Camden, Primrose Hill and Little Venice

1. Introduction

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   This walk starts at Camden Town station and follows the Regent's Canal towpath west. You climb Primrose Hill for the view, pass London Zoo, go under Macclesfield Bridge and reach Browning's Pool at Little Venice. It ends at Warwick Avenue station. The towpath is shared with cyclists, and near the end the route leaves the water for a short stretch of street.

2. Stop 1: Camden Lock Market

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   A small weekly crafts market began near Camden Lock on 30 March 1974. The site had been canal warehouses, and canal trade had ended by the early 1970s. A planned motorway threatened the area, so the market started as a temporary one. When the motorway plans were dropped in 1976, the market became well known. Close by, the Stables Market occupies the former Pickford's stables, a listed horse hospital that served the horses pulling vans and barges along the canal. Next stop: Primrose Hill.

   Sources for this stop

   • Wikipedia: Camden Market (opens in new tab)

3. Stop 2: Primrose Hill

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   The summit of Primrose Hill is almost sixty-three metres above sea level, and it is one of six protected viewpoints in London. Trees are kept low so they do not block the view. Eton College sold the hill in 1841, and it was added to the parkland so that poorer north Londoners had somewhere for open-air recreation. Its name dates to Elizabethan times, when spring flowers covered its slopes. On the slope is an oak planted in 1864 for the three hundredth anniversary of Shakespeare's birth, replaced in 1964. Next stop: London Zoo.

   Sources for this stop

   • The Royal Parks: Primrose Hill (opens in new tab)
   • The Royal Parks: History of Regent's Park and Primrose Hill (opens in new tab)

4. Stop 3: London Zoo

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   London Zoo opened on 27 April 1828, run by the Zoological Society of London, which was founded in 1826. At first it was for scientific study, and it opened to the public in 1847. It is described as the world's oldest scientific zoo. Decimus Burton was its first official architect and laid out the early grounds. The Penguin Pool, by Berthold Lubetkin and the Tecton Group, dates from the 1930s and is listed at grade one. The Snowdon Aviary opened in 1965 as Britain's first public walk-through aviary. Next stop: Macclesfield Bridge.

   Sources for this stop

   • Wikipedia: London Zoo (opens in new tab)
   • The Royal Parks: History of Regent's Park and Primrose Hill (opens in new tab)

5. Stop 4: Macclesfield Bridge

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   Just before five in the morning on 2 October 1874, a steam tug was towing six barges along the canal. As they passed under this bridge, gunpowder on one barge, the Tilbury, ignited. The blast destroyed the bridge, and four people on the Tilbury were killed, three men and a boy. It was heard across London, and animals at London Zoo were frightened, though no dangerous animals escaped. The bridge was rebuilt and nicknamed Blow Up Bridge. In 1875 Parliament passed the Explosives Act. Next stop: Little Venice.

   Sources for this stop

   • Royal Museums Greenwich: The Macclesfield Bridge disaster (opens in new tab)

6. Stop 5: Little Venice (Browning's Pool)

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   Browning's Pool is a triangular basin where three canals meet: the Paddington Arm of the Grand Union Canal, the Regent's Canal and the short Paddington Basin canal. The basin was designed so that long canal boats could turn around. The name Little Venice is fairly recent. It is often credited to the poet Robert Browning, who lived at Beauchamp Lodge from 1862 to 1887, though in 1966 Lord Kinross disputed this and argued that Lord Byron first made the comparison, as a joke. The walk ends at Warwick Avenue station.

   Sources for this stop

   • Wikipedia: Little Venice (opens in new tab)

Written for Britlens from the sources listed under each stop. Check opening times and access on the official sites before you go.