River Neckinger

The River Neckinger is a subterranean river that rises in Southwark and flows through London to St Saviour's Dock where it enters the River Thames. The river is now totally enclosed and runs underground.

The river rises in what was formerly the marshy ground of St George's Fields, now Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park, in Southwark,. It follows the present day Brook Drive, passes by near to the Elephant and Castle, then heads east towards the site of Lock Hospital. This upper section of the river was known as Lock Stream. It continues through the former grounds of Bermondsey Abbey, today marked by Abbey Street, before meeting the Thames at St Saviour's Dock. The Neckinger divides the Thames riverside districts of Shad Thames to the west and the area historically known as Jacob's Island to the east.

In the 17th century convicted pirates were hanged at the wharf where the Neckinger entered the Thames. The name of the river is believed to derive from the term "devil's neckcloth", a slang term for the hangman's noose. In London Past and Present, published in 1891, Henry B. Wheatley argued that there was 'much good evidence' that 'the 'Devil's Neckinger'... the ancient place of punishment and execution' was at the site of the 'Dead Tree public-house' on Jacob's Island. Writing in The Inns of Old Southwark And Their Associations, in 1888, authors William Rendle and Philip Norman note that a place called Devol's Neckenger appears on a map in 1740 and, in the same location, in 1813, the Dead Tree inn.

Historian Walter Besant states the Neckinger's early section, where it crosses the Kent Road, at Lock Bridge, was also known as Canute's Trench. In May, 1016,Danish Cnut the Great, who had invaded England, dug a trench through Southwark to allow his boats to avoid the heavily defended London Bridge. In 1173, a channel following a similar course was used to drain the Thames to allowing building work on London Bridge.

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