Route developed by: TS / Checked by: PW
Note: The bridge in paragraph [4] makes this walk unsuitable for wheelchairs and perhaps buggies.
[1] Outside the reservoir lodge, walk towards the water and turn left along the perimeter path. The waterfront is unfenced. Continue along the path to the end of the car park, and as the reservoir starts to curve right, turn left and follow the path that zig-zags up the embankment and through a gate, and proceed ahead slightly left to the end of Clipper View.
[2] Walk along Clipper View and then turn left into Mariner/Waterworks Road and follow it past the Waterworks.
The works were built in the 1830s to provide Birmingham with drinking water. The building is dominated by a tall Gothic tower (photograph left) that conceals the pumping station’s chimney. This tower and the battlemented Perrott’s Folly are said to be the inspiration for the Two Towers in Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings.”
Continue along Waterworks Road, turn first left into Harold Road, past the Waterworks offices and then turn right into Noel Road. At the end of Noel Road, turn right briefly to cross Monument Road at the pedestrian lights, then turn left back along Monument Road. Continue to the corner of a small park, part of the 1960s Chamberlain Gardens development.
[3] Follow the footpath diagonally across the park, passing an octagonal kiosk on your left. When you reach the end of the park, turn right into Ladywood Road; you should be able to see a telephone exchange if you look left down Holy Well Close.
If you look left, you can see the statue of Blondin, famous for crossing Niagara Falls on a tightrope. The statue commemorates his crossing of Edgbaston Reservoir in 1873, although crossing Ladywood Middleway may have proved riskier still!
[4] Continue along Ladywood Road, passing the impressive Deaf Cultural Centre (A) on your right. Follow the road as it bends right and becomes Francis Road. Once you pass Duchess Road and reach some large Regency houses, cross Francis Road at the zebra crossing. Continue ahead into Broadway Plaza, where there is a café and toilets. Walk past the café and the cinema on your right and follow the wide ramp down to Ladywood Middleway. The red brick building on the right is the old children’s hospital. Just behind it are the Lench’s Trust Almshouses. Cross the Middleway at the controlled crossing outside the Children’s Hospital and turn left for a few yards. Take the first right into Friston Avenue, cross immediately to avoid potential hazard at the petrol station, walk down it and cross Ruston Street at the end.
[5] Walk straight ahead on the path through the green space. At the junction of paths, continue ahead past the play area arch on your left. Upon reaching Ryland Street cross, turn left past an apartment block. Take the second walkway on the right, between the Callisto and Jupiter apartment buildings. Walk down the wide ramps through to Sherbourne Street, coming out opposite the Sherbourne Wharf. Turn left along Sherbourne Street and then first right into Morville Street, and then right again at the corner of Morville and Browning Streets, onto a walkway between apartment blocks. Go through to a courtyard and take the tubular arched bridge across a canal. This bridge is not suitable for wheelchairs or buggies.
This is the Oozells Loop of the first Birmingham canal, cut by James Brindley in 1769 whilst the area was still open countryside. On your right is the busy Sherbourne Wharf (pictured right, by Ted Spiller) and behind that the former Fellows, Morton and Clayton building.
[6] Continue ahead into King Edward’s Drive to Sheepcote Street. Cross at the zebra crossing and continue ahead through a gap in the wall and down a ramp to the canal side. Turn sharp left onto the left-hand towpath. This is Thomas Telford’s Main Line canal, cut in 1826 to replace Brindley’s canal. The raised bricks at bridges gave footholds for horses pulling barges. These bricks and the gradients at bridges may give problems for wheelchairs/buggies. Walk beneath Sheepscote Street bridge and go on past the rear of the Roundhouse. Continue across a canal branch (the Oozells Loop), beneath St Vincent Street bridge, and through a towpath gate. Follow the towpath past old factory chimneys on the left, beneath Ladywood Middleway bridge - signed “Monument Road Bridge”- and across another branch canal (the Icknield Loop).The path may be slippery.
[7] Turn first left off the canal towpath through a gap in the brick wall into Rotton Park Street and walk along it. The old Bedstead, Engineering, Tube, Refuse, Refinery and Corrugated Iron works that fronted this straight road and backed onto the Icknield Loop are now disused or demolished. At the end of Rotton Park Street, turn left into the busy Icknield Port Road, crossing it at the traffic bollards. Turn first right, after the Hermetic Rubber Co., into Osler Street. As you walk up Osler Street, you will notice the Buddhist temple on your right.
The Dhama-Talaka Peace Pagoda was built in 1998 and contains relics of the Buddha and a piece of the Berlin Wall.
At the end of Osler Street, turn right into Reservoir Road and walk past the corner café on your left back to the Reservoir Lodge.