- Hi, I'm Saskia, and I'm
here with Catherine Kontz.
Would you like to introduce yourself
and tell me a bit about
what it is that you do?
- Yes. So I'm Catherine
Kontz, I'm a composer,
and together with Sarah Grange,
I created Fleet Footing,
which is a sonic walk
or, as we also call it,
an audio treasure hunt
which charts the course
of the River Fleet,
which mainly runs underground now,
but it's fun to follow its course
all the way from Hampstead to Blackfriars,
where it goes into the Thames.
- So out of all the
subterranean rivers in London,
why did you choose the Fleet?
- The Fleet has quite a nice size
in the sense that it's about 10 kilometers
and you can walk the whole course.
It's also all inside the city,
so it was quite a good one
to start with, let's say.
Initially it was Sarah's idea
to write a piece for choir,
which would be sung on the
steps on St Pancras Old Church,
where apparently you can hear
the River Fleet underneath.
But we went to see,
and we couldn't really
hear enough of the Fleet
to make that work with the choir.
And then it developed into this walk.
- So what's it like actually
walking the terrain?
What are some of the things
that you see or hear?
- When we went to see
where this river flows,
where it start, where the source is,
and where you can see it,
we had such a fun adventure that we wanted
to send the audience into the terrain
and really follow the
same path if you like,
and discover the same things.
And so you can see little
signs of it here and there
in the way the streets go, the bends,
by King's Cross Station, for example,
the whole station bends round.
And there's the Great Northern
Hotel also, which has a bend,
and that's exactly where the river flows.
And the city somehow starts to make sense.
Also with these bridges
that go over streets now,
it all makes sense once you
know there's a river underneath,
and then you do hear and see
it occasionally in gratings,
There's 17 listening stations
and stations to pause on our walk.
And so you can sometimes smell it as well,
it's not very nice.
(both laugh)
- I can imagine.
So if the River Fleet
was functioning today,
what do you think London would be like?
Or is there anything that
we wouldn't have anymore
because of the river?
- Well, there's a lot of
streets going over it now.
I think it's been used as a
sewage for quite a long time,
and the Victorians even
built their toilets on it.
(chuckles)
And I'm not sure it's
much different today.
So I think London would be more
smelly if it was uncovered.
- We can only imagine I guess.
(both chuckle)
So you say that the river,
I read actually that the river
has left some clues behind.
Have you ever seen any of
those clues and what were they?
- Yes. I mean in the way
that the streets are shaped,
the houses even, and they're
some street names of course,
like Fleet Street, which is very famous,
but then also, Anglers Road
or things like names where you...
They make sense once that
there is a river nearby,
and as we see the city today,
we are not aware of it.
We don't always know what's
underneath our feet, at all.
And sometimes it's the tube
and sometimes it's a river.
And so, it's a really nice
way to reconnect with the city
to see how it actually was shaped
and what made it the way it is today.
- Well I guess now
because of you and Sarah
people will be able to
experience that as well,
which is really amazing.
- So we're offering two
books and the company of us,
of the artists,
which is on the 5th and
on the 27th of September.
And that is quite fun
if you want to know more
of the behind the scenes,
and some more stories.
Otherwise the walk can be done on your own
or with family and friends any time,
just by downloading the material.
- Okay.
- Yeah.
- Thank you very much Catherine,
it was really great talking to you.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
(swooshing outro music)
