Canals and transport
Camden lock and the Regent's park canal
Canals and navigable rivers were the first national transport system in Britain. The pioneering civil engineers John Smeaton and Thomas Telford estimated that while a horse-drawn wagon on a tarred road could carry a load of 2 tons, a horse-drawn barge on a canal could carry 30 tons.
The Regent's canal
The Regent's canal opened in 1820 to link the docks on the Thames with the Grand Union canal's Paddington arm. The canal was built too close to the coming of the railways to be a financial success but commercial traffic continued until the 1960s.
Apart from boating and fishing and walking, the canals still have technical importance today. The towpath of the Regent's canal through Camden, for example, is laid with concrete slabs which cover high voltage power lines helping to distribute electricity to Londoners.
Locks
The network of canals would be impossible without locks to allow boats to change level. Locks were invented in China over a thousand years ago. In the UK, the first lock with gates of the kind we see still today was built on the Exeter canal in the 1560s. So this is a tried and tested technology.
The twelve locks between Limehouse and Camden raise boats from the Thames to the level of a lock-free pound stretching 21 miles to the nearest lock on the Grand Union main line.
The buildings which now house Camden Lock market were once a timber wharf.
Frightening the horses
When the London to Birmingham railway opened between 1837-8 the new line crossed the canal just west of Camden lock. The sound of the steam trains frightened the horses towing the barges on the canal. The horses plunged into the water and then could not get out because of the steep banks.
This accounts for the cut into the bank alongside the narrow boat in the picture (top left). The canal company installed ramps under the water on either side of the bridge to allow the boat crews to calm their horses and then lead them back up to the towing path.
Submitted by: Andrew Hunt, 16 January 2007
