Tag: london

The Paddington Arm

Our journey continued up the Grand Union main line just another 2 miles until we reached Bulls Bridge Junction, conveniently site of a huge Tesco, close enough to wheel a loaded trolley back to the boat. So I took advantage and stocked up on the heavier store cupboard necessities (eg, bottles of wine and cans of beer), whilst Eric filled up Firecrest with water.

Bulls Bridge junction and water point

It could have been such a pretty bridge if the graffiti vandals hadn’t wanted to make their mark.

Going onto the Paddington Arm

But we were pleasantly surprised by how nice the canal is along here.

Yes there’s a lot of residential mooring off side, but also long rural stretches, which we hadn’t expected already being within the boundarys of greater London (the first section of the GU roughly follows the southern and western edges of Ealing) and the first section of the paddington arm, skirts south of Northolt.

Greater London, quite a big “place”

And we found ourselves a peaceful overnight home in Paradise Fields, at Horsenden

Paradise Fields

We were within walking distance of the Brompton folding bike factory, but they were still following covid distancing guidelines, so weren’t running their usual tours. Just as well as we had a long day ahead of us so needed a prompt start to the day. We had been warned by many that “London would be double moored for mile after mile after mile, but we were pleased to find that we continued seeing places to moor for a few more miles. Although the duckweed and rubbish was becoming an annoying feature.

The debris thrown in along the canal is hard to ignor, but the Stowe Youth Club has created a fabulous mural

And it was only when we looked closer we realised it was made up of rubbish pulled from the canal

We are always heartened to see the enterprising art works along the canal,

But our views were about to change dramatically as we passed through Little Venice and the blue bridge marking the start of the paddington basin

Little Venice Blue Bridge

Goodbye River, Hello Canal

Goodbye River Hello Canal

This looks like an original Grand Junction canal sign

An hour and a half after leaving Teddington we were back onto the Grand Junction/Union Canal. Although for the first mile or so the canal and River Brent intermingle and there is still a tidal element at times. We had hoped to stop so we could visit Kew gardens, But we couldn’t have moored in Brentford even if we had wanted to, it was nose to tail with boats, even on the water point. But never the less we were treated to some interesting views. Brentford Bridge was a pleasing sight.

Brentford Bridge


It had undergone a makeover in 2021 and now celebrated the canals wildlife.

These paintings adorn both sides on the inside and outside

But it wasn’t long before reality of urban canals ground us to a halt, weed, plastic and rubbish, hidden under the water waiting to wrap itself around our prop, making it near impossible to steer. It is one of the foulest of boat jobs that falls onto Eric’s shoulders, because his arms are longer than mine and the physical strength needed to cut away the twine tying us up. Thankfully most vegetation can thrown off with a burst of reverse throttle but fabrics, plastics, fishing line, bicycles and shopping trolleys are all a boaters nightmare.

Yuck


All three of our convoy had to defoul our props more than once, but we gradually left the urban sprawl and found ourself cruising along some genuinely beautiful and historic canal. We stuck with our Lock buddies to work the Hanwell flight, passing the victorian paupers and lunatic asylum. The wall along the canal and the flight of locks are now a scheduled ancient monument. When the asylum was first opened in the 1830s it wasn’t as popular as the workhouse or jail because there was a fee of nine shillings per week to stay there. But needless to say it wasn’t long before it was full. It currently houses the West London Mental Health services headquarters and is known as St Bernards Hospital

The lunatic asylum

We passed “through” the three bridges (officially windmill bridge) which was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel so that the railway could be routed through a deep cutting, so as not to obscure the views of Osterly Park.

What we saw of the three bridges

https://canalplan.org.uk/place/236g

From the trains perspective, image taken from canalplan


And found ourselves a nice quiet mooring for the night. Which was just as well because the rain we had been expecting when we set off at 7am arrived with a vengeance just after we had stopped.

Rain, rain more rain