The landscape of London changes all the time. I first moved to the city 10 years ago, and back then it looked quite different. There weren’t many skyscrapers in 2008. There was no Shard at London Bridge. And most of the towers that cluster around each other in the City didn’t exist.   

A couple of weeks ago I took a walk up to Parliament Hill on Hampstead Heath to take in one of my favourite views of the city. I hadn’t been there for a few years and I was surprised at just how much the cityscape had changed. There used to be two clusters of skyscrapers in London. One in the City, and another at Canary Wharf.

From Hampstead, however, I could see a third group rising up through the mist; between the other two in Stratford.

While I was up there on the hill with tourists taking photos, I wondered what the city might look like in another 10 years.

Glass and steel giants are forever sprouting upwards. If you’re ever walking near Liverpool Street Station, take a look at the number of cranes and half-built skyscrapers that surround you.

However, the great thing about London is that, quite often, you can stumble upon a little piece of history at the foot of these high-rises. A stone wall that was built by the Romans. Or a Christopher Wren church.

Reminders of an older London that still remains.    

A secret space

The Regent’s Canal is another one of these reminders. It’s also one of my favourite places in London. It always has been, ever since I moved to the city a decade ago.

When friends from around the world visit London and ask me for recommendations, I always suggest they go for a walk along the Regent’s Canal.

The canal is as unexpected for them as it was for me when I first arrived in the city.

It’s a secret space. Few who don’t live in London actually know about it.

For me, the Regent’s Canal is like an escape from the city itself. It’s almost otherworldly in parts. Overgrown and mossy. Resistant to change. 

When you’re walking beside it, the noise of the city disappears. Even though you’re quite often right next to a road. It’s as if there’s some kind of invisible boundary, protecting the canal from the less tranquil parts of city life.

Barges bob around next to you in the water. Residents of these floating homes yawn and stretch. They arrange plant pots and pour coffee. As if their living arrangements were completely normal and it’s those of us who live in houses and flats who are strange.  

The walk

A few months ago I read As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee. As I read the book I found myself dreaming of a time when there were less distractions. When having a fascinating city right there in front of you and your own two feet were enough to excite and inspire.

The novel itself is about Lee’s wanderings across Spain. But before he got there he walked from his home in the Cotswolds to London. I really enjoyed the part of the novel set in London, and his description of the city in the 1930s.

More than anything it inspired me to do some more long walks in the city. So, a few weeks ago I decided to walk along the Regent’s Canal from one side of London to another. Not the entire stretch, but a large part of it. I’d start in Kensal Green in the west and finish at London Fields in the east.

About 16 kilometres, Google Maps told me.  

Well, it should have been 16 kilometres. But then I changed my plan at the last minute.      

On the overground train to Kensal Rise I decided to make a detour. I’d start the walk in Kilburn and visit my old flat there, I thought. So I jumped off the train at Brondesbury and popped into the little Turkish shop where I used to buy fruit and vegetables years ago, and bought a bottle of water.

I lingered outside my old flat for a minute or two, tracing old steps and memories in my mind. Then I set off towards Kensal Green. Past Queens Park and the little pedestrianised street where you can find Hugos.

Happy memories of the London that I left years ago.

The Regent’s Canal

About 45 minutes later, I arrived by the Innocent Smoothie building where I’d originally planned to start the walk.

One of the first things you notice about the the Regent’s Canal is the wildlife. There are hundreds of ducks, swans and other wild birds there. Diving under the dark, polished surface of the water for a few seconds, before emerging on the other side. Oblivious to runners and cyclists on the pathway.

Within minutes, Trellick Tower greets you abruptly on your right. Perhaps the most brutal example of all the brutalist architecture that proved popular in London in the 1960s and 1970s, it’s housed Londoners who arrived in the city from all over the world.

It’s soon followed by more concrete in the shape of the Westway, which curves and overhangs the canal. Its long shadow reaching across the water and creeping up the buildings on the other side.

Constant murmurs and rumbles of cars above you disturb the peace, but only for a few moments. Then it’s back to the serenity of the gentle lapping of the swell and to the sound of the birds on top of the water.

From Little Venice to the zoo

Before you know it you’re in Little Venice, where harsh, angular buildings are replaced by opulent villas and trees covered in early blossom. A gate tells you that this part of the Regent’s Canal is private, and you’re forced to switch to a pavement and observe the grandeur from there.

Multicoloured barges with the most English sounding names you can possibly imagine – Ruby, Heathcliff and Gladstone – are moored here beside ancient-looking trees.

The section of the Regent’s Canal beyond Little Venice is unexpectedly green. You walk here under arches of vine. If you like you can even take a seat and read something. Books appear on shelves with the word “LIBRARY” etched onto them. Just in case the surroundings weren’t peaceful enough already.

There’s even more greenery a little further on as the canal follows the northern boundaries of Regent’s Park. Russian-looking mansions appear on your right as you follow the shimmering water towards the zoo, where you can watch the hyenas across the way, and the birds in the aviary to your left.

Occasionally a little plaque with information reveals itself on the floor, half-hidden away. It’s as if the canal were only tentatively telling you its secrets. One of them informs you that you’ve arrived at “Blow-up Bridge”, which was destroyed by a barge carrying dynamite in 1874.

You can take a left near the zoo and stroll up to Primrose Hill, and a view of the city to rival the one at Parliament Hill on Hampstead Heath.

Ghosts of Victorian London

But if you carry on, the intensifying smell of street food and the sight and sound of buskers that greets you further on tells you that you’re about to arrive at Camden Town.

You can stop here for something to eat, before plotting your route through the area in order to get back onto the canal at the corner of Royal College Street and Baynes Street.

The Regent’s Canal was built in the 1820s by the famous architect, John Nash. It was used to transport coal, timber and other supplies into and out of London. However, its usefulness was somewhat diminished by the introduction of the railway.

As you wander along the canal, it’s easy to imagine the scene around 200 years ago. Largely because it would have looked pretty similar. Many of the old factories and warehouses remain near the basins, where the canal opens up. It’s here that barges would have delivered and picked up more materials.

If you stop at some point and glance across the skipping light of the water, you can almost make out the ghosts of these old, Victorian Londoners. Shouting across at each other and throwing cargo onto carts.   

One of the wider basins appears at the back of St Pancras Railway Station. Today, thousands of people throng and pack trains going to Paris, just a few hundred metres away from what would have been an equally crowded scene in the mid-nineteenth century.

Old London becomes New London

The area around St Pancras and King’s Cross has changed massively in recent years. When I arrived in London in 2008, it was a bit grimy. Since then, both of these old stations have been renovated. Trendy businesses now want to be based in the area.

Shiny glass shards jut outwards from modern office buildings, reflecting the silvery glimmer of the old canal below.

Old London becomes New London. A perfect example can be found with the Gasholders which loom over you by the same basin at St Pancras. Industrial Chic, they’ve been renovated with flats inside. But they aren’t cheap – this, after all, is London.     

Once you’re clear of the ever-evolving area around King’s Cross, something strange happens. The Regent’s Canal narrows and then disappears completely inside the Islington Tunnel. You have to climb to street level here and walk through Angel in order to rejoin the canal as it emerges from the same tunnel at Colebrooke Row Gardens.

From there it’s only around 30 minutes to Broadway Market and London Fields.

As I walked this last stretch of the canal, under the shadow of old, East-End industrial brickwork, Kensal Green seemed like a lifetime ago. But the canal remained reassuringly constant. Peaceful, it reflected the buildings opposite as the yellowish, winter sun broke first through the clouds, and then the branches of the trees behind me.

Part of me wanted to continue on to the Limehouse Basin, where the canal ends and joins the Thames. But my feet told me that I’d walked enough for one day.

Besides, the canal isn’t going anywhere. It will always be there for Londoners and visitors alike to travel back in time. To find a bit of peace from the stresses of city life. If only for a few hours.