Regent’s Canal walk: Camden Lock to Little Venice
Two miles of towpath, about an hour, free. From the Lock past the zoo’s aviary and Blow Up Bridge to the pool at Little Venice, with the detour at the Maida Hill tunnel and the boat back if your legs are done.
By Only Camden Editorial
It is two miles from Camden Lock to Little Venice along the Regent’s Canal, and the Canal & River Trust reckons about an hour on foot. It is free, flat apart from one set of steps, and the best hour you can spend in NW1 without buying anything. Walk it west in the morning with the sun behind you, then take a boat back if you fancy it. Here is the route, stretch by stretch.
Start: Hampstead Road Locks, the Lock
Begin on the bridge over the Lock on Camden High Street. Hampstead Road Locks are, as the Inland Waterways Association’s walk notes put it, the only surviving pair of locks on the canal, side by side the way every lock on the Regent’s was first built, and the top of the run of twelve that drops to Limehouse. The 1815 lock keeper’s house beside them is now a Starbucks and canal information centre. Get your coffee here: there is nothing much until Little Venice.
Drop down to the towpath on the north bank by West Yard and head west, under the railway, with the market at your back. The canal itself is older than most of what you can see: the Paddington to Camden stretch opened in 1816, four years before the rest of the line to Limehouse.
A bit of history on the move
The whole Regent’s Canal runs 8.6 miles from Little Venice to Limehouse with 13 locks, and work started on 14 October 1812. Every lock you pass on this walk is east of you: heading west from Camden Lock, the water stays level all the way to Little Venice, which is why it is such an easy stroll and why the boats glide along it without stopping.
Cumberland Basin and the zoo
After a sharp bend you reach Cumberland Basin, a wide spot full of moored boats and, as the Trust’s route notes, a Chinese restaurant boat. Then the canal slides along the northern edge of Regent’s Park and straight through part of London Zoo. Keep your eyes right: the Trust points out the giraffe house and an aviary from the towpath. It is the closest look you get without a ticket.
Blow Up Bridge
Just past the zoo comes bridge number 9, Macclesfield Bridge, which everyone calls Blow Up Bridge. Shortly before 05:00 on 2 October 1874, a narrowboat called the Tilbury, carrying about five tons of gunpowder among its cargo, exploded underneath it. Everyone on board died, and the bang was heard 20 miles away. The bridge was rebuilt in 1876.
Regent’s Park to Lisson Grove
The next stretch runs in a deep green cutting with the park on your left and the backs of very large houses on the right. It is the quietest part of the walk. Joggers and cyclists share the towpath, so keep left and listen for bells.
The Maida Hill tunnel detour
This is the one bit people get wrong. The canal goes into the Maida Hill tunnel, 251 metres long, and the towpath does not go with it. Follow the Trust’s route up to street level, cross Edgware Road, and walk along Aberdeen Place past Crocker’s Folly, the old pub on the route. Then rejoin the towpath down some steep steps. If you have a buggy or a wheelchair, plan for the steps or stay on the street to Blomfield Road.
Finish: Little Venice
Past Warwick Avenue Bridge the canal opens into the pool at Little Venice, lined with moored boats around the small island the Trust calls Browning’s Island. Moored here is the Puppet Barge, which has been doing puppet shows on a converted barge for 40 years. Warwick Avenue is the nearest station.
Getting back
Walk it again, or sit down for the return. Two operators run between Little Venice and Camden:
- London Waterbus Company: about 45 minutes, one-way, from Browning’s Pool to West Yard Wharf in the middle of Camden Market. Adults £17, children 4 to 16 £14, students and over-60s £14, under-4s free, on its booking page. It does not stop at the zoo.
- Jason’s Trip: an original 1906 canal boat leaving from the pool beside Westbourne Terrace Road Bridge, opposite 42 Blomfield Road. A single is £19 for adults and £15 for under-14s and over-65s, paid on board, per jasons.co.uk.
Know before you go
- Distance: two miles, about an hour, per the Canal & River Trust walk.
- Toilets and food: at either end only. Eat in Camden before you go or at Little Venice when you arrive.
- Light: the cutting by Regent’s Park gets dark early in winter. Go before 15:00 from November to February.
- Next walk: the other way, east from the Lock to King’s Cross, is shorter and busier, and just as good.
