Latest news with #canals
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Daily Mail
Boater by Jo Bell: I sold my home to buy a narrowboat
Boater by Jo Bell (HarperNorth £16.99, 304pp) What should you do if you feel overwhelmed by all that clutter in your house? For archaeologist Jo Bell the answer was simple: get rid of almost all your possessions and move to somewhere that is just 7ft wide and 65ft long, where you can 'stay in motion but always be at home'. In short, get a narrowboat. After working on a project to conserve a collection of canal boats, and spending time living on boats, she began to feel 'encumbered' by her tiny cottage near the Stratford canal. 'I didn't have much, but it felt too much,' she writes. Bell decided to sell the house and buy a narrowboat instead. Narrowboats, designed to navigate locks and canals, are skinnier than barges. To confuse narrowboats and barges 'is like mistaking a whippet for a St Bernard', Bell says sternly. People who travel on narrowboats are called boaters, not sailors, and saying 'river' instead of 'canal' is a terrible solecism. Bell regards Britain's canals – most of which are no more than 5ft deep – as 'one of the great achievements of human endeavour… more precious than Stonehenge'. In the 18th century, as rutted roads made transporting goods cumbersome, the idea of a network of canals became increasingly attractive. Privately funded canals linking rivers such as the Trent, Mersey, Thames and Humber were built in a decade. The sturdy green and red boat that was to be Bell's new home was named Tinker. She rather skates over the bathroom arrangements but says that, contrary to popular belief, narrowboats aren't freezing cold in winter. If anything, the small space tends to get overheated thanks to a log-burning stove. Her early months as a boater were full of trial and error, but gradually she got more confident, even mastering the knack of hovering mid-channel with perfect control while waiting for a lock to open. (The double mitre canal lock, still in use today, which uses the force of water to keep the gates sealed, is one of the great Leonardo da Vinci's inventions.) She makes life on a boat sound a tremendous adventure. Light raindrops on the roof sound like grains of rice rattling on a tin tray. Friends with babies love visiting as the rocking of the boat sends the most fractious child to sleep. The canal network, Bell writes, is a magical place, 'a parallel country with its own landmarks and place names'. After 12 years she reluctantly replaced Tinker with a new boat, called Stoic. It seems Bell will never give up life on water, where she and her fellow boaters travel at three miles an hour and 'navigate by different stars'.
South China Morning Post
5 days ago
- South China Morning Post
Discover Amsterdam's hidden gems away from the tourist crowds, from Nieuw-West to Bijlmer
Amsterdam is suffering from overtourism. Calculations suggest that 12 people visit per year for every local resident. Nevertheless, there are intriguing areas away from the main sightseeing spots that hardly any tourists stray into, and which often represent something far closer to the everyday lives of Amsterdammers. One easy tip to avoid the crowds is to set your alarm for 5am – preferably on a Sunday. This way, you can have Amsterdam 's canals all to yourself. The traffic is not yet roaring, the city is quiet and the gables of the houses are reflected in the canals' undisturbed water. Those wanting to enjoy Amsterdam's brick facades in peace without getting up early can head to Rivierenbuurt. The neighbourhood, near the Amsterdam RAI exhibition centre, features buildings in the Amsterdam School architectural style from the 1920s and '30s. Amsterdam's houses on the canals are popular with sightseers, but it is possible to see them in peace if you get up early.
The Independent
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Woman reveals ‘extreme highs and lows' of swapping London rent for a narrowboat
A 33-year-old writer from Middlesbrough found "freedom" after trading London rent for life on a narrowboat, despite facing challenges like an exploding engine and a boat fire. Kyrie Morris purchased a £21,000 narrowboat in April 2022 using inheritance money, escaping the £1,600 monthly costs of London living. Initially, the boat lacked basic amenities like running water and electricity, resembling a "floating shed." However, Morris gradually transformed it, adding a kitchen cupboard, toilet, and a fold-down sofa bed. Accompanied by her Labrador, Snoop, she spent 15 months navigating London's canals while working as a bartender and completing her Master's degree. In July 2023, following the sudden death of a close friend and a failed attempt to get on Big Brother, she set off on a 357-mile journey to Leeds – but, upon arrival, her engine blew up, forcing her to stay put, and her boat later caught fire. Since moving onto the boat, Kyrie has spent around £12,000 on renovations and now spends around £800 a month, sharing her journey with 19,500 followers on TikTok under the handle @canalboatkiz. 'I would describe it as you get these extreme lows, but the highs are extreme as well and there's a feeling of freedom and adrenaline I've never personally found anywhere else, and I absolutely love it,' she said. While studying for a Master's degree in International Music Marketing in London, Kyrie was working at The Blues Kitchen in Camden to help make ends meet and make music industry connections. Her rent and bills for her one-bed flat in London came to £1,300 a month. She would often sit by the canals and think, 'Wow, what a life', and gradually began looking into the canal boat lifestyle. When it came time to renew her tenancy, Kyrie knew she wanted to stay in London, but without paying so much, living with others, or giving up a place that accepted dogs. At the end of her Master's, her granddad passed away, and her grandmother gave her some money. Kyrie used it to buy the cheapest boat she could find on Facebook Marketplace for £21,000 and moved in April 2022. Her family were very supportive of her decision, as she has always made 'mad decisions'. When she first bought the boat, it was like a 'floating shed', with no running water, toilet, or electricity. She had a gym membership to shower, charged her phone at work, and when she got home, had to wear a head torch and light a fire. Over time, she got solar panels connected to 12-volt batteries for electricity, a diesel heater for hot water and a cassette toilet she empties manually. Until recently, she didn't have a fridge and lived off a lot of tinned food, warmed on a gas camping stove. She said: 'I've got floors and nice painted walls and the rest of it, but I have one kitchen cupboard that I'm living out of. 'And bit by bit, I'm rebuilding the kitchen at the back. 'In the next month or two, the bathroom is going to get moved around. 'So the inside is, at the moment, very, very basic – I sleep on a sofa bed that I fold down.' Kyrie now spends about £800 a month on essentials, such as her canal licence, insurance and food, compared to the £1,600 she used to spend in London on bills, rent and food. She lived on the boat in London for 15 months, cruising canals like Regent's Canal and the Grand Union Canal, but then felt a sudden need to change things up. 'One of my best friends passed away really unexpectedly and I'd also applied for Big Brother at the time and got far through the audition process but did not get accepted onto the show,' Kyrie explained. 'I needed something different, so I decided to leave my job and wrap everything up.' So, in July 2023, she set off on a 357-mile journey from London to Leeds, which took seven weeks, travelling through Oxford, Coventry, Birmingham, Stoke-on-Trent and Lancashire. She planned to settle in Leeds for a few months and make progress with her music and freelance writing. But when she arrived, in September 2023, her engine blew up, and she had to stay moored in a marina while searching for a 'reliable engineer'. After finally finding an engineer, her boat was towed to a boatyard in Goole in October 2024. Both she and her boat have remained in Goole since while repairs are carried out, including the installation of a new engine, a new propeller, and work on the bottom of the boat. In January 2025, the boat even caught fire after she accidentally knocked over a candle, which made her curtain go up in flames. 'Within 30 seconds, the whole side of my boat was on fire,' Kyrie added. 'I got the dog off and… I used the first extinguisher, the whole wall was engulfed at this stage. 'I thought, 'This is it'. 'I got the second fire extinguisher, then that ran out, and…I just thought, 'I can't give up'. 'I got one last extinguisher, and then I started throwing buckets of canal water over it, and I managed to get it out.' A passerby called 999, but by the time the fire service arrived, the blaze was already out. A third of the boat was damaged – the ceiling needed replacing, and all the woodwork and paint had to be redone. Fortunately, the fire did not hit the electricity, and she did not lose anything valuable. She said: 'I came out thanking my lucky stars… it messed me up for a little while – when I saw the flames on my stove, my heart started to go. 'I think it must be some kind of PTSD but over time, that's worn away, and I'm alright again now, but I've just got a new mentality about candles. 'I just don't bother with them and if I go to someone's house and they have candles, I'll secretly blow them all out.' Since owning the boat, she has spent about £12,000 on renovations. She has been documenting her progress on TikTok, under the handle @canalboatkiz, since March 2024. 'I was in a bad place at the time – it was around the time my engine broke and I was grieving and I was just stagnant,' Kyrie explained. 'So I started posting to get me to reach my goals with storytelling and using my skills and give me an audience.' She now has 19,500 followers, with a video about her journey to Leeds receiving more than one million views. Looking ahead, Kyrie plans to continue living on the boat and exploring the UK for the foreseeable future.
The Guardian
18-05-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Cuts to England's canal network could put lives at risk, experts say
Lives may be at risk if ministers proceed with cuts to England's languishing canal network, experts have said. The climate crisis and a lack of funding means ageing assets could flood entire towns and villages, an investigation for the parliamentary magazine the House has found. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), which provides a quarter of funding for the Canal and River Trust (CRT), is understood to be facing cuts at the June spending review. Government funding cuts of hundreds of millions of pounds to the CRT, which manages most of the UK's inland waterways, are already in the pipeline. This puts the future of the waterways, already underfunded, at risk. When they are properly looked after and restored, they can provide immense benefits for people and nature, supporting otters, kingfishers and dragonflies as well as barge users and walkers. A 2019 report, Waterways in Progress, published by the Inland Waterways Association (IWA), memorably describes Britain's canals as 'a linear national park'. The charity's 2023-24 annual report emphasised the 'continued effect of climate change taking its toll on our ageing canal infrastructure,' reflecting on how 'following prolonged hot dry weather the summer before, a succession of winter storms caused significant damage, with an aggregated impact of £9m in emergency works'. CRT is facing serious financial pressure. The report shows a shortfall in funding, with an income of £237,300,000, but a total expenditure of £252,400,000. The CRT does not only look after canals themselves, but weirs and reservoirs. There have already been problems with its ageing infrastructure; in Derbyshire in 2019 a dam at the Toddbrook reservoir nearly burst, leading to the town of Whaley Bridge being evacuated. About 1,500 people were instructed to leave their homes immediately after heavy rain caused a large section of a nearby dam spillway at the reservoir to fall away. Emergency crews pumped water away from the reservoir and sandbags were dropped from RAF helicopters. A worst-case scenario predicted that the whole structure could collapse, wiping out the town. Charlie Norman, the director of campaigns and public affairs at the Inland Waterways Association, told the House: 'It is quite terrifying how that incident could have ended: the sheer volumes of water contained in the reservoir presented an immediate danger to life. Our internal research suggests the volume of water was comparable to 551 Olympic pools, or equivalent to the daily water consumption of 8.6 million people. That volume of water is unimaginably powerful.' For the first time, the IWA has warned about the risk to life that can come from a lack of maintenance of canals: 'It is not an overstatement to marvel that so far there has been no loss of life – ageing infrastructure is expensive to maintain without anything going wrong, and that's the point: investment now will save money in the near and distant future … When adding up the costs, we should be thankful that those costs for the moment don't include loss of life'. Richard Parry, the chief executive of the Canal and River Trust, said without a funding solution, the canals could eventually dry up due to the climate crisis, and this poses safety issues too. He added: 'Who knows what the impact of that would be? I mean, our fear is not just the ecology would be irrevocably harmed, but you probably also get canal walls drying up and collapsing, there's the safety aspect too.' A Defra spokesperson said: 'Our canals provide a wide range of benefits, such as connecting people to nature. That is why we are providing more than £500m of grant funding to the Canal and River Trust between now and 2037.'
The Sun
17-05-2025
- The Sun
Lesser-known Dutch city nicknamed 'Little Amsterdam' that's cheaper and less crowded but just as cool
CYCLES with baskets on the front trundle over bridges as gabled buildings are reflected in the calm canal waters. If I didn't know any better, I'd think this was Amsterdam — but I'm a 20-minute train journey away from the Dutch capital, in a lesser-known city called Weesp. 6 6 Nicknamed Little Amsterdam, Weesp is a dead-ringer for its famous neighbour but its streets are less crowded, and the prices are cheaper. A coffee at the canal-view Cafe Toeters En Bellen, for example, sets me back €3 (compared with the average €4 in The Dam). It's not just the canals, bridges, bikers and 17th-century buildings that Weesp has in common with Amsterdam, either. The city sees the capital's Heineken Experience brewery — and raises it with the Wispe Brouwerij. Set inside a restored 19th-century church, with a sky-skewering clock tower and steeple, this independent brewery is packed with locals day and night. As with the Heineken attraction, visitors can take guided tours — which also take in the area where they distil jenever, The Netherlands' answer to gin. The cost of a combined tour and tasting is €15 in Weesp, compared to €24.95 in Amsterdam. Yet I find it just as rewarding to station myself at a table in their Grand Cafe and let Weesper life unfold around me. Almond pastries Surrounded by tables of friends sharing beer flights, and families with kids scribbling in colouring books, I savour a glass of spicy mango beer and munch on a plate of bitterballen — a pillowy mix of roux and slow-cooked stew that's served in a crunchy coating, like Holland's answer to the French croquette. And there's one thing the Wispe Brewery offers that you won't find at Heineken — accommodation. Top 5 Boat Destinations from the UK Dozens of metres above the taproom, in a part of the church tower that used to be occupied by three giant clocks and church bells, there's a luxury suite. All exposed-stone walls, arched windows, chandeliers, crucifixes and linen whiter than a nun's habit, it features a free-standing bath and delivers 360-degree views of the city. It comes at a price, though — a night's stay costs from £440, so it's quite a splurge. For more affordable places to lay your head, the Hotel Het Hart van Weesp is in the centre of town, overlooking the canals and just a seven-minute walk from the station. Just like Amsterdam, Weesp has an impressive foodie scene. It is sprinkled with independent bakeries, pizzerias and restaurants as well as coffee shops. Bobby's Blue has a menu that changes weekly — inspired by the world's Blue Zones, areas of the world where people live measurably happier and longer lives. I find a spot next to a sash window one lunchtime and, over a plate of homemade lasagne and a tumbler of zingy white wine, spend a contented hour watching the city's cyclists. I'm amazed at what they carry in bike baskets, from potted plants to their toddlers. Over at Bocconcino de Rimin, visitors pay a set price (€33.50 Wednesday to Thursday and €35.50 Friday to Sunday) for an unlimited number of Italian and Mediterranean tapas dishes, with the only proviso that you can order just two at a time. If you taste only one thing in Weesp, though, it should be the city's signature Weespermoppen. 6 6 These bite-sized pastries, made from almond paste, egg yolk and sugar, are on sale at Patisserie en Chocolaterie Hendriks in the town centre — alongside multicoloured macaroons and whipped cream truffles. For Weespermoppen with a kick, though, visitors should head back to Wispe Brouwerij where they make Weespermoppen liqueur and mix it with the likes of lemon juice and Angostura bitters to create craft cocktails. On the topic of cocktails, Weesp can party like its more celebrated counterpart, too. On weekends, in bars like De Heksenketal (aka The Witches Cauldron) and Toeters En Bellen, the dancefloors start to fill up by 9.30pm, with locals boogying their proverbial clogs off to a soundtrack of Europop, dance and throwbacks, until late. Of course, visitors comparing Weesp to Amsterdam may notice a lack of street art and the absence of a flower market. Yet the city is home to one of the greatest icons of the Netherlands — a windmill. Open to the public on Saturdays, its sails can be seen spinning just by the WSV Vecht marina, a ten-minute walk from the city centre. You don't have to go far to spot a wheel of Dutch cheese in Weesp, either. At Alexanderhoeve, in the city centre, shelves bow beneath satellite dish-sized orbs of gouda, edam and borenkaas — a semi-hard, tangy variety that's known as 'farmers' cheese'. Amsterdam has recently been accused of being the most anti-tourist city in Europe. In Weesp, however, the locals are warmly welcoming and chatty. During my visit, a few are surprised to hear an English voice. Once the cat is out of the bag about this Dutch secret, however, I suspect British accents won't be uncommon for much longer. 6
