I was born in a house only steps from the shores of the Pacific Ocean, so water has always been my element. When the opportunity to move to a flat on London’s Regent’s Canal came up one year into the pandemic, I jumped at the chance. The vast, wild expanse of the Pacific could not be more different from the mossy murk of this 19th-century urban canal, but somehow being close to water felt like a balm to the chaos around me as the world shut down and haltingly reopened.
I’ve spent countless hours wandering the edge of this 8.6 mile waterway and its 12 locks in the past two years, every day and in every season, noticing new details and, as restrictions eased, getting to know the many places to stop and enjoy a drink, a bite to eat or even a lush, multi-course feast along the way. Walking the full length of the canal without stopping will take about three hours, but taken at a leisurely pace with breaks along the way, it can be made into a full-day excursion.
Here are a few of my favourite places to stop either directly by the canal or a few steps away, listed from east to west, though this is by no means an exhaustive list. It begins on the Thames near the mouth of Limehouse Basin, where the canal starts, and continues north and east through Hackney, Islington, Camden and Primrose Hill.