Every time I come back London seems to have changed and some parts of it are completely unrecognisable from when I lived on a boat here some twenty years ago.
These pictures are about London’s canals and how their character is evolving and what is being lost as they are developed and becoming gentrified.
The world’s second-oldest gasometer at Bethnal Green is to be dismantled and replaced by 550 homes. Fairview New Homes is building a collection of 103 homes in apartment buildings at Limehouse Cut. £8 billion is being spent on redevelopment at Battersea Power Station. And Camden Lock will soon be overshadowed by the £120 million development of the new Camden Lock Village.
The landscapes of London’s canals are culturally significant because of their industrial heritage. But once the the last vestiges of heavy industry have been sold off to make way for yet more homogenised housing, London will have sold its soul. And the gritty inner city will have lost its edge.