Cruising Birmingham’s Canals

With eight canals and 100 miles of waterways, Birmingham can genuinely lay claim to having more canals in its center than Venice. The city is at the heart of a system of waterways built during the Industrial Revolution to connect inland factories to rivers and seaports—by 1840, the canals extended more than 4,000 miles throughout the British Isles. These canals, which carried nine million tons of cargo a year in the late 19th century and helped make the city an industrial powerhouse, have undergone an extensive cleanup and renovation and are now a tourist attraction.

A walk along the Birmingham Canal Main Line near the Gas Street Basin will bring you to modern shops, restaurants, and more developments such as Brindleyplace in one direction and the Mailbox in the other, and you can see the city from an attractive new perspective. Churchills at the Mailbox (www.churchills-birmingham.co.uk) offers canal-side views, an indoor fire pit, and a choice of over 300 wines to sip as you watch canal life go by. One of the best ways to enjoy the canal network is by bike. Cycle Chain hires out bikes from £3 per hour and can also provide free maps. Alternatively, you can take a narrowboat cruise along the historic canal network with Bosworth Cruises (www.bosworthcruises.com).