The Regent’s Canal: London’s Hidden Waterway

Publisher: Waterways World, £24.99

Publication Date: 2005

CA Library Reference: 16735

The Regent’s Canal is special because it is wholly in London. Once commercially important, it served industries and businesses in north London for 150 years, running for eight and a half miles from Limehouse to Paddington, via Islington and Camden Town, through Regents Park to Little Venice and Paddington. Meticulous research by the author has led to this detailed account of the history of the canal. Facing not only financial and technical difficulties but opposition by powerful landowners – Lord Portman, the governors of Harrow school, William Agar (a barrister) - who objected to a route over their estates. Only the prospect of profitable developments persuaded them.

In more recent times the towpath has become more accessible; the redevelopment of waterside properties has transformed the canal into a major amenity of the capital, popular with pleasure craft and for permanent moorings. The towpath can be used by walkers and cyclists. The financing and rate of progress of construction bear comparison with large projects of the present day: the Channel Tunnel, the
Millenium Dome, Wembley Stadium, the 2012 Olympics – even CA House.

The text is complemented by fourteen colour photographs, six maps and ninety six black and white illustrations, many derived from the archives. Nevertheless, in my opinion, this is a specialist book for reference rather than for general reading. – JFP