London's 'Rill' water feature filled in amid health and safety concerns of pedestrians falling in while on their phones

A £1million water feature in London has been filled in amid concerns distracted pedestrians will fall into it.

The Rill – a 260-metre channel of water running from Tower Bridge to London Bridge Station – has apparently been bricked up because its owners are worried about being sued by people who fall into it while playing on their phones.

The water feature, which has been there since the early 2000s, was part of the More London development which includes City Hall.

But it has now been fenced off, drained and filled in earlier this month, sparking disappointment from people in the area.

A planning application to pave over the feature was reportedly submitted to Southwark Council by Broadgate Estates, which manages More London.

A post on ‘A London Blog’ said: “Unfortunately its now seen as a health and safety risk as people constantly slip into it and there must have been a number of minor injuries.

“There have been no major incidents the staff tell me, but all the same, it is being removed. I suppose management (or perhaps the insurers of the development for all we know) decided the feature was no longer sustainable.”

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Neil Cameron tweeted: “Sad to see the Rill get bricked over for ‘elf and safety reasons (after 15 yrs). I thought it was a design master stroke to visually link London Bridge to tower bridge.”

Public space expert Sarah Gaventa tweeted: “So the only thing vaguely distinctive about the bland More London public realm was the nice linear water feature/gully so sad to see it filled in. Suppose it was too high maintenance or a H&S risk, the go to excuses for those who prefer dull public spaces.”

She later tweeted a picture of the stones filling in the feature, writing: “More London’s disappearing rill today .

“Asked workers there why -maintenance team said they were told not to say but to give out a phone number ,security says it was prob because people tripped on it – think it is more of a trip hazard now it has been filled in with rough stone.”