Forum Topic

flooding in W London yet?

I've been watching on the news the last 48 hours how the flooding has been moving ever closer to west London, now affecting Twickenham, Sunbury, Shepperton, etc.  There seems to be no news on the Chiswick or Brentford fora/forums, yet these areas have so very low lying Thamesside roads and properties.  Any flood alerts or high tide advisories for these local areas?

Kim Bobsin ● 4599d12 Comments

"Any flood alerts or high tide advisories for these local areas?"Not since last week's high tide.  The central London Thames has far more capacity than is needed for the floodwater.  This is normally used by the high tide, so they're shutting the Barrier at every tide at the moment to make sure it stays empty.  When the tide goes down, they open the Barrier again and all the floodwater washes straight out to sea.All the flooding is above Teddington, where the tidal Barrier protection ends.

Thomas Barry ● 4599d

I hope the flood barrier is well guarded. I keep having flashbacks to an episode of Spooks in which terrorists came very close to blowing it up.

Susan Kelly ● 4599d

Not so long ago we were considerably discommoded when Thames Water dug a vast tank under Acton Park.I suspect that has helped considerably in this area - quite a few lower buildings used to flood but I haven't heard that this time around.

Sara Nathan ● 4599d

There's been a bit of a puddle in the park where Thames Water carried out their work, but it disappears pretty quickly.  The seagulls love it!

Nina Battleday ● 4599d

I wonder what the capacity is of the huge tanks underneath - and what happens when they fill right up.

Sara Nathan ● 4598d

There were several tanks installed but the Acton park one was the biggest. Before they did the Horn lane used to be regularly under a foot of water, where it dips, around the level of Grafton Road and this caused traffic chaos as it is a major route to and from the A40 and homes were flooded.

Kim Rugg ● 4598d

Not so concerned about Acton (as yet), but was thinking about Chiswick, where some roads experience regular flooding even in good weather. With all this rain, I was wondering if our neighbours to the south were suffering the effects.

Kim Bobsin ● 4598d

There have been higher tides recently and it has meant that I have stopped and really thought about looking at the tide tables rather than just going along Chiswick Mall and then finding out!When the Thames barrier has been down it appears to have been OK but not when it is not as there is so much extra water in the river and it is moving so very much faster.  I believe there are now warnings out for users of the river as I understand that the lifeboat has already been called out many times in the last seven weeks to incidents in the Chiswick-Hammersmith stretch.There are a couple of threads on CW4.

Philippa Bond ● 4598d

If anything, I'd have thought Chiswick Mall had experienced less flooding than usual owing to the continual deployment of the barrier. They are, in any case, used to it and know to move their cars and close their waterproof gates.

Susan Kelly ● 4598d

Maybe more houses should think of having those waterproof gates.  There has been a lot of discussion about the ineffectiveness of sandbags.  Did you hear the piece on the radio where the residents had blocked off their road because of cars driving too fast causing waves of water to flood their homes?  I also read about a driver who was going to be fined for driving too fast through a very large puddle of water and soaking a group of school children going to school.http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/seasonal/floods-and-wet-weather.html

Philippa Bond ● 4595d

I remember that about 2 -3 years ago. When Acton Park did have a permanent gardener I remember him telling me that there was a river or stream under the rose bushes, it may have been the river Bollo or more likely a tributary feeding into it. I like to know things like this. I wonder if there are any old maps online of Acton? I will check.

John Pollastrini ● 4592d

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acton,_London"Towards the end of the 17th century several springs were found on the north-east side of Acton and, for a time, they became health spas. As a result of the local soft water Acton became famous for its laundries and at the end of the 19th century there were around 170 establishments in South Acton. "----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ------http://www.londonslostrivers.com/stamford-brook.html" Upon investigation at the local archives a document published by the Journal of the London Society in 1970 states that Bollo Brook was a separate stream and the western stream of Stamford Brook was in fact the nearby Mill Hill Brook which rose just south of Acton High Street. "----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ------

Fred Bray ● 4592d