Inside Rachel Allen’s wide-beam barge in central London

[upbeat jazz music]

[water burbling]

It wasn't a purely romantic decision to live on a barge.

It was an affordable,

but beautiful way to live in Central London.

There's a really lovely community spirit on the Canal.

I'm from the coast in Wales,

and I think it's in our DNA to be close to water.

[smooth jazz music]

People are usually delighted and surprised

when they first step onto the barge.

I think they find things sweet,

and they probably also didn't realize that, you know,

they can look so homely.

It's a wide-beam barge and it's all pretty open plan.

There's just a sitting room, kitchen and dining room,

and then we've got the bedroom and bathroom.

I feel like you have most of your home comforts

living on the barge.

You just have to be a little bit more organized,

filling up with water in the morning,

making sure you catch the diesel man when he's going past.

Living on a barge makes you very resourceful.

I started my design business a couple of years ago,

and I really have Rita Konig to thank

for the small successful start to it.

I worked for Robert Kime in London.

He massively informed everything I do in my career.

I'd say my look is pretty granny chic.

I really wish I was a bit cooler.

My idea was to have a solid hull,

but for all the interiors to be old,

so hopefully it has a bit of charm of an older boat.

The interior color is almost throughout Farrow' & Ball's

Arsenic Green.

This green just makes me really happy,

and I think almost anything on top of it just sings.

This is a old Gillow sofa, which is reupholstered

by Ian Oliver, who makes everything super comfortable.

I've been collecting antique fabrics for years now,

and I love it

because you can just get a small fragment of something

and make it into something lovely.

This is a 19th century Venetian silk.

This is an African Baule fabric from the Ivory Coast.

The colors are perfect for me

because I particularly love blue and green together.

I love this rug. I bought it in the Atlas Mountains.

It's a fluffy Berber rug.

But I lay it on the reverse

because I just think the colors are softer

when the weave is flat.

This is a peacock chair,

which obviously is a completely impractical size for a boat,

but they're so iconic.

I just think they're so cool.

This is a Welsh Turner's chair. I love it.

And because of the lovely carving,

it's a 19th century one,

but I think it cost me about 30 quid.

[upbeat retro music]

I like the dining table in the center of the room

because it's close to the kitchen

to feel part of the action when somebody's cooking

and it's next to the fire.

The wood burner usually comes on in the autumn time,

and it's also nice for heating the kettle as well.

The tiles are a copy of Pugin tiles,

which Robert Kime had in his fireplace,

but I've got the poor man's version

because I couldn't find enough original Pugin tiles,

so I copied them.

And then my little masks are just comedy and tragedy.

I suppose it's a little bit unusual

to find an AGA on a boat, but it's incredibly nifty

because as well as the cooking,

it runs off the diesel engine

and does the heating and the hot water.

Probably the only bit of new kit on the boat.

Because obviously boats are small,

I didn't want a lot of cabinetry.

I want it to feel as light as possible.

That does mean that storage is a struggle,

so everything is visible,

which means that I like everything then to be pretty.

So I like old copper pans, and pretty porcelain,

and antique knives and forks.

There's a very good reclamation yard in Devon

where I got my old brass portholes

and these cool passenger lights

that came from a Mexican passenger ship in the 1950s.

My favorite little treasure on the boat

is this little collection of a shipwreck porcelain

from the Hoi An Hoard.

It's probably lived for about 500 years under the sea.

And this one I just love because it's so sweet

and got little birds on.

I like that the little galley kitchen

is a part of the whole room,

especially for parties and having friends over

because it feels like everybody's in the kitchen

together then.

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So just walking through from the kitchen

is probably a little bit of a surprise to find

a tin bath.

I think they're designed for dogs,

but they're used by humans here.

It would be nice to have a bigger bath,

but you'd never be able to fill a nice big one

because the hot water tank is so small.

When I built the boat, there was no shower.

This was the only way of washing.

After a while, when I saved up a bit more dosh,

then put the shower in afterwards.

I've got some lovely modern British pictures

that are sold by my friend Geoff Everson,

and actually these are really the colors

of the landscape of Wales.

And I'm glad to have a nice bit of campaign furniture

on the boat.

It's at home here. It was my grandfather's.

I remember seeing it in his bedroom

and it was his grandfather's.

So yeah, it's got a lot of memories.

Box-beds are very typical in canal boats.

This one is boarded with mashrabiya,

which is something not original to me,

something that Robert Kime used a lot that I really like.

It just makes it so pretty and enchanting.

And the good thing about it's that it provides

a lot of storage underneath.

I think my design aesthetic is pretty much my CV.

It's everybody I've worked for,

and every time you work for somebody else,

you pick up a little bit of their style too.

It's Will and Charlotte from Jamb

and definitely Robert with colors and textures.

[smooth jazz music]

I think as you get older,

your identity becomes increasingly important.

Maybe I'd like a little crumbly cottage in Wales someday,

but I, you know, I just love London so much,

I can't see me going back anytime soon.

[upbeat jazz music]