We live in cramped ‘barge city’ to avoid soaring rents – the freezing winters break our engines & mould spreads up walls
THEY can endure a constant battle with damp and mould, freezing temperatures at night and having to up sticks to move every two weeks.
But increasing numbers of Brits in UK cities, including London and Bristol, are rejecting sky-high rents and shoddy landlords to live on houseboats instead.
Canal-based liveaboards are mooring two-deep across London, where the cost of living has become unbearable.
Spiritual life coach Rhiannon Faulkner snapped up hers in a bid to save money so she could pay for her talented teenage son’s golf lessons.
Mum-of-five Rhiannon, 51, said: “It was literally the cost of renting that forced me to do this.
“We were in Berkshire before, paying £1,200 a month for a two-bedroom house.
“It’s ridiculous money and you double your outgoings with all the bills.
“So I’ve gone up the river. My children think I’m completely mad because I don’t know what I’m doing. Also, I’ve had a lifelong fear of water since falling into a canal when I was a child.
“But I’m just learning as I go along.”
Infection drama
Rhiannon’s son Dan Faulker, 17, is an apprentice at Windlesham Golf Club in Surrey and his proud mum called her boat ‘The 19th Hole’ in honour of his late father.
The term refers to the clubhouse where golfers gather for the obligatory drink after a round.
But, having bought her London-based narrowboat two-and-a-half years ago, life has been far from smooth sailing.
Earlier this month, she developed a serious infection that required emergency treatment.
But after a seven hour battle to moor, she only made it to hospital thanks to the calm thinking of her daughter Steph Faulker, 28, who lives in a house in Hertfordshire.
Rhiannon added: “I developed an infection from a biopsy and the GP said, ‘Get yourself to A&E.’
“But I couldn’t find anywhere to moor the boat – I still need to learn how to manoeuvre this thing. I ended up driving around for seven hours. I have never cried so much.
“We went through two tunnels, one of which was dark and took 20 minutes to navigate. I bashed the side into a wall.
“We ended up in the middle of a protest at one point.
“I did get to hospital but I couldn’t have done it without Steph, who calmed me down and called an uber once I reached dry land.”
Rhiannon says moving to a boat was a huge decision but makes financial sense.
“I bought this for £43,000 using a 10-year marine mortgage, which costs £500 a month as the interest is extortionate.
“My gas bill for the year is £90 and I don’t use electricity as my dad put on solar panels the other week.
“My son was born to play golf and there is no other way I could have paid for his lessons.
“Dan’s father died when he was a baby and before he passed, he wrote him a letter which said, ‘I don’t know what your mummy told you about me but I liked BMWs and I liked to play golf. I wasn’t very good and my favourite hole was the 19th hole.’
“We said, ‘Shall we call the ‘The 19th hole’ in honour of Daddy?’ And we did.”
Moving every two weeks
Nathalie Brough and her boyfriend have spent the past year living in a one-bedroom narrowboat called Peace Frog, after their landlord kicked them out of their flat share in Peckham, south-east London.
She said: “The cons are things like having to get out and do all the manual labour and maintenance that comes with living in a boat, which can be tough.
“Our engine broke down a few times over winter. Fixing that can be tricky and breaking down in the middle of a canal when it’s dark isn’t ideal.
“Last winter was wet and cold and I struggled a lot with the mould and dampness.
“We have a stove that heats up pretty quickly and ours is a modern boat with radiators, but it does still get cold.
“However, it’s just nice to be closer to nature. It’s a mood lifter and spring is definitely the best time of year on the boats.”
I couldn’t find anywhere to moor the boat – I ended up driving around for seven hours. I have never cried so much
Rhiannon Faulkner
Nathalie and her partner paid £55,000 for Peace Frog but some liveaboards can be snapped up for as little as £12,000.
The couple’s monthly outgoings include £95 a month for their Canal and River Trust (CRT) continuous cruiser licence, which includes water and facilities but forces them to switch location twice a month.
They pay £50 for diesel and £15 for wood every month – a snip compared to the sky-high gas and electric prices paid by most landlubbers.
Bad landlords forced move
Previously, the couple was paying £1,000 a month rent for a single bedroom in a London house share.
When we spoke to Nathalie, she was enjoying the spring sunshine in the bow of her narrowboat moored close to Victoria Park in east London.
And they are far from alone in steering away from flats and houses to sail off on the UK’s 2,000 miles of waterways.
Last year the number of boat licences handed out increased 1.9 per cent, up from 35,146 to 35,814, according to the CRT.
At the same time, the average monthly rents hit £1,276 in England, a record 8.8% increase year-on-year.
Nathalie added: “We had awful landlords and we were kicked out of our last house.
“The rent was ridiculous and the pipes were broken so the downstairs was unusable.
“We caught norovirus living there and it was not good.
“It was a time when it was really difficult to find houses so we decided this was a more affordable move.
“I had been planning this and saving up for four or five years anyway, and it was my long-term plan, but that situation pushed me over the edge.
Last winter was wet and cold and I struggled a lot with the mould and dampness
Nathalie Brough
“Living on a boat is a nomadic lifestyle and that makes every day interesting. I would recommend it to anyone open minded and open to change.
“My mum is a Spanish, uptight Catholic woman who didn’t understand it at first but when she visited she fell in love with it because it’s quite cottagey and we have a strong sense of community.
“It’s small inside our boat but we’ve entertained 20 people here by putting people on the roof and I’ve not had any incidents where I feel unsafe.
“The only encounter I had with a stranger was when someone jumped on the roof and peed off the side.”
UK'S MOST EXPENSIVE CITIES TO LIVE IN
A 2023 study by chartered surveyors Stokemont found these cities are the most expensive in the UK to live in...
- London (£3,075.14 – estimated monthly cost of living for a single person in the city centre, including rent)
- Bristol (£1,913.86)
- Edinburgh (£1,735.90)
- Manchester (£1,682.63)
- Leeds (£1,604.77)
- Belfast (£1,567.48)
- Newcastle (£1,557.90)
- Southampton (£1,547.50)
- Glasgow (1,539.22)
- Liverpool (£1,532.77)
£12k price tag
Costume maker Morwenna Hope, 25 and her partner, fire prop maker Taylor Parker were also enjoying the midday sun when they spoke to our reporter last Thursday.
Morwenna, 25, said: “We bought our boat because we wanted to live outdoors and own our own property. There was no other way of buying.
“We’ve been together five years and moving on to a boat was a test for us personally but not as a couple.”
Taylor, 26, added: “It was either live in a van or do this and we didn’t want to live in a van.
“Before, we got by living with friends and we were lucky as we were barely paying rent – but to have your own property is massive.
“We’ve probably spent £20k on our boat so far with all the work we’ve put in.
“You can take a gamble with a boat that hasn’t had a survey and get it for cheap but it could end up being a rust bucket.
“A good price for a boat, if you’re gambling, would be £12k.
“This one had a survey but nothing more than an oven inside.
“We have to move every two weeks and that’s an unintended perk.
“It sounds like a hassle, but every time we do, it feels like we’ve accomplished something and you see birds swimming across with you.
“It’s a new start and it’s peaceful and calming even when it’s raining.
“We want to keep living on the boat for as long as we can. The other day I told my mum, ‘I’ve got no electricity, no plumbing, and I’m barely making it, but I’m really enjoying it, it’s a great life.’ She said, ‘I’m really proud of you.'”
Freezing mornings
It’s not just London prices that have forced people onto the water.
In Bristol, the UK’s second most expensive city, the average price of a rental property is now £1,734 a month, an increase of 7.8 per cent on the year before.
Last month we revealed up to 800 people are living in caravans or converted vans around the Bristol Downs – but many have also become boat dwellers.
The majority live on the water in the Marina, while many more live in the harbour and on the canals around the city, in a variety of narrowboats, barges and other vessels.
Harriet Ford-Rogers, 31, paints boat exteriors for a living in the yard next to Bristol Marina.
She started her painting career when she was refurbishing her own boat Noorderlicht in 2016.
“I lived in a shared house in Bristol, which cost about £400 a month, although I know through friends the price increased a lot after I left.
“Life on a boat is good and bad. Being on the water is great, being by the centre of Bristol is a huge pro, the community that comes with it and having nice neighbours who share favours is nice.
“Curling up by the woodburner we have is a massive pro but waking up at 6am freezing cold is not. You do have to think about things a lot more, like making sure we have enough wood.
“We have a live-aboard mooring fee, instead of a leisure mooring fee which allows a certain number of days. The mooring fee depends on how long the boat is. Mine is 11.3 metres so I pay just over £4,000 a year.
“Electricity is obviously on top, we don’t pay for heat as we have a wood-burner, so it’s about £100 a month.
“I plan to keep living on a boat in the future, and there’s not really another option. The way flat and house prices are at the moment, it’s not something that’s attainable for me.
“We’re lucky in this marina as we have a gate, but I know people in the harbour have had problems with break-ins and things. We have a group which we share information and all look out for each other.”
Close to nature
Mabel Cooper, 21, from Cornwall, works in a local coffee shop and has lived on a boat in the harbour, with her film student partner, since September.
“Living on a boat is really peaceful, for the most part,” she says. “Sometimes there will be things like maintenance issues which can go wrong. My partner deals with all it, but it’s more stressful as I’m still getting used to living on a boat. But otherwise it’s a very peaceful lifestyle.
“We looked into renting, but we couldn’t have afforded to. He looked at living in Halls, which would still have been expensive, and I wouldn’t have been able to move here at all, so this was the only way we could be together.
“Cost-wise the water is part of the marina fee but it’s less than living in a house. The electricity depends on how much we use and is on a meter, so it doesn’t cost as much as in a house, then there’s the marina fee, which is much less than rent.
“Growing up in Cornwall being around nature is important to me, but the fact you’re on the water surrounded by fish and swans, it doesn’t feel like being in a city.
“You get rocked to sleep at night, which is nice, and just being on the water is so lovely.”