Lisson Grove Moorings, London

I spent the day in London today as I was meeting up with friends from work this afternoon. I went up a couple of hours early as I wanted to explore a little bit. Since I was going to end up near Regent’s Park for my meeting I decided to walk along the Regent’s Canal from Paddington. This takes you through the charming area of Little Venice, passing by several ‘boat-bars’ and ‘boat-cafes’ both behind Paddington station and within the Little Venice basin. It was a grey and misty day so I didn’t see Little Venice at its best but there was still plenty to look at and enjoy (see Extra photo).

As the canal turns east toward Regent’s Park there are a couple of tunnels so I had to walk above the canal and along residential streets before joining the towpath again. The last stretch goes through an area known as Lisson Grove, pictured here, which has an interesting and checkered history.

The canal itself was created in the early 1800s by the Regent’s Canal Company to create a link between the Union Canal’s Paddington arm and the Thames. John Nash, the great Regency architect was a director of the company and involved in much of the plan and design of the project. On the north side of the canal beautiful Nash-designed Regency houses were built with many historically famous occupants, especially in the literary and scientific fields - George Elliot, Agatha Christie, Mary Shelley, Thomas Huxley. The south side of the canal was developed by Sit Edward Baker (of whom Baker Street was named after) and he built large blocks of flats there. By the late 1800s this south side of the canal was dominated by crime-filled slum tenements where Typhoid and Smallpox were rife. These slums were finally demolished at the end of the 1800s and over the 20th century various ‘social housing’ projects were built in their place.

The beautiful villas on north side of the canal were eventually demolished to make room for the huge Grove Rd electric power station, opened in 1904. This power station was demolished in 1973 and replaced by the current National Grid’s electric substation, seen in the picture. The boat moorings below were originally used as an unloading point for barges delivering coal to the electric station above. Now it is a well-established mooring site, one of the largest managed by the Canal & River Trust in London.

The canal continues through Regent’s Park and beyond but I will have to walk that section another day. The Park was my ultimate destination today as I was meeting a group of mostly retired Flight Attendants who were having their annual post-Christmas afternoon tea nearby. There were about 25 or so people there - all but 4 of us (and 2 guests) retired (see second Extra photo). It was great to catch up with lots of lovely colleagues whom I used to work with and still miss! Although I’m not retired I can pretend I am for a day! (I also had to pretend I wasn’t on a diet today!)