Today’s adventure may have started years ago when we listened to Simon Winchester’s audiobook, or even earlier hearing tales of the Miami Erie Canal that once flowed through Cincinnati. Maybe when Steve did a paper and presentation for a Florida Geography class on the Cross Florida Barge Canal. Or maybe it was when friends of ours spent a family vacation on a canal boat in England. Then during our first week in London this trip we looked forward every evening to watching an episode of Canal Boat Diaries and learned that there were canal boat tours available. We booked one a couple of weeks ago when we visited the London Canal Museum. Yesterday we learned more by walking from Paddington Station to Little Venice, lunching at The Cheese Barge while floating in the Grand Union Canal before embarking on the two mile walk from Little Venice to Camden Lock. It was a delight trekking along the towpath enjoying the views of the Regents Canal with narrowboats, many of them residential, moored along its sides, past beautiful Regency homes, and even through a part of London Zoo. Soon enough we made it to Camden Market with its frenetic activity and the Hampstead Road Lock commonly called Camden Lock. Then today we once again visited London Canal Museum with an emphasis on learning about the history of the canals and the people who lived aboard the narrowboats dedicating their lives to delivering the cargo. Soon enough though we were boarding a narrowboat for a ride from Battlebridge Basin and the Regent’s Canal, through Islington Tunnel and into and through City Road Lock all the while enjoying a Cream Tea, the company of a handful of fellow passengers and the expertise of our guide and our pilot. Among the many things we learned was that in the days before motorized boats, the method of propelling a boat through a tunnel was for two leggers to lie either on the roof of the boat or on a plank across the bow and to “leg” the boat or propel it by “walking” the walls of the tunnel. We’re now looking for more opportunities to walk towpaths or ride canal boats as we continue to explore London and beyond.
Fascinating! I didn’t know there were canals in London. On our tour we saw sections of canals that were being used casually. Apparently the purpose they were built was not used very long because the Railroads replaced them. I was surprised to hear you say “exceedingly cramped living quarters”, being long time teardrop campers! Love your posts.
Although the railroads became part of the transportation scene in the early-mid 19th Century, canal boats continued to carry freight in London until the 1960s. And as far as cramped quarters, the living area on most narrow boats was much less than in our T@B trailers and was often shared by four or more family members. It makes our teardrop seem palatial.