Living on an Edinburgh narrow boat

Edinburgh Evening News

Edinburgh magician Jim Campbell, 53, explained what life is like living on his 40ft long narrow boat on the Union Canal, as he gave us a tour around his home on the water.

Transcript

00:00With so many narrowboats moored on the Union Canal in Edinburgh,

00:04I've always wondered what it must be like to live on the water but in the city centre

00:09of the capital city. So I headed along to one of those narrowboats owned by local magician

00:18Jim Campbell who explained what life is like living on his 40 foot long narrowboat

00:24and he also gave me a guided tour to see exactly how he lives his day-to-day life in such a tight

00:31confined space. Jim told me that he has lived here since November 2020 when the Covid lockdown took

00:40away his livelihood as a magician and he had to downsize. I think the lifestyle, the being close

00:47to nature and being part of a community is probably what else do I like. I suppose living in a

00:56different way I think is quite a special way to live I suppose yeah and being in the city centre

01:02as well I suppose. Yeah and is it better than living in say a flat? Oh yeah I used to feel quite

01:08isolated in the flat whereas in a boat ride I don't feel like at all just because I've got

01:12good neighbours around me. Freedom. Yeah yeah I think having a being in self-compliant container

01:17house I'll tell you what something actually is uh I've always wanted to have my my address just to

01:23be the name like you know that name right so my address is my boat name and in the street and

01:29I feel like I made it by having that. So this is the living room sofa it's actually a sofa bed

01:35uh there's a wood burner which is great to keep me warm in the winter and this is the my bow which

01:44is actually covered up which is uh my junk room as well so as you can see I just throw everything

01:48in there that I and my hoover and stuff but it's pretty cool. Jim told me that his narrowboat cost 19

01:57and a half thousand pound and he pays 500 pound a month for the mooring with an electricity bill of

02:03just 400 pound a year. It's the kitchen I've got my cooker I've got a very small fridge which doesn't

02:11have much pots and pans and drawer cups and stuff nice window and uh that's it yeah in total the boat's

02:2040 foot long inside that's about 12.2 meters inside it's eight meters long eight meters and as you can

02:29see I can touch the sides here so this is uh where me and where I sleep and uh so I put my uh my dirty

02:39laundry this is my wardrobe which is very small as you can see I've squashed a lot of stuff in there but

02:44that's what it how it is got a mini little bookcase along here and this actually the bed actually turns

02:52into a table see this is actually a desk oh sorry like a dining table or such you can turn that in

02:59but the problem with that is obviously I have to find where to put all the bedding and underneath

03:03the bed there's a lot of storage and then I've got to work out where I put all that as well to put

03:06the table up so I never put the table up but you can my bathroom which would be my bathroom if it's

03:11but it's very small as you can tell uh that would be the shower and the toilet in there but uh you see

03:16I put a wardrobe up sorry a clothes hang up there I could put my shirts and then I store lots of other

03:20stuff in here as well so uh there's much better use of space so you use the communal toilet that's

03:26right I use the communal toilets it's 125 meters I worked out I walk 100 uh one and a half kilometers

03:33a day to go to the toilet and back do the thing work this comes up this put like that put like that

03:39and I've got a stool here which I sit on there so that's why I work obviously that's where my filing is

03:47as well as the peaceful surroundings of the canal Jim also takes great pride in his garden area

03:52on the bank this uh this is table and chairs we've got a view of Edinburgh Castle we can't

03:57maybe do that anyway we've got apple trees we've got uh rhubarb this is blueberries red currants

04:08there's there's lots of fruit here anyway there's some salad and stuff here you take quite a lot of

04:14I'm going to grow some brown beans here and some courgettes as well you take quite a lot of pride in

04:18this area then your garden yeah well I have done yeah yeah after Jim's shown me around his boat

04:24it's easy to see why this peaceful and cheaper way of living in the city centre is catching on

04:30with the community of narrowboats in Edinburgh continuing to grow

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