Busy footbridge to close for £533k repair project
WORK will start in Januaryona10-week repair project at one of the busiest canal footbridges on the network.
TheGrade II Listed Interchange Basin Towpath Bridge on the Regent’s Canal in Camden has more than one million walking and cycling visits per year.
Built in 1846, the historic bridge known locally as Dead DogBridge is an important local landmark carrying the Regent’s Canal towpath across the canal basin beneath the Camden Interchange Warehouse, nicknamed ‘ Dead Dog Tunnel’.
The £533,000 project by the Canal & River Trust has been enabled by an award fromPostcodeEarth Trust thanks to funds raised by players of People’s Postcode Lottery.
CRT London & South East regional director Ros Daniels referred to the bridge as a key route: “Now more than 175 years old, the bridge’s striking wrought iron lattice parapets will be lovingly restored. With consent from the London Borough of Camden’s conservation team, our engineers will work with specialist contractors to carefully repair, clean and repaint the bridge’s historic parapets and repoint the abutments on site.”
Work is due to begin mid-Januaryand to be completed by the end of March 2023 and will include: repairs to the bridge’s wrought iron lattice parapets; cleaning of the underlying cast iron beams; and cleaning and repointing the abutments and approach parapets.
The bridge will be closed throughout the project, and towpath diversion routes will be in place. The canal will remain open for boats to navigate.
Built by the London& North Western Railway (LNWR), the massive Grade II Listed redbrick InterchangeWarehouse in Camden was designed to bring together canal, rail and road transport in one covered building, with three layers of storage.
The entrance to the Interchange Dock became known as Dead Dog Tunnel because, historically, debris – including dead animals –accumulated here at the end of the 26-mile lockfree stretch of the canal flowing into central London. Dead Dog Tunnel has featured inanumber offilms, including the 2015 Bond film Spectre, where it was used as a double for Q’s top secret underground workshop.
Today, the Interchange Building is a co-working office space. Using the Interchange Dock, iRecycle transports waste fromthe InterchangeBuilding by barge to the Powerday recycling centre in West London.