Canal Walk - Maida Vale to Regent's Park, London

It's just marvelous isn't it?

A watery alternative universe

plunked right

in the middle of

London.

This walk starts in Maida Vale near the Warwick Avenue Tube Station.

Did you know that Richard Branson's Virgin business empire originated

in a houseboat in Maida Vale?  (Also known as Little Venice.)

Or that some scenes from A Fish Called Wanda

were filmed here?  Such a characterful place.

And, since it IS England, just because you live on boat, doesn't mean you can't have a garden.

The route is changeable and full of surprises.  At just about Lisson Grove near St. John's Wood it's necessary to rejoin the street above and then.....redescend........to the water.

Some boat dwellers live in "gated communities"on the canal, that you will not have access to, or that are locked at night.

Brilliant blue paint and miniature gardens are a consistent theme.

I think you might know what I thought about encountering this character.......

I WANTED TO BRING HIM HOME (to L.A.!) WITH ME !!!!!!

A very jaunty and creative bunch seemed to be inhabiting

this particular stretch

of the canal.  But its character changes rather abruptly

as you enter Regent's Park.   Just above

the London Mosque with it's twinkly minaret.

Great doings are underway, apparently.

And yes, those are PRIVATE HOUSES set in prime London real estate.

And yet, cheek by jowl.... right next to...the London Zoo.

More specifically, the warthog exhibit!  (No, really!)  The hyenas are in the next enclosure over.....

and across the canal from them....a peacock aviary.  One does have the sensation by this point of having falling down a particular kind of rabbit hole where thing's do get.....

curioser and curioser.

Because this segment of the London Canal route ends in

a.......Pagoda!  That floats!  (And where you can eat Chinese food!)  I was not expecting that, were you?  

One is reminded again of the saying:  "when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford." - Samuel Johnson