Long
Weekend
Friday afternoon to Monday morning is a weekend which provides three
nights on the water. Other short breaks on offer at many bases are
the four night midweek break from Monday afternoon to Friday
morning. In both cases this is long enough to lose your sense of
time and that is one of the joys of a holiday on water - you can get
to the stage that you do not know what day of the week it is.
Choices of where to go in such a short break are fairly limited from
any one hirebase. Basically you can turn right or left out of the
marina, journey for day, spend a day at ease and spend the last day
on the return journey. But this does not mean you have no choice.
Some hirebases are in the cities, some near the countryside. Where
you travel depends only on where you choose to start and there is a
huge variety of possible start points which are all shown on the
maps.
Hirebases that are close to rail stations allow friends to meet from
different points of the compass without
the distracting hassle of driving either side of the short holiday.
The two suggestions made here are, unusually, in the form of small
rings. Droitwich will only be operational when some current
restoration works are complete but it allows me to note the
differing kinds of waterway experiences that are available and when
it is fully open it will provide a perfect introduction to many
facets of boating on Britain’s Waterways.
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Tower Bridge, London
haven for all kinds of boats - masted seagoing yachts and wide beam
barges.
Tie up in the basin.
 Tourist
Information
London Tourist Board
Tel: 09068 663344 (Premium rate line)
Website:
www.londontouristboard.com
Cruising Maps
GEOprojects: Lee and Stort Navigations with the
East London Ring
GEOprojects: Grand Union Canal map 3, Fenny Stratford to the Thames
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Start
Points |
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2 |
Adelaide Marine |
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2 |
London & Home Counties Narrowboat
Holidays |
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Three Mills Visitor Centre
East London Ring
Two parks, Three Mills and a basin.
Hertford
Union Canal (1838)
Hertford Union Jcn - Victoria Park - Old Ford Jcn
Lee Navigation (1769)
Old Ford - Three Mills - Bow Locks
Limehouse Cut (1770, 1968)
Bow Locks - Limehouse Basin
Regent’s Canal (1820)
Limehouse Basin - Mile End - Hertford Union Jcn
Allow 4 hours travelling on the
ring itself plus 9½ hours from
hirebase to ring.
6 miles of wide canal, 8 wide locks.
A tiny ring lined with attractions
open at weekends provides a gentle target from the nearest hirebases.
Visitor attractions
Bow Wharf
Quayside fun, redeveloped from former glue factory warehouses,
Jongleurs Comedy Club, real ale and other pars. (Jongleurs Tel: 020
7564 2500).
Tie up near Hertford Union Junction.
Victoria Park
Major green lung developed in Queen Victoria’s days |
follows the canal for
almost a mile. Tie up at Three Colt Bridge.
Three Mills Visitor Centre (Tel: 020 8983 1121)
Early (1776) environmentally sound energy source. Incoming tides are
held back in a 50 acre lake and then released under waterwheels to
produce over 150 horsepower driving eight pairs of millstones.
Tie up next to the mills. Open Sunday afternoons.
Dr Barnardo’s Ragged School Museum showing East London
conditions of poverty and charitable moves to improve education in
late l800s. Lord Shaftesbury assisted.
Tie up near Johnson ‘s Lock, No 10.
Waterway distractions
Sir George Duckett’s Cut (1830)
Sir George, owner of Stort Navigation, paid for this short canal
with three wide locks but he set toll charges too high and it
failed. Sold to Regent’s Canal.
Now known as the Hertford Union Canal.
Bow Back Rivers
Complex of tidal creeks and canalised water at the mouth of River
Lee as it discharges into the Thames. Now protected by a flood
barrier on Bow Creek.
Tie up near Old Ford Lock Walk the towpaths.
Limehouse Basin
Barges and narrowboats crowded the basin to offload direct over the
side from seagoing ships. Now a |
