little venice to camden lock

On Jan. 20, Shane and I walked from Little Venice to Camden Town along the Regents Canal. I knew nothing about this part of London, and the walk along the water was beautiful. We started where the Grand Union Canal meets the Regents Canal, which was an important commercial waterway between Birmingham and London in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Later, the railways made the canals less important venues for commerce and transportation.

Along the canal are many narrow houseboats along Regents Canal; many of these are functional residences with little gardens either atop the boats or opposite them, across the walkway.



The canal forms much of the northern the border of Regent's Park, and I was surprised to see hyenas on the opposite side of the canal. Then I realized we were walking just opposite the London Zoo.

We crossed under several attractive bridges. There's Shane walking ahead of me in this first picture.



At the Cumberland Basin, the canal veers northward toward Camden Lock, where our walk ended. There we visited a pub and watched some of the live televised presidential inauguration.


Read about and download Robert Wright's Regents Canal walk here.