Brum! Brum! Birmingham Canal Loop

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

I have been progressively cycling the Grand Union Canal (GUC) towpath from London and recording the journey in blogposts:

Inner London Ring
West Drayton to Kings Langley
Berkhampstead to Northampton
(afternote: A few weeks later, I cycled between Northampton and Kingswood Junction (in reverse) as recorded in this blog. So with today's blog I have completed the ride along the GUC between London and Birmingham - all except a few miles between Kings Langley and Berkhampstead.)

Today, I decided to jump to Birmingham, and do a section of the Grand Union as part of a ride around the canal towpaths looping through the outskirts and city centre, thus I:

started at the Kingswood Junction and headed West along the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal to the junction at Kings Norton with....
the Worcester and Birmingham Canal, along which I headed North to the Gas Street Basin in the city centre where I joined........
the Birmingham Main Line Canal looping north around the city centre to join...
the Grand Union Canal back South to Kingswood Junction, where I returned to the start by following the cut linking the Grand Union and Stratford canals

The canal network hereabouts is quite complex, and a visit to the excellent Canals and Rivers Trust website is recommended if you want to bone up on the history and confusing nomenclature.

I left home early (7.00am) to miss the worst of the traffic on the M25, and arrived at my starting point, the car park next to the canal in Brome Hall Lane, Lapworth, near the Kingswood Junction where a cut links the GUC with the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal. This car park isn't signed and is hidden away in the trees. I unloaded the bike and set off around 0930. A map of my GPS track is here.

The morning was pleasantly cool after the recent mini heatwave. The ride went pretty much according to plan. Outside the built up areas, the towpath is compacted earth, and is in parts quite bumpy and narrow, with overhanging foliage, so care was needed. After the recent hot weather it was a hard surface, but I imagine it could get quite muddy after rain. Once I reached the suburbs (around Shirley), I found works underway to improve the surface as part of the commendable multi-million pound 'Birmingham Cycle Revolution' programme, which is specifically targetted on making cycling and walking on the canal towpaths an integral part of the city's transport network. There were diversions around the Brandwood Tunnel and also at Kings Norton Junction, but hopefully the works here will be completed soon. Once beyond these, on the Worcester and Birmingham Canal right round to Acocks Green on the Grand Union, it was plain sailing (or cycling) on an excellent surface (save for some of the bridges, which retain a bone-shaking surface of raised brick ridges).

I stopped off in the Gas Street Basin area, which quite reasonably claims the sobriquet 'the Heart of Britain's canal network', being the meeting place for several major canals bringing raw materials to, and transporting finished products from, the 'workshop of the world' (those were the days!). The area has been regenerated to become a bustling recreational zone. I had lunch in the Mailbox, a restaurant complex overlooking the water.

The return leg on the Grand Union passed through industrial suburbs, with quite a lot of redevelopment going on. South of Acocks Green, the towpath became quite rough again. I glimpsed a kingfisher briefly darting across the canal. I stopped off for tea in the canalside garden of the Kings Arms near Dorridge, and got back to the car at around 1730, having completed about 39 miles, all off-road, apart from the above mentioned diversions.

Now I only have to do the leg of the canal from Northampton to Kingswood Junction to provide a complete traffic-free ride from London to Birmingham.

Car park off Brome Hall Lane, Lapworth

Lapworth Lock Flight

Dickens Heath is a new town, whose 'village centre' (slightly off the towpath) has some nice cafes

Shirley Swing Bridge

The towpath is being improved for cycling

The Mailbox restaurant complex is a good spot for lunch and people watching

Gas Street Basin. The causeway is the Worcester Bar, which was built to stop the Worcester Canal (right) taking water from the Birmingham Main Line Canal (left).