This is the first stage of the King’s Cross to Ivinghoe Beacon jaunt via the Grand Union Canal.
I joined the canal at King’s Cross and headed west towards Camden Town and Regent’s Park. I know this route extremely well as I’ve been walking it since early childhood.
The Grand Union / Regent's Canal - St Pancras Lock
I used to hang around the canal at Camden Market in my teens. This was when the market still had a down-at-heel bohemian air to it and was home to the excellent, and much missed, Compendium bookshop and a number of fine record shops. The market was heaving as I passed through, now one of London’s top five tourist attractions.
It was good to leave the market and move on down towards the zoo. This section of the walk brought back happy childhood memories of fishing for sticklebacks and, when a bit older, climbing over the fence to get into the zoo for free.
Blow-Up Bridge, near Regent's Park zoo
I finished this stage of the walk at Lisson Grove where I left the canal and made my way down to Marylebone Road to catch a bus back to King’s Cross.
The canal at Lisson Grove
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Yes I remember the compendium bookshop and quite a few places there – I also remember when Camden Lock market first opened.
Thanks Martin
When the canal first opened? Wow, that must have been the late 60s, right? Compendium was such a fine shop, I spent so much time lurking about the basement, reading obscure Situationist texts.
Camden Lock market opened in the 70′s