RESURRECTING RIVERINE IDENTITY Civic symbolism, ghostly traces and waterway restoration in 21st century Łódź (Poland)

Rivers have been attractive sites for human settlement since time immemorial, offering access to fresh water and biological resources (such as fish, waterfowl, and riverine vegetation). During the Industrial Revolution, waterways played an important role in the development of metropolitan centres, providing transport routes for incoming materials and outgoing products, water for various manufacturing purposes, and serving as effluent disposal channels. In some cases, industrialisation led to rivers being variously paved over and/or directed into underground channels. In the developed world, in particular, the decline in established heavy industries over the last 50–75 years has resulted in areas around many former industrial sites being reimagined and repurposed as residential and/or public spaces. In these contexts, previously neglected waterways have become assets that can be developed for civic and/or commercial purposes. This article examines a largely overlooked aspect of this: the ways in which the obscured riverine identities of metropolitan areas have been retained and deployed in aspects of civic symbolism and/or place-naming. These practices may evoke what might be considered ghostly. It also considers how such traces have aided in the rediscovery of obscured waterways and, thereby, in the potential to excavate and restore them. We explore these aspects with regard to the Polish city of Łódź and the manner in which its recent history provides insight into the potential to resurrect riverine identity and waterside spaces. The article considers the historic importance of rivers in the development of Łódź; the factors underlying their burial and (in some contexts) near erasure; the relevance of the city’s name and related public symbolism; and contemporary attempts to restore elements of the city’s waterways as nature reserves and public amenities.