Jump to content

London is deserted.


MoominPapa

Featured Posts

Spent today travelling from Cheshunt to Limehouse Basin.

 

Saw precisely three boats moving on the entire trip. First was a Springer which blithely pulled out in front of us, winded whilst still getting in the way, and then breasted up to a different moored boat. Second was an open boat waiting to go into Old Ford lock as we vacated it. Third was a narrowboat going the other way on the Limehouse Cut.

 

Mind you, we're seen thousands of moored boats.

 

MP.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I guess we were just really lucky...we moored in 3 different spots around the London canal system when we were heading for a trip up the river Lee and 2 different spots on the way back.  Non of those times did we need to travel far to find a free mooring once we decided it was time to moor up for the day & don't forget we didn't have the opition to double up as we are a wide beam.  

I appreciate that trip was 2 years ago, but it was "just" as CRT were strating to crack down on folks overstaying in London.  I would have thought that it would have only got better since then.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Most people are at work on a weekday so it's unsurprising you didn't come across many moving boats. Probably somewhere between 15% and 20% of all boats in London move on any given Saturday or Sunday. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Jambo said:

Most people are at work on a weekday so it's unsurprising you didn't come across many moving boats. Probably somewhere between 15% and 20% of all boats in London move on any given Saturday or Sunday. 

 

Yes, there were more moving boats yesterday when we did Limehouse to Paddington. Will be interesting to see what today is like as we head west.

 

It was interesting that there are long stretches of empty towpath heading out from Limehouse, both on the Regent's and the Limehouse cut. Couldn't work out if this was because  it's not suitable for pins, or no-one wants to be there, or it's just too dodgy. It certainly all felt fine on a sunny Friday afternoon.

 

T'was interesting providing the early-evening floor show for the Friday revellers at Camden....

 

MP.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

28 minutes ago, MoominPapa said:

Yes, there were more moving boats yesterday when we did Limehouse to Paddington. Will be interesting to see what today is like as we head west.

It was interesting that there are long stretches of empty towpath heading out from Limehouse, both on the Regent's and the Limehouse cut. Couldn't work out if this was because  it's not suitable for pins, or no-one wants to be there, or it's just too dodgy. It certainly all felt fine on a sunny Friday afternoon.

T'was interesting providing the early-evening floor show for the Friday revellers at Camden....

MP.

 

People never used to moor on Limehouse cut but now there are often boats from the basin to the Lidl (or is it Aldi?). It can be a little sketchy down there but it's a lot better now that there are boats moored there. People tend to moor to the chain attachment points which is perhaps not ideal but they're pretty sturdy and as long as you're not blocking the ladders it's OK.

North up the Regents from Limehouse is a bit too dodgy for most until you get to Mile End station. You occasionally get the odd boat along that stretch but we won't moor there until many more boats are around.   

5 minutes ago, Johny London said:

The only trouble with Horsenden hill is that there is someone lives there who walks a pack of dogs and never clears up after them.

Yeah but otherwise it's lovely. Especially at this time of the year. We're there at the moment :) 

Friends who we're moored with had a little owl perched in the tree next to them a couple of nights ago. Not bad for zone 4 on the underground!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Jambo said:

North up the Regents from Limehouse is a bit too dodgy for most until you get to Mile End station. You occasionally get the odd boat along that stretch but we won't moor there until many more boats are around.   

Which raises an interesting point about the mooring situation in London from the point of view of outsiders. It's possible to argue reasonably convincingly that the live-aboards in London have actually made more mooring space for visitors by reclaiming miles of towpath as inhabited space. Yes, there are lots of boats, but every-so-often there's a space which can be used in a place where you'd think very hard about stopping if it was all empty, but because there are plenty of other boats, it's now a good mooring.

 

Contrast with, for example, Birmingham, which has miles and miles of towpaths free on the old and new main lines, but no-one moors there: they're all squashed up a  quarter of a mile radius from Old Turn, fighting for space. Even worse is Leicester with all that lovely space down the mile straight, and the boaters locked into a pontoon on the offside.

 

We've moved from Limehouse to Perivale, and I can't see that the traffic we encountered represents 15% of all the boats moving. Anyway, of you can stay somewhere for 14 days, and everybody moves at the weekend, shouldn't 25% of all boats be moving on any given Saturday or Sunday :)

Cheers,

MP.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Jambo said:

  

Yeah but otherwise it's lovely. Especially at this time of the year. We're there at the moment :) 

Friends who we're moored with had a little owl perched in the tree next to them a couple of nights ago. Not bad for zone 4 on the underground!

Paah how crap is that, we have some bloody HUGE owls here on the Oxford ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Seems a sorry state of affairs. I was planning a london cruise for june but good friend on nb Swansong beat me to it last month and advised me against the cruise. He spent 8 hours cruising non stop through london and couldnt find a single vistors mooring. I,ve crossed it off my list.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Irob said:

Seems a sorry state of affairs. I was planning a london cruise for june but good friend on nb Swansong beat me to it last month and advised me against the cruise. He spent 8 hours cruising non stop through london and couldnt find a single vistors mooring. I,ve crossed it off my list.

Book the London canal museum if just want an overnighter? 

Or try the Little Venice bookable moorings. 

Im in canal museum Wed night. In Aug got 5 days booked in Little Venice.

Or chance Paddington. Reasonable churn. Get there circa 11am.

Or Victoria Park.

Is there a better bit of canal between Paddington and Camden for transitting?

However it does need planning a little.

Here is my way of getting through London west to East. Overnight Perivale golf course. Travel to bookable mooring in London Canal Museum or Little Venice or try Paddington dock. Traverse London to Viccy Park.

 

Edited by mark99
  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2017-6-10 at 15:00, MoominPapa said:

We've moved from Limehouse to Perivale, and I can't see that the traffic we encountered represents 15% of all the boats moving. Anyway, of you can stay somewhere for 14 days, and everybody moves at the weekend, shouldn't 25% of all boats be moving on any given Saturday or Sunday :)

Well some do move in the week but not many compared with the weekend and there are doubtless a few overstayers but it'll be about that. People don't in general cruise particularly far so it may not seem like many people but the vast majority are definitely moving.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Irob said:

Seems a sorry state of affairs. I was planning a london cruise for june but good friend on nb Swansong beat me to it last month and advised me against the cruise. He spent 8 hours cruising non stop through london and couldnt find a single vistors mooring. I,ve crossed it off my list.

Does it need to be a VM? There are plenty of great stretches of towpath away from the VMs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks jambo, i was warned that the open stretches may not be safe from 'undesirables'.  I might cruise to watford or  rickmansworth as a base and catch public transport into town for a few days.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

28 minutes ago, Irob said:

Thanks jambo, i was warned that the open stretches may not be safe from 'undesirables'.  I might cruise to watford or  rickmansworth as a base and catch public transport into town for a few days.

Irob you will absolutely 100% get a mooring up to Kensal Green. You will be suprised how much open canal towpath there is to that point.

My mooring neighbour is more gung ho than me. He regularly goes to London Central and never comes back defeated.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.