Streamline patterns and their bifurcations in two-dimensional Navier–Stokes flow of an incompressible fluid near a non-simple degenerate critical point close to a stationary wall are investigated from the topological point of view by considering a Taylor expansion of the velocity field. Using a five-order normal form approach we obtain a much simplified system of differential equations for the streamlines. Careful analysis of the simplified system gives possible bifurcations for non-simple degeneracies of codimension three. Three heteroclinic connections from three on-wall separation points merge at an in-flow saddle point to produce two separation bubbles with opposite rotations which occur only near a non-simple degenerate critical point. The theory is applied to the patterns and bifurcations found numerically in the studies of Stokes flow in a double-lid-driven rectangular cavity.