During her long stint as a London renter the thing that really got Emily Garland down was the constant moving.
“I was just really unlucky with landlords,” she says. “They always seemed to want to sell the flat I was in and I think that I moved 22 times in 17 years. I was exhausted and I never felt settled.”
When Emily’s grandfather died six years ago and left her some money she decided to act. The inheritance wasn’t enough to buy herself a flat but it was enough for a 32ft traditional narrow boat.
Emily has possibly the most unlikely job you can imagine. After a lifetime baking for fun she decided to go professional, and carved out a niche making gingerbread buildings from a commercial kitchen in Hackney (emilygarland.com).
To avoid the extortionate cost of renting a permanent mooring in London she was what is called a “continuous cruiser”, moving from mooring to mooring every two weeks or so, but always staying close to the kitchen.
Unfortunately the business was decimated by the pandemic, and to make ends meet Emily took a remote job as a live court transcript proofreader.
Not having to be in the kitchen on a daily basis meant Emily wasn’t tied to central London any more. “It was quite freeing,” she says.
Houseboat mooring rules changed during the pandemic and boat owners were told to stay put just like the rest of us. Emily, 42, found herself a spot on the River Lea in Hertfordshire, near the town of Cheshunt.
“I realised how calming it was to be in the countryside, and it had been quite demoralising being in London when there was none of the fun stuff,” she says.
After the pandemic Emily boated back to London but last year she made what she hopes will be her final move for a while.
She now has a permanent mooring close to Ware, Hertfordshire. It costs her £470pcm – central London moorings could easily cost twice as much.
And she decided to restart her business too, finding a spacious and affordable new kitchen in the village of Watton-at-Stone.
She will bake gingerbread in the winter, and other baked goods to sell by post for the rest of the year, with the aid of her travel writer boyfriend, Matt Traver, 38, who moved onto the boat with her last year.
After years of packing her bags and dragging all her belongings from flat to flat, moving by boat is a breeze.
“I did it over a few weeks, visiting all my favourite spots along the way,” she says. “It was like a holiday.”
