Before the railways
The Regent’s Canal opened on 1 August 1820, finally connecting the Grand Junction Canal at Paddington with the London Docks at Limehouse. Only then was the worldâs greatest port linked to the 18th century canal network which connected with Englandâs industrial heartlands. Four years earlier it had reached the Hampstead Road, establishing Camden as a significant entrepĂŽt in the urban landscape.
Long distance travel, before the first main line railways arrived in Camden, was by coach. The railways represented a looming menace to the coaching business and the infrastructure, including the coaching inn, that had grown around it.
Battle Bridge was a locality with a poor reputation stretching back to the middle ages. With the arrival of the New Road, which was progressively lined with fine villas, Stephen Geary was commissioned to erect a monument to George IV there, and the name was changed to King’s Cross.
The area around Battle Bridge had brick fields and tile kilns that exploited the brick earth for London stock bricks and the clay for tile making. Its unsavoury reputation was not enhanced by the proliferation of dust heaps, which provided employment for a small army of dustmen and cinder-shifters, recycling refuse for a variety of higher value purposes.
The Regent’s Canal
The 18th century witnessed a transport revolution as canals extended over much of the Midlands and northern industrial areas. Although plans to link London with
The Coaching Inn
In the early nineteenth century a business traveller coming to London from the north would have a choice of many coaching inns. In the city alone
Battle Bridge
At Battle Bridge the River Fleet crossed the dust fields owned by John Smith. Here amid brickworks stood the âGreat Dust Heapâ, located where the
King’s Cross
In 1755 influential residents of St Marylebone, Paddington and Islington, all separate villages close to London, petitioned parliament for the right to provide a turnpike trust road by-passing the northern boundaries
Brick fields and tile kilns
The view north from Maiden Lane bridge in 1835 by E.H.Dixon shows fields and market gardens stretching up to Holloway, with a large mansion, Copenhagen
Dust heaps
The site of the future GNR terminus, immediately north of the New Road and west of Maiden Lane, was apparently occupied by a dust heap