Another Royal Pageant

Reader's Letters & Queries: NarrowBoat, Autumn 2012

With the recent article about the Regent’s Canal (Spring 2012 NB) and also the spectacular Jubilee Pageant on the Thames, I thought readers might be interested to see this page from a Regent’s Canal book held by the Waterways Archive. It illustrates the procession arranged for the opening of the canal. This was probably best described by local papers as follows: From the Morning Herald, 2nd August 1820 “Yesterday being the day fixed upon for the grand ceremony of opening this magnificent work, and putting it into a state of commercial operation, every preparation was made that could serve to give it the most imposing effect. About ten o’clock in the morning, the Lord Mayor of London, the Earl of Macclesfield, General Fitzgerald, the Hon Mr Eardley, Colonel Drinkwater, Colonel Bosanquet, together with several hundred respectable gentlemen of the City of London, proceeded in their carriages to that part of the Canal which is near Kentish Town, and went on board t…