The Canal Museum, London

 

Interior of barge with side beds and cupboards

On yet another wet day I went along to the Canal Museum with a friend. This small museum near Kings Cross station is lovely. Over two floors it traces the life of people living on working barges and explains how canals were made. There is so much information, diagrams and an audio-visual about London canals. You can see how the canals are linked, and some that were started but never came into existence.

The museum has an old barge where you can look into all the cupboards and see how a family lived on board. I love the brightly painted interior and the lovely crockery. There is much about the ice cream maker, Carlo Gatti, from Switzerland who tried his hand at other things before settling on the ices we all still love. The original ice well is here. It's massive. Through double doors you can walk out into the basin and see the barges. 

Ice well

Upstairs is more information including about the stables. Horses were used to pull barges for many years, so they had to be cared for. It's up here that you find all the information about canal cutting. Gosh that would have been hard work, as then there was only basic equipment and manpower to do all the work. There were photos of canal children. Young children when top of the barge were tied down to stop them falling off!

Barge family

Barge pottery

Different boats on canals

From April onwards you can take one of several boat trips from the Canal Museum, and we intend to go back and take a boat trip. We had hoped to walk along the towpath after our visit to the museum, but heavy rain set in, so that was that. A great little museum, well worth visiting. It's great for children too, with lots of things for them to investigate, including drawers to open. There is a nice little shop and toilets, but no cafe, just a vending machine. However, there are lots of cafes nearby.

First floor