Floating classrooms return to London

Canals are to be used for floating classrooms again

A floating classroom has been launched in London, reviving a tradition discontinued 60 years ago.

The Beauchamp, a 22-metre canal boat launched on Tuesday on the Grand Union canal, is the first of a planned fleet of water-borne classrooms.

The classroom, provided by a consortium of partners including the Waterways Trust and the British Waterways London, will have a permanent teacher and crew.

Operating on a nine-mile stretch of canal near to Paddington, west London, the boat, which has places for 35 pupils, will be used to teach about the waterways and the environment.

'Whole fleet of these boats'

"This is the shape of things to come. We plan to have a whole fleet of these boats, offering education services to schools across London," said Mark Bensted, director of British Waterways London.

The boat will be available to local authorities including Brent, Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea and Hammersmith and Fulham.

The last canal boat to be used as a classroom, the Elsdale, operated in the 1930s. The boat, a converted barge, was used to teach the children of itinerant families who worked on the inland waterways.

The Elsdale was taken onto dry land in 1939 and was used as a classroom in west London until 1960.