London catchment
• Beddington • Greater London • ID: 4150TH • Level
(36m ago) • 4 readings/hr • 150 views
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⤴Unusual rise — FloodRadar+Top 1% rise rate for this gauge.
Height for "Above a height"
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You'll be notified when this gauge is rising more than 0.10 m/hr — a sign of rapidly increasing water levels.
You'll be notified when a new storm-overflow (sewage) discharge starts within ~3 km of this gauge, based on the water companies' near-real-time feeds.
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Current Level
0.238 mASD
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.298 mASD
24h Min
0.237 mASD
Typical Range
0.07 - 1.60
mASD
Highest Recorded
1.83 mASD
EA official record
1.83 in our data (since Jan 1985)
Current level is 13% of this
🚽Sewage overflows nearby
Recent Water Levels
🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day
EA forecast (official)
Prediction V2
Prediction Eris
Nimbus beta
Experimental model fusing soil moisture, river flow, groundwater and catchment
character. The shaded band is its 10–90% range, widened so that about 80% of recent outcomes fall inside it.
Under evaluation — not yet promoted, so treat as a second opinion.
None of the storm overflows FloodRadar holds is traced upstream of this gauge on the mapped river network. That is not the same as none: the map leaves out many small streams and culverts, so an overflow it cannot place may still drain here, and not every company publishes every overflow. Those nearby are listed below.
Nearby, connection not known
Within 6 km in a straight line, but the river map cannot say whether their water passes this gauge.
Thames Water · into Graveney · 5.0 km away in a straight line · its watercourse is not on the river map
0 spills · 0 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
8 more within 6 km whose connection is not known.
These are the water companies' monitor statuses; a spill does not by itself explain a change in the gauge level. River connections and distances are traced on OS Open Rivers (edition 2026-04), which leaves out many small channels. Explore the sewage map →
Warnings apply to a whole flood area, not necessarily this exact spot. Years before 2006 aren't covered by the EA's historic record.
See also the Beddington flood history.
Flood areas linked to this gauge
Flood warnings and alerts are issued for whole areas. These are the 8 areas linked to this gauge, nearest first.
🌊 Urban & flashyHeavily built-up — rain runs off hard surfaces fast, so levels can spike within hours of heavy rain.
Your catchment is all the land that drains rainfall into the river above this gauge. Its character — how
steep, wet, wooded, urban or chalky that land is — decides how fast rain here turns into a rising river. A steep, bare or clay
catchment is “flashy” (rises and falls quickly, floods easily); a flat, chalk or well-wooded one is
slow and steady. The tiles below put numbers to that; the flow-duration curve reads left-to-right
from the river’s typical high flows (Q5) down to its low flows (Q95) — a steep curve means a flashy river.
The physical character of the land that drains to this gauge, and how it shapes its flood response — from the National River Flow Archive (UKCEH).
Baseflow Index
0.85
groundwater-fed — slow & steady
Avg Annual Rainfall
816 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +6% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
23%
heavily urbanised
Median Annual Flood
4.87 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Daily Mean Flow
2.13 m³/s
6 Oct 1981 · daily mean, not the instantaneous peak
Flow-Duration Curve
Daily flow (m³/s) exceeded each % of the time — a steep curve is flashy, a flat one is steady. Q5 high · Q50 median · Q95 low.
Land Cover (2023)
Woodland 16%Grassland 36%Arable 8%Urban 40%
Woodland 22% → 16% since 1990
Flow affected by: groundwater abstraction.
Photos
Gauging-station photographs from the National River Flow Archive (UKCEH).
Velocity area stations gauging a very flashy catchment with complex water utilisation. Station closed in 2016.
More detail
The catchment
Primarily a Chalk catchment (with significant Drift cover) but London Clay predominates near to the gauging station. Suburban/urban land use dominates the lowest third of the catchment. Suburban/urban land use. Effective drainage area is much smaller than topographical catchment in .cd2 file (a value of the order of 20km2 has been suggested). Effective catchment area contributing to flows in the Croydon Branch of the River Wandle upstream of Beddington Park is considered remarkably smaller than 122km2, of the order of 20km2.
The station
Velocity area station. Station was previously electromagnetic (buried coil), a compound Crump weir (1964-1991, bankfull flow 5.73 cumecs) and very insensitive broad-crested weir (1939-1964). Some of the photos show a structure constructed (probably around 1992) to keep head levels high in summer, located 50m downstream of the gauging station.
How it measures flow
The compound Crump weir was subject to hydrometric problems, such as siltation, inaccurate zero settings, algal growth, which continued into the 1980s. Siltation in channel causes uncertainties in level measurement that may affect low flows, but flows corrected to allow for this. In spite of the above comments, QMED is similar for Crump Weir and EM station. Theoretical peak flow rating provided from Crump weir, with some check gaugings, though few at high flows. Gauging programme to confirm calibration is ongoing.
Flow regime
Very flashy catchment creates difficulties in gauging high flows. Relatively stable baseflow but urban runoff and complex water utilisation (including substantial groundwater abstraction) influence flow patterns; flashy storm response.
The flow record
Suspect data in recent years due to low confidence in rating, new measurement technique being investigated. Missing data in summer 2016 due to instrument failure. Historical record poor. Peak flow data reviewed by hydraulic modelling after July 2007 event.
Timing, not cause. Gauges can move together simply because the same rain fell on both.
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Wandle at Beddington Park flooding today?
The current level is 0.24m, which is within the typical range of 0.07 to 1.60m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Beddington Park?
Based on the most recent readings, the level is currently steady. The chart above shows the last 12 hours of measurements by default (up to 7 days), updated roughly every 15 minutes.
What is a normal level for the River Wandle at Beddington Park?
The typical range at this station is 0.07m to 1.60m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 1.60m are higher than usually seen and may indicate a flood risk.
How often is this river level data updated?
Readings are supplied by the Environment Agency gauge. FloodRadar checks for updates roughly every 15 minutes; the timestamp above shows how recent the latest available reading is.
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📮 Flood risk by postcode near this gauge
Postcodes within 5 km with properties in the Environment Agency’s rivers-and-sea flood-risk bands:
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View looking downstream towards restriction
View of restriction
View of restriction, looking upstream towards gauging station
View of old weir, looking downstream from left bank
Looking downstream
