About CHUG

CHUG, the Canals in Hackney Users Group, is a charitable company, open to all who share its goals of educating and advocating for the canal and the associated environmental, historical, and planning issues.

CHUG was founded in 1983, when it emerged from an association of local boat dwellers whose aim was to promote the use of the canal for the benefit of the people of Hackney and surrounding communities.

A grant from the London Borough of Hackney allowed dredging the then silted up basin, and construction of a hardwood landing stage and a series of floating pontoons. Kingsland Basin has since been community of narrow boat dwellers, who engaged actively in educating and advocating canal use in all its facets.

Over the last three decades we have successfully worked towards our aims:

(1) Promote education:
We provided teaching materials and published studies of local buildings and natural life on the canals for schools, and employed a school worker to assist teachers in taking up canal related topics. We work closely with Laburnum Boat Club [check history]. In addition, we open the basin to the public during our Open Days, parties, and a series of events through the year.

(2) Manage moorings:
We have managed, and constantly strove to improve, the residential, non-residential and visitors’ moorings we created in the basin.

(3) Improve canal environment:
We planted trees, shrubs and wild flowers and created safe nesting sites for birds and bats. We organise material collections for recycling and clear rubbish from the canal and towpath. We aim to make the canal environment in general, and Kingsland Basin in particular, more attractive and more accessible. We now also are proud custodians of an allotment barge, where we grow herbs and vegetables in a bid for more sustainable living. The barge is also home for a flock of domestic ducks.

CHUG is a beacon for alternative, sustainable, living in an urban environment.