Essays Issue 07 · Autumn 2026 1 min read
Canal fronts
Why the houses on the canal lean, and why nobody straightens them.
The houses lean forward on purpose: goods were hauled up the front on a beam at the gable, and the lean kept loads clear of the windows.
Some also lean sideways, which was not on purpose. The piles under them have settled for three hundred years, and the houses have settled with them.
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