Books and Canals

Of late, I have been walking.

Word on the Water
Regent's Canal, London

To the British Museum. To Hyde Park. To Covent Garden. Today my walk included a visit to Word on the Water, a book barge on Regent's Canal.

Basically it's a book shop in a 100 year old Dutch boat. On sunny afternoons like today, the owners invite local musicians to play live music on the roof.


Moved by the moment, I picked up a copy of George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London. After being on the road for nearly four months now, I really identified with the down and out part of Orwell's title. It's a nice little book, partly fiction but mostly memoir, capturing key ideas about his experiences with self-imposed poverty in the 1920s.

And the book commenced with a line from Chaucer -- relevant enough given a previous blog post -- so I splurged nine quid before heading on my way.

"O scathful harm, condicion of poverte!" Chaucer said. Time, and a few pages of reading, will tell whether my condition of poverty -- of the mind or the pocketbook -- has been increased or diminished by this purchase.

London Canal Museum from Regent's Canal

Next stop was the London Canal Museum, a three-story brick building which was a former ice warehouse adjacent to the canal.

The museum chronicles the history of barges and the canals they plied, ice and the horses who pulled it.

The ice was shipped from the south coast of Norway and then stored in warehouses along the canals in London. The horses, massive and dignified under their laboring burdens, pulled the ice-filled canal boats across the English countryside.

Tiverton Canal
photo courtesy of Eclipse Breaks

The earliest canals date to the mid 16th century; by the mid 20th century the practice of hauling ice had been eclipsed by refrigerators and motor vehicles.

Great Crested Newt
photo courtesy of Danni Thompson

Now a new generation of hipsters have begun using the barges for housing, work studios and, as is the case with Word on the Water, floating book shops.

There are also community groups interested in the preservation of the canals, hosting events as varied as Great Crested Newt surveys, art shows featuring canal-themed exhibitions, and towpath task forces to keep the canal banks free of pollution and debris.

The area around Regent's Canal is changing rapidly. My little walk about caught just a small taste of it.