Little Venice and the Canals of London

I like to explore areas outside of my own neighborhood and my latest adventure took place in Little Venice.

The Little Venice area of London is a well known, up scale part of town built around two of the major canals in London.


Canals were built throughout London and Britain to transport goods particularly coal from the mining regions to London where there was great demand.




As rail and roads were built over the ensuing years, the canals have turned from transporting goods to tourism. We can rent canal boats, often referred to as cigar boats because of their long-narrow profile.


Not only can canal boats be rented but there are path ways along the canals which make for wonderful walks.

A Walk in the Park

The icy blast of winter has loosened it's grip on London just a bit and as is typical of a population suffering from cabin fever, we Londoners get out quickly when the precipitation stops.

As in most large cities, we have many great parks and wilderness areas within the boundaries of London. I like the famous parks of the city, Hyde Park, Regents Park, St James Park but my favorite for a good brisk hike is Hampstead Heath.

The Heath is not far from my house - a short bus ride to several lovely park entrances. This past weekend the clouds parted for a brief time and I headed out for a walk in the park.

About 9 AM I hopped the 46 - affectionately known as the Phantom 46- for it's irregular adherence to any kind of schedule. As long as you are flexible about your time commitments, the 46 works fine.

It runs through Swiss Cottage, up into Hampstead and on into the city. I live in Swiss Cottage and the Heath is in Hampstead (hence the name).

I got off the bus on the High Street of Hampstead (the shopping area) and headed over to the Heath down Flask Walk, to Well Walk and into the western part of the Heath.

There are wide expanses of wilderness cut by trails from the width of a two lane road, paved walkways, to single trails cutting through the brush.


Even on a cool winter morning there were dozens of people running, hiking and walking their dogs and children.

There were even two teams of runners competing in some kind of survival course each lead by a Rambo-esk soldier barking orders.

The runners all looked like clerks or business people wondering what they had gotten themselves into. Most out of shape, huffing and puffing up the hills, looking a bit disoriented.



Toward the southern part of the Heath is one of the highest points in London, Parliament Hill. I love the view from the top of the hill with central London in the misty distance.


On down the hill I trudged toward the ponds. Two for swimming - one clothing optional, and lower pond for the ducks. The ducks had noticed the absence of swimmer and were happily using all the ponds.

As I hiked out of the Heath I was feeling happy to have gone on the hike and even happier that I knew were the public toilets were outside the park.

Britain doesn't have the same laws regarding the availability of toilet facilities. Shops do not have to provide restrooms for customers and restaurants have them only for customers. Part of any good outing in London is having a guide who knows where you can go.

A public wee is frowned upon but rather common given the lack of public facilities.