London's Lost Canals - Kensington Canal
Chelsea Creek running alongside
Lots Road Power Station
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A small neglected section of the Kensington Canal entrance
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As covered in the Lost Rivers section The Counter's Creek originates in the Kensal Green area flowing south through Little Wormwood Scrubs, North Kensington, Earls Court then between Chelsea FC’s Stamford Bridge & Brompton Cemetery to Chelsea Creek, where it flows into the Thames. beside Lots Road Power Station. Counter’s Creek was mainly a backwater for carrying sewerage down to the Thames and no records suggest that it was navigable until part of it was made into a canal in 1828.
The lower two miles of Counter’s Creek were made into a 100 feet wide channel called the Kensington Canal. The income from the canal was less than anticipated and a commercial failure. It was bought up by a railway company in 1839. The canal was filled in between Olympia and the Kings Road and utilised by the West London Railway and helped form an extension of the railway line southwards across the Thames to Clapham Junction. The canal continued in its shortened form for barges delivering coal to Lots Road power station (which powered the London Underground network) on Chelsea Creek. This last commercial operation on the canal was ended in the 1960s after the power station converted from burning coal to oil.
Modern day evidence can be seen either side of Lots Road Bridge - Looking towards the Thames is Chelsea Creek beside the disused power station and on the other side of the bridge a small neglected section of the canal entrance. The railway crosses Stamford Bridge which gives you a view of the old watercourse which is now a railway line. Here on the east side of the line there are some canal side cottages dating from 1846.
The lower two miles of Counter’s Creek were made into a 100 feet wide channel called the Kensington Canal. The income from the canal was less than anticipated and a commercial failure. It was bought up by a railway company in 1839. The canal was filled in between Olympia and the Kings Road and utilised by the West London Railway and helped form an extension of the railway line southwards across the Thames to Clapham Junction. The canal continued in its shortened form for barges delivering coal to Lots Road power station (which powered the London Underground network) on Chelsea Creek. This last commercial operation on the canal was ended in the 1960s after the power station converted from burning coal to oil.
Modern day evidence can be seen either side of Lots Road Bridge - Looking towards the Thames is Chelsea Creek beside the disused power station and on the other side of the bridge a small neglected section of the canal entrance. The railway crosses Stamford Bridge which gives you a view of the old watercourse which is now a railway line. Here on the east side of the line there are some canal side cottages dating from 1846.
Possible remains of a canal bridge at West Brompton Station station
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Possible remains of a canal bridge at West Brompton Station station
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