Kings Cross to Camden Walk

Walk to York Way / Maiden Lane Bridge for a view back (east) to Islington Tunnel. Some 960 yards (878m) long it has no towpath, so boats were legged through until a tug was introduced in 1826. This tugging service operated until the 1930s.

The unusually large dimensions of the tunnel and waterway stem from its design as an ‘import-export’ canal, able to take Thames lighters bringing cargoes from London Docks.

The stop gates next to Maiden Lane Bridge were installed during WWII to lessen damage by flooding in the event of a breach. This was critical, as main lines serving King’s Cross Station go under the canal just the other side of the bridge. Maiden Lane Bridge itself now carries York Way. Nearby were the dust-heaps that feature in Dickens’ Household Words magazine

Turn off the towpath and up a ramp on the right, which leads to the former Great Northern Railway Co’s Goods Yard, on the high ground to the north of the towpath.

This includes the Granary Building (Lewis Cubitt, 1852) which once had an interchange basin leading off the canal, with wharves for barges under the building. The Goods Yard redevelopment, as King’s Cross Central, is one of central London’s biggest developments.

The basin (infilled at the end of WWI) is now the site of Granary square.

On the west side of Granary square, the Eastern & Western Coal Drops (1850s) have been refurbished to a Thomas Heatherwick design. With the Fish and Coal Offices (1852-7), this area is now a smart precinct of shops and cafés

In 1810 William Agar bought Elm Grove, an estate across the intended line of the canal. He was possibly related to George Agar, one of the canal’s proprietors. He refused access to the Canal Company for a long time, until eventually, after law suits and payment of compensation, he relented.

Later, his son built a huge shanty-town on the land (Agar Town), described by Dickens as the worst slums in London. They were demolished in 1868 for Midland Railway’s goods yards. After they subsequently closed, the area was re-developed as Elm Village.

At Camden road Bridge, then Camden Street Bridge, note the grooves worn by tow-ropes picking up grit from the path. The River Fleet passes in a culvert under the canal between these bridges

Kentish Town Bridge is followed by Kentish Town Lock and Hawley Lock (named after the landowner, Sir Henry Hawley). The building of the former Camden Brewery (off-side, 1900) was rebuilt in 1982 as the studios of new breakfast TV company, TV-AM. It’s now MTV’s studios. Walker’s Quay (left, off-side) is where the Jenny Wren trip-boat has run from since 1968

The former lock house is an 1815 castellated cottage, now Starbucks and a canal information centre. Regular through freight traffic on the Regent’s Canal continued until the 1960s, while some timber trade continued until 1970.