Regent's Canal: Little Venice to Coal Drops Yard on foot
Almost everyone who walks the Regent's Canal starts at Little Venice, gets four hundred metres, hits a tunnel with no towpath and no signage telling them what to do about it, and gives up. That one gap is why this is still one of the emptiest good walks in central London. It runs behind the back of the city for four miles, through a zoo, under a bridge that was blown up by a gunpowder barge, and comes out at Coal Drops Yard.
- Distance
- 4 miles
- Time
- 2 hours walking, 4 to 5 with stops
- Start
- Warwick Avenue, Bakerloo line
- End
- King's Cross St Pancras
- Cost
- Free on foot, £17 if you take the boat for the first half
- Best for
- A Sunday, a hot day, and anyone who has already done the river
11 min readChecked
The bit that catches everyone out
Two problems in the first kilometre, both solvable, neither signposted.
First, the towpath along Blomfield Road is closed to the public, because that stretch is private moorings. You walk the pavement instead, which runs alongside it and is perfectly pleasant, with white stucco Georgian villas on one side and boats on the other.
Second, Maida Hill Tunnel is 249 metres long and has no towpath at all. It never had one. Boats were legged through it, crews lying on the cabin roof walking their feet along the tunnel walls. There is no walkway, so you go over the top: up onto Aberdeen Place, along to Lisson Grove, and back down to the water at the eastern portal. It adds about eight minutes.
If the first kilometre sounds like too much admin, take the boat. The London Waterbus runs Little Venice to Camden in 45 minutes for £17 adult and £14 child, straight through the tunnel, and you pick the walk up at Camden with the best bit still ahead of you.
The route, stop by stop
Little Venice, Browning's Pool
Warwick Crescent W2 · Warwick Avenue on the Bakerloo line · free
The triangular basin where the Grand Union's Paddington Arm meets the Regent's Canal, with a willow-covered island in the middle. There is a permanently moored Puppet Theatre Barge and a floating café. Rembrandt Gardens, on the north side, is where you sit.
12 minute walk, mostly at street level
Maida Hill Tunnel, over the top
Aberdeen Place to Lisson Grove NW8
The detour. Up the steps, along Aberdeen Place past Crockers Folly, down to the water again at Lisson Grove. This is the only interruption in four miles.
15 minute walk
Regent's Park and the zoo stretch
NW1 · towpath free, London Zoo ticketed separately
The canal cuts along the top edge of Regent's Park, past the back of London Zoo. You can see into parts of it from the towpath without paying, which is not a substitute for going in but is a nice forty seconds. The villas along here are some of the most expensive houses in Britain and they were all designed to be seen from the water.
6 minute walk
Macclesfield Bridge, the Blow-Up Bridge
Regent's Park NW1 · free
At about five in the morning on 2 October 1874 a barge called the Tilbury, carrying sugar, coffee, nuts, petroleum and five tonnes of gunpowder, exploded under this bridge. It killed the four men and boys aboard, flattened the bridge and blew windows out across St John's Wood. When they rebuilt it in 1876 they reused the cast iron columns but turned them round, so the grooves worn by a century of tow ropes now face the wrong way. Go and put your finger in them. They are on both sides of every column and almost nobody walking past knows why.
20 minute walk
Camden Lock
Camden Lock Place NW1 8AF · market daily, busiest Saturday and Sunday
Hampstead Road Locks, the only working twin lock left on this canal, with the market wrapped around it. Loud, packed, and genuinely good for food. If you are only stopping once on this walk, stop here, and then keep going east, because the two miles after Camden are the quiet ones.
25 minute walk
St Pancras Lock and Camley Street Natural Park
12 Camley Street N1C 4PW · free
A two acre nature reserve on a former coal yard, squeezed between the canal and the railway, run by the London Wildlife Trust. Free, with a café and a viewing platform over the water. It is the last quiet thing before King's Cross.
6 minute walk
Word on the Water
Regent's Canal towpath, Granary Square N1C 4LW · free to browse
A 1920s Dutch barge that sells second-hand books off its deck and inside its hold, with a roof that hosts jazz on weekend afternoons. It spent years being moved on every fortnight before it was given a permanent mooring here. Go aboard.
2 minute walk
Granary Square and Coal Drops Yard
Stable Street N1C 4AB · free
1,080 fountains in the square, choreographed and lit, and children in them all summer. Behind it, two Victorian coal drops where trains from the north emptied coal into hoppers, reworked by Thomas Heatherwick into fifty-odd shops and restaurants with the two roofs pulled up to kiss in the middle. The best free architecture of the last decade in London.
4 minute walk
Gasholder Park
Lewis Cubitt Square N1C 4BY · free
The cast iron frame of Gasholder No. 8, dismantled, restored and put back up around a circular lawn and a mirrored canopy. Finish here, then walk five minutes to King's Cross St Pancras and go home.
Walk it, or take the boat
- Walking, whole route
- Free
- London Waterbus, Little Venice to Camden
- £17 adult, £14 child, senior or student
- Best combination
- Boat one way, walk the other
- Bakerloo to Warwick Avenue
- Standard TfL fare
Two hours moving, four to five with stops
45 minutes, one way, through the tunnel. Under 4s free
Boat to Camden, eat, then walk the quiet two miles east to King's Cross
Two minutes from the station to the water
The towpath is shared with cyclists and it is narrow in places. Walk on the left, and if you are with children keep them off the water side through Camden.
Where to eat, by section
- Little Venice: the Waterside Café, floating, for a bacon sandwich before you start.
- Lisson Grove to Regent's Park: nothing. Two miles of nothing. This is why you eat at the start.
- Camden Lock: the West Yard food stalls. Go up the stairs to the upper level and pick from above rather than queueing at the first thing you see.
- King's Cross: Coal Drops Yard for a proper sit-down, Granary Square for a bench, or the German Gymnasium if someone else is paying.
What it costs
With your own guide
Private day, your itinerary
You tell us what the day is for. We build it. Up to 8 hours.
- Up to 5 people
- £340
- 6 to 8 people
- £480
Want a tailor-made London trip? Tell us who’s coming and what you’d love to see. Request your personalised quote
What else you will spend
Rough, and on the day, whether you come with us or not.
- Travel
- £3 to £6
- The boat, if you take it
- £17 adult, £14 child
- Lunch
- £10 to £15
- Dinner
- £20 to £35
Bakerloo to Warwick Avenue, and back from King's Cross
London Waterbus, Little Venice to Camden, 45 minutes
Camden Lock, from the upper level rather than the first stall you see
Coal Drops Yard, if you want to finish properly
If you want to keep going
The canal does not stop at King's Cross. It carries on through Islington, where there is another tunnel with no towpath, then Hackney, Victoria Park and Mile End, and finally drops into the Thames at Limehouse Basin. Little Venice to Limehouse is about nine miles and a full day.
The King's Cross end is the natural place to stop because it is the only point on the whole canal where you can finish a walk and be on the Piccadilly, Victoria, Northern, Circle, Metropolitan, Hammersmith and City lines, and a train to Paris.
Questions people actually ask
Can you walk the Regent's Canal from Little Venice to King's Cross?
Yes, about four miles and two hours of walking. There is one break in the towpath at Maida Hill Tunnel, which has no walkway, so you go up to street level along Aberdeen Place and rejoin at Lisson Grove. The towpath at Blomfield Road is also private, so that first stretch is on the pavement.
How much is the Little Venice to Camden boat?
£17 for an adult and £14 for a child, student or over 60 on the London Waterbus, one way, taking about 45 minutes. Under 4s are free. Return trips are booked separately.
Why is it called the Blow-Up Bridge?
A barge carrying gunpowder exploded underneath Macclesfield Bridge in October 1874, destroying it and killing four people. It was rebuilt using the original cast iron columns, which were turned round, so the tow-rope grooves now appear on both sides.
Is the Regent's Canal towpath safe to walk?
In daylight, yes, and it is busy with cyclists and runners for most of its length. The stretch between Lisson Grove and Camden has few exits, so it is not the place to be after dark on your own.
What is there to do at Coal Drops Yard?
Over fifty shops, bars and restaurants in two restored Victorian coal stores, plus Granary Square and its 1,080 fountains, Gasholder Park, the Word on the Water book barge and Camley Street Natural Park, all within five minutes of each other and all free to walk round.