North London Orbital: Cycling London's Canals

[For a summary of all my rides along the Grand Union Canal between London and Birmingham, see this blog.]

One day this week I made a northerly circuit round London, making use of the canal network. This provides a sort of greenway equivalent of the M25 to take cyclists around the north of London, starting from Limehouse Basin in the East, looping thorough Haggerston, Kings Cross, Islington, Camden and Regents Park, then escaping the surly bonds of Central London westwards to pass through Wembley, Greenford and Southall. Here is a map of my route.

The Canal from Limehouse Basin to Little Venice is called the Regent's Canal. From here West to Bulls Bridge is the Paddington Arm of the Grand Union Canal. Here the Grand Union Canal proper is joined, running from its Junction with the Thames at Brentford out through Hayes, before turning North.

I loaded the bike in the car and parked on the A307 Kew Road, outside Kew Gardens: there is free parking here after 1000am, but you need to get here soon after to be sure of a space. (I used to visit Kew Gardens with the family when I was a kid: entry fee then was one old penny - those were the days!) Then I cycled over Kew Bridge to the eponymous station, and took the train up to Waterloo. From here I rode out via Tower Bridge to Limehouse Basin. Here I joined the Regents Canal via Salmon Road (I believe it may be possible to join it earlier at the Basin itself, but I missed that). (Afternote: a few days later I revisited the area, and found the traffic free route following the walkways around the basin: I have marked this route on the Google map.) The towpath has a reasonable surface of paving slabs, though you have to watch for cracks and loose slabs. I stopped for brunch at one of the trendy cafes lining the towpath at De Beauvoir Town. Beyond here, the main drawback of the path is its very popularity: cyclists, joggers, walkers, tourists vie for the limited space, so progress to Little Venice was slow. I made copious use of my bell to warn of my approach, and even then pedestrians wearing earphones didn't hear, then complained at being startled. The area around Camden Lock Market was simply packed with tourists: no possibility of cycling here, I dismounted and had to more or less force may way through the throng.

Beyond Little Venice I was able to make faster progress, passing under the shadow of the Westway flyover, and on through Wembley (the Wembley Stadium Arch is intermittently just visible). Around Perivale the setting became more tranquil, almost rural eg Horsenden Hill. As a kid at a local school in the Sixties, I used to do cross-country runs around here when the school playing fields were too waterlogged to play footie: didn't seem to have changed much, except considerable efforts seem to have been made to improve the towpath surface. Full marks to the Canal and Rivers Trust for their efforts. A few kilometers from the end of the loop at Bull's Bridge it reverts to a rough track. Near access points, litter is a problem: clearly its a popular place to enjoy some cans of beer and a takeaway with your mates.

I stopped for a cuppa at the Black Horse Pub right by the canal in Greenford, with a nice garden. At Bulls Bridge, I picked up the Grand Union heading East to Brentford: the run alongside the ominous brick wall of the old Hanwell Asylum (now Ealing Hospital) was particularly interesting, being downhill past an impressive flight of locks, then ducking under the M4 to arrive at the Brentford Basin where the canal joins the Thames. This has been developed as a marina for canal boats, surrounded by trendy-looking apartment blocks. Unfortunately, there appeared to be no path beside the Thames, so I followed the main road back over Kew Bridge to the car (arrived around 1730), pausing only to visit a pub on Kew Green for refreshments on what had been a very hot but fascinating expedition.