Pub Walk - Islington Tunnel to St. Pancras WALKING TIPS walk time 25-35 minutes Walking times are approx, distance 1.2km / ¾ mile measured on an average pace of two miles an hour.

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A5203 start l Kings Cross St Pancras International The Walk - Step by Step

Grain stores, coal yards, gas holders, steam engines and ducks all tell their own story along this friendly towpath walk. With human possibility at every viewpoint, ingeniously repurposed buildings sit under a backdrop of cranes. This amble makes it easy to be part of the best of urban life by waterside... Granary Square pulses with places to sit for everyone, on deckchairs, wall seating, grass... life genuinely feels better by water here. Whether it’s a busy day or not, the route is full of the life and beauty of the past and the future, seamlessly bouncing in the bubble of the moment. Your walk ends at Islington Tunnel where darkness within only holds its secrets for boaters.

Join the canal towpath by the entrance to Islington Tunnel. Eastern Coal Drops are Grade II-listed and, after many years The tunnel took three years of hard toil by navvies before as a central hub for London’s club scene, are now beautifully START opening in 1818. The entire tunnel and the portals at both ends repurposed for today’s leisure time. are Grade II-listed. St Pancras International Station, home to Eurostar, opened in CANAL: Regent’s Canal 1 A short detour onto Caledonian Road leads to the London 1868 and is a wonder of Victorian engineering. The platform Canal Museum, overlooking . It is housed in deck was raised on a grid of 688 cast-iron columns to allow START: Islington Tunnel a former ice house built in 1862-3 for famous ice-cream steam engines to pass over Regent’s Canal just to the north. OS Grid ref: TQ306834 Postcode: N1 9RE maker, Carlo Gatti. Long before refrigeration was invented, The Arcade underneath was originally designed and used to Britain needed ice to keep food fresh, drinks chilled and store beer produced by brewers from Burton upon Trent. FINISH: Gasholder Park medicines cold. Ice arrived on large ships from Norway and Threatened with demolition, a campaign headed by Sir John OS Grid ref: TQ298836 Postcode: NW1 0PF was carried by canal boat into London. Two vast ice wells Betjeman resulted in the station’s Grade I listing in 1967. under the museum’s floor once stored Norwegian ice. DISTANCE: 1.2km / ¾mile 5 On the opposite bank, Camley Street Natural Park is a nature (double if walk back to start) 2 Just along the towpath, Battlebridge Basin sits on the reserve created from reclaimed derelict land in 1985. Its opposite side from the towpath. It was built around 1823 and meadow, marsh, woodland and pond now provide a welcome APPROX TIME: 25-35 minutes is overlooked by the . Kings Place, on home for nature, wildlife and birds. The uplifting scene of St the right-hand corner, is a hub for art and music, and home to Pancras Lock greets you as you walk up the slope over a PUB: The Lighterman canalside at Granary the Guardian newspaper. former entrance bridge. The Grade II-listed lock-keeper’s Square, plenty of other choice in Coal Drops cottage was designed in 1898 as a pumping station, but Yard and Granary Square 3 Beyond Maiden Lane Bridge, Granary Square is a hive of converted for residential use in 1926. Behind the cottage, the activity and relaxation. The steps leading from the canal Steam Locomotive Water Point, also listed, was moved here in PARKING: Car park near Gasholder Park towpath are the perfect spot to sit and watch the world go by 2001 during the construction of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link. Postcode: N1C 4BA and are even carpeted in green during the summer. Children It was built around 1870 to provide water to steam trains TRAIN/BUS: Nearest train/Underground play in over 1,000 choreographed fountains outside the Grade departing St Pancras Station. stations – St Pancras & King’s Cross II-listed Granary. Designed to store up to 60,000 sacks of National Rail Enquiries grain, the Granary is now home to world-renowned art END The walk ends in Gasholder Park, opposite St Pancras Basin. Tel: 03457 484950 www.nationalrail.co.uk college, . It originally had two canal arms With its moored boats, there is a good opportunity to sit and Transport for London directly under the building, long filled in, but look out for watch boating activities. The Grade II-listed gasholder no.8 Tel: 0343 222 1234 www.tfl.gov.uk evidence of historic rail tracks. was once the largest of a group used by the Imperial Gas Light and Coke Company to store gas. in 1883, its guide frame 4 Coal Drops Yard was part of a system bringing coal to London was the last to John Clark’s design. In 2014 its fragile frame from Yorkshire and North East, one of the most vital was dismantled, restored and moved to its current position - commodities of the time. Trains would unload at upper level, with spectacular repurpose it now houses a lush green lawn dropping coal through to be sorted and graded then bagged for sunny day picnics. After spending time here, follow at yard level for distribution. Dating from the mid-1850s, the the towpath back for a new perspective. canalrivertrust.org.uk