When we realised we could book a week’s mooring in central London we leapt at the chance. For a visitor to the capital, the horror stories about there being nowhere to moor is a daunting prospect. And to a certain extent, once we had passed under the North circular (A406, roughly east of Wembley) yes, mooring options became increasingly sporadic, but we could still have doubled up if necessary. But along the Regent’s Canal there is a joint initiative between DEFRA, Islington council and CRT to help reduce boater’s emissions, with a system of bookable Eco Moorings. Although its causing a lot of controversy amongst boaters, many London based boats are simply not able to comply with the regulations without upgrading their set up, it suited us perfectly. Its worth reading this article from the CRT website if you’re interested. Islington Eco moorings
It’s still all a bit hit and miss and open to abuse, And despite being assured we wouldn’t be double moored, when we arrived the only space available was a double mooring. Not that that was a problem, we were warmly welcomed and assisted to moor up, it was a bit tricky getting on and off firecrest over a slightly longer boat than ourselves, and two days after we had to do a reshuffle as our partners boat needed to move. But the advantage of having an electric hook up, (which we paid for through CRTs Meter Mac online system) was well worth it.
We were surprised at just how quiet this short section of mooring is, between Islington tunnel and City Road Lock. It’s surrounded by residential properties, (who have also had to adapt to new emissions initiatives with restricted road access)
And there didn’t seem to be a lot of boat traffic, unless you counted the weekend trip boats hosting parties
Yet all within a few minutes of the Northern line and Angel tube station, and a lively high street and trendy shopping centre
On our first evening, we had arranged to meet up with family to go and see a west end show. So started off with a meal in China town
Amanda’s neighbour was playing young Bob, in the musical Get Up, Stand up, at the Lyric theatre, and as we’d met them earlier in the year it seemed an obvious show to go and see.
A good start to our week
