Derek Pratt

Discover the beauty and delights of London's waterways, on foot or by boat, with Derek Pratt and Richard Mayon-White's fascinating and thorough guide. To really explore London’s canals is to see the city in a way you’ve never seen it before. A different world, away from the hustle-bustle of overladen streets and towering skyscrapers, the waterways offer a unique paradise, full of wildlife, brightly coloured narrowboats, lush greenery and an environment steeped in history. Discovering London’s Canals will open your eyes to this world and show you all it has to offer, walking with you along the vast stretches of each canal, pointing out the many sights to see and enjoy, pubs to quench your thirst in and history to marvel at. Enjoy whole days out with family and friends, or just an hour or two, choosing a stretch of canal and discovering so many sights and attractions either on or within a short walk from the water’s edge. With information boxes, travel directions, clear maps and beautiful photography, along with insightful travel writing from the kings of the waterways, Derek Pratt and Richard Mayon-White, Discovering London’s Canals is the perfect guide for anyone who loves walking, wildlife and the waterways of the great city of London. The book covers more than 60 miles of waterways in London, easy to get to and walkable for just an hour, an afternoon or a whole day, and each route is great for walking, running or cycling, with many traversable at any time of year. Go out there and see for yourself – there is a wonderful network of waterways just waiting to be explored in parts of London you hardly knew existed.

Britain's Canals is a charming and insightful exploration into the amazing architecture and engineering wonders that surround Britain’s inland waterways – from the awe-inspiring 30-lock flight on the Worcester and Birmingham Canal, to the delightful chocolate-box lock-keepers’ cottages that line the cut of every canal, to masterpieces such as the 18-arch Pontcysyllte aqueduct, the highest aqueduct in the world, to beautiful bridges, grand company buildings, the social hubs that were, and still are, canal-side pubs, plus so much more. In contrast to many inland waterways books which are organised geographically by canal, Britain's Canals is structured thematically, with chapters covering the line (the shape of the canal), locks and lock cottages, bridges, aqueducts, lifts and planes, company buildings, wharves, basins and quays and finally the canal-side pub. Each chapter explores how these features were created and have changed through history, right through to the present, with plenty of ideas for places to visit – plus full information on how to get to them. An abundance of full-colour photography throughout, both historical and modern-day, will delight readers and inspire them to explore Britain’s wondrous inland waterways, whether on boat, by foot or by bike. In Britain's Canals, two inland waterways experts and admired authors come together to produce the definitive word on the man-made wonders that make Britain’s canals so special, so loved and enjoyed by so many.

Our appreciation of the network of canals through Britain is greatly enhanced by the structures that dot their course bridges, locks, tunnels, aqueducts, cottages, pubs and workshops. This book looks at the variety of structures that made the canals work in their commercial heyday.

Competition from rail and later road forced many canals into closure, and a large section of the old system seemed doomed to crumble away into terminal decay. Then came a new industry: the canal leisure industry, and with it the birth of the restoration movement. This final volume in the Anatomy of Canals series looks at what has been achieved and how the new compares with the old. Cities such as Brimingham have now been won over and have made the old canals part of a lively rejuvenation programme, while a new generation of engineers has produced such marvels as the Falkirk Wheel.

The story of Britain's canals reads like a history of the Industrial Revolution. It was the growth of canals in the late eighteenth century that made possible and, in fact, created the need for many of the technological advances of the time. The legacy they have left is used my millions every day for leisure pursuits, for fishing, for walking the dog and for the obvious use of boating. This book helps to describe what can be seen today and to relate this to the history and technology of the period. Covering the canals of England and Wales this is the best companion to our waterways heritage.

Beginning in the late 18th century, the author conveys the original character of the waterways of England and traces their development. The new engineering techniques of the time are also considered. Coupled with the photography of Derek Pratt, this is a fascinating record of canals as they were and as they are today.