IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Dane Road, SOUTHALL, UB1 2EE

Houseboats come in almost an infinite variety of shapes and sizes, but this one certainly looks more house than boat. With the increasing pressure there is for housing in the London area, possibly we shall see much more of this type of 'floating house' in the future.

These are long term residential moorings and a glance at the current satellite imagery suggests that most of these craft were in the same positions several years ago.

The Paddington Arm of the then Grand Junction Canal was opened in 1801 from Bull's Bridge near Southall to Paddington Basin. The canals were initially a success, particularly for transporting coal, building materials and other bulky loads, but the rise of the railways not long after the canals were built substantially reduced their importance. Now they are primarily a leisure facility. The Paddington Arm was one of the last to see the old-fashioned style of regular commercial traffic of paired narrow boats carrying the traditional materials such as coal, oils, and tar. The Paddington Arm now sees regular commercial traffic, usually in the form of aggregates. The canal is seen here from Spikes Bridge which carries the Dog Rose Ramble and Hillingdon Trail over it.

These moorings are near Southall, but are just in the London Borough of Hillingdon. The permanent moorings have water and electricity connections. There are narrowboats and some larger canal boats.