Tuesday 15th August
This may seem like cheating but we decided to walk to Limehouse as we didn't want to risk losing our mooring space and we needed another night in Victoria Park. So we set off on foot and started down the Regent's canal from Victoria Park. It was a circular walk and about 8 miles in total.
We soon came to Mile end park with it's Ecology Pavilion. There were various artworks on display.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mile_End_Park
The park had some nice areas with wild flowers.
Some of the boats have amazing paint jobs!
Some of the walls do too!
The canal here was full of duckweed. Looked like pea soup!
At Mile End Lock old met new with this high tech design building butting up against the old lock house.
There is a lot of building work going on to develop the potential for high value canalside properties and moorings. We have heard that moorings are being bid for and are going for around £20,000 per year.
We had a chat with this old lady who was 93 and still enjoying life (and her fags!)
The coots and moorhens seemed happy enough to share the duckweed.
On towards Johnson's lock.
I had to resist buying a coffee from this van.
I like these art features made out of rubbish.
So many examples of old architecture existing amongst the new. The chimney used to be part of a pumping station which has long since been demolished.
Next we reached Salmon Lane Lock. This whole stretch of canal looked like it was hardly ever used. The duckweed was everywhere and not a moving boat in site. The Canada geese had clearly set up home. All quite eerie really.
Soon after we reached Commercial Road lock which is the last lock before Limehouse basin. None of these locks are tidal. There are tidal locks leading from Limehouse to the Thames but we were not ever going to venture through those.
We had a good look around Limehouse basin. We were surprised how quiet it was. We were expecting cafes and bars, shops and lots of tourists but there were none of these! It didn't seem like we were in London at all!
We did see one boat going through the tidal lock to the Thames.
As there were no cafes or bars to get lunch on the waters edge we ventured further into Limehouse and found a lovely old pub dated 1583 to have lunch in. We could take Dex and it overlooked the Thames at the back.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grapes,_Limehouse
We could see the Gherkin and the Shard from here.
After lunch we set off along Limehouse cut back towards the Olympic park.
Again it was very quiet, no moving boats at all.
There were a whole family of coots on the water. Also some white ducks.
You could see that nothing had moved because the pea soup layer was undisturbed.
At Bow lock we could see how it links the Thames with the cut. It was low tide so nothing was happening here either.
After this we crossed a huge bridge leading back to the towpath.
We could see where the Thames estuary feeds into the Bow Back river.
This boat was clearing all the duckweed. Clearly a mammoth task!
We carried along the towpath until we reached Three Mills.
We saw this really unusual lifeboat type craft!
Three Mills was lovely. It's now a museum and they do tours. There is a nice cafe there too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Mills
The 3 Mills Studio was here too.
We carried on towards the Olympic park.
At Old Ford Lock the river splits and the boats go through the lock. We decided to walk by the river which goes a short way past the Olympic stadium but is currently not navigable.
This is Carpenters Road lock by the Olympic stadium which is still being built.
We stopped for ice creams at the Olympic Park and then walked a short distance back to the towpath on the river Lea.
We were glad we had chosen to walk the route as it was quicker and we saw more. It would have taken a while to go through the locks and there wasn't really anywhere to moor up to stop on the way. We had now completed the Limehouse circuit! 😊
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