Sudbrook

THE UNLOST RIVERS OF LONDON Sudbrook Richmond Park → Ham → Petersham (2 miles) [Sudbrook → Thames] Most of Richmond Park drains to the east towards the Beverley Brook. The watery channels in the Isabella Plantation and the Pen Ponds, for example, all end up flowing that way. But the corner of the park closest to Kingston instead drains north, direct into the Thames, along channels you can initially see if you know where to look. At Ham Gate they're joined by a suburban tributary we'll get to later, then everything hides within a golf course before flowing through culverts to reach the Thames alongside Petersham Meadows. This is the Sudbrook, an ancient but generally unknown unlost river, and alas not at much of a watercourse if you go exploring during a prolonged drought. The Sudbrook begins near the Ladderstile Gate, one of a dozen entrances to Richmond Park and the closest to the Isabella Plantation. Walk straight ahead for a couple of minutes and you come to a ferny patch ringed by…