The Regent's Canal London.

Guide to The Regent's Canal which leaves the Paddington Arm near Little Venice and goes east across London passing by Regent's Park, London Zoo and Victoria Park to reach the River Thames at Limehouse Basin.

About The Regent's Canal. Named after the Prince Regent the 8.5 mile long Regent's Canal was planned by Thomas Homer to provide a commercial link between the Grand Junction Canal via the Paddington Arm and London's docks beside the River Thames in London's East End. Opened in 1820 the canal was built by The Regent's Canal Company and designed by architect John Nash (who was also responsible for Regent's Park). As well as having access to the River Thames narrowboat owners can use the canal as a connection with the River Lee via Limehouse Basin.

Walking and Cycling on the Regent's Canal. The towpath is generally quite wide and nearly always well surfaced for the entire stretch of the canal apart from two diversions you have to make firstly at Maida Hill Tunnel and secondly at Islington Tunnel neither of which were built with internal towpaths. From where the canal starts at the Paddington Arm junction you can only stay on the towpath for a short distance - the last several hundred metres up to Maida Hill Tunnel have permanent stay narrowboats moored and for some reason towpath access is deemed "private" so you have to use the pavement instead. Obviously money talks here - seems to us that coastlines, rivers and canals in England should be open to everyone. Getting past the 270 yards long Maida Hill Tunnel is just a question of walking up to the road junction and simply keeping straight ahead over the lights and after a while back down onto the towpath. Islington Tunnel is another matter - there are signs taking you off the canal towpath but that is it - no further signs or information to show the route through various roads to the far side - see below where the Islington Tunnel pictures are located for directions.

The following are photos from The Regent's Canal generally taken as the canal goes towards the east. While some bridges are shown from both directions because of poor light at times several of the pictures had to be photographed only looking back to the west.

Commercial barges carried all types of cargo along the canal systems some of which was quite hazardous. Blow Up Bridge was destroyed in October 1874 when a boat called "Tilbury" which was carrying gunpowder exploded - the bridge was rebuilt however it's pillars were turned around to provide a smooth surface for the boat's towing ropes - the original rope-grooves can still be clearly seen. Just after Blow Up Bridge the canal passes through the grounds of Regent's Zoo which was opened 8 years after the canal was finished.

Hampstead Road Locks are the first canal locks you encounter when heading east - the locks comprise of one double and one single - the single lock being used when it's quiet and water can be preserved. On Saturdays and Sundays this area is packed with people visiting the numerous markets, restaurants and pubs which are situated all around Camden Town. At Camden Lock Market there are also plenty of fast food stalls offering spicy Indian foods - the whole area is very colourful and reminded us very much of the market areas we visited in India's Varanasi.

Towpath hazards - Cyclists. Cycling is permitted on most of the Regent's Canal and is hugely popular - there are lots of signs and notices telling cyclists that cycling is permitted but they should be both aware and  careful of people walking and so on - however quite a few cyclists are going along far too fast to read these signs and weave carelessly between pedestrians and fishermen. Also there were several instances of cyclists going really quickly through the many and often low headroom bridges totally ignoring the fact that people may be walking through - let alone cyclists coming through the other way.

The 976 yard long Islington Tunnel was designed and built by James Morgan between 1815 and 1818 - the tunnel does not have a towpath so barges were "legged" through. Walkers and cyclists therefore have to leave the canal at this point and divert through Angel via several roads. This could really benefit from a map showing the way but sadly all that exists is a sign saying leave the canal and then just a little way up the road at Colebrook Row one more sign - that is it.
Directions: Walk up to Colebrooke Row - turn right and shortly left into Duncan Street. At the end of the road turn left now along Upper Street (it's the A1) then turn right into White Lion Street - this changes into Donegal Street after a while. At the end of Donegal Street turn right into Rodney Street to then reach Wynford Road. Go left and then almost immediately go right along Muriel Street - the canal is a short distance along on the left.

Particularly between the 1830s right up to the end of the First World War The Regent's Canal carried quite a volume of tonnage - moving a variety of cargo including bricks, coal, glass as well as grain, chemicals and beer. Famous old English companies such as Pickfords and Fellowes Morton and Clayton Ltd used the canal quite heavily.

At only 1.5km long the Hertford Union Canal - which is also known as Duckett's Canal - was opened in 1830 and was designed to provide another commercial link between the River Thames (via the Regent's Canal) and the River Lee Navigation.
Gun Maker's Bridge is named after the nearby Gunmakers Arms and Gunmakers Wharf - the London Small Arms Factory was situated by the Wharf and produced components for several famous military rifles including the Short Magazine Lee-Enfield which was used during the 1914-1918 war. The factory used the Regents Canal to transport the components to Enfield.

Limehouse Basin is a really nicely laid out area - even the blocks of (probably very expensive) flats and so on have been designed to appear sort of "ship-like" and fit in well - also some of the original old brick buildings have been preserved. Limehouse Cut leaves from the Basin and provides a link up to the River Lee Navigation for boat owners. The River Thames is just a few hundred yards from Limehouse Basin - there is an excellent swing bridge on the way and once you reach the Thames the river and views are really impressive - just here there are also several Thames side public houses.

The nicely preserved brick chimney and tower shown in the photo is an accumulator tower which was used to regulate pressure in the hydraulic systems that powered the lock gates, capstans, cranes and swing bridges within the dock area - it was used between 1869 and into the 1920s.

 

There are many more English Canal Photo on our Site including the whole of the Grand Union Canal (and several other of it's Canal Arms), the beautiful Oxford Canal and Stratford-upon-Avon Canal plus others - all found via our Home Page.

Please see our Home Page for many other items about England including 100s of English Church Photos, wildflowers, toadstools and quite a few walks to try some of which involve using canal towpaths. Also take a look towards the bottom of our Home Page where there are links to our other travel sites about The Canary Islands, Cyprus, Portugal's Algarve, The Greek Islands and Athens, Egypt, India, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, Bangkok, Bali and several other Indonesian Holiday Islands.   Visit our Resources topic if you wish to Email Us and/or to see our site privacy policy.

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