Walk from Paddington to Limehouse.
🚶️

Parametric data

Route name:

Paddington to Limehouse.

This route on OS maps:

https://explore.osmaps.com/route/15503220/... .

Distance:

9.9 miles walked, 5.6 miles flown.

Duration^[dur]
25^th Jan 2023 :

  
3.7 hours.

Topology:

Point to point (eastward)(mostly!).

Ascent:

45 metres.

Stiles:

0 (zero). Horse-drawn barges experienced difficulties with them.

Landmark of note:

Originally, the Snowdon Aviary.

Feasible excursion:

The canal goes where it goes. Try the view from Primrose Hill.

Avoiding roads:

Nor was I unduly worried about being trampled by barge horses.

Footpath construction:

Quite a lot of the route is brick paved.

Footpath condition:

Under two of the bridges were largish puddles. A noticeable quantity of rubbish to sidestep.

Refreshments:

An 'American' breakfast from the Double Knot.

Vistas:

This walk is, naturally, on the flat. A short diversion goes up Primrose Hill.

Blackberries:^[bbp]

Insufficiently off the beaten track.

Route map and notes.

My walk from Hendon included a mile or so of the Regent's Canal, and so spurred me on to this walk of the whole route. The Regent's is only 8.6 miles long, but the tube is some distance from each end. To split hairs, the one I start from, Edgware Road, is on Cabbell Street, Marylebone (NW1) rather than what might once have been called Paddington (W2). Confusingly, there is another tube station, also called Edgware Road, 170 metres away on the north side of the A40 Westway. Head scratchers, I feel your pain. Such difficulties apart, the walk involves few navigational challenges beyond following the towpath.

The Rolls Royce parked at the eastern end of Paddington Basin attests the area's affluent status. Although the architecture reflects it too, you don't need many rubbish sacks in the water before it starts to look as dilapidated as any other stretch of canal. Still confused by the tube, the canals confound as well. You leave the basin at its western end via the Grand Union Canal, not the Regent's. Or, at least, you might do so if you had a useable towpath here. Lacking that, you instead go along the side of Paddington Station, which I last used thirty years ago.

At the footbridge, switch to the north bank going up to Rembrandt Gardens. Pause to take a photo of Little Venice where the Grand Union continues westward, and where the Regent's begins at a turn off to the right. Look closely at the waterfownl, and you see that most are standing on ice. Warm it is not, but don't pause for a peedestrian break; the loos are shut. Do use the stairs up to Warwick Avenue because the public footpath disappears for the next half mile (until Lisson Grove). Most of this interruption is due to the Maida Tunnel but, even after that, you are still stymied. Pass the Lisson Moorings on the south bank.

Next up: Regent's Park. To your right, over the canal, the minaret of the mosque. To your left the ornamental grounds of Grove House. There's a pleasant diminution of traffic roar and the towpath here is wide enough for all to share.^[tpw]. In 1874, half a mile from Hanover Gate, rather more noise was heard when a barge carrying five tons of gunpowder exploded. Happily, my rucksack is emptied of all explosives and petroleum.

Although the structure once known as the Snowdon Aviary is still recognisable, the birds have flown. Only monkeys inhabit it today. A thought: if the refurbished wire mesh successfully retains all its simian inhabitants then why not deploy it also at the Palace of Westminster? The Feng Shang Princess, however, still does what it always did. The long postponed peedestrian break I take at Camden Lock. Not having visited the Market before, I marvel at the variety of fast food on offer. Does no inhabitant of the Wen^[wen] consume anything else?

A hop and a step eastwards takes me to Hawley Wharf, where I used the canal on my walk from Hendon. I then continued along the canal only as far as King's Cross. Today, though, soon brings the only navigational challenge of the walk: the Islington Tunnel. I fire up the GPS but still manage to overshoot Chapel Market by keeping half an eye on luncheon opportunities. The latter I locate, near the end the tunnel, in Duncan Street. However, this cafe at the City Basin was not too busy, in January, thanks to the morning sunshine having called it quits.

I recognise this bridge, over the Mile End Road, having stopped on it during my walk from Woodford. In the early years of the canal, much of what lined it was industrial. Today the scene changes to residential, as here at Johnsons Lock. This, together with parkland or sports field, is your view over long stretches of the Regent's.

So, I reach the end of the Regent's at Limehouse Basin. Plenty of barges moor here but it is also a marina for cruisers using the Thames. Behind this shot is the Limehouse Cut; the earliest canal through London. To the right is the footbridge I use for the five minute stroll to the DLR station at Limehouse.^[sgp]