Cumberland Basin (London)

Last updated

As the Regent's Canal turns left towards Camden Town, the remains of the Cumberland Basin arm lies straight ahead. Regent Canal Turn - geograph.org.uk - 1775726.jpg
As the Regent's Canal turns left towards Camden Town, the remains of the Cumberland Basin arm lies straight ahead.

Cumberland Basin (or Cumberland Market Basin) was a canal basin near to Euston railway station in London, England and a part of the Regent's Canal. It was originally known as Jew's Harp Basin in the 1880s, after a nearby public house.

Contents

The basin's excavation was authorised in 1813 to serve Cumberland Market and then-industrial "New Road" and in 1941-1942 was filled back in chiefly using rubble from the London Blitz of those years and the previous year. [1]

Cumberland Arm

Cumberland Arm
BSicon uCONTg.svg
Regent's Canal, towards Paddington Basin
BSicon uFABZgl+l.svg
BSicon uCONTfq.svg
Cumberland Turn,
Regent's Canal towards Limehouse
BSicon ugENDE.svg
Present stub-end. Floating restaurant
BSicon gSTR.svg
Site of London Zoo
BSicon gSKRZ-Ru.svg
A4201 Gloucester Gate Bridge, still remaining
BSicon gSTR.svg
BSicon gSTR.svg
BSicon ugDOCKg.svg
Cumberland Basin

The Cumberland Arm (or Cumberland Market Branch) was a 1-kilometre (0.6 mi) long stretch of canal that connected Cumberland Basin to the Regent's Canal (which passes through the present site of the car park for London Zoo). The Cumberland Turn junction with the Regent's Canal is still visible with the short stub-end of the arm remaining housing the Feng Shang Floating Restaurant.

In the 1880s, American writer Ellis Martin was touring the London canals, but chose not to enter the basin as an 1850s report described it as "no better than a stagnant putrid ditch", and noted that cholera had spread amongst nearby neighbourhoods and boat-dwellers. [2]

The basin and associated works were authorised in 1813 to serve Cumberland Market and New Road (now Euston Road), and closed in 1942. [1]

The basin was dammed off in August 1938, and during the Blitz, the arm was used to supply water to fire pumps attending fires through the West End. By 1941, the arm and basin had been filled in with rubble from demolished buildings. [3] [2]

Historical remains

Starting after World War I, sections of the area around the Cumberland Market were used by the Crown Estate to develop housing for war veterans. [4] Eventually the land right beside the Cumberland Basin was included in these allotments for the Cumberland Market Estate. Some street lamps associated with the basin remain on Gloucester Gate Bridge [5] above the Main Line of the Regent's Canal just west of Cumberland Turn.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grand Union Canal</span> Canal in England

The Grand Union Canal in England is part of the British canal system. It is the principal navigable waterway between London and the Midlands. Starting in London, one arm runs to Leicester and another ends in Birmingham, with the latter stretching for 137 miles (220 km) with 166 locks from London. The Birmingham line has a number of short branches to places including Slough, Aylesbury, Wendover, and Northampton. The Leicester line has two short arms of its own, to Market Harborough and Welford.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paddington</span> Area of central London, England

Paddington is an area in the City of Westminster, in central London, England. A medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Paddington station, designed by the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel opened in 1847. It is also the site of St Mary's Hospital and the former Paddington Green Police Station.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Limehouse Basin</span> Canal basin in Tower Hamlets, London

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Regent's Canal</span> Canal in England

Regent's Canal is a canal across an area just north of central London, England. It provides a link from the Paddington Arm of the Grand Union Canal, 550 yards (500 m) north-west of Paddington Basin in the west, to the Limehouse Basin and the River Thames in east London. The canal is 8.6 miles (13.8 km) long.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hertford Union Canal</span> Canal in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets

The Hertford Union Canal or Duckett's Cut, just over 1 mile (1.6 km) long, connects the Regent's Canal to the Lee Navigation in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in East London. It was opened in 1830 but quickly proved to be a commercial failure. It was acquired by the Regents Canal Company in 1857, and became part of the Grand Union Canal in 1927.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Wenlock Arms</span> Pub in Hoxton, London

The Wenlock Arms is a public house in Hoxton, in London's East End, which began trading in 1787. The pub is located halfway between Old Street and Angel, just off the City Road and the City Road Basin and Wenlock Basin on the Regent's Canal. The pub has won awards for the quality and range of its cask ales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wenlock Basin</span> Canal basin in Shoreditch, east London

The Wenlock Basin, is a 320 metre long canal basin on the Regent's Canal, in the Hoxton area of the London Borough of Hackney, United Kingdom. The City Road Basin lies just to the west of Wharf Road and is in the neighbouring London Borough of Islington.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Montgomery Canal</span> Canal in Shropshire, England, and Powys, Wales

The Montgomery Canal, known colloquially as "The Monty", is a partially restored canal in eastern Powys and northwest Shropshire. The canal runs 33 miles (53 km) from the Llangollen Canal at Frankton Junction to Newtown via Llanymynech and Welshpool and crosses the England–Wales border.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prescott Channel</span> Canal in East London, England

The Prescott Channel was built in 1930–35 as part of a flood relief scheme for the River Lee Navigation in the East End of London, England, and was named after Sir William Prescott, the then chairman of the Lee Conservancy Board. Rubble from the demolished Euston Arch was used in 1962 to improve the channel, which forms part of the Bow Back Rivers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">York Way</span>

York Way is a major road in the London Borough of Islington, running north for one mile from the junction of Pentonville Road and Euston Road, adjacent to King's Cross railway station towards Kentish Town and Holloway. At its northern end, the road becomes Brecknock Road. For its entire length York Way forms the boundary between the London Boroughs of Islington and Camden.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wendover Arm Canal</span>

The Wendover Arm Canal is part of the Grand Union Canal in England, and forms part of the British canal system. It is usually known as the Wendover Canal, but historically its builders referred to their branch canals as Arms, hence its historical name of Wendover Arm. It was planned as a feeder to carry water from springs near the town of Wendover in Buckinghamshire to the main line of the Grand Junction Canal at Bulbourne near Startops End in Hertfordshire, but when it opened in 1799 it was made navigable, as the extra cost of making it was so small. Water supplies from Wendover were found to be inadequate, and a series of reservoirs were built. A pumping station at Whitehouses was superseded by the Tringford pumping station in 1817; its steam engines were replaced by diesel engines in 1911 and then by electric pumps.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wednesbury Oak Loop</span>

The Wednesbury Oak Loop, sometimes known as the Bradley Arm, is a canal in the West Midlands, England. It is part of the Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN), and was originally part of James Brindley's main line, but became a loop when Thomas Telford's improvements of the 1830s bypassed it by the construction of the Coseley Tunnel. The south-eastern end of the loop was closed and in parts built over, following the designation of the entire loop as "abandoned" in 1954, including the section which was filled in at the beginning of the 1960s to make way for the Glebefields Estate in Tipton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Regent's Park Estate</span> Housing estate in London

Regent's Park Estate is a large housing estate in the London Borough of Camden. The estate consists of nearly 2,000 homes across 49 buildings and lies on either side of Robert Street, between Albany Street and Hampstead Road. It is immediately to the east of the Regent's Park estate owned by the Crown Estate. The estate includes the sites of Cumberland Market, Munster Square and Clarence Gardens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rochdale Branch Canal</span>

The Rochdale Branch Canal was a branch of the Rochdale Canal in north-west England which led close to Rochdale Town Centre. It was in use from 1794, and was bordered by the landscaped gardens of Lark Mill House on the western bank until the 1850s. A number of industries grew up around the branch, ranging from cotton mills and an iron and brass foundry in the early years, to a bakery and jam manufactory, woollen mills and sawmills later on. The branch declined with the main canal, and was little used after the 1920s, although not officially abandoned until 1952. It was filled in during the 1960s, and the site of the main basins now lies beneath the car park of a retail shopping centre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">City Road Basin</span> Canal basin in London

The City Road Basin is an English canal basin and part of the Regent's Canal in Central London, owned by the Canal & River Trust. It opened in 1820, and made a large contribution to the prosperity of the Regent's Canal. By the 1950s, its surroundings were largely derelict, but a programme of regeneration began in 2004, involving several large-scale residential developments, and public access to the basin was provided for the first time in 2009. The basin is used for canoeing by the Islington Boat Club.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cumberland Market</span>

Cumberland Market was a London market between Regent's Park and Euston railway station. It was built in the early 19th century and was London's hay and straw market for a hundred years until the late 1920s. An arm of the Regent's Canal was built to the market. The market was surrounded by modest housing, and in the early 20th century became an artistic community. The original houses were demolished during and after the Second World War and it is now a housing estate, known as Regent's Park Estate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maida Hill Tunnel</span>

Maida Hill Tunnel is a canal tunnel on the Regent's Canal in London, England. The two other tunnels on the Regent's Canal are Islington Tunnel and Eyre's Tunnel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Otter Dock</span> Former arm of the Grand Junction Canal in Yiewsley, United Kingdom

Otter Dock was a branch of the Grand Junction Canal in Yiewsley, Middlesex.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paddington Arm</span>

The Paddington Canal or Paddington Arm of the Grand Union Canal is a 13+12-mile (22 km) canal to Paddington in central London, England. It runs from the west of the capital at Bull's Bridge in Hayes. Little Venice — its only junction — is with the Regent's Canal, London that runs to Limehouse Basin to the east. The arm and the two canals it links are fed by water by the Brent Reservoir. The Paddington Arm is part of a long pound that stretches for nearly thirty miles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Little Venice</span> District in London, England

Little Venice is an affluent residential district in West London, England, around the junction of the Paddington Arm of the Grand Union Canal, the Regent's Canal, and the entrance to Paddington Basin. The junction forms a triangular shape basin. Many of the buildings in the vicinity are Regency white painted stucco terraced town houses and taller blocks (mansions) in the same style. The area is 2.5 miles (4.0 km) west-north-west of Charing Cross and immediately north-west of Paddington.

References

  1. 1 2 London Canal Museum, The Regent's Canal, Urban engineering, retrieved 2008-06-26.
  2. 1 2 Butler, Roger W (November 2014). "Victorian London by Canal". Waterways World. p. 51.
  3. Inland Waterways Association, Discovering the Regent's Canal [ permanent dead link ], retrieved 2006-08-26.
  4. "History of Cumberland Market Estates". Cumberland Market Estate Residents Association. 4 April 2012. Retrieved 22 December 2016.
  5. Camden Railway Heritage Trust, Newsletter No. 4, Q1 2008, Lamp Standards [ permanent dead link ], retrieved 2008-06-26.

51°31′49″N0°08′33″W / 51.5302°N 0.1425°W / 51.5302; -0.1425