Plaque

Islington Tunnel - east - new

Inscription

Through the heart of Angel
Rather than building a flight of locks to climb the hill at Angel the Regent's Canal Company held a competition to design a tunnel.

The entries were disappointing, so the chief engineer James Morgan ended up designing this tunnel himself. It took three years to build, from 1815 to 1818 and was dug by a band of navvies using explosives, wheelbarrows, horses and sheer physical strength.
The Regent's Canal - Canal & River Trust

We note that the plaque, twice refers to 'Angel', not 'the Angel', and realise that we are not sure which usage is correct.

Site: Islington Tunnel - east (2 memorials)

N1, Grand Union Canal near Colebrooke Row

2019: we found the new plaque had replaced the old. Oddly, there is a second, identical, plaque placed on the east side of the nearby Danbury Street bridge. We haven't been to check but suspect that the plaque at the west end of the Islington Tunnel has also been replaced. Possibly all those erected by British Waterways London have been replaced with Canal & River Trust plaques, as part of a re-branding exercise.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
Islington Tunnel - east - new

Subjects commemorated i

Islington Tunnel

960 yards (878 metres) long, designed by James Morgan, built over the three y...

Read More

Regent's Canal Company

Created following the passing of the Regent's Canal Bill in July 1812, to cut...

Read More

James Morgan

Probably born in Carmarthen, south Wales. Architect and engineer. Employed by...

Read More

This section lists the subjects who helped to create/erect the memorial on this page:
Islington Tunnel - east - new

Created by i

Canal & River Trust

From their website: "We're the charity who look after and bring to life 2,000...

Read More

This section lists the other memorials at the same location as the memorial on this page:
Islington Tunnel - east - new

Also at this site i

Islington Tunnel - east - lost

Islington Tunnel - east - lost

Two points about the wording on this plaque. 'Navies' were the men who built...

Read More

Nearby Memorials

Phillis Wheatley

Phillis Wheatley

EC3, Aldgate High Street, 9, Dorsett City Hotel

This modern hotel is on the site of A. Bell's 18th century book business, publishing and selling books.

2 subjects commemorated, 4 creators
Dickens at Cobley Farm

Dickens at Cobley Farm

N12, Queen's Avenue, 70

Returned from his first trip to America Dickens spent some time here in 1842-3, and wrote Martin Chuzzlewit, based partly on his time in ...

5 subjects commemorated
Mark Twain - SW3

Mark Twain - SW3

SW3, Tedworth Square, 23

London County Council Samuel L. Clemens "Mark Twain", 1835 - 1910, American writer, lived here in 1896 - 7.

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Meiklejohn

Meiklejohn

SW7, South Carriage Drive, Hyde Park Barracks

Not related to the Meiklejohn story at all: the Model Villager has a great post about how the horse dung was (possibly still is) removed ...

1 subject commemorated
Sir Jacob Epstein - SW7

Sir Jacob Epstein - SW7

SW7, Hyde Park Gate, 18

The house of Sir Jacob Epstein, sculptor, lived and died here, 1929-1959.

1 subject commemorated