Cream tea cruises launch along Regent's Canal on narrowboat Long Tom

Jointly owned by the London Canal Museum and Angel Community Canalboat Trust, the passenger boat will offer a wider programme of trips from the King's Cross museum, including full day outings to Paddington or Victoria Park in East London, and shorter trips through Islington's long canal tunnel.

All will include a knowledgable guide giving historic commentary.

The charities bought the narrowboat for £43,000 and transported it from its home on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal in Lancashire on a lorry. It is already fitted out to offer cream tea cruises, which will last 90 minutes and include a ticket to the Canal Museum in the £25 price tag. 

Trips will start from The London Canal Museum in New Wharf Road, King's Cross (Image: Courtesy The London Canal Museum)

Boasting scones from Caledonian Road's Sunflower Bakery, they are thought to be the only cruises of their kind in London.

Museum Chair Martin Sach said: "It's a 45 foot long narrowboat, purpose designed for passengers, with a pantry and big picture windows which offer lots of good views and can be opened in the summer.

"We have put together a programme to run three days a week including the cream teas on Thursday afternoons to City Road basin and back, and we will see how it goes."

The boat will also run 50 minute tours through the 878-metre-long tunnel under Angel - London's longest canal tunnel, which opened in 1818.Islington's canal tunnel is the longest on London's waterways (Image: Ken Mears)

"Going through the tunnel is an experience most people find a fascinating experience, and seeing urban London from a canal boat is really living history with lots of reminders of the past. There will be a guide pointing out things to spot, like the horse ramps which people think are a lay-by, but were there so horses could be walked out of the canal if they fell in.

"The longer trips haven't really been done before and will be a two hour trip each way to Paddington or Victoria Park. It's a bit of an experiment to see if people want to spend a whole day on the canal."

Long Tom will spend the remaining four days a week with the Angel II, the other narrowboat operated by Angel Community Canalboat Trust and used for school and community groups or as a private charter for up to 12 people.

Long Tom is jointly owned by the London Canal Museum and Angel Community Canalboat Trust and will split its time between offering trips from the Museum and taking out school and community groups (Image: Courtesy of the London Canal Museum)

The London Canal Museum tells both the history of the cargoes, people and horses who used the waterways, and the capital's ice industry. It is located in a former Victorian ice warehouse where ice-cream maker Carlo Gatti stored imported blocks from Norway brought by ship and canal.