Don’t forget to take a bottle to scoop up some of the river at Hampstead to return to its mouth
over Blackfriars Bridge….
In Summer 2018 DrawnForth Opera launched Fleet Footing at our Festival, a downloadable work combining music and maps charting the course of London’s lost river, the Fleet. Since its launch at the festival, this acclaimed sonic walk continues to delight locals and tourists alike with its combination of music, maps and interactive performance. Fleet Footing was shortlisted for the Quattropole Music Prize 2019.
Composer Catherine Kontz teamed up with writer Sarah Grange to create this site-specific piece that unearths the Fleet’s rich history.
The download guides you on a walk from the spring of the Fleet on Hampstead Heath to its mouth at Blackfriars Bridge (approx. 6 miles/10 km) with 17 listening stations along the way. Using binaural sound recording technology, the boundaries between musical space and urban location are blurred as you work your way along the walk.
Having flowed through history as a site for religion, trade, medicine and scandal, the Fleet was gradually covered up by the city’s development. Though all but invisible now, the river’s impact on London has left clues and hints behind: in the curves of the streets, the names of the roads, the viaducts across what is now only asphalt.
