I recently did a charity walk through London and part of it travelled along the Regents Canal, North of central London. The small part we walked on I enjoyed it so much I decided to come back and do a longer stretch.

Starting at Paddington station

The part of Regents Canal that we walked started at Little Venice and ended 2 miles east at Camden lock. The actual path continues on to the Docklands.
So we arrived at Paddington station, and started walking north towards Little Venice. Its signposted from the station so it’s easy to find.

Little Venice is a beautiful area filled with loads of long boats and surrounded by white Regency houses. There’s plenty of cafes there too. As we headed East towards Camden, you can also walk west along the canal.

As you follow the path along the canal there’s so much to look at. At one point the towpath is closed off for private moorings so just follow the road running alongside the canal. The Regents canal  path is very well signposted as it runs over and under the various bridges along it.

Plenty of things to look out for and to do along the canal.

You can catch various boat trips up the canal. We spotted a trip where one man steered the boat by a long pole whilst another man sang, (not for me but some might be interested.)

Follow the towpath east along the canal. As you walk along you can see barges moored up, some are brightly coloured and uniquely decorated. The residential barges use the canal path as their garden and they are so wonderfully landscaped on such a small area, they are like a mini oasis.

Beautiful town houses line parts of the canal, and at times you forget you are in central London, its so peaceful and quiet.

Regents park and London zoo

The walk shortly enters Regents park, the canal runs along the top of the park and here large mansions can be seen along the Canal. I can’t imagine how much these houses are worth, they are very exquisite. With their weeping willows trailing into the water.

After dreaming of who lives in these houses we soon arrive at London zoo, the canal runs through the middle of the zoo. On the right side you can see the Giraffe house and the Wild Dog enclosure. If you are lucky you may see something. On the left side is the large Snowdon aviary, so keep eyes peeled for the birds that reside there.

Camden

Finally our walk ended at the busy Camden Lock.  The double lock here is fully working and you may be lucky and see it. Next to the lock, are loads of food sellers, here you can buy any food that you possibly could want. The smells were immense, so hard to choose what to have. It does get busy so grab your food and head down the canal to enjoy it.

The hustle and bustle of this place is addictive. There’s also Camden market just up the road, which is worth a visit, even just to wander around. This trip took us about 2 hours as we were just strolling along and stopping to take photos.

I would like to go back and do a longer stretch or head west from little Venice.