Cumberland Basin (London)

It was originally known as Jew's Harp Basin in the 1880s, after a nearby public house.

The basin's excavation was authorised in 1813 to serve Cumberland Market and then-industrial "New Road" and in 1941-1942 was filled back in chiefly using rubble from the London Blitz of those years and the previous year.

The Cumberland Turn junction with the Regent's Canal is still visible with the short stub-end of the arm remaining housing the Feng Shang Floating Restaurant.

In the 1880s, American writer Ellis Martin was touring the London canals, but chose not to enter the basin as an 1850s report described it as "no better than a stagnant putrid ditch", and noted that cholera had spread amongst nearby neighbourhoods and boat-dwellers.

Some street lamps associated with the basin remain on Gloucester Gate Bridge[5] above the Main Line of the Regent's Canal just west of Cumberland Turn.