Regents Canal: Camden to Little Venice

[nanila]

Last Friday evening, I gathered a few friends for a Regents Canal walk I've done several times oveer the years I've lived in London. It starts in Camden just north of the high street and ends in Little Venice at The Bridge House pub, and for a good deal of the walk it's easy to imagine that you're in the countryside rather than the centre of a densely populated city.

These canal barges appear near the end of the walk. Supposedly these are amongst the most expensive moorings in the city.




Only a couple hundred yards from the throngs on Camden High Street, you are already surrounded by tranquil greenery.


Round a bend a few hundred yards further is a pagoda. I believe this is a pub, but I've never been there - mostly because I've never figured out how to get to it apart from swimming across the canal.


Soon you reach London Zoo. My collection of reprobates are standing outside an aviary containing a large quantity of sacred ibis. The bloke would like me to point out that the fetching handbag he is holding is mine, not his.


Just beyond the zoo is the incredibly expensive collection of mansions known as St John's Wood, carefully fenced off from the canal path.


And nicely illustrating the truism that London is a city where the rich and the poor live cheek by jowl, the path next takes you through a housing estate.


Guardian geese and the Puppet Theatre on a canal barge in the heart of Little Venice.


If you time your walk right, you'll end up at the bridge next to the Bridge House pub just as the sun sets.

Comments

[kake]

Nice! The pagoda is Feng Shang Princess. (I haven't been there, but it's on my to-do list.)

[nanila]

Oh, it's a restaurant! I kept thinking it must be something other than a Chinese restaurant, because that would be too obvious. :P

[kabal42]

Awesome. I've often stood by the bridge in Camden and thought about walking that inviting-looking path. Now I shall make it a mission to do so. (Not a resident, but frequent visitor to London.)

It looks absolutely lovely. Thanks for the pics.
Do you have any advice on app. how long it takes to walk?

[nanila]

Let's see, I think it's about 2.5 miles from the bridge on the high street to Little Venice. Walking at a brisk pace, you could probably complete it in about 35-40 minutes. Since I find I'm usually ambling along slowly and stopping to take pictures, it takes me more like 65-70 minutes to walk it.

[kabal42]

Thanks :-) I'll probably want to take a slow-ish walk as well to properly enjoy it.

[rydra_wong]

Oh, that looks lovely.

[nanila]

It is. It's also surprising how few people walk it. You can be quite enjoyably solitary there.