The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
See a different city on a slow boat through London
Paul Miles gets a fresh perspective aboard the only holiday narrowboat that is licensed to cruise the tidal Thames
Cruising through a city by river lends a new perspective. From a small boat low in the water, gleaming towers seem taller. Rather than being anonymous amid its streets, you are gliding along a sparkling waterway, welcomed by strangers waving from bridges. Sailing beneath the central arch of Tower Bridge is an unforgettable way to enter London.
There are countless tourist boats plying the Thames on which you can sit with dozens of others, but if you wish to experience something more personal, with tea and freshly baked cakes provided while you cruise (and dinner and bed at the end of the day), then you might want to consider a hotel narrowboat.
Since 2015, when a hired narrowboat and its occupants had to be rescued by a lifeboat, the Port of London Authority has banned all such vessels from the tidal Thames between Limehouse Basin and Brentford. The only holiday narrowboat of any kind licensed to cruise this stretch is the fivestar, wide-beam hotel narrowboat Kailani, owned by skipper Gordon and multitasking cook and first mate Dorenda.
A fine boat it is too. One of my fellow passengers was a man in his eighties who has been on more than 40 narrowboat trips in his lifetime, having first hired one for a holiday back in 1949.
“Kailani is the most luxurious of the lot,” he said authoritatively, mainly because of the amount of space available per passenger. Kailani is 12ft wide and 65ft long with two en suite guest cabins sleeping a maximum of four passengers.
On a sunny morning, with Gordon and Dorenda, Matt (our “Local Knowledge Expert”) and three other passengers, we donned regulation life-jackets and set off from Limehouse Basin in east London. In the 19th century, when it was known as Regent’s Canal Dock, this was packed with barges transferring cargo between the Thames and the canals.
What would those bargees think of us now? Cruising the waterways for pleasure! In 200 years, will holidaymakers pay to motor around the M25 in lorries, savouring life at 70mph?
We were on day three of a fourday “London Ring” trip from Little Venice, down the Regent’s Canal to Limehouse Basin, along the Thames to Brentford and back to Little Venice by canal. Kailani had already cruised southeastwards through London on the canal, past the zoo in Regent’s Park and through Camden Town, and now we were cruising westwards by river.
We left Limehouse lock on an incoming tide. The first bridge we passed under was Tower Bridge, an impressive start. Next we cruised past HMS Belfast and the Tate Modern, and as we approached Westminster, the river was busy with boats. “There’s more traffic on the Thames than there used to be,” said Matt as I joined him and Gordon on the back deck: river buses, tourist boats and barges carrying building materials and containers churned past.
“This river’s not for the fainthearted,” said Gordon at the tiller, being directed by Matt as to which arch to take under Lambeth Bridge, while an enormous barge towing some kind of crane contraption made a turn. It’s no surprise that holiday hire boats, which can be steered by anyone with no licence required, have been banned from this busy stretch.
The best place from which to enjoy the sights was seated on deck in the bows, with no engine noise and any city sounds, such as the odd wail of a siren, shushed by the bow moving through the water.
We were lucky with the weather and there was no wind. Waves mostly came from pedestrians on bridges, although a passing police launch rocked us on its swell.
Guessing bridge names became our new game. We were self-guided when it came to sightseeing, referring to guidebooks. After Putney Bridge, the river wears a different outfit, disrobed of high buildings and lined by trees and rowing clubs. Herons nest in willows near Brentford Lock where, three hours after leaving Limehouse, we entered with the help of a lock-keeper.
We had cruised just 15 miles with nothing to do but drink it all in. Now, back on the canal system, we stopped for a light lunch then cruised off into the sunset on the Grand Union Canal, helping with six locks on the Hanwell flight before mooring up for the night.
The following Kailani cruises include a stretch of the tidal Thames: September 10-16, Kingston to Kingston, six nights from £895 per person sharing a twin cabin, including all meals and wine with dinner. April 23-27 2017, Little Venice to Little Venice, four nights from £675 per person sharing (07447 051558; hotelboatkailani.com).
Cruise the Stratford Canal through the busy basin on to the River Avon, where you can moor in parkland opposite the church where Shakespeare is buried, as swans sail by and hire-boat day-trippers row past.
valleycruises.co.uk; 02476 393333
Birmingham There are more canals in Brum than in Venice. They’re not as picturesque but cruising through Gas Street Basin, the city’s watery heart, with restaurants and bars alongside historic waterways buildings, is quite something.
rose-narrowboats. co.uk; 01788 832449
Manchester Former mills converted to swanky apartments, office blocks and bars border the canal on its way through Manchester to Castlefield Basin (below). Trains trundle over Victorian bridges while a gravity-defying skyscraper towers in the background.
starnarrowboatholidays. co.uk; 07944 404227