Plaque: Islington Tunnel - east - new
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.
