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Slough Basin Redevelopment


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Last year I went to the bottom of the Slough arm and filled up with water from a tap that I had to partially repair. I quite liked the atmosphere, it was gritty! Still, great news that they are developing it, I wonder if they have kept in mind a future possibility to link to the Thames or if this development makes it impossible?

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heavens - it looks an huge development - the PDF is still downloading here (despite our fibre internet).

Makes it loks as though the whole of Sluff is being redeveloped - not just the rubbish end of the canal.

 

Looks quite industrial - but then that's what Slough was. (I had a glue client on the estate many years ago) and it was a bit grim!

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3 minutes ago, ivan&alice said:

Last year I went to the bottom of the Slough arm and filled up with water from a tap that I had to partially repair. I quite liked the atmosphere, it was gritty! Still, great news that they are developing it, I wonder if they have kept in mind a future possibility to link to the Thames or if this development makes it impossible?

Probably!

There never was much enthusiasm for a connection and in today's environment there's not of funds available for anything - especially for a leisure activity.

 

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I don't know about that. Of all the waterways projects I've heard of this one seems the most feasible and one of the most useful. It's only a couple of miles and through rather unloved Slough, which could use the development (as per the OP's article). Apparently it was projected to cost 30MGBP in the 90s, which has got to be one of the smaller projects. Certainly a lot more reasonable than the Bedford-Milton Keynes idea. 

It would bring boats to the much unused Slough arm and with Crossrail in place could even coax London boaters to spread out onto the arm. It would make Slough a lot less of a dump and could bring lots of boaters travelling between the K&A and GU. 

It would save 42 miles of cruising and 22 locks (not including any locks that would be required to link the two) obviating the need for people coming down the grand union to go into London and onto the lower reaches of the Thames via the Hanwell flight. 

 

Of course it's still pie in the sky and of course there is more boring maintenance work that the money is better spent on. But as pies in the skies go it's really rather a mini pork pie hovering around head height... 


image.png.befe15d90f9a59c0fe92a538e5847bc5.png
 

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3 hours ago, phantom_iv said:

What they really need is a nice pub,

Hmmm, can't see there being a big queue of folk trying to invest in new pubs at the moment. Anyone wishing to invest in the licenced trade (a fairly rare beast and one facing possible extinction) is gonna be entering a very favourable buyer's market in the second hand pub game I'd have thought.

 

 

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1 hour ago, ivan&alice said:

It would bring boats to the much unused Slough arm and with Crossrail in place could even coax London boaters to spread out onto the arm.

Speaking as someone who has 'enjoyed' seeing the western K&A transformed into a continuous moorers car-park, coaxing London boaters to spread out onto the arm has to be the best reason ever not to link Slough directly to the Thames!

  • Greenie 2
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19 minutes ago, Col_T said:

Speaking as someone who has 'enjoyed' seeing the western K&A transformed into a continuous moorers car-park, coaxing London boaters to spread out onto the arm has to be the best reason ever not to link Slough directly to the Thames!

As nice as it would be to have the entire system to oneself, I'm conscious that the waterways may be a "use it or lose it" situation.

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1 minute ago, ivan&alice said:

As nice as it would be to have the entire system to oneself, I'm conscious that the waterways may be a "use it or lose it" situation.

Turning long tracts into linear squats does absolutely nothing for the future of the waterways. 

2 hours ago, ivan&alice said:

Last year I went to the bottom of the Slough arm and filled up with water from a tap that I had to partially repair. I quite liked the atmosphere, it was gritty! Still, great news that they are developing it, I wonder if they have kept in mind a future possibility to link to the Thames or if this development makes it impossible?

Is gritty rhyming slang?

2 hours ago, Athy said:

Are friendly bombs involved?

Certainly should be, particularly on the Britwell estate!

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1 minute ago, ivan&alice said:

As nice as it would be to have the entire system to oneself, I'm conscious that the waterways may be a "use it or lose it" situation.

Use it being the operative words. You don't need a working canal to float a permanent houseboat. It's the reason why I moved my boat out of 'London' 10 years ago.

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54 minutes ago, roland elsdon said:

Still scarred from one trip down there in 1981 to investigate, and one run to float and drag back a broken hire boat in 1986.

Reminded me of Apocalypse Now.

I made it most of the way down in August 2010, was defeated by plastic bags and duvet weed(a much higher tig than mere blanket weed). 2 hours to do 300 yards meant the Festival Park wasnt quite reached.

13 minutes ago, tree monkey said:

Burnham beeches is just outside Slough, that alone makes visiting the place worth it

The oldest tree in Burnham Beeches...an oak.

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21 minutes ago, matty40s said:

I made it most of the way down in August 2010, was defeated by plastic bags and duvet weed(a much higher tig than mere blanket weed). 2 hours to do 300 yards meant the Festival Park wasnt quite reached.

The oldest tree in Burnham Beeches...an oak.

The oldest maintained ancient beech pollard woodland, stunning place a tree geek heaven,  I can forgive the misplaced Oak :)

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3 hours ago, Col_T said:

Speaking as someone who has 'enjoyed' seeing the western K&A transformed into a continuous moorers car-park, coaxing London boaters to spread out onto the arm has to be the best reason ever not to link Slough directly to the Thames!

like dukes cut

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5 hours ago, ivan&alice said:

I don't know about that. Of all the waterways projects I've heard of this one seems the most feasible and one of the most useful. It's only a couple of miles and through rather unloved Slough, which could use the development (as per the OP's article). Apparently it was projected to cost 30MGBP in the 90s, which has got to be one of the smaller projects. Certainly a lot more reasonable than the Bedford-Milton Keynes idea. 

It would bring boats to the much unused Slough arm and with Crossrail in place could even coax London boaters to spread out onto the arm. It would make Slough a lot less of a dump and could bring lots of boaters travelling between the K&A and GU. 

It would save 42 miles of cruising and 22 locks (not including any locks that would be required to link the two) obviating the need for people coming down the grand union to go into London and onto the lower reaches of the Thames via the Hanwell flight. 

 

Of course it's still pie in the sky and of course there is more boring maintenance work that the money is better spent on. But as pies in the skies go it's really rather a mini pork pie hovering around head height... 


image.png.befe15d90f9a59c0fe92a538e5847bc5.png
 

I've always thought that connecting the arm to the Thames would make sense but I have trouble imagining where the route would go?

 

Keith

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6 minutes ago, Steilsteven said:

I've always thought that connecting the arm to the Thames would make sense but I have trouble imagining where the route would go?

From the linked 2012 article:

 

It suggested the waterway would either go through London Road or the A4 and the M4 motorway, before joining the river at Romney Lock, Eton.

Mr Timms said: "It would be a major asset to the waterway system of Slough. It all seems a bit improbable, but there is a lot of money being spent on building waterways in the UK.

"It's only one-and-a-half miles long - the problem is the route goes through a built-up area."


And @fender in an old thread on the Slough arm suggested the link could join the arm further east:
 

There are many watercourses, the Crane, the Colne, Longford (CCL) etc which may offer some potential with being incorporated into a canal scheme that will allow boaters to enter the Thames nearer Staines/Windsor

 

You're right though there really isn't an obvious way. For fun I tried to plan out how it would be possible.

 

I think it can be done demolishing 6 private houses, 4 larger businesses, 7 road bridges, 2 motorway bridges and a railway bridge. Most of the rest of it goes through parks and recreation grounds. It ends up on the Jubilee river which would have to be made navigable for the last mile and a half.

 

I'd love to know what route thought could be done for 30 million!

 

SloughBasinToJubileeRiver.jpg.36e37c332b12f16b12f70ac89806a8f7.jpg

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14 hours ago, ivan&alice said:

It would make Slough a lot less of a dump

 

Nothing short of a nuclear blast could make Slough less of a dump.  Even bulldozers would leave much of it there, just reshaped!

 

13 hours ago, BWM said:

Turning long tracts into linear squats does absolutely nothing for the future of the waterways.

 

Well they do contribute a grand a year for each 57ft boat single moored.  Two or three times that that if they are breasted up ...

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