Join urban sociologists Dr Emma Jackson and Dr Louise Rondel to celebrate the launch of the Place-making and the Rivers of Lewisham podcasts and project report, hosted by the Centre for Urban and Community Research (Goldsmiths). 

As part of this event, you are invited to join us to walk along two stretches of Lewisham’s rivers, from Lower Sydenham to Catford Bridge and from Confluence Park (Lewisham Gateway) to Deptford Creekside and listen to podcasts with stories from the rivers and riparian soundscapes recorded by Konstantinos Damianakis. You are also invited to join us at Creekside Discovery Centre for the launch of the project report.

Event schedule
The launch event will take place in 3 parts. Please book for each of the sections of the event you wish to attend. 

For the podcast walks, please bring a smart phone and headphones.

• 10am -11.30am Podcast walk. Meet at Lower Sydenham Station to walk to Catford Bridge

This walk will take place along the Waterlink Way, largely on off-road paths. It will involve crossing roads.  

• 12pm – 1.30pm Podcast walk. Meet at Confluence Park (Lewisham Gateway) to walk to Creekside Discovery Centre

Meeting point: Confluence Park. This walk will follow the Waterlink Way and will be on a mix of off-road paths and pavements. It will involve crossing roads.

• 1.30pm – 3.30pm Report launch at Creekside Discovery Centre

14 Creekside, Deptford, London SE8 4SA.

Children are welcome and there will be a crafting table at Creekside Discovery Centre.

About the project
While the Thames looms large in questions of the past, present and future of London, a network of 25 smaller tributary rivers criss-cross the city, shaping the landscape and impacting in dramatic and mundane ways on people’s lives. These include the rivers of Lewisham: the Ravensbourne, the Quaggy and the Pool.

Over the course of a year, the research project Place-making and the Rivers of Lewisham has conducted a close-up exploration of two stretches of Lewisham’s rivers, through the use of creative qualitative methods, walking interviews, soundscape recordings, ethnography and a review of policy documents that are relevant to blue and green spaces across the borough.

The two stretches of river we have followed in the project take us through a fast-changing part of Lewisham. They thread together landscapes of newly privatised high-rise development where the rivers have only recently been opened up as part of the Lewisham Gateway regeneration, the well-established Waterlink Way Linear Park, stretches dominated by transport infrastructure and the unique ecology and heritage of Deptford Creek.