Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
houses and killing three crew members, whoes bodies were never recovered. The bridge was
subsequently rebuilt, its cast-iron Doric columns being rotated to put the rope-incised sides
away from the water. The bridge stands today, its cast-iron capstones proclaiming that they
were cast at Coalbrookdale.
Macclesfield Bridge, also known as Blow Up Bridge
.
The park is best known as the home of London Zoo, one of the world's largest at 15ha and
also one of the oldest. The zoo was laid out in 1827 by Decimus Burton and carries out much
important research; the public were not admitted until 1847. It houses 8,000 species of anim-
al, bird, reptile and fish, together with a bar, restaurants and cafés. A waterbus landing stage
serves the zoo, the canal passing by the antelope terraces from where Arabian oryx gaze at
the boater and across at Lord Snowdon's dramatic aluminium Northern Aviary of 1965.
The canal turns sharply left towards Primrose Hill, with its elegant Victorian houses and
canalside gardens. Before these is St Mark's church, built beside the canal, a squat stone edi-
fice with a slender spire. Bridges were designed by Robert Stephenson. One carries the West
Coast Main Line. When it was first opened, trains were hauled by cable from Euston up the
steep slope over the canal.
The Pirate Club was formed in 1966 to promote watersports. The building is designed as
a pirate castle complete with drawbridge and battlements, club room, canteen, mini gym and
workshops; it was opened in 1977. It also has a narrowboat, named the
Pirate Princess
in
1982 by Prince Charles, who demonstrated that narrowboat handling was not one of his finer
attributes, the tiller being seized from the future monarch's grasp at one point by the centre
warden. The club membership peaked at 1,200 and fundraising in the early days included pir-
ate raids on commercial craft such as the
Jenny Wren
, staff trying to get their hands on the
booty needed for development of the centre before it found its way into young pirate pockets.
The former Dingwalls Timber Wharf & Dock has become the Camden Lock Centre,
opened in 1973. The original stables, with hay lofts above, have become craft workshops,
