn River leaves Willesden en route to the Thames, on the way filling the Serpentine in Hyde Park.
In the 18th and 19th centuries the town population used rivers as sewers, and this used to be the case for the Kilburn River too. In the mid-1800s its winding course was straightened between Kilburn Bridge and a point 350 feet to the west, to improve the flow. The river also served as a boundary between Willesden and Paddington Vestries until 1862 when building on the area was planned and what was to be Kilburn Park Road became the dividing line.
Dudden Hill Brook rises between Villiers and Sundringham Roads and join Mitchell Brook. It was filled in with a 3 ft. concrete tube in 1912. To relieve flooding in the Church End area, in 1928, a 136 yard length of sewer was constructed from the rear of Denzil Road and under the railway tracks.
Stonebridge Brook runs from Greenhill Park/Baker Road and joins the Brent near Stonebridge Station.
Two small streams rise near the top of Brook Road and flow northwards, direct into the Brent Reservoir.
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