London, Tuesday, November 11, 2025
After a good night’s sleep and a splendid breakfast, we were ready for a walking day. The tube brought us to Warwick Avenue, within a short walk of “Little Venice,” a charming pool at the confluence of two canals, the Grand Union and the Regent’s.
The canals branch off in three directions, and we were a bit unsure of our path, but a very friendly inhabitant of a houseboat soon set us right. That’s his boat, the cheery blue one on the left.
This first stretch of the walk was very pleasant, chockablock with “narrowboats.”
The canal was built in the early nineteenth century under the general directorship of the architect John Nash, who seems to have built every Regency structure in England. The ideas was to connect the already existing Grand Union Canal, coming from the west, with the Thames by building a canal in a broad arc around central London. This presented a number of difficulties as the canal passed through built up areas. The solution was to build long underground tunnels for the barges. Here is Sue looking back from the point at which the canal enters the tunnel.
Once the water goes subterranean, walkers are forced up onto a series of streets through light industry and council estates. Which made for signs of urban decay here and there.
We soon approached the fringes of Regent’s Park itself. On our left, across the canal, rose a long series of enormous villas.
These are new additions to the park, built in historicizing styles in the late 1990’s and 2000’s. They sit on land owned by the Royal Estate but the structures themselves belong to such welfare recipients as the Saudi Royal family.
The path leads on through the park and by the London Zoo.
Just before the Feng Shang Floating Princess (!), we turned off the path and headed through the park up to the top of Primrose Hill.
The skyline from the top of the hill is justly famous, with sweeping views from the London Eye all the way east to the City.
From the hill we walked down into and through Regent’s Park, headed for Queen Mary’s Gardens.
As you can see, the sun peeked through the clouds for the first time today.
Sue was delighted to find dozens of rose varieties still in bloom. Me, I liked the trees, and especially this glorious Dawn Redwood.
A bit of a walk and a bit of a tube ride brought us back home for a cup of tea and a snooze; we had walked about seven miles, not bad for the first day in.
Late afternoon found us popping in to the National Gallery; we can see the back entrance from our window. We plan to come several times, and we started with some of our favorites.
We spent the time until the museum closed in the large room that houses the unparalleled collection of Paolo Veronese. The four Allegories of Love are particular favorites.
And the grand historical paintings are stunning.
But perhaps best of all is the intimate ‘Dream of St. Helen.”
My legs were more or less shot after lots of walking and museum standing, so we cabbed it to our restaurant, a repeat visit to Noble Rot Mayfair. Food was excellent: sea bass crudo and rabbit in mustard sauce for Sue, cod cheeks with a Ponzu Mayonnaise and Venison with pumpkin and chestnut for me. We each had a glass of bubbly: a Langham Estate from Dorset for Sue and a Gonet Champagne 2019 for me. Sue did well with a nice glass of burgundy, but I was lured in by the promise of a 60 year old wine from Portugal. It was remarkably fresh and somewhat savory but finally nothing special.
An evening stroll up Piccadilly brought us home and….to the blog.
