Around Town

It was the poet Robert Browning who hit on the name ‘Little Venice’ for the area where the Grand Junction Canal meets the Regents Canal. It has to be said that the comparison flatters this railway- and Westway-dominated corner of town, but the name does express something of the surprise you might feel the first time you stumbled across the small but determined boat-dwelling community which hunkers down here. There will be even more of a village feel to the area this weekend, as the area hosts its annual Canalway Cavalcade. Events will include boat parades, children’s events, food stalls, music, a bar, and a trade-and-craft show.
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Built by John Nash at the behest of Prince George, Regent’s Canal runs north from Paddington to Camden, then east through Islington, Hackney and Mile End to Docklands at Limehouse basin. The first section was completed in 1816, the rest in 1820, but from the outset construction was a bit of a disaster. Firstly, Thomas Homer, the man who had originally proposed the canal and was superintendent of the works, showed his mettle as a London wideboy by embezzling most of the money raised to build it (he was subsequently caught and sentenced to transportation). Then there was a problem with a new design of pneumatic locks, which didn’t work, and most embarrassing of all there was a shortage of water to supply the canal – a problem solved in the end by damming the River Brent. Camden landowner Lord Agar’s gardeners, meanwhile, came to blows one lively day with the labourers digging the cut: their route took them right through Agar’s manicured grounds, but apparently no one had noticed this detail beforehand, and only after considerable compensation had been paid to His Lordship could work continue. In the end the project cost £772,000 – a sum which wouldn’t buy you a small house anywhere along the canal’s route these days, but which was, at the time, scandalously over budget.

The point of all this trouble was to link Docklands with the wider British canal system, so that seaborne cargo could find its way through London as speedily as possible. With hindsight, we can only boggle at the kind of forehead-slapping that must have gone on 20 years later, when the railways started doing exactly the same job far more efficiently. Although the canal never became a complete white elephant – there was freight travelling along it as late as the 1960s – there was enough foot-shuffling over its obsolescence in the nineteenth century to inspire several plans to turn it into a railway line itself.

Still, perhaps there was providence in Regent’s Canal’s unlikely existence and dogged survival. Apart from succouring the hundreds of people who make their homes on narrowboats along its length, it provides an oasis for the walkers, cyclists and (in Camden anyway) spliff-smokers who use the towpath to cut through some of London’s most polluted areas. If you’re planning a visit to Little Venice for this weekend’s celebrations, don’t forget to take one of the canal cruises up to Camden Lock and back – a thoroughly pleasant way to spend a couple of hours. Not only will you drift past the zoo, Regent’s Park, London Central Mosque and any number of enviable private properties, you’ll also be able to indulge your sense of London’s timelessness, with ducks, moorhens and even the odd heron fishing next to overhanging willows interspersed with flowering cherries and banks of cow parsley, borage and nettles which can’t have changed much over the past two centuries.

There are three companies plying this route, each with their own niche to avoid anything but friendly rivalry: Jason’s Trip is the oldest, and offers a live historical commentary as you go along; The London Waterbus Company offers a chat-free alternative if you just want some peace and quiet on the trip; and Jenny Wren operates a round trip from Camden Lock only (you actually go through the lock, unlike the other two trips) and doesn’t stop at Little Venice, but is worth bearing in mind because it gives you the option of having lunch or dinner on board.

If you’re taking the trip from Little Venice to Camden, you can continue on foot along the towpath past Camley Street Natural Park and on through the industrial hinterlands towards King’s Cross (it will take about 40 minutes) where, at Battlebridge Basin, you’ll find the London Canal Museum.

King’s Cross is the site of the canal’s latest battle with its old enemy, the railway – the redevelopment of the area heralded by the Eurostar terminal recently threatened the existence of St Pancras Basin, where another community of houseboats is located. The moorings have now been saved, but it’s a reminder of how London’s transport issues continue to shape the city. Indeed, the problems which the canal was built to fix have never really gone away, for all our technological innovations. It may seem like a more picturesque throwback to a less frenetic age, but Regent’s Canal is still theoretically fit for its original purpose. Indeed the Canalways Cavalcade’s campaign theme this year explicitly suggests that freight should return to the water. Its slogan? ‘Canals Combating Congestion’.

Jason’s Canal Boat Trip, Jason’s Yard, Little Venice, W9 (020 7286 3428/www.jasons.co.uk) Warwick Ave tube.
London Waterbus Company, West Yard, Camden Lock, NW1 (020 7482 2660) Camden Town tube.
Jenny Wren, Walker’s Quay, Camden Lock, NW1 (020 7485 4433) Camden Town tube.
London Canal Museum, New Wharf Rd, N1 (020 7713 0836/www.canalmuseum.org.uk) King’s Cross tube/rail.