IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0074 ACC/1232
Held at: London Metropolitan Archives
Title: PADDINGTON-WAPPING CANAL
Date(s): 1802-1903
Level of description: Collection
Extent: 0.08 linear metres
Name of creator(s): Unknown
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
The 1811 prospectus for the Regent's Canal describes the ill-fated Paddington to Wapping Canal project:
"The great Distance of the Thames from the Northern Boundary of the Town has been always considered an Inconvenience from the Expense of Land Carriage, and the crowding the intermediate Streets with Carts and Waggons: as the Town has extended itself Northwards, those Inconveniences have been more severely felt, and so long ago as the year 1773 a Canal was contemplated along the back Part of the Metropolis, between its Northern Boundary and the High Grounds of Hampstead, Highgate and Islington.
The Paddington Branch of the Grand Junction Canal, executed about ten years since, formed a Communication with the River Thames at Brentford but the Distance from Paddington to Brentford being 20 miles, and from thence by the River Thames to the Shipping at Limehouse and the different Docks at Wapping, Blackwall etc. upon the Average 20 miles more, is so circuitous and the Passage through the different Bridges is so hazardous, that no Sort of Accommodation has been afforded by that Connection with the River Thames to the Neighbourhood through which the intended Canal is proposed to pass, and the Accommodation it has afforded to Paddington itself is very little.
In the Year 1802, a Canal from Paddington to the Limehouse Dock, at Wapping, was projected on a line through Ground, much of which was then allotted for building upon, and in the Course of which many and valuable Buildings then erected must have been necessarily taken down. A large subscription was then raised to carry the Scheme into Effect, but it was afterwards abandoned from the very heavy Expence likely to be incurred by it and by the great Opposition made by the Land Owners through which it was to pass."
Source: Website "When London Became an Island" about the building of the Regent's Canal. See http://www.whenlondonbecame.org.uk/new_page_5.htm (accessed Aug 09).
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Records relating to the Paddington to Wapping Canal, comprising letters applying for stock, 1802; 27 sheets recording a canvass of persons affected asking them whether they were for or against a canal or a canal and railway; and bills of expenses in connexion with the above.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
Chronological
Conditions governing access:
Available for general access.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Copyright rests with the City of London.
Physical characteristics:
Fit
Finding aids:
Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Purchased in 1974.
ALLIED MATERIALS
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Date(s) of descriptions: July to October 2009