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The Kensington Canal was a canal, about two miles long, opened in 1828 in London from the River Thames at Chelsea, along the line of Counter's Creek, to a basin near Warwick Road in Kensington. It had one lock near the Kensington Basin. It was not commercially successful, and was purchased by a railway company, which laid its line along the route of the canal. ==Origins== Counter's Creek was a minor tributary of the Thames running south from Kensal Green to join the main river west of Battersea Bridge. Lord Kensington, William Edwardes, seeing the success of the Regent's Canal, asked his surveyor William Cutbush in 1822 to draw up plans to convert the creek into a canal, with the object of bringing goods and minerals from the London docks to the Kensington area, then a rural district isolated from London. After some modifications, Cutbush's plan obtained Parliamentary sanction in 1824, and the Kensington Canal Company was incorporated in that year. William Edwardes and a group of his friends were the proprietors; the cost of construction had been estimated as £7,969.〔Deposited plans, House of Lords Records Office, quoted in British History Online〕 The share capital of the company was £10,000 in one hundred shares of £100 each,〔The excess of capital over the construction cost was presumably for any necessary land acquisition and for "working capital", the purchase of ancillary equipment, etc〕 and they had powers to raise an additional £5,000 if necessary. However this was a gross under-estimate, and John Rennie estimated that more than £34,000 would be needed to complete the work properly, including the rebuilding of Stamford Bridge.〔Deposited plans for the Kensington Canal, House of Lords Records Office, quoted in British History Online〕 Rennie's nominee, Thomas Hollinsworth, was brought in as surveyor to the Canal Company.〔British History Online, ''The Kensington Canal, railways and related developments'', The Institute of Historical Research and the History of Parliament Trust, online at ()〕 In May 1826 the Company obtained powers by another Act to raise a further £30,000. Notwithstanding this quadrupling of the anticipated cost of construction, the proprietors still entertained the notion of extending the canal northward to connect with the Grand Junction Canal at Paddington, involving eleven locks, was still under consideration.〔 The successful tenderer appears to have been Robert Tuck, probably in partnership with John Dowley. Work started in the same year, but was delayed by the bankruptcy of the contractor, Robert Tuck, and it was not opened until 12 August 1828.〔〔Reported in ''The Times'' (newspaper), London, 13 August 1828〕〔H V Borley and R W Kidner, ''The West London Railway and the W.L.E.R.'', The Oakwood Press, Lingfield, undated〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Kensington Canal」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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