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Guided walks of parts of the Regent's Canal (in four
sections) take place twice a month on Sunday afternoons all the year round, and
also twice a month on mid-week evenings from May to August. For details, see
or e-mail me at
.
For a down-loadable leaflet about the Regent's Canal, go
to
.
(You'll need the Adobe Acrobat reader for the down-load :
if you don't have that, you can get it free of charge here
 .)
There are not many good moorings on the Regent's. At some of
them you are likely to need your BW "Watermate" key for the padlocks on towpath
gates after dusk (but this varies unpredictably).
Before Regent's Park
Between Browning's Pool & Maida Hill
tunnel , and
again at Lisson Wide (East of Lisson Grove bridge) there are a
lot of long-term moorings but none for visitors. Although Maida Hill tunnel is
broad-beam, narrow-beam craft are asked not to try to cross in it, since much
of the traffic here consists of trip boats and there is a danger of tourists
dangling an arm outside the boat the the wrong moment.
Regent's Park
Sadly, no mooring is allowed, as it's a Royal Park.
Cumberland Turn
Again, it's all long-term moorings in the basin there.
Camden Town
There are official BW 14-day visitor moorings
between Cumberland Turn and Hampstead Road locks
,
although the ones nearest the locks are restricted to brief shopping stops. The
towpath is a busy pedestrian & cyclist route in the day but quiet at night.
Gloucester Avenue bridge and Hampstead Road locks are the best
access points for the outside world (access gates sometimes, but not always,
locked overnight on a BW "Watermate" key). They are both fairly near
Camden Town tube station (Northern line). If you
want the tube on Sundays (until about 17:30) you will need to walk north from
the locks to Chalk Farm tube station (Northern
line) since Camden Town station only takes in-coming traffic then because
of the crowds coming to Camden Lock Market.
There are a few pleasant pubs around Gloucester Avenue
(including an excellent pub/restaurant, The Engineer), and a
host of pubs and restaurants of all sorts close to Hampstead Road locks
.
There is a new Wetherpoon's bar, the Ice Wharf
alongside the top lock, in a very modern style. My choice of a pub in the area
is a short walk north on the main road, where you'll find a more traditional
Wetherspoon's pub. The whole area around the locks comprises Camden Lock Market
and can very very crowded, especially on Summer Sundays, although recent
redevelopment has opened up more space on the towpath side by the lock. The
same redevelopment has refurbished the long-neglected lock cottage as a
café (now Starbucks, and information centre.
. A short walk from the foot of the flight of locks is a
large Sainsbury's. This is actually canalside, but sadly has no access
from the water. Although it actually backs onto the cut a bit further down, it
is most easily reached from the road bridge below the bottom lock.
St. Pancras
At St Pancras Locks the lock in use is (uniquely on
the Regent's) the one further from the towpath. The other lock (now a weir) is
spanned by a bridge with a gate that is opened by a BW "Watermate" key.
St. Pancras Cruising Club
( next to the lock) can often find a berth for a visiting boat
(although anything over 45 ft would have to be outside their basin). They can
also do a pump-out by prior arrangement, and now have a new dry dock. The
Club-house 'phone is (020) 7278 2805. The Club is very hospitable, but I
wouldn't recommend it as a base from which to do the tourist thing, as the walk
from the Club to either King's Cross or St. Pancras stations is through a huge
construction site because of the building of the Channel Tunnel link to St
Pancras Station and the re-routing of the Thameslink tracks..
King's Cross and St Pancras stations (BR and tube)
are about 15 minutes' walk southwards.
Battlebridge Basin
The London Canal Museum(on one side of the basin) has a
little mooring space — free if you just want to visit the museum
in the day, but there's a charge for overnight mooring. The museum is not open
on Mondays (except Bank Holidays). The London Narrowboat Association runs the
moorings at the end of the basin. These are privately owned and mainly
residential. If there are spaces, they are happy to rent you one and offer good
facilities (shower block etc.). The moorings nearer the mouth of the basin
belong to BW and are reputed to be very expensive.
My choice of pub in this area is The
Driver, which serves a couple of decent real ales and good food. It is
on the corner of Wharfdale Road and Caledonian Road, a few yards south of
Caledonian Road bridge (the nearest one to the tunnel on the western
side).
Islington
The official BW 14-day visitor moorings
on the towpath between Islington Tunnel & City
Road lock are the
most attractive and the quietest on the Regent's, in a pleasant wooded cutting.
There's usually space (you may have to breast up to another boat) and it's by
far the best place if you want to leave a boat unattended overnight in Central
London, or to use as a base for tourism for a few days. Gates at both ends of
this stretch of towpath are locked overnight (on the BW "Watermate" key). A
short walk north brings you to the centre of Islington with lots of pubs &
eating-places, a large Sainsbury's and Angel
Tube Station (Northern line). Some pleasant, small local pubs are even
nearer the moorings.
Sturt's lock
Above and below the locks are new moorings on the off-side
.
These include a single visitor mooring, although it's not signposted as such.
Overnight mooring is welcome, and there is a pump-out facility, although I
don't know the arrangements for using it. The visitor mooring is in the middle
of the range above the lock, in between the row of business barges and the
residential boats.
From here eastwards there are no moorings where I would
recommend anyone to leave a boat unattended, until you reach Limehouse Basin.
Victoria Park
There are pleasant overnight moorings either above Old
Ford Lock or down
the lock and round the corner on the Hertford Union Canal
(The entrance to the latter is though a narrow bridge and easy to miss.) There
is a sanitary stationabove the lock. The former Royal
Cricketers pub was on the off-side just below the lock. Sadly its site
has now been redeveloped as flats. This isn't a good area to leave a boat
unattended.
Limehouse Basin
There is a marina in the basin, surrounded by new
development, complete on most sides of the basin, still being built on one
section. The walk-way all the way round the basin is now complete. The marina
is run by BW Marinas Ltd. There is an official overnight
mooring (free) in the SE part of the basin, near the tide lock
,
with good access to Commercial Road & Narrow Street. It's
close to the Cruising Association HQ, within sight of the lock-keeper's office
and overseen by the security people for the Marina, so it's pretty secure.
Officially it's an overnight-only mooring, but if things aren't too busy you
might be able to arrange with the lock-keeper for a few days' stay. For a
longer stay the marina can usually offer a berth, but it's not cheap (UKP12 +
VAT per night when I last stayed there in August 2000).
Water, rubbish bins, token-operated pump-out and elsan
disposal (the latter in a shortened ex-GUCCC working boat!) were all
available on the pontoon opposite the overnight mooring, but have now moved to
the SW corner of the basin. Shower facilities are in the lock-keeper's
building.
The basin used to be semi-tidal, but is no longer since Bow
Locks were modified to keep the tide out. Extreme high tides may possibly still
bring the water level up, but this is now expected to be very rare.
Limehouse station (BR &
Docklands Light Railway) is close by (just off Commercial Road and visible
from the basin). To reach it start from Narrow Street (the swing bridge over
the tide lock), turn westwards and follow the signs. The best access on foot
from the basin itself is by the footpath on the South side, then turn right up
Branch Road and you will see the station..
There are several pubs in the area and the Cruising
Association HQ (beside the tide lock) has a bar which welcomes visiting boaters
but has limited opening hours. If you want a meal, the
nearest place is the newly-refurbished (Summer 2003) Narrow Street
Restaurant and Bar, now part of Gordon Ramsay's empire. It was
formerly the Barley Mow pub, and before that the Dockmaster's House. My
favourite pub in the area is The Grapes, riverside a few yards
eastwards along Narrow Street. This is an old watermen's pub, serving a choise
of real ales and with a good repuation for its food (specialising in fish),
although I've not eaten there. The pub occurs in literature under the name
The Six Jolly Fellowship Porters, in Dickens' Our Mutual Friend,
which he wrote while lodging at The Grapes.
Limehouse Tide Lock
connects to the Thames tideway. It is passable at most states of the tide, and
is manned 08:00 to 18:00 daily. Out of hours passages can be made by special
arrangement during 05:00 - 08:00 and 18:00 - 20:00.
 (020) 7308 9930. If you plan to venture on the tideway, then
unless you are used to tidal water you are strongly recommended to take advice
on how to time your trip with the tide, and to go in company with another boat.
John Kennett's excellent Tideway site has all the
information you are likely to want about the London River, and practical
navigational advice is also provided in London IWA's Tideway
Notes which are available from IWA Head Office.
OTHER PAGES IN THIS SECTION |
MAP |
PHOTOS |
FACILITIES |
The Grand Union Main Line South of Watford
(including the Slough Arm) |
|
|
|
The Paddington Branch |
|
|
|
The Regent's Canal |
|
|
Top of this page.
|
The Lower Lee |
|
|
|
The Bow Back Rivers |
|
|
|
The Thames Tideway |
|
|
Tideway site |
Residential moorings in
London |
 Guided towpath walks
(external link
to London IWA site)
|
|
