Londoners will this weekend be given the chance to venture into the bottom of the drained chamber of Camden Lock on the Regent’s Canal.
The open weekend is part of a programme of work by the Canal & River Trust to restore hundreds of historic waterway structures in a £45 million project to look after 2,000 miles of canals and rivers across England and Wales.
The Camden event is the first of 14 waterway open weekends to give visitors a behind-the-scenes view of some of the world’s finest examples of working industrial heritage. The trust carries out a year-round works to maintain canals and rivers so they can be enjoyed by 33,000 boats and 10 million towpath visitors each year.
Many of the projects are carried out during winter to minimise the impact on waterway users.
Richard Parry, chief executive of the Canal & River Trust, said: “By showcasing this work to the public we can give them a glimpse of the craftsmanship of the waterways’ original 18th century design and the scale of the work we do to care for it.”
