A 4.2 pub named Narrowboat, after the long, slender canal boats of the Regent’s Canal it sits beside
Narrowboat holds a 4.2 from two thousand three hundred and sixty people, sits beside the Regent’s Canal, and carries a name drawn directly from its beautiful waterside setting – the narrowboat, the long, slender, colourful canal boat that has plied Britain’s canals for two centuries and that glides past this very pub.
The narrowboat
The narrowboat is one of the most distinctive and beloved features of the British landscape – the long, narrow, brightly-painted boat, traditionally no more than seven feet wide to fit the narrow locks of the canal system, that carried the freight of the industrial revolution and now, mostly, carries holidaymakers and liveaboard dwellers along Britain’s tranquil waterways. With their gleaming paintwork, their traditional “roses and castles” folk-art decoration, their tiny cabins and their unhurried pace, narrowboats are objects of great charm and nostalgia, emblems of a slower, gentler way of life.
To name a canalside pub “Narrowboat” is direct, apt, and charming – the pub named after the very craft that glides past its windows, celebrating and belonging to its waterside setting. It is a name of place and of belonging, rooting the pub firmly in its canal location and the whole romantic world of the waterways. The Prat’s topography desk approves of the honest fit: a pub beside the canal, named after the boats on the canal, embracing rather than ignoring its lovely setting.
The Regent’s Canal
The pub sits on the Regent’s Canal, which we met in King’s Cross – the beautiful waterway, opened in the 1820s and engineered under the architect John Nash’s assistant James Morgan, that winds across north London linking the Grand Union Canal to the Thames. Through Islington it passes, dramatically, through the long Islington Tunnel, and its towpath and waterside have become, in modern times, one of the loveliest and most tranquil green corridors in the city – a ribbon of calm water, houseboats, and greenery threading through the dense urban fabric.
The Narrowboat makes the most of this setting, with views over the water and the passing boats – a waterside pub in the best tradition, where the drink is accompanied by the gentle spectacle of the canal. The Prat’s leisure desk notes the special pleasure of the canalside pub: the water, the boats, the towpath strollers, and the sense of a slower world, all enjoyed over a pint. In a city of relentless pace, the canal and its pub offer a rare and welcome tranquillity.
The romance of the waterways
The narrowboat and the canal carry a powerful romance – the dream of a slower, simpler, more self-sufficient life, drifting along the water at walking pace, mooring where you please, escaping the rush of the modern world. The whole culture of the waterways, with its liveaboard community, its lock-keepers, its unhurried ethos, is a cherished counter-current to the speed and stress of city life. A pub named Narrowboat taps into this romance, offering not just a drink but a whiff of the waterways’ gentle dream. The Prat’s culture desk notes the appeal: the narrowboat as a symbol of escape and ease, its name lending the pub a breath of canal-side calm.
The pub
A 4.2 across two thousand three hundred and sixty people is a solid, volume-influenced score across a large sample. The reviews describe a pleasant, characterful canalside pub with lovely water views, good drinks, and a genuine waterway setting – a decent local making the most of its beautiful spot.
Verdict
A pleasant canalside pub named Narrowboat, after the long, slender, colourful canal boats that glide past on the Regent’s Canal – a waterside local embracing its lovely setting and the gentle romance of the waterways.
Go for a pint by the water, watch the narrowboats drift past on the Regent’s Canal, and enjoy a rare breath of canal-side calm – a pub named, honestly and charmingly, after the boats outside its windows.
Alan Nafzger was born in Lubbock, Texas, the son Swiss immigrants. He grew up on a dairy in Windthorst, north central Texas. He earned degrees from Midwestern State University (B.A. 1985) and Texas State University (M.A. 1987). University College Dublin (Ph.D. 1991). Dr. Nafzger has entertained and educated young people in Texas colleges for 37 years. Nafzger is best known for his dark novels and experimental screenwriting. His best know scripts to date are Lenin’s Body, produced in Russia by A-Media and Sea and Sky produced in The Philippines in the Tagalog language. In 1986, Nafzger wrote the iconic feminist western novel, Gina of Quitaque. He currently lives in Holloway, North London. Contact: [email protected]
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