Water, gas and walking.

We slept like the original log last night and as the first train didn't move through St Pancras until 0645 it wasn't curtailed at an u-Godly hour. I got up and made the tea and then ventured out to the station to get a paper. I then wandered down Euston Road to find some milk. Purchases completed I wandered back and enjoyed a lovely morning walk. We didn't have a very low temperature  last night so I was in shirt sleeves.

View from our mooring to the north.

When we finally got organised we had a lovely cooked breakfast using the sausages, bacon and bread we had bought at Borough Market yesterday. It was a really tasty change and with a few baked beans set us up for the day. We put some washing on whilst we had water and electricity and the weather was good drying weather too. Meanwhile I had a bit of boat maintenance to do. I stuck back the draught proofing from the galley window and front door and then stripped down the water pump and cleaned it as the water pressure was juddering. Once again it seemed to do the trick and we have a smooth flow again. Helen did here best with a pile of ironing that has been accumulating. At about 1300 when had been invited to the club bar to meet some of the members. They are currently using a listed building that has been moved there.

This is the view to the south from our mooring. The brick built building is the club house/bar and was a water point for filling up the steam trains at St. Pancras Station.

When the Eurostar terminal was being built the water point was in the way but as it was listed they couldn't demolish it. However they couldn't take it to pieces brick by brick either as the original motar was too strong and the bricks would not have been salvaged. They therefore cut the building into three parts and lifted it and moved it by road to the present sight that was actually on Railway property. The base was altered and not salvageable so they built a replica and sat the original on top.

We were given a tour at the top and there you are actually in the cast iron trough that held the water, with a giant ball cock to keep it topped up.

The view to the south from the top shows to the right the tracks into St Pancras and the station. You can just see one of the towers of the hotel to the front of the station too. The water point came from roughly where the overhead canopy of the station starts. The green area is the London Wildlife Centre and is on land that was once an area where coal brought by train was tipped into hand carts for delivery around the city. The Regents Canal can just be seen to the left.

Looking north from the top of the water point is the columns of a gasholder. This have been transferred from the area where the road and the edge of the St Pancras station tracks are now. The one in situ is going to be a green restful area. The other two from the site are going to be erected but have flats built inside them. The Regents Canal can be seen along with the island between the lock and the basin that house the facilities, club house and dry dock with gardens.

'Holderness' from the top of the Waterpoint. We are the red boat in the middle of the picture. Above the boats, straddling the light and dark bricks can be seen six large vertical I beams. These originally carried tracks above the basin as it was used for transferring coal brought by rail into narrow boats to distribute around to the industries that had originally grown up by the canal. A transhipment basin.

We had decided to go and wander round a few pubs around Holborn and Fleet Street. We walked a similar route as yesterday to get there. This time we passed the Royal Courts of Justice and various big closed doors accessing the Temples and Inns of the legal area. However after one pub we changed plans and decided to do another London Walk around Soho. This meant walking up the Strand to Leicester Square, via Aldwych and past Somerset House. Neither of us had been there before so we had a diversion to have a look around the courtyard. What a massive place it is. It was originally built between 1547 and 1551 by the Duke of Somerset who was the uncle of Edward VI. Edward was too young to rule after Henry VIII died so his uncle declared himself Duke of Somerset and Lord Protector to advise the King. He owned the land here but had to demolition churches and chapels and made himself very unpopular. He had made many enemies by his dealings and by 1552 he had been executed and the land and house passed to the Crown. It remained a Royal Palace until 1775 when it had fallen into disrepair and it was decided to pull it down and build a new public building for the public. The first occupant was the Royal Academy.

It is a very impressive courtyard so what the interiors are like I can only imagine. They have open air cinema, ice skating and open air cafe here if ever you fancy a visit.

Leicester Square was heaving with people and our trip around Soho took us once moor to several places we had heard of but not seen previously and the chat was also intersting. Afterwards we walked up Shaftsbury Avenue, built by Lord Shaftsbury to assist in clearing the slums of Soho. He was a great social philanthropist Incidentally Soho was once a hunting park and one of Lord Monmouth's calls was So Ho when out hunting, hence Soho. We were soon back to the basin and were highly surprised to meet a young fox on the narrow wooden walk way that runs round the edge providing access to the 65 boats moored there. We actually walked nearly as far as yesterday to day, so here's hoping we sleep equally as well.