The Croydon Canal ran from Croydon, via Forest Hill, to the Grand Surrey Canal at New Cross in south London, England. It opened in 1809 and closed in 1836, the first canal to be abandoned by an act of Parliament.
Authorised in 1801, the canal was originally intended to extend northwards to Rotherhithe, but the simultaneous construction of the Grand Surrey Canal provided a convenient access route. It was long, and opened on 22 October 1809.
The Croydon Canal linked to the Croydon, Merstham and Godstone Railway (itself connected to the Surrey Iron Railway), enabling the canal to be used to transport stone and lime from workings at Merstham. The canal was never extended further south-west, as was initially intended, to reach Epsom.
The canal was originally planned with two inclined planes but 28 locks, arranged in two flights, were used instead. To keep the canal supplied with water, reservoirs were constructed at Sydenham and South Norwood; the latter still exists as South Norwood Lake in a public park.
History
Origins A canal from Croydon to Rotherhithe was the idea of Ralph Dodd, who had been commissioned in 1799 to ascertain “… the most eligible part of the River Thames” for a canal from Croydon. Dodd’s canal was to be on a small scale, only deep and wide at the top for boats up to 20 tons (20.3 tonnes). It would start in today’s Tamworth Road, Croydon and head north to the west of London Road (A23) until Broad Green where it would swing northeast towards Selhurst, Woodside and the west of Beckenham. It would broadly follow the Ravensbourne valley to Lewisham and Deptford, finally turning west of north to join the Thames at Rotherhithe, a distance of about 12 miles. Instead of locks there would be horse-powered inclined planes where the boat would be lowered down the hillside in a tank of water or caisson, counterbalanced by another caisson being raised. Bridges would be minimised where possible by using paved fords, the whole costing no more than £25,000. After finishing his report in November 1799, Dodd had no further involvement with the Croydon and Rotherhithe Canal, but went on to promote a scheme for a Grand Surrey Canal from Rotherhithe.
Design and planning Following Dodd’s report, a meeting of prospective investors was held at the Croydon Greyhound where it was agreed that a canal from Croydon to Rotherhithe would be of great utility to Croydon, towns close to the canal and considerable parts of Kent, Surrey and Sussex.
A detailed survey was made by Mr Warner, and John Rennie was hired as the consulting engineer. This canal took a more direct line to Rotherhithe along a ridge of higher ground, which could loosely be described as the west side of the Ravensbourne valley. It headed northeast from West Croydon to Selhurst, turned north to South Norwood, Sydenham, Forest Hill and New Cross to join the Thames at Rotherhithe. The canal would remain on the same level from Croydon to Brockley at and drop down the hillside by 17 locks or 2 inclined planes by slightly different paths to New Cross, where it would remain on the same level to a tidal lock at the Thames. Rennie agreed that a canal of small dimensions would be sufficient, but recommended a larger canal to act in part as a reservoir. It was to be deep, wide along the summit level from Croydon and wide on the lower Rotherhithe level. Rennie also favoured a canal with steam powered inclined planes over locks on cost grounds. A disadvantage of inclined planes was they could only lift smaller, lighter boats that limited the bulky goods that could be carried on the canal. Several 5-7 ton (5.1 - 7.1 tonnes) boats or barges could be pulled in gangs by a single horse, but there would be delays at the inclined planes where the boats were individually raised or lowered. At over £46,000 Rennie’s canal was nearly twice the cost of Dodd’s; a large proportion of this was for the cost of 47 bridges (£6,460) and steam engines to power the inclined planes (£6,000). The large number of bridges were necessary to allow land owners to access land bisected by the canal.
Royal assent
Rennie completed his report on the 8 October 1800, which was presented to the investors on 10 October 1800. They adopted Rennie’s recommendation for a canal with inclined planes and submitted a petition to parliament on 18 February 1801. A petition for Dodd’s Grand Surrey Canal had already been submitted, and its proprietors petitioned against the Croydon canal bill in the House of Lords. As a result, the Croydon canal was changed to join the Grand Surrey Canal rather than the Thames. There were other petitions for and against the canal but the biggest effect was the petition from the Wandle mill owners. They were concerned that a deep cut across Croydon Common, between West Croydon and Selhurst would drain water into the canal instead of Norbury Brook and the River Wandle to the detriment of their mills. As a result the canal had raised banks across Croydon Common so it only cut into the soil and reduced its depth to . The summit level between Selhurst and Honor Oak Park was also raised further up the hillside. Despite these delays the canal received royal assent on 27 June 1801 via the (41 Geo. 3. (U.K.) c. cxxvii).
Inclined planes to locks The decision to implement a canal with locks was made soon after the act of Parliament was passed, because "it was realised the boats would be too small to meet the needs of the public, particularly the conveyance of large sized timber". The board realised there would be little cost advantage over toll-roads without larger 30-35 ton (30.5 - 35.6 tonnes) boats and traffic on the canal would be less than Rennie’s estimate of 5 boats in each direction. Trade was also threatened by the Surrey Iron Railway, which had received royal assent a month before the Croydon canal. Connection with the Grand Surrey Canal took boats close to the King’s Yard and victualing office at Deptford. These docks supplied the Royal Navy, but supply ships sailing along the coast to Portsmouth were liable to attack from the French and an inland navigation was desirable. In 1802, Rennie was commissioned to consider extending the canal to Portsmouth, but ultimately nothing became of it.
The adoption of locks required a water source for the canal to replace water lost when ascending / descending through the locks. Rennie’s original plan was to pump water from the Thames, which with the cost of the locks made it nearly £20,000 more expensive than a canal with inclined planes. The proprietors considered a deviation between Brockley and the Grand Surrey Canal so the ascent / descent would be less steep, take the canal closer to the King’s Yard and join the Grand Surrey at its southeast corner. This conflicted with plans for a branch of the Grand Surrey Canal to Deptford, and was objected to by their board. Instead, reservoirs were built at South Norwood and Sydenham. According to the resident engineer Dudley Clark the canal “is of itself so considerable, that, with the addition of a large reservoir upon Sydenham, and another upon Norwood Common, it leaves no doubt, of a most ample supply in the driest season." The reservoirs collected rainwater from the adjacent hillsides by ditches or feeder canals. Rainwater was also collected by ditches on Plowgarlic / Telegraph Hill above New Cross that fed into small reservoirs or side ponds at the locks.
Implementation The canal was wide. It had a maximum depth of . After the initial flights of locks, most of the canal followed the contour.
The first 2¼ miles of the canal was dug approximately between today’s Penge West and Forest Hill railway stations. By 17 April 1804 tenders were invited for cutting the remaining 2 miles of the canal’s north end and contracts for the iron and woodwork on “upwards of 20” locks were received a month later. By October 1805 Sydenham reservoir had been completed, the canal was in water and in use from within a few miles of the town of Croydon to Brockley Green for conveying bricks, timber and other materials for the works. The Brockley locks were “well built and exceedingly water tight”. Closer to New Cross the canal was less complete and locks were in every stage of their progress. Around March 1807 a commodious bridge carried the New Cross Road over the canal at New Cross. Contrary to Rennie's original plan there were also locks between New Cross Road and the Grand Surrey Canal.
The proprietors expected to join the Grand Surrey canal by July, having announced to the public that it would be open for navigation from the Thames to the crossroads at (South) Norwood. The canal was at least partially open by 15 August 1807. Hugh McIntosh, a major construction contractor, claimed he played a significant part in the canal’s construction.
Having already spent over £68,000 on the canal, the company required a further £30,000 to complete the works and repay the money borrowed. They petitioned Parliament on 10 February 1808 and were granted authority to raise the additional funds via the (48 Geo. 3. c. xviii) on 14 April 1808. Although the act did not increase the tolls, the minimum tonnage was increased from 4 to 20 tons when passing through a lock. Tenders were placed for bricks, building the basin wall at Croydon, fencing, a crane, counting house, warehouse and lock keeper’s cottage at Forest Wood. Despite raising the summit level, it was still lower than Croydon Common and a deviation between Selhurst and West Croydon was considered. Instead it was decided to raise the canal by two additional locks near Selhurst. These final two locks at Croydon Common raised the canal to the contour, and because there was no natural source of water a steam pumping station was built at the foot of the locks to pump water up to the summit pound.
At around £300 p.a. this was expensive to run. In June 1830 a new pumping engine was installed on Croydon Common, which was the first commercial installation of Samuel Brown's gas vacuum engine, and quite probably the first commercial internal combustion engine in the world. The economics of the gas engine were interesting as the gas it consumed was made by turning coal into coke. The value of the resulting coke and coal tar by-products of making the gas substantially exceeded the cost of the coal, ground rent, repairs etc., so the gas vacuum engine made a profit of over £100 a year before considering the useful work it was doing.Brown's Gas Vacuum Engine, Evening Mail, 27 July 1832 Unlike a steam engine, which required time for the water to be heated into steam, Brown’s engine could be turned on and off almost instantly; it was typically used for 3 hours every other day. Around 1827 there was a steam engine near today’s Towpath Way, south of Tennison Road, Selhurst to pump water from a well or spring.
The canal had 28 locks, 11 more than Rennie planned (excluding the Thames lock): 10 near New Cross, 16 between Forest Wood (Honor Oak Park) and Brockley, and two near Selhurst. The locks would only admit boats long rather than long as originally proposed. Lock 26 near Honor Oak Park had three gates which could be used singly or in pairs, and would today be counted as two locks. Near the Thames, the Grand Surrey Canal became a dock which had a lock to protect the canal, and another at the Thames, making a total of 31 locks for the navigation from Croydon to the Thames.
Opening and third act of Parliament The canal was officially opened on Monday 23 October 1809 with a procession that left Sydenham at 11am to a band playing "God save the King" and a 21 gun salute. The proprietor’s barge was followed by “a great many barges loaded with coal, stone, corn etc.”