Regent's Canal

To Camden, today, to see one of my three cousins and her family (including Tiger the Cat) - and on the way there and back crossed Regent's Canal.  Of course, in a passive kind of way, I know Regent's Canal is there - indeed, I even sat beside it for an hour or so this last summer, in Granary Square.  But today was the first day that I've actively thought - why have I never walked along it?  At least, walked along this part of it - I think we walked along another bit of it about ten years ago.

Part of the answer to that, of course, is that it's only been thoroughly renovated and spruced during the last decade - turned into a kind of London equivalent of the High Line, judging by how relatively crowded parts of it were.  It's only 9 miles long - designed by John Nash, opened in 1820, and running from Limehouse, on the Thames, to Paddington: the part I saw today runs behind Kings Cross and St Pancras.  It was a bit wobbly, as a trade venture, when it started - but then the development of the railways made it a truly important, if short, thoroughfare for goods of all kinds.  (and yes, that's sunshine!  at last!).