Twenty-two Poly ramblers met at the Angel station Islington, to begin our walk along the Regents Canal covering parts of North and East London. The Regent’s Canal is 8.6mls long and was completed in 1820, dozens of day trip boats, narrow boats and water cafes line this stretch of the canal. The towpath also proved to be very popular with cyclists and joggers just two of the potential hazards on our walk. Our route started with the Hanging Gardens of Islington, as the canal emerged from the tunnel under Islington. After about 5Km the towpath went alongside the edge of Victoria Park where we passed through Canal Gate to make our way to the Pavilion café via the beautiful lake with its Pagoda. Following our lunch, we made our way across the park to enter the Old English Rose Garden which surprisingly still had some roses in flower. Emerging from the Rose Garden we walked alongside a pond and crossed the main path to head for Lock House Gate and the Hertford Union Canal, also known as Duckett’s Cut. At just over a mile long, in the borough of Tower Hamlets, it connects the Regents Canal with the Lee navigation.  We left the canal by ascending steps to Grove Road to re-join the Regents Canal via a grassy bank. After a further 300 meters we approached Mile End Lock where a number of the group left to find a local hostelry, whilst the rest of us crossed the Green Bridge, affectionately known as the banana bridge, built to celebrate the Millennium and to overcome the conflict between Mile End Park and the traffic of the Mile End Road. We continued our route along the canal passing the Ragged School Museum, finally reaching Limehouse lock and our final destination the Yurt Café led by Cathy, highly recommended for its vegan cakes and drinks at a very reasonable price.

Hilary.  Photos by Hilary and Stuart