Canal Shared Spaces Project

This project brought together researchers, local organisations, boaters, councils, and community members for a shared exploration of London’s canalside spaces, using a boat journey along the Grand Union Canal as both method and meeting place.

Travelling from Kensal Green to Little Venice, the tour passed through areas that have experienced very different levels of care, investment, and community involvement. By physically moving through these environments together, the project created a grounded way to observe how canalside spaces function socially, environmentally, and politically, and how their futures might be shaped collectively .

Rather than a passive tour, the event was designed as a rolling conversation. At each stop, guest speakers with direct experience of the area shared insights into local history, planning processes, grassroots initiatives, and ongoing challenges. Sites ranged from successful community-led projects, such as Meanwhile Gardens, to underused or neglected areas like those beneath the Westway flyover. Discussions unfolded both formally and informally on board, allowing different perspectives—academic, civic, professional, and lived—to sit alongside one another without hierarchy.

The tour was filmed as part of a short documentary, extending the project beyond the day itself and feeding into a wider canalside strategy conversation. By combining movement, dialogue, and documentation, the project aimed to create space for reflection, connection, and shared understanding. It treated the canal not just as infrastructure or scenery, but as a living corridor shaped by policy, community action, and everyday use—one whose future depends on collaboration across disciplines and borough boundaries.