Narrow boat, Regent's Canal, Islington

click photo to enlarge
For many years our visits to London involved staying in Rotherhithe by the River Thames. That great artery formed the subject of many of my photographs of the city during that time. Recently our stays in the city have centred on Islington and a different, much smaller waterway has received the attention of my camera. The Regent's Canal runs through the borough and we have come to know the stretch that passes east from Angel towards Hackney.

The canal remains a route for narrow boats and other pleasure craft and the tow path is a combined footpath and cyclepath, much used as a commuter route by pedestrians and cyclists as well as a pleasant place for a walk away from the noise and fumes of traffic. Today's photograph was taken not too far into our walk from Angel and appropriately, and not coincidentally, features a narrow boat called "Angel". I took the photograph using a bridge as a frame and also tried to capture some of the greenery that makes this part of the canal particularly pleasurable.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Narrow Boat, "Angel", on Regent's Canal, Islington
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 49mm (98mm - 35mm equiv.) crop
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/160 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

City Road Basin, Regent's Canal, London

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The Regent's Canal is an 8.5 mile long waterway that passes through the north of central London from the Grand Union Canal at Paddington to the Limehouse Basin (and the River Thames) in the east of London. It was built between 1812 and 1820 by the engineer James Morgan working for the architect John Nash. Its purpose was to aid the redevelopment of this part of the city.

Today the canal still has minor commercial uses but is predominantly recreational with narrow-boats a common sight at various points, many acting as floating homes. The tow path is a combined footpath and cycleway, forming a pleasant, traffic-free route through these densely built areas of London. Canal-side sites are, like any open or disused space in the city, a magnet to builders, and flats continue to spring up at many points along the route. Here, at the City Road Basin in Islington, warehouse conversions and new-builds of both traditional and determinedly modern design sit side-by-side.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: City Road Basin, Regent's Canal, London
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 20mm (40mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f4.3
Shutter Speed: 1/640 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

A palatial pub

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Can there be any English building that has borrowed its style so readily and so widely as the pub (public house) or tavern. The first such buildings were essentially houses, and the subsequent purpose-built pubs followed the style of the periods in which they were built. So, many were thatched, timber-framed, tile hung, brick-built, stone-built, pargetted etc. Quite a few of these pubs from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century still stand and, where they haven't been converted into dwellings, still serve beer.

However, from the nineteenth century through into the twentieth pubs vied to attract customers. Two devices commonly employed were siting the pub on a corner so that it could be seen from two or more streets, and presenting a decorative exterior that attracted the eye and thence the customer. Backwards-looking styles were often favoured, particularly brick and timber-framing. Part-tiled exteriors that were showy (and durable) were also favoured. Many were decked out with the trappings of grand buildings, featuring towers, turrets, balconies, balusters and more. The other day I cam across an example of the latter in Islington, London.

The inspiration for the style of the Marquess tavern is clearly the eighteenth century English country house, the residence of the landed rich. It has a rusticated ground floor, a piano nobile with tall windows surmounted by alternating triangular and segmental pediments, smaller windows above and a balustrade hiding the low-pitched roof. The three-bay facade is divided up by giant Corinthian pilasters. Brick and painted stucco (no stone here) are the materials of choice. All this is, of course, a historicising veneer, a means by which to attract custom. It was built in 1854 and remains a pub today, a palatial pile in miniature in the tight streets of this north London borough.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 18mm (36mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/500 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3EV
Image Stabilisation: On