History of the Regent's Canal

In 1812, the Regent's Canal Company was formed to cut a new canal from the Grand Junction Canal's Paddington Arm to Limehouse, where a dock was planned at the junction with the Thames. The architect John Nash played a part in construction, applying his concept of 'barges moving through an urban landscape'.

Completed in 1820, it was built too close to the advent of the railway age to produce the financial success that had been envisaged - at one stage only narrowly escaping early conversion into a railway. But it was subsequently to become instrumental in much commercial development throughout the 19th Century.

Together with the Grand Junction Canal and the associated routes to the Midlands and north, the Regent's Canal formed an essential component in southern England's transport system. Huge quantities of timber, coal, building materials and foodstuffs were carried and long-distance traffic continued to use it into the 1960s.

Macclesfield Bridge is also known as Blow-Up Bridge, a reference to a 19th Century incident involving a boat carrying explosives. Set on Coalbookdale cast iron columns the bridge was rebuilt using the original columns that were re-erected facing the wrong way.