104 years after the first time it was staged in London, the venue for the Olympic Games will shift from the west of the city to the East End. As the new Olympic stadium and park rises dramatically from largely derelict land in Stratford, the old White City stadium near Shepherd’s Bush has long been replaced by the BBC’s White City building. The journey from one to the other on foot can be made almost entirely off-road by following London’s extensive network of canals. The towpaths pass through some of London’s most affluent and deprived areas, and provide an interestingly different take on the patchwork of communities that make up the capital against a rapidly changing skyline brought about by regeneration.
[1] Turn left out of White City tube station (TQ234807) along Wood Lane.
(A) The site of the 1908 Olympic Games lies almost opposite the station. Demolished just 25 years ago, there was a swimming and diving pool at the centre of the running track and a cycle track around it. After the Olympics it was used mainly for speedway and greyhound racing, with occasional spells as home to Queen’s Park Rangers football club. Its most enduring legacy is probably the distance of the modern-day marathon after the race was extended to its current length of 26 miles and 385 yards to ensure a start from Windsor Castle, and a finish with one lap of the running track at White City stadium.
The easiest route to follow, but not the most direct, turns left into Uxbridge Road and over the roundabout at Shepherds Bush into Holland Park Avenue. Turn left into Ladbroke Grove, and then right into Westbourne Park Road, before going left into Great Western Road and left just past Westbourne Park tube station into Elkstone Road.
[2] Turn right into Meanwhile Gardens and right onto the Grand Union Canal towpath (TQ24918). Continue along the towpath until an increase in moored narrowboats indicates the fringes of Little Venice, a name thought to be given to the canal side area by the Victorian poet Robert Browning.
[3] At the bridge where Westbourne Terrace Road crosses the canal, take the attached footbridge and follow this footpath, initially signposted to Warwick Avenue tube station. To your right is Browning pool – after the poet, again. The Grand Union Canal continues on to Paddington Basin, but you are now on Regent’s Canal. Soon you are forced onto Blomfield Villas as this stretch of towpath is not open to the public. After around 400 metres, the canal passes under busy Edgware Road. Café Lavile sits on the bridge over the canal. Cross over Edgware Road into Aberdeen Place.
(B) Here, a blue plaque on the left marks the former home of Guy Gibson, leader of the ‘Dambusters’ wartime raid on dams in the Ruhr valley.
As the road bends left, head straight across into an alleyway and descend a steep set of steps back onto the towpath. The canal now continues into Regent’s Park, and then through London Zoo and onwards to Camden.
[4] The next landmark is Camden Lock (TQ288842), the epicentre of Camden Market. Pass right over Camden Lock and up to Camden High Street. Turn left, back across the canal, to meet the towpath once more. Soon you will see St Pancras Eurostar terminal, and the iconic King’s Cross gas-holders.
They’re due to be converted into flats, with one of the holders being transformed into an al fresco ‘pavilion and performance space’.
Soon afterwards, the canal reaches the 878-metre long Islington tunnel where the towpath comes to a halt (TQ308834).
[5] The above ground route is signposted, although not very effectively. The route to return to the canal is left along Muriel Street, right into Carnegie Street, left into Charlotte Terrace, right into Copenhagen Street, right into Barnsbury Road, left into Chapel Market, across Liverpool Road and Upper Street into Duncan Street, and right into Colebrooke Row where there’s entrance to the towpath (TQ317833).
[6] From here, follow the towpath all the way along the edge of the City and Hackney to Victoria Park.
(C) The East End’s answer to Regent’s Park, Victoria Park was designed by Sir James Pennethorne, a student of John Nash who layed out Regent’s Park and a large slice of the West End.
[7] For a change from the canal, enter Victoria Park at the first gate you find (Canal Gate, TQ352836) and follow the park’s southern border until its junction with Wick Lane in the far south-eastern corner of the park (TQ69841).
[8] Rejoin the Hertford Union canal, also known as Ducket’s canal, and turn left. Continue along the canal as it bends left then cross the bridge in front of you over the River Lee.
[9] Here, turn right and continue towards the stadium, until you reach Old Ford Lock.
(D) On the left is the lock-keeper’s cottage, made famous as the Big Breakfast house in the 1990s.
Cross the lock ahead to the former Percy Dalton peanut processing factory. Very soon, there is a turn left up onto the Greenway urban path.
February 2014 - We have been advised that rhis section of the Greenway is currently closed to walkers. If it is still blocked, continue along the canal you will come out on the main Bow Road. Turn left to reach Bow Road underground station or go right and then second left to reach Pudding Mill Lane DLR station. This adds approximately half a mile to the walk.
This affords a remarkable view of the entire site of the 2012 Olympic Park to the north, and Canary Wharf and Docklands to the south.
(E) The site sits on an ‘island’ bordered by the Bow Back Rivers – the Old River Lee, Pudding Mill River, and City Mill River – which are all different branches of the River Lee. A new lock was built on the Prescott Channel, which stabilised water levels on these rivers and allowed building materials and spoil from the construction site to be transported by barge.
Turn right along the Greenway to the Olympic site information centre, and then turn right behind this to descend and pass under the Docklands Light Railway to the station at Pudding Mill Lane.