River Thames to Bull's Bridge

We had been planning today’s walk for a long time. After all the difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic, we’d returned to the Grand Union Canal for several walks in early 2023, reaching Bull’s Bridge in March, and we had been looking for an opportunity to return since then. However, in addition to weekends spent on longer more distant walks and with family, and weekends when we had been in Norfolk not Milton Keynes (which is massively more convenient for train travel to London), we’d had to abandon planned trips as a result of weather, illness, train strikes, and on one occasion a big demonstration in London which we thought might turn nasty. We were both just getting over a lurgy of some sort,  it wasn't a strike day, and the weather forecast was for a day that was dry and not too cold (and this is how it turned out). Furthermore, I had bought new winter walking boots yesterday which would benefit from a relatively short ‘breaking in’ walk. So today was a good day for this particular leg.

To save time, we gave up our earlier plan of catching the bus to the train station, so we didn’t take advantage of our wonderful bus passes, but parking at Milton Keynes Central (MKC) only cost half as much as the eye-watering amount you have to pay to park for the day on a weekday. We made use of off peak day travel cards (which allow train travel to London and back and unlimited journeys by public transport within Zones 1-6) and because it was weekend we could still leave whenever we wanted to; we were on the the 7.46 train from MKC to Euston. This was followed by a rather noisy journey on the underground to Vauxhall, where some confusion in working out which platform we needed and more difficulty in finding the platform resulted in us just missing a train, with 30 mins to wait for the next one. We used the time to walk up to Vauxhall Bridge from where there are good views of the river, with the Houses of Parliament visible on one direction and Battersea Power Station in the other. Back at the station we caught a chuggy train to Kew Bridge, and we set off walking before 9.30 am. Not bad!

Our plan was to walk along the Thames from Kew Bridge to Thames Lock where the Grand Union Canal navigation (shared with the River Brent at this stage) parts company with the Thames. When we decided, several years ago, to walk the entire length of the Grand Union Canal, we had thought that we’d use the Paddington Arm as our ‘first’ walk at the London end (as suggested in our old guidebook) rather than attempting to reach the Thames, because there was no walking route south of Brentford Lock. However things have - in principle - improved so we decided to give it a go. After heading onto Kew Bridge for more views of the river, we descended to the bank of the river and followed the Thames Path through  "The Hollows" with office blocks to our right and houseboats to our left. Beyond, rowing crews were out training on the river.

There are several islands ("aits") in the River Thames in this section and we walked past first Brentford Ait and then Lot's Ait. Brentford Ait is uninhabited, but Lot's Ait is home to a boatyard, linked to the north bank of the Thames by Dahlia Bridge.  The Thames Path meandered its way along walkways, past inlets from the river, modern flats, and sculptures. What was once - I suspect - a rather down-at-heal industrial area is being regenerated, but unfortunately the work isn't finished; a sign indicated that the path at Thames Lock is closed, so we retreated to Brentford High Street which we walked along to Brentford Lock. It was a bit disappointing not to be able to get to the confluence of the River Thames and the Grand Union Canal (which is one and the same thing as the River Brent at this stage), but our alternative route had its own advantage, namely that it took us past a smart new Morrisons, with a toilet...

From Brentford Bridge, we descended to Brentford Gauging Lock, where the value of the cargo boats would once have assessed, and tolls charged. The area around the lock has also been developed, again with modern flats. It's an attractive place, but I was concerned that my new walking boots were rubbing on my ankles, so we stopped to take a look. It turned out that the top of the boots was above the top of the socks I was wearing, and thankfully I was able to minimise the damage by changing into longer and thicker socks. We continued past the buildings of Brentside Business Park and under the A4 and. remarkably quickly, we left the built up area behind. Just under the A4 crossing there's a nice Canal and River Trust board about the Grand Union Canal, which tells you that the route to Birmingham is over 100 miles which is "a very long walk".  However, it also tells you that "you don't have to go that far to feel the benefits of being by water" and that's so true.

We were now on the edge of Boston Manor Park, and we were in a lovely green corridor. From here to Hanwell Locks, other than for the sound and sight of the M4 up above us and occasional railway bridges, we could have been in the middle of the countryside, not in London.  The area around Clitheroe Lock (shown) is attractive, and we crossed to the other side of the canal by the iron-cast "Gallows Bridge", which may have got its macabre name from the fact a man was found hanging nearby in the 17th Century. The bridge itself only dates from 1820; it bears this date and also the fact that it is on the "Grand Junction Canal". After passing under the M4 we reached Osterley Lock, which bears a sign asking you to keep the swans out of the lock. We speculated about how one is meant to achieve this outcome, and above the lock encountered a swan family who are perhaps the ones creating cause for concern. 

At the bottom of the flight of locks at Hanwell, the River Brent at last parts coming with the Grand Union Canal, and the Capitol Ring, which we had been following along with the Grand Union Canal Walk from Brentford Lock, followed in a similar direction.  We were being followed by a female dog-walker whose lengthy and loud phone conversation was irritating us, so we stopped to let her past, only for her to cross over one of the locks shortly afterwards and continue by a different route, now clutching both dog and phone. However, it was an attractive area (I liked both the houses of Hanwell coming down to the River Brent and the locks themselves, complete with side-ponds opposite) so our irritation was short-lived. We stopped for a very early lunch at a well-placed bench, an ideal place from which to enjoy the locks and generally watch the world go by. A woman with an elderly dog pottered by, and a younger couple with a younger dog politely waited for her,  then stopped for a chat.

By the time we'd eaten our lunch we had also read up about the Hanwell Locks, so we knew that, as we continued up the hill past the locks (some of which are quite deep), we were walking past St Bernard's Hospital, which was also known as Hanwell Insane Asylum and the Hanwell Pauper and Lunatic Asylum. Halfway up the flight, by "Asylum Lock", a bricked-in archway once allowed boats into the asylum to deliver coal. Today, two boats were passing through Asylum Lock and as we climbed up the hill there were good views back the way we'd come. Beyond the top lock we reached "Three Bridges", a multiple bridge/aquaduct where the road runs over the canal and the canal runs over the railway, and then the two Norwood Locks.

Up to this point, I'd enjoyed the walk much more than I'd expected to. However, perhaps because I wasn't at 100% health and was getting tired and my left ankle was hurting , the rest of today's walk along the canal was less good. It wasn't as down-at-heal as I'd expected, indeed we passed some nice houses with gardens running down to the canal and a park.  There were some abandoned boats on the canal that had reached a half-sunken state, but in some ways that made the walk more interesting and there was plenty of wildlife (swans, geese, ducks. and today had been a particularly good day for coots). The main issue really was that, apart from a gentle bend to the right, the canal was dead straight with nothing of particular interest. I was relieved when we reached what the guidebook describes as a colony of houseboats (some conventional and some looking like portacabins on floating platforms). Beyond this was the area that, when the guidebook was written, was "being developed as the site for a supermarket". Now, the  Bull's Bridge Tesco Extra is well established, with its car park coming almost down to the canal.  That's the Tesco we visited last time we were here, and where we were going today, after getting to Bull's Bridge.

Bull's Bridge crosses the Paddington Arm of the Grand Union Canal. When we were last here (which, confusingly, is described in the order of progress from the Thames, as the following leg to today's), I muttered about all the graffiti and litter on the path. There was still plenty of graffiti today, but I was very pleased to see the boat "Pride of London" collecting bags of litter from just under the bridge.  We continued on to the next bridge, where the busy A312 crosses the river, and because we've been this way before, we knew that our route to Tesco lay up the steps, over the canal on the road bridge, then under the road by way of an underpass.