The world’s highest hydraulic lift lock may soon be a dining venue. Peterborough and the Kawarthas Tourism hopes to unveil ‘Under Water Dining at Lock 21’ where guests are seated at tables beneath a raised lock chamber.

Lock 21 on the Trent-Severn Waterway opened in 1904 and provides the lifting and lowering of boats to a height (and depth) of 20 m (65 ft).
The lift locks function by gravity, where two water filled basins, 43 meters by 10 meters with a depth of 2.1 meters. The technology is based on the counter-weight principle, that when one ascends, the other descends.
The last lockage is 7:00 pm in the high season and up to 5:00 in the low season and Tourism officials want to utilize the grand space after hours.
Kelly Jessup of Peterborough and the Kawarthas Tourism remarked, “Nobody ever goes in there. It’s not a public space. They don’t tour inside the lock on a regular basis, so it will be a very exclusive experience.”
The tourism group is partnering with local food producers, the Trent-Severn Waterway and the Canadian Canoe Museum.
A dozen guests were part of a test run last month, where the dining experience included paddling a canoe from the Canadian Canoe Museum along the waterway into the lock where guests learned about the historical significance of the National Historic Site of Canada.
Once seated they consumed trout, wild rice, duck eggs, asparagus, poached rhubarb and beef tartare, and then entered the turbine chamber for dessert. Ontario strawberries with coriander and chevre completed the culinary portion of the evening.
Jessup said the lock is “definitely something that’s unique to Peterborough and the Kawarthas. What we’re trying to do is leverage those assets in our region that are special.”