MacGregor canal was built between 1903 and 1904 during the colonial administration of William MacGregor, a medical doctor and Governor of the Colony of Lagos, then a separate entity, later part of the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria. The project was initiated as part of MacGregor's effort to reduce mosquito infestation through reclamation of swampy land in Southwest Ikoyi and Onikan, Lagos Island, particularly the Kokomaiko Swamp.
The twenty five foot wide canal was built to drain the swamp and in addition quarried to provide soil for the reclamation project. The canal cut across Ikoyi and parts of Onikan, Lagos Island, providing a border between Lagos Island and Ikoyi Island, which had previously been joined. To link both communities, a bridge was built over the canal from Obalende, a settlement that was part of the newly reclaimed swampland.
While MacGregor's anti-malaria campaign was not intended to segregate Lagos, in later years the canal served to divide Lagos Island, which developed into the commercial center of what became Nigeria's largest city, and Ikoni, where British colonial administrators built their residences within a residential cantonment for the expatriate British community, excluding Nigerians except as servants. Duerksen Waterhouses: Landscapes, Housing, and the Making of Modern Lagos (2024) pp.76, 81-82 As Chinua Achebe years later described the distinction between the two in his novel No Longer at Ease:
In the 1970s, parts of the canal were sand filled to build an inner ring road around Lagos Island. A history of the growth of Lagos observed "Only those paying close attention might notice the remnants of a muddy, now garbage-filled canal cutting between the island and its wealthier eastward extension, Ikoyi." Duerksen Waterhouses: Landscapes, Housing, and the Making of Modern Lagos (2024) p.76
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