At Dusk: Photos of the Regent’s Canal from Camden Lock to St. Pancras Basin

At Dusk: The Regent’s Canal from Camden Lock to St. Pancras Basin, a set on Flickr.

Out of London’s many attractions, its wonderful canals are relatively unknown, which is, to be honest, inexplicable, as they are an endlessly fascinating — and generally very soothing — antidote to the capital’s often stressful roads.

Both of London’s major canals — the Regent’s Canal, and the Limehouse Cut — feed into the Limehouse Basin, between Tower Bridge and the Isle of Dogs, which was once so busy that it was said that it was possible to walk the whole way across the dock from boat to boat. It opened in 1820 as the Regent’s Canal Dock, joining the River Thames to the whole of the national canal system in the decades that followed.

In July, I visited — for the first time ever, I’m slightly ashamed to admit — the Limehouse Cut, which joins the River Lea upstream, on a journey to Stratford from Limehouse to look at the Olympics site. However, the Regent’s Canal had to wait until September, apart from one brief visit — also in July — when I cycled along the towpath from Commercial Road to Bethnal Green and back, for an event that I was speaking at. You can also see my commentary on those journeys here and here.

The Regent’s Canal — 8.6 miles long, and built from 1812-1820 — is an extraordinary achievement, running all the way, in a huge loop, from Limehouse to Little Venice (near Paddington), where it joins the Grand Union Canal, via Mile End, Hackney, Islington, King’s Cross and Camden. Unlike the Limehouse Cut, it was not unknown to me, as I have cycled or walked most of its length during the 27 years I have lived in London, but revisiting it as part of my ongoing project to photograph the whole London by bike provided me with a wonderful opportunity to scrutinise it more closely than I had before, and it constantly rewarded me, even though some stretches of it have been — or are in the process of being — ruthlessly exploited by developers building huge tower blocks that are horribly inappropriate.

Some of that is happening around King’s Cross, featured in the next photo set, and some in east London, which will feature in a number of photo sets to follow, from a big journey I took in September along the whole of the canal from Islington to Limehouse. I still have to cycle the section from Camden to Little Venice, but have no idea when that will take place — or when I’ll have time to upload the Islington to Limehouse set — as I currently have around 3,000 photos to upload, from the almost daily journeys I’ve been undertaking — some local, some further afield — since I began this project in May.

I hope you’re enjoying the journeys. For me this huge project makes every day fascinating, as I find new places to explore and photograph, or revisit old haunts, and begin to understand London more comprehensively than I ever have before. Thank you for your company and enjoy the journey along the Regent’s Canal!

Andy Worthington is the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by Macmillan in the US, and available from Amazon — click on the following for the US and the UK) and of two other books: Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion and The Battle of the Beanfield. To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to my RSS feed — and I can also be found on Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Flickr (my photos) and YouTube. Also see my definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, updated in April 2012, “The Complete Guantánamo Files,” a 70-part, million-word series drawing on files released by WikiLeaks in April 2011, and details about the documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (co-directed by Polly Nash and Andy Worthington, and available on DVD here — or here for the US). Also see my definitive Guantánamo habeas list and the chronological list of all my articles, and please also consider joining the new “Close Guantánamo campaign,” and, if you appreciate my work, feel free to make a donation.