Regent's and Grand Union Canals, London

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I only found out about Little Venice in London by reading a tip on it here on VT. I decided on taking a walk along the canal from Little Venice to Camden Town. I went to Paddington station and started my walk from behind the station, from there it only takes a couple of minutes to get to the canals. A lovely area this is and Little Venice is awesome, like walking into another country. This is what I love about London, there is so much diversity.

Little Venice has got a lovely lake with restaurants and a myriad of houseboats. I had expected the walk to Camden Town be more fun though than it was. By little Venice you take a right turn to get to Camden Town and in some areas the canal and houseboats were in a restricted area, so one has to walk on the street. By Edgeware road the canal is only open for boats so you have to cross Edgeware road and look for the route to the canal again. I ended up having to ask a mail-man where it was. It should be more clearly market and you have to walk down many steps to get to the canal again. Then there is a long walk with only the canal with no boats apart from a waterbus. Then you walk by the canal north of Regent's park, pass the Zoo and finally reach Camden Town after more than an hour's walk. It was less fun than I had expected. Maybe if you live in London and want a quiet walk this is the place to be. The most beautiful parts of this walk are Little Venice and the area closest to Camden Town - in my opinion.

Little Venice is one of London's most amiable parts. Located around the confluence of Grand Union Canal and Regent's Canal, this is an area of gleaming white villas that line the quiet canals. What adds a little Venice flavour, though, are numerous house boats on the canals. House boats became a popular way of living in the 1960s when many hippies lived here. Nowadays, the majority of hippies have grown older, but they still live on their boats. You sometimes come across boat names that tell of hippie dreams back in the 1960s: Katmandu, Goa...
Both shores of the canals are lined with paths to walk along. Some of the boats have been turned into nice cafes where you can get good food for relatively low prices. Others are tourist boats now and take you for a ride up to Camden Lock. While I haven't done this myself, I was also recommended to take a walk along the canal up to Regent's Park. In any case, there are plenty of beautiful places just around the corner, so you do well to check them out.

A lovely peaceful walk around two miles along the Regents canal, you would not believe you were in the heart of London. Starting at buzzing Camden Lock, the towpath quickly leaves behind the tourist hussle and bustle, and company quickly falls to the occasional fellow-walker and cyclist, and passing tourist boat excursions. Amazingly it cuts through the middle of London zoo and its Aviary, past the Lisson Grove Moorings where fifty narrow houseboats form a floating community (no cycling), beneath victorian bridges, to emerge just short of Little Venice near Maida Vale. Across the other side of the busy Edgware Road is Little Venice with its brightly painted houseboats, edged by luxurious town houses, including the former home of much-loved comedian Arthur Lowe (Dads Army) and many other stars today. The far end of the canal joins the road made famous by retro singer Duffy, "Warwick Avenue".

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Anyone who has read my other London and Mile End pages knows that I have a great love for canals and narrowboats, so it is somewhat surprising that I had never visited the Canal Museum before. In fairness, I only heard of it relatively recently. I was walking the towpath a couple of days ago and decided to drop in, and I am so glad I did as it really is a very interesting place.

The building itself is fascinating as it is an old ice storage warehouse built in 1862 for a Swiss immigrant called Carlo Gatti who had had the brainwave of importing ice from Norway on ships and then selling it. In the days before home refrigeration, he amassed wuite a fortune doing it and also branched out into ice-cream parlours, restaurants and even a bit of theatre. The museum features quite a history of the ice and ice cream trade in London.

It was, however, the canal exhibits that I had come to see and they were excellent. Pride of place is given over to the rear section of an actual working boat which was built about 1935. What is most striking is the incredibly cramped conditions the boatman and his family lived in. As most of the space was required for cargo, the boatman's cabin was extrmely small. How the boatman's wife ever managed to bring up a family, cook etc. is really a mystery to me, but these were the living conditions endured by literally thousands of boat families right up to the 1960's or so.

There are exhibitions of boatman's clothes, ropes etc. and a few hands-on things like rope tying.

Perhaps my favourite exhibit, however, was a 1925 film showing a boat trip from Limehouse Basin to Paddington. I found this particularly interesting as the stretch of canal near where I live featrures in it, and it was very interesting to see places that I know as they were then.

When you have finished inside, you can go out the back to Battlebridge Basin, a residential boat mooring, and where the Museum have a couple of boats themselves including the tug shown. Oh, and if you walk down to the lily pond at the end of the moorings, look closely and you might just see the turtles (I think that is what they are!). Have a look at the photo and let me know.

The Museum is open Tuesday to Saturday from 1000 - 1630 and admission is a very reasonable £3 for adults with concessions for children, seniors, students and unwaged. The building is fully wheelchair friendly. Well worth a visit.

Best place to indulge in some scenic, peaceful boating is Little Venice, near Warwick Avenue tube station. This is a very pretty & dainty area indeed, off the beaten track.

There are various types of boats available for hire, or you could opt for a guided boat-trip, taking in Camden Locks to see how people used to navigate around this canal.

The Grand Union canal is found meandering around several parts of London - even close to Heathrow Airport! It hugs the northern fringes of Regent's Park, hence a stretch is named Regent's Canal.

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Little Venice is a good place to sit and watch canal traffic in London - situated in Maida Vale this is an area comprised of about ten tree-lined streets with beautiful 17th century white stucco homes plus shops on Formosa Street and Clifton Gardens. Well at least on the southern side whereas the northern side must have situated there Londons most sought after council estate! There appears to be some good restaurants in the area including two actually on the canal which we will explore on future visits.
Little Venice does not however have the appeal of say the Gas Street Basin in Birmingham or a typical Cheshire canal basin - many of the craft moored I thought looked a little decrepit. Most of the craft moving down the canal were luxury cruisers.
However a good area to visit and you can take a canal tour from here to Regents Park along the canal. Further on is the Paddington Basin which has some nice coffee shops and restaurants.

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I've always liked Regent's Canal. There is a tow path where people can walk right next to it, from Camden to Little Venice. I just walked part of it this time. Originally, I had planned to do a boat trip with one of the canal boats, but again, not enough time.

There is just too much to see and do in London, I cannot understand tourists who say they've been there for two whole days and seen all and "what else is there to do??"

For the first time I discovered St Mark's church, close to Regent's Park. It is called the zoo church and I would have loved to look inside. But no luck, it was locked. I liked the flowers in the churchyard, though, and will add this church to my growing list of next-time-things.

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Instead of spending much time in Kensington Gardens as I usually do, this time I walked through Regents Park. The last time I was there I was rushing through it on my way to a matinée in the theatre and didn't really see anything.

This time I took my time and admired the beautiful flower arrangements. Apart from the zoo, it seems to me a park more for elderly people, while Kensington Gardens is more for children. Or maybe it was pure coincidence that there were hardly any children playing when I was there.

In the centre of the park there is a large fountain erected by a rich Indian businessman in the 19th century. On the fountain you can read his name, Cowasjee Jehangir, but he later added "Readymoney" to it. Interesting name, isn't it?