Editing Regent's Canal (section)

===Railway projects===
There were a number of abortive projects to convert the route of the canal into a railway. In September 1845 a special general assembly of the proprietors approved the sale of the canal at the price of one million pounds to a group of businessmen<ref name=denney/> who had formed the Regent's Canal Railway Company for the purpose.<ref name=bfr/> The advertisement for the company explained: <blockquote>The vast importance of this undertaking, whereby a junction will be effected between all existing and projected railways north of the Thames, combined with the advantage of a General City Terminus, is too obvious to require comment.
By the proposed railway, passengers and goods will be brought into the heart of the City at a great saving of time and expense, and facilities will be afforded for the more expeditious transmission of the mails to most parts of the kingdom.<ref name=bfr>{{cite journal |year=1845 |title=Regent's Canal Railway |journal=The British and Foreign Railway Review |volume=1 |issue=1 |page=306 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oawEAAAAQAAJ |access-date=July 5, 2011}}</ref> </blockquote>

The railway company subsequently failed, but in 1846 the directors of the canal went about trying to obtain an act of Parliament to allow them to build a railway along its banks. The scheme was abandoned in the face of vigorous opposition, especially from the government who objected to the idea of a railway passing through [[Regent's Park]]. In 1859, two further schemes to convert the canal into a railway were proposed. One, from a company called the Central London Railway and Dock Company, was accepted by the directors, but once again the railway company failed. In 1860 the Regent's Canal Company proposed a railway track alongside the canal from Kings Cross to Limehouse, but funds could not be raised. Further schemes over the next twenty years also came to nothing,{{citation needed|date=April 2016}} with the [[Metropolitan Railway]] that opened to the south in 1863 serving much the same purpose of linking the lines radiating north of London.

{{Infobox UK legislation
| short_title           = Regent's Canal City and Docks Railway Act 1892
| type                  = Act
| parliament            = Parliament of the United Kingdom
| long_title            = An Act for the abandonment of certain of the authorised Railways of the Regent's Canal City and Docks Railway Company for extending the period for the compulsory purchase of lands for and for the completion of others of such authorised Railways for changing the name of the Company for making other provisions with respect to the Company and their affairs and for other purposes.
| year                  = 1892
| citation              = [[55 & 56 Vict.]] c. clxxxviii
| introduced_commons    = 
| introduced_lords      = 
| territorial_extent    = 
| royal_assent          = 27 June 1892
| commencement          = 
| expiry_date           = 
| repeal_date           = 
| amends                = 
| replaces              = 
| amendments            = 
| repealing_legislation = 
| related_legislation   = 
| status                = 
| legislation_history   = 
| theyworkforyou        = 
| millbankhansard       = 
| original_text         = 
| revised_text          = 
| use_new_UK-LEG        = 
| UK-LEG_title          = 
| collapsed             = yes
}}
In 1883, after some years of negotiation, the canal was sold to a company called the Regent's Canal and City Docks Railway Company at a cost of £1,170,585. The company altered its name to the North Metropolitan Railway and Canal Company by the '''{{visible anchor|Regent's Canal City and Docks Railway Act 1892}}''' ([[55 & 56 Vict.]] c. clxxxviii), but no railway was ever built; instead it raised money for dock and canal improvement and eventually, in 1904, became the Regent's Canal and Dock Company.<ref name=denney>{{cite book |title=London's Waterways |last= Denney|first=Martin |year=1977 |publisher=B.T. Batsford |location=London |isbn=0-7134-0558-9 |pages= 79–80}}</ref>

The Regent's Canal and Dock Company became part of the merged Grand Union Canal Company on 1 January 1929.

[[File:WenlockStitch.jpg|centre|700px|thumb|Wenlock Basin, Islington (2004)]]