Campaign to save popular local calls on ancient heritage of area

POWERFUL spirits from the ancient River Fleet could rise up against developers knocking down an historic Kentish Town pub, according to campaigners.
Christopher Truman, who is in a race against time to save the Newberry Arms on the corner of Malden Road and Marsden Street from demolition, says that the pub is on a sacred site.
He told the New Journal: “The river runs down Malden Road, right in front of the pub. I would remind them of the very powerful spirits of the River Fleet who might just rise up against them.
“They are violating a sacred site, and their river view. Certainly they might flood any basements. No one will ever have a sound night’s sleep there. Ever.”
Developers Top Castle received permission in December to knock down the former pub and put up a four-storey, seven flat building in its place and have now started work on the site.
Campaigners accuse the Town Hall of dragging its feet on an application to grant conservation area status to the area –a move that would almost save the building from demolition.
But council officials argue that the process of granting conservation area status is “lengthy, time consuming and complicated” – with May likely to be the earliest that it could be granted.
The River Fleet in London was once called the ‘river of wells’ due to the numerous healing wells which ‘sprung up’ along its banks. The Fleet has its source in the ancient ‘Caenwood’ on Hampstead Heath, and from there it flows through Kentish Town, Kings Cross, and Clerkenwell, emptying into the Thames at Blackfriars.
It was one of the major rivers in London, but as early as the 13th century, complaints were made about the increasing pollution of the Fleet in the City of London.
By the 18th century, when the river was virtually an open sewer in the more built areas, more and more of the river was arched over. By the end of the 19th century, it had become one of the lost rivers of London. A spokesman for the application’s developers were unavailable for comment.