The Soho Loop is a section of the eighteenth-century Old

BCN Main Line The BCN Main Line, or Birmingham Canal Navigations Main Line is the evolving route of the Birmingham Canal between Birmingham and Wolverhampton in England. The name ''Main Line'' was used to distinguish the main Birmingham to Wolverhampton rout ...

canal in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

, England, about west of the city centre, which opened to traffic on 6 November 1769, and was bypassed in September 1827 by a straight section of the New BCN Main Line. Much of the of enclosed land is occupied by the of Birmingham's City Hospital, and the canal itself serves private residential moorings at Hockley Port Basin via a branch extending north-eastwards. This is all that remains of the former Soho Branch that once served

Matthew Boulton Matthew Boulton (; 3 September 172817 August 1809) was an English manufacturer and business partner of Scottish engineer James Watt. In the final quarter of the 18th century, the partnership installed hundreds of Boulton & Watt steam engin ...

Soho Manufactory The Soho Manufactory () was an early factory which pioneered mass production on the assembly line principle, in Soho, Birmingham, England, at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. It operated from 1766–1848 and was demolished in 1853. B ...

. There is pedestrian access to a tow path for the entire length of the outside of the loop, which skirts the southern boundary of

Winson Green Prison HM Prison Birmingham is a Category B men's prison, located in the Winson Green area of Birmingham, England. The prison was operated by G4S from 2011, before it was returned to HM Prison and Probation Service in August 2018. The government takeov ...

and twice passes underneath the

Stour Valley Railway The Stour Valley Railway is a partially closed railway line that ran between , near Cambridge and in Essex, England. The line opened in sections between 1849 and 1865. The route from Shelford to Sudbury closed on 6 March 1967 leaving only th ...

. The Centre of the Earth environmental education centre is adjacent to the canal and has a long wharf frontage.

References

{{coord, 52.4925, -1.9265, display=title, region:GB_dim:1000 Birmingham Canal Navigations Canals in the West Midlands (county) Canals in England History of Birmingham, West Midlands Canals opened in 1769

See also

References