The Value of a Mobilities Lens in Studying the Water-Heritage Nexus

This article explores the value of a mobilities lens in studying the nexus of water and heritage, specifically within the context of post-industrial rivers and the many regenerative and degenerative processes shaping them today. The River Lea (East London) showcases the complex, often conflicting, water-heritage dynamics that manifest across post-industrial riverscapes: efforts to (re)connect communities to rivers and their heritage become entangled with the (pollutive) imprints of industry. Using examples from the River Lea, the article highlights how a mobilities lens, currently underused in water-heritage studies, draws attention to (i) physical accessibility provisions surrounding rivers, (ii) (in)visible streams of fluid materials and (iii) the movements and moorings of more-than-human entities. These human, ecological and more-than-human mobilities can support but also sabotage efforts to regenerate post-industrial rivers, rendering a mobilities lens, with its ability to value and make visible multiple mobilities, indispensable to studying post-industrial rivers as key water-heritage sites.