BW157/7
West London Extension Railway (Kensington Canal)
Date
1865-1946
Reference code
BW157/7
Administrative / Biographical history
The promoters of the Kensington Canal wanted a short canal from Olympia to Chelsea Creek on the Thames at Chelsea following the course of the lower 1 ¾ miles of natural stream. It was authorised in 1824. It was a tidal navigation up until the lock at the entrance to the 200 feet by 400 feet Warwick Road basin. Due to the action on the tide, it was later decided to build the canal wider and make the slope of the sides greater. This necessitated the raising of more money and required another Act, passed in 1826.
It took four years to build, opening in August 1828, but was not very successful. Traffic was described as 'trifling'. In 1836, the Kensington Company sold the canal to the Bristol, Birmingham & Thames Junction Railway, which renamed itself in 1839 as the West London Railway. The original company wound up in 1846 and the canal transferred in 1859 to the West London Extension Railway. The West London Extension Railway Company had as subscribers the Great Western Railway (GWR) and the London & North Western Railway (LNWR), who each gave a third of its £300,000 capital, and the South Western Railway and the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway each subscribed a sixth. This technically meant the West London Extension Railway was jointly leased by the GWR and LNWR. The canal was filled in.
For further information see Edward Paget-Tomlinson's The Illustrated History of Canals & River Navigations and Charles Hadfield's The Canals of The East Midlands.
System of arrangement
It has not been possible to ascertain any original structure of record-keeping from the small number of records held for this company. The fonds has therefore been arranged in chronological order. The records have been placed with the Great Western Railway rather than the LNWR or West London Extension Railway Company.