It remained in use until 1995, enabling barges to be loaded with refuse for removal from the city, making it the last canal in London to operate commercially.

The land between the river and the later site of Victoria Station was owned by Sir Richard Grosvenor, who leased it to the company in 1724.

They enlarged the existing creek and built the tide mill, which continued to work until 1775, after which the pumping was performed by a steam engine.

In the following year, the Earl of Grosvenor then decided to turn the creek into a canal, building a lock near the junction with the Thames and a basin at the upper end, around 0.75 miles (1.21 km) inland.

[1] The resident engineer for the construction of the tidal lock and upper basin was John Armstrong, originally from Ingram, Northumberland.

The canal originally stretched from the Thames near Chelsea Bridge to Grosvenor Basin on the current site of Victoria station.

Since 1866, a local authority called the St George Hanover Square Vestry had used the canal to transport household refuse away from the area.

[11] In 2000 planning permission was granted to turn the dock site into high end housing known as Grosvenor Waterside.

[12][13] Grosvenor Road, part of the London Embankment, runs close to the river, and the canal passes under it where it joins the Thames.

By 1896, a sewage works had been built on the narrow strip of land between the basin and the railway tracks to the east, consisting of cooling ponds and a pumping station.

[5] Between the upper basin and Ebury Bridge, the railway hemmed in the east bank, while to the left there was a saw mill and a wider section with wharves.

Before Eccleston Bridge, the canal ended, its width reduced by the tracks swinging westwards to reach the western platforms of the station.