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  Location within Central London | |
| Established | 1992; 33 years ago (1992) |
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| Location | King's Cross, London,N1 England |
| Coordinates | 51°32′02″N0°07′13″W / 51.5339°N 0.1204°W /51.5339; -0.1204 |
| Type | Transport museum |
| Visitors | 20,000 |
| Chairperson | Martin Sach |
| Public transit access |  King's Cross St Pancras King's CrossSt Pancras |
| Website | canalmuseum.org.uk |
London Canal Museum in theKing's Cross area of London, England, is a regional museum devoted to the history of London's canals.The museum opened in 1992.
The museum covers all aspects of the UK's waterways. The main exhibitions in the museum cover the following topics:
The museum also hosts temporary exhibitions on canal related subjects.
The museum runs guided trips on its 12-seater trip boatLong Tom. These trips include 50 minute return trips through theIslington Tunnel and longer return trips toLittle Venice andVictoria Park.[1]
The museum is housed in a Victorian former ice warehouse that was used byCarlo Gatti.[2] The building was constructed between 1862 and 1863 to house ice imported from Norway by ship and canal barge.[2] The building was extensively rebuilt 1904 to 1906 when the existing ground and 1st floors and ramp were constructed and stables installed. The use of theice wells to store ice finished prior to the First World War and Gatti's ceased to use thebuilding as a transport depot around 1926.[3] It was then used by various engineering firms before its conversion to a food importer's warehouse in 1956, when the stable fittings were stripped out and the lightwell was infilled with a staircase and toilets. The ice wells were filled with garden soil and miscellaneous debris around that time, according to the archaeological evidence of the fill materials, and were sealed up and forgotten until their accidental rediscovery in the 1980s.
Of the two partly excavated ice wells under the building, one may be viewed from the public area of the museum and the other using CCTV that can be viewed on the Museum web site.[4]
The museum is situated in theKing's Cross area of London, on theRegent's Canal.Battlebridge Basin is accessible from the rear of the museum. It is a five-minute walk toKing's Cross St Pancras tube station.[5]
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