I recently interviewed Bernard James, engineer, teacher, narrow boat skipper, on the general topic of historical London sites, a conversation which evolved into a detailed history of the Regents Canal and how it affected and continues to affect the environment alongside it. The canal (opened in 1816 and 1820) enabled a dramatic economical change along its path, from farmland to industry.
Now for a tenuous leap; if the canal is a 'path', literally a path of transportation and commerce, there is an analogy to a saturated solution which carries raw elements or molecules, the building growth enabled by the canal and directly adjacent to the canal is a 'crystallization' of the industry along the canal. A spacial process, a path is defined, and growth is organised along the path.
The density of crystallization is increased around basins which can be seen as 'nodes', a cluster of the crystalline growth. Materials and commodities carried along the canal inform the building type and function.
As an example, the Kingsland basin, just west of the intersection of Kingsland Road (an old Roman road) and the canal, was the site of the various businesses which were dependent on the canal as source of raw materials and imported goods.
There was the 'Spice Building', which originally traded in hay from the surrounding countryside, then spices, the scent of which was present in the air up to the mid 1990's. There was a three storey horse parking stable, traces of the ramps still visible on external brickwork. There was a building for the manure trade - which collected the manure from the streets to send out to the country. There was a brickworks which used the clay excavated from the canal, and a building materials warehouse, still trading.
At the Battlebridge basin there was an Ice warehouse with two large deep holes to store ice from Norway. Horses were also stored upstairs from the ice. Not sure on the logic behind that. Currently the canal museum.
The Regents Canal was built to connect the Docks at Limehouse with the Grand Union Canal at Paddington Basin, which linked to the nationwide canal network. The industrial revolution hinged on the canal system. The canals were the linear link of the factories to the ports. The canals supplied materials for construction of the developing railway system, which in turn made the canal redundant, the technology of the canal working towards its own obsolescence.
Another site to note, a site of industry and female activism alongside the canal: the Bryant and May match factory in Bow, and the match-girls strike of 1888. Now the Bow Quarter, a gated community.
'Crystallization' is an ongoing process, another element is added and the formation changes. The path of the canal is no longer representative of a commercial trade & transportation route, but has become a desirable path of habitation... artists studios (as those found in the urban wasteland of Hackney Wick), and speculative apartment development.
Forgive me, Bernard, for the random mixing of careful fact with whimsical spacial analogy, and any mistranslations, later posts may reveal why and whether this leads anywhere or not.
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