Walk on the Regents Canal

One Sunday in the month of June, my husband and I decided to walk the Regents Canal Walk. The canal runs from the Paddington Arm of the Grand Union Canal to Limehouse Basin where it meets Thames. The Canal is 8.6 miles long and we decided to check out the first few miles of it.  Our walk began at Little Venice. These two pictures were taken at the event Cavandish Caravan at Little Venice in early May of this year.#Little Venice.

Many times passing on the road next to the Canal I had noticed this little cafe and had made a mental note of visiting it. So far we haven’t done it. But I love the location of this place and I am looking forward to sitting on this little terrace looking at the Canal down below. #Cafe Laville.

After the cafe the Canal disappears in the tunnel  under the Edgeware road. We continued for sometime without the Canal but joined our new friend again soon at Lisson Grove.  Here we walked alongside the house boats and the little gardens surrounding the towpath. We really enjoyed these pretty little gardens. The home owners have developed little patch of gardens on the towpath next to their House boats. #The towpath at Lisson Grove.

Our walk continued. We met a young woman who has developed a little reading nook with books and all, outside her houseboat on the Canal. She wants you to take a moment, stop and enjoy it all! She was still in the process of planting to get her nook ready for the summer.

Couple more cute little secret gardens! London hasn’t received much rain this spring. Some of the gardens were little parched. The day was hot. We took every opportunity to stop at these little nooks, cool down little bit, admire these little gardens and moved on to discover a new vista.

                    

Suddenly the houseboats of Lisson grove were behind us. We entered Regent Park through this cast iron gate. The weeping willow trees lined the Canal towpath. Their lush green branches were kissing the water surface here and there.

From the little space and wild little gardens of homes in the houseboats, we reached open canal and on the side of it were these massive homes with well manicured gardens. These are some of the most expensive homes in London.

Now we had reached Cumberland Basin in Regents Park. Here the Regents Canal takes a sharp turn towards the Camden Locks. In the Cumberland Basin a Chinese Restaurant Feng Shang is moored. It was such a surprise to suddenly come upon this red building. The red was striking amongst the greens. There were some unsavory characters hanging around protesting something or other on the towpath. We rushed forward.

We were reaching the final part of our walk. We were nearing the famous Camden Locks. The first sign of that came with this building. The Pirate Castle is a non profit organization that teaches all sorts of water activities for children on the Canal in Camden Town. This iconic building was built by architect Richard Seifert who has built lot of London buildings. We were amazed at the sight of this folly like building. While I was researching our walk I had read about it and had seen pictures of it too. But was still surprised at this building and the connecting bridge over the Canal built in the same style. Now the bridge is covered in Graffiti. Well it warned us of the kind of cultural hub that is Camden Town. #Camden Town.

We were just too hot and tired by the time we reached the Locks. It was unbelievably crowded. It is after all high tourist season. We started hearing lots of noises. There were sounds of people laughing, cheering and talking all around us. We soon realized that England was beating Panama 6-1 in soccer World Cup. Bars and Pubs were full of cheering crowds. Our goal was to reach the market, have some yummy street food and cool down. And then go forward to King’s Cross on the Canal. We decided to end the walk there. So from Camden to Kings Cross Regents Canal walk was postponed to a cooler day. I will continue the posts when that happens.