A River Runs Through It – The Underground Creeks of Old South by J. Bruce Parker With London being a city founded at the confluence of the north and south branches of the Thames River, first named Askunessippi by the Neutral Indians and later ‘La Tranche’ by fur traders, the river has dictated its unpredictability in our city. Consider the floods of both 1883 and 1937, where high water marks are located on the underside of Kensington Bridge at the forks of the Thames. Also consider the wetness of your basement after a heavy storm if you live in Old South. Within the flow of the two branches of the Thames River, mimicking the other Thames River in the other London, lie smaller tributaries; underground veins of water known as creeks. Naturally following the lay of the land, the creeks created from the Thames River have been a source of local flooding in Old South for over one hundred years.
With a background of research in neurosciences, Old South resident Elizabeth Larsen (left) applied her inquisitive nature to exploring the presence of ancient waterways with- in our city. She tells me, “The location of an underground stream and my house intersect, so a large portion of the waterway makes its presence each spring with a 100 square foot pond which attracts frogs as well as all sorts of wildlife”. A post on social media in 2025, inquiring about local
flooding in Old South, sparked a barrage of responses, enough for her to further her examination into the historical and existing underground streams which affect Old South. Local residents told her of their own experience of flooding, and the stories of their parents. The research project grew. It took two months of part-time research, as she spoke with over 150 residents in the Old South region from Wellington Road to Orchard Park. Elizabeth adds, “I spoke with people who related from their grandparents’ experiences as well as their neighbours about a time when ‘Traction Creek’ was a visible body of water”. The history of waterways in Wortley Village goes back hundreds of years. Elizabeth studied city maps and archives from the University of Western Ontario, and created her own map of what happened then and what exists now in the tiny underground streams emanating from the south branch of the Thames River. Elizabeth tells me that before Wortley Village was a village and was mostly farmland, the region was largely populated with apple orchards, the bulk being in the vicinity of Baseline Road and Elworthy Street. Remnants of these orchards still exist in a few local properties. With so much water creeping away from the forks of the river Thames in the form of streams, homes in Old South were built with extended backyards, up to 100 feet or so, abutting each other in the low-graded areas to capture the water in naturally
occurring cisterns to keep it away from the dwellings. Boilers in the homes used the water for heating. Small tributaries of the Thames River in Old South were so prevalent that they were given names. Local waterways such as Bogue Creek, London South Creek, Erie Creek, Foxbar Creek, and Traction Creek crept through what would become Wortley Village. Traction Creek, which splits east and west on Emery Street, just north of my home, is probably responsible for the annual flooding in my backyard on Chester Street. These creeks were eventually filled in, from east to west over a century ago to allow for residential growth, but water tends to seek its own level, and ‘aquifers’ continued to accept the water from the south branch of the Thames River. The creeks remained underground. Aerial photos of London in 1922 show the obvious flow of a stream in Old South, crossing the southeast corner of Grand Avenue and Ridout Street. The home at this corner still has a bridge in the front yard on the path of one our ancient waterways.
Page 10 Wortley Villager • April 2026
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