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Continuous Cruising In London With Full Time Job. Can it be done?


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We organised the first rally in Mile End in 1982 largely supported by the Greater London Council. There were no boats moored between St Pancras and Limehouse. Nobody stopped overnight between the two places. As has been said earlier places like Limehouse cut were a bit of a challenge then but now we have the advantage of mobile phones. Most local people enjoyed the towpath and with the instigation of the 'Canalway ' by the GLC it was quite a pleasant environment. I passed over the canal on the train yesterday and it looks like a junkyard. In addition the canal was covered in duckweed a sure sign that there are high levels of nitrates in the water.

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15 minutes ago, roland elsdon said:

cars dont go past houses in lunun they sit there and get older. If they are modern with the engine starting and stopping every 30 secs to sell batteries and starter motors

I lived in Gloucester Place, a three-lane main road in London W.1, for five years. I remember it well! There were traffic lights a hundred years down the street so vehicles did indeed spend much of their time stationary of shuffling gradually forward. At peak times (which appeared to be for about eight hours a day) traffic was backed up most of the way to the Euston Road. I suggest that this was far noisier, and far more polluting, than boats moored on a waterway.

 

Edited by Athy
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1 hour ago, Athy said:

I lived in Gloucester Place, a three-lane main road in London W.1, for five years. I remember it well! There were traffic lights a hundred years down the street so vehicles did indeed spend much of their time stationary of shuffling gradually forward. At peak times (which appeared to be for about eight hours a day) traffic was backed up most of the way to the Euston Road. I suggest that this was far noisier, and far more polluting, than boats moored on a waterway.

 

Almost certainly the case..... but none of the cars "shuffling past your home" were breaking the law, or the rules of their licence by doing so. If the boats being discussed have a CC licence and are moored in one spot long term/permanently, then they are definitely breaking the terms of their license.

 

Whether that is OK or not, is a different matter, but your analogy isnt really valid in the context, (maybe loosely???).

 

Some kids in balaclavas robbed a convenience store a couple of miles away from where I live a few days ago. Someone got photos of a couple of them, one had removed his balaclava, the other seemed recognisable. There is now a "discussion" on Facebook where some are suggesting they should be arrested and charged, and others are suggesting that this is normal for our society, there are much more serious things to be concerned about, and live and let live.

 

It seems that there are some who think we are all entitled to don balaclavas, fill a shopping bag with stuff, and leave without paying, (or perhaps we are so entitled if we are hard done by in some way, or struggling, or unfortunate - I dont know where that particular line gets drawn?).

 

So it doesn't surprise me that some think that you can pay for a licence and agree to its terms, then ignore them completely.

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3 minutes ago, Richard10002 said:

 

 

Whether that is OK or not, is a different matter, but your analogy isnt really valid in the context, (maybe loosely???).

 

.

I think it is, as the emphasis appeared to be on local residents being irritated by noise and air pollution, not by the possibility of any of these boats breaking CART's regulations. Such air and noise pollution was the norm in central London long before the arrival of fleets of liveaboard boats - I lived there from 1977 to 1982.

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6 minutes ago, Athy said:

I think it is, as the emphasis appeared to be on local residents being irritated by noise and air pollution, not by the possibility of any of these boats breaking CART's regulations. Such air and noise pollution was the norm in central London long before the arrival of fleets of liveaboard boats - I lived there from 1977 to 1982.

 

That was kind of my point..... when you bought/rented your place, you knew, (or could reasonably be expected to know), that the road outside would be busy and polluted. When some/all of the people bought their house alongside the canal, they might reasonably have expected boaters to moor up for up to 14 days, (or whatever the local limit is), and then move on - albeit possibly being replaced by other boaters, but with none being long term or permanent.

 

We live very close to a school and, when we bought the house, I fully expected there to be congestion twice a day when kids were being dropped off and picked up. Other people who live nearby complain about it.

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2 hours ago, Ange said:

What a bunch of nasty, intolerant, judgemental old men inhabit this forum nowadays. I know who's full of bovine droppings and who's trying desperately to be reasonable. As for the "shame on you" comment coming from someone who happily admits to wanting to cleanse the system of non shiney boats the hypocrisy beggars belief.

Time to stop looking at this thread in the futile hope for reasonableness (though I do thank Mr Athy for questioning the implication that London would be a sea of tranquility were it not for the nasty, noisy, smelly boaters)

 

 Cough.....scuse me, greeny.

 

Its the selfish old farts that force the youngsters into this situation in the first place.

The only way kids(up to 35/40)have of having a place of their own without paying extortionate rents, is to have a boat and save up a deposit for somewhere. 

People who work in Costa, Pret a manger, and all the other food outlets that serve Londoners do not earn enough to live in London or buy an annual rail pass, living outside London.

 

So until someone grabs the problem by the horns,  it will only get worse, and the inept ruling classes of this country are hardly able to button their own shirts, never mind sort out social issues that might downgrade their Cayman Island retirement funds.

 

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19 hours ago, nbfiresprite said:

On average in London  once a week,

 

More Bovine Droppings,  I know many people with flats along the  Regents canal, who like many of the locals see these  simi derelict boats lining the towpath as a eyesore and a major source of pollution from both smoke from the burning of tainted damp wood, House Coal, waste oil and noisy generators running through out the day and evening. NBTA like promote that everyone likes the slumboats on the canal. And from letters in the local papers and the council postbag it's bovine droppings. I was at a function at Kings Place next to the canal by York Way Bridge, you could hear the generators running the otherside of the canal from inside the building.  As for claims that they are not using local councils services, only a few weeks ago the NBTA were ranting about not being able to stay within 2 miles of their children's school. Local waste bins are full of boaters trash, Roads, Buses the Tube are funded by the council tax payer, These towpath squatters use many local services run by the local council. 

 

The fact is if you cannot afford area, you move to a cheaper area and find a job elsewhere. These towpath squatters which is what there are. Are freeloaders, chancers and spivs living of the backs of others who pay for moorings, insurance, licances and council tax on their moorings. Hiding behind the claim that they are on low incomes is no defence to what they are doing. Boaters who play by the rules have done what I have done, relocated and found a another Job, Yes I do pay for a mooring and council tax as well, I also comute to my office in Cambridge 30 miles away,   

We goodness me! Someone hasn't had their ready brek this morning have they?Did you drop teddy and have a bad dream? Someone is a proper mr grumpy pants.

I'm so pleased that you enjoy your mooring in i'm guessing Hertford? Or perhaps somewhere up the Stort. Its beautiful up there isn't it?

Thankfully the royal borough of not London doesn't have those terrfying well trained rats setting fire to the chippendale to keep themselves warm, sneaking up your ropes to have a dump in the canal, or god forbid running an engine for the ability to contibute to this stream of coot droppings we are calling a thread.  More cow poo up that way though i'd venture, but you seem oddly enthused by "bovine droppings" so thats nice for you.

But lets not dilly dally, what you speak is utter nonsense but lets break it down.

London is busy-yes it really is! Its not only full of those pesky boat dwellers, but other people too! How dreadful. Perhaps you could venture in by train, that way you will have a quick exit route, after all, taking the boat in means spending an awful lot of time with us rats so i dont think you'd enjoy it, but hey at least we're all in plain site and not abke to jump out from the shadows and eat your children. But you could stay in one of those many beautiful canal side apartments your friends own. I assume they are as stupid as you, being priviledged enough to own or rent a canal side property and not clocking that canals are quite boaty. 

As for people, yes, thats right, we are people, just being able to choose to live where ever we like and get a job in a new place if we want, its not quite that simple but i really am not going to break off this train of thought to start educating you on social economics, you can look that one up yourself. Suffice to say that a year traveling around the canals of britain would be marvelous, if it weren't for that damn money thing, tut tut. 

Your terms squatters, freeloaders, spivs, all heavily loaded, trouble is, many of us arent as wonderful as you so we have to look the word spiv up! As for squatting, nothing wrong with that, especially when there are over 100,000 empty buildings in London, such as some of those lovely canal side properties, just sitting there earning someone money while people are left homeless and without access to basic needs, but we are not squatting, we pay a licence fee, you could call us guardians of the tow path in a sense. We get broken into, robbed, mugged, sexually assaulted, all so you don't have to, its a community service we provide, but we are of course VERMIN and so deserve this.

 

I am pleased that you pay for your mooring, council tax, yada yada, its obviously contributing to society and making you the well rounded man we see here before us. Well done, have a brandy on the back deck to congratulate yourself. 

 

Narrowboat firesprite, (well done by the way for writing this bile and publicising your boat, I would seriously think about a renaming ceremony before you try bringing that thing inside the M25, you might not be best liked after this.)

 

May your bilge always be soggy,

Your ropes always slimey

Your pins always pulled out

the wind always be blowy

 the locks always against you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Corkkeys
To remove a personalinsult.
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6 minutes ago, matty40s said:

 

The only way kids(up to 35/40)have of having a place of their own without paying extortionate rents,

This isn't strictly true.   My daughter and SiL own their own home and I mean own it not paying the mortgage.  One 40 yrs and one 37yrs old. 4 bedrooms 3 bathrooms.  They are able to afford this because they chose to live in a city other than London.  SiL was brought up down there.

 

The problem is people and where they choose to live.  If nobody chose to live in London and work for Costas (incidentally my daughter managed a Costas for a while) or similar either there would be no such shops or they would have to start paying a wage to allow them to live there.

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34 minutes ago, Corkkeys said:

We goodness me! Someone hasn't had their ready brek this morning have they?Did you drop teddy and have a bad dream? Someone is a proper mr grumpy pants.

I'm so pleased that you enjoy your mooring in i'm guessing Hertford? Or perhaps somewhere up the Stort. Its beautiful up there isn't it?

Thankfully the royal borough of not London doesn't have those terrfying well trained rats setting fire to the chippendale to keep themselves warm, sneaking up your ropes to have a dump in the canal, or god forbid running an engine for the ability to contibute to this stream of coot droppings we are calling a thread.  More cow poo up that way though i'd venture, but you seem oddly enthused by "bovine droppings" so thats nice for you.

But lets not dilly dally, what you speak is utter nonsense but lets break it down.

London is busy-yes it really is! Its not only full of those pesky boat dwellers, but other people too! How dreadful. Perhaps you could venture in by train, that way you will have a quick exit route, after all, taking the boat in means spending an awful lot of time with us rats so i dont think you'd enjoy it, but hey at least we're all in plain site and not abke to jump out from the shadows and eat your children. But you could stay in one of those many beautiful canal side apartments your friends own. I assume they are as stupid as you, being priviledged enough to own or rent a canal side property and not clocking that canals are quite boaty. 

As for people, yes, thats right, we are people, just being able to choose to live where ever we like and get a job in a new place if we want, its not quite that simple but i really am not going to break off this train of thought to start educating you on social economics, you can look that one up yourself. Suffice to say that a year traveling around the canals of britain would be marvelous, if it weren't for that damn money thing, tut tut. 

Your terms squatters, freeloaders, spivs, all heavily loaded, trouble is, many of us arent ancient like you so we have to look the word spiv up! As for squatting, nothing wrong with that, especially when there are over 100,000 empty buildings in London, such as some of those lovely canal side properties, just sitting there earning someone money while people are left homeless and without access to basic needs, but we are not squatting, we pay a licence fee, you could call us guardians of the tow path in a sense. We get broken into, robbed, mugged, sexually assaulted, all so you don't have to, its a community service we provide, but we are of course VERMIN and so deserve this.

 

I am pleased that you pay for your mooring, council tax, yada yada, its obviously contributing to society and making you the well rounded man we see here before us. Well done, have a brandy on the back deck to congratulate yourself. 

 

Narrowboat firefly, (well done by the way for writing this bile and publicising your boat, I would seriously think about a renaming ceremony before you try bringing that thing inside the M25, you might not be best liked after this.)

 

May your bilge always be soggy,

Your ropes always slimey

Your pins always pulled out

the wind always be blowy

 the locks always against you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome to the forum, Corkkeys. I see that you have lost no time joining in the discussion.

Perhaps you should check your facts before writing. NB Firesprite's boat name and location are both quite different from the ones which you quoted, and both are visible on his avatar (that's the bit under the member's name on each post). He is also not "ancient".

 

Please note that we strongly discourage personal insults against other members, hence I have edited your text to remove one.

 

Enjoy the forum!

 

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3 hours ago, Mike Adams said:

We organised the first rally in Mile End in 1982 largely supported by the Greater London Council. There were no boats moored between St Pancras and Limehouse. Nobody stopped overnight between the two places. As has been said earlier places like Limehouse cut were a bit of a challenge then but now we have the advantage of mobile phones. Most local people enjoyed the towpath and with the instigation of the 'Canalway ' by the GLC it was quite a pleasant environment. I passed over the canal on the train yesterday and it looks like a junkyard. In addition the canal was covered in duckweed a sure sign that there are high levels of nitrates in the water.

 

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14 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Do you have evidence that these people are living aboard for 'the love of boats and their interest in canals' rather than the 'love of cheap accommodation in one of the worlds most expensive cities' ?

Judging by what I see on social media many do have a love of the life style and my hope is enough will translate this love into a passion for the canals etc in general. Of course some are doing it for cheap housing too...Or start out that way. As with everything, it's a combination of things and not as simple as any discussion on here inevitably tries to break it down as being.

I think things are changing...the clean air initiatives in London are gaining momentum and word is spreading that boat living isn't as free and easy as the perception amongst some once was. Lay people I mention boat living to at work etc are increasingly aware of the need for movement around a range etc. CRT are putting in more bookable moorings for visitors too. I remain optimistic about the situation with Londons canals.?

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1 hour ago, Corkkeys said:

We goodness me! Someone hasn't had their ready brek this morning have they?Did you drop teddy and have a bad dream? Someone is a proper mr grumpy pants.

I'm so pleased that you enjoy your mooring in i'm guessing Hertford? Or perhaps somewhere up the Stort. Its beautiful up there isn't it?

Thankfully the royal borough of not London doesn't have those terrfying well trained rats setting fire to the chippendale to keep themselves warm, sneaking up your ropes to have a dump in the canal, or god forbid running an engine for the ability to contibute to this stream of coot droppings we are calling a thread.  More cow poo up that way though i'd venture, but you seem oddly enthused by "bovine droppings" so thats nice for you.

But lets not dilly dally, what you speak is utter nonsense but lets break it down.

London is busy-yes it really is! Its not only full of those pesky boat dwellers, but other people too! How dreadful. Perhaps you could venture in by train, that way you will have a quick exit route, after all, taking the boat in means spending an awful lot of time with us rats so i dont think you'd enjoy it, but hey at least we're all in plain site and not abke to jump out from the shadows and eat your children. But you could stay in one of those many beautiful canal side apartments your friends own. I assume they are as stupid as you, being priviledged enough to own or rent a canal side property and not clocking that canals are quite boaty. 

As for people, yes, thats right, we are people, just being able to choose to live where ever we like and get a job in a new place if we want, its not quite that simple but i really am not going to break off this train of thought to start educating you on social economics, you can look that one up yourself. Suffice to say that a year traveling around the canals of britain would be marvelous, if it weren't for that damn money thing, tut tut. 

Your terms squatters, freeloaders, spivs, all heavily loaded, trouble is, many of us arent ancient like you so we have to look the word spiv up! As for squatting, nothing wrong with that, especially when there are over 100,000 empty buildings in London, such as some of those lovely canal side properties, just sitting there earning someone money while people are left homeless and without access to basic needs, but we are not squatting, we pay a licence fee, you could call us guardians of the tow path in a sense. We get broken into, robbed, mugged, sexually assaulted, all so you don't have to, its a community service we provide, but we are of course VERMIN and so deserve this.

 

I am pleased that you pay for your mooring, council tax, yada yada, its obviously contributing to society and making you the well rounded man we see here before us. Well done, have a brandy on the back deck to congratulate yourself. 

 

Narrowboat firefly, (well done by the way for writing this bile and publicising your boat, I would seriously think about a renaming ceremony before you try bringing that thing inside the M25, you might not be best liked after this.)

 

May your bilge always be soggy,

Your ropes always slimey

Your pins always pulled out

the wind always be blowy

 the locks always against you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks"

 

Act III Scene II - Hamlet.

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17 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

 

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks"

 

Act III Scene II - Hamlet.

The "Lady" is furious and wrote in rage. I retrospect I should have also asked firesprite if he knows how many people in full time employment in London receive housing benefit from their local authority merely to be able to afford to live in the city, not that I believe most people living on boats in London do so to save money.

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28 minutes ago, Corkkeys said:

The "Lady" is furious and wrote in rage. I retrospect I should have also asked firesprite if he knows how many people in full time employment in London receive housing benefit from their local authority merely to be able to afford to live in the city, not that I believe most people living on boats in London do so to save money.

People outside London work full time and have to claim benefits too, you know. It's not compulsory to live there . There seems to be an attitude problem that says one should be able to live wherever one wants, whether or not one can afford it and whether on not it involves breaking the law or the "rules". As well as a terrible fear of life north of Watford Gap. 

Anyway, this really is a pointless thread now, going the way of all previous ones in the subject. Ultimately, people will do whatever they want or think they have to do, justify whatever means they employ to themselves, and then whinge like hell when they find authority disagrees. 

Personally , I feel anyone who lives in London is welcome to it - I can't imagine being stacked up two or three deep is particularly pleasant and the constant threat of enforcement won't make it much fun either.

As someone has said, if all these lowpaid people left, the city would collapse. It's an inverted pyramid, a mass of the poor, complaining endlessly about poverty wages, crap housing and lousy benefits, servicing a rich few. It can't last. Yet they all seem so keen to perpetuate it. 

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2 hours ago, Corkkeys said:

We goodness me! Someone hasn't had their ready brek this morning have they?Did you drop teddy and have a bad dream? Someone is a proper mr grumpy pants.

 

.....people, just being able to choose to live where ever we like......

 

Narrowboat firesprite, (well done by the way for writing this bile and publicising your boat, I would seriously think about a renaming ceremony before you try bringing that thing inside the M25, you might not be best liked after this.)

First sentence sounds like the pot calling the kettle black :( 

 

Second quote: I've only ever been able to live where I can afford, never "wherever I like", so you are either very privelidged, or entitled, or you have found somewhere unusually cheap to live.

 

Third quote: sounds a bit like a veiled threat??? what, exactly, did you mean?

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Big cities are the future, like it or not...It would be better for the UK if it had a genuine second city to rival London. But cities are better! They are greener as people use more public transport, live in apartments which are greener than individual houses to heat etc...And people are happier in cities too (believe it or not) as they tend to feel more socially connected and have access to more services etc. This is backed up by scientific studies (and recently a whole national geographic special issue)...before someone calls this more bovine droppings? 

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5 hours ago, Ange said:

What a bunch of nasty, intolerant, judgemental old men inhabit this forum nowadays. I know who's full of bovine droppings and who's trying desperately to be reasonable. As for the "shame on you" comment coming from someone who happily admits to wanting to cleanse the system of non shiney boats the hypocrisy beggars belief.

Time to stop looking at this thread in the futile hope for reasonableness (though I do thank Mr Athy for questioning the implication that London would be a sea of tranquility were it not for the nasty, noisy, smelly boaters)

 

......... so you think it is acceptable to mis-quote someone  ?? !!     makes you sound like a certain US president.   

 

and while you're about it please let me know where I have mentioned 'non-shiny boats'.   .................. actually I HAVE complained about floating skips, but there is a whole spectrum of boats in between those extreme 2 descriptions.   

 

 .........  so you do support the act of mis-quoting, to the extent that you are prepared to do it yourself; mis-quoting me just to suit your agenda makes you the ultimate hypocrite.      SHAME ON YOU TOO ! 

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4 hours ago, matty40s said:

 Cough.....scuse me, greeny.

 

Its the selfish old farts that force the youngsters into this situation in the first place.

The only way kids(up to 35/40)have of having a place of their own without paying extortionate rents, is to have a boat and save up a deposit for somewhere. 

People who work in Costa, Pret a manger, and all the other food outlets that serve Londoners do not earn enough to live in London or buy an annual rail pass, living outside London.

 

So until someone grabs the problem by the horns,  it will only get worse, and the inept ruling classes of this country are hardly able to button their own shirts, never mind sort out social issues that might downgrade their Cayman Island retirement funds.

 

Not forgetting the army of cleaners polishing plush marble floors in the offices, emptying waste paper bins and hoovering when all the city workers have gone home. Plus the domestic cleaners of course.

Bus drivers, road sweepers - the list goes on forever of hard working people earning minimum wage supporting the infrastructure.

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1 hour ago, Richard10002 said:

First sentence sounds like the pot calling the kettle black :( 

 

Second quote: I've only ever been able to live where I can afford, never "wherever I like", so you are either very privelidged, or entitled, or you have found somewhere unusually cheap to live.

 

Third quote: sounds a bit like a veiled threat??? what, exactly, did you mean?

This is dull. First sentence stands-I am responding to misery,

2nd quote, if you read it again, you will see I am not suggesting that, but the opposite.

3rd quote, Not a threat, just an odd thing to be so offensive and rude and advertise your boat. Trolls usually know better. I wouldn't want that information on a public forum, and I am not a rude git so goodness knows why he has done it.

 

And to you, why are you unpicking my response rather than calling him out on his behaviour? I could bother to analyse that but I won't

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1 hour ago, Dave123 said:

Big cities are the future, like it or not...It would be better for the UK if it had a genuine second city to rival London. But cities are better! They are greener as people use more public transport, live in apartments which are greener than individual houses to heat etc...And people are happier in cities too (believe it or not) as they tend to feel more socially connected and have access to more services etc. This is backed up by scientific studies (and recently a whole national geographic special issue)...before someone calls this more bovine droppings? 

I find it hard to believe that city life is good for our mental and physical health .... the pressure of too many people in too small a space; the constant rushing around; the noise; pollution; lack of horizon .... nope if you ask me the peeps who designed the study live a very comfortable life in the country and phrased the study so that it would make city life appear better 'cos they don't want city folk polluting their rural idyll :cheers:

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