From Alperton to Paddington

How do you first see a city? Arriving at Venice’s Santa Lucia station and stepping out onto broad steps leading down to the Grand Canal is hard to beat. Yesterday I walked to London along the Paddington arm of the Grand Union Canal.

Alperton is an unprepossessing suburb on the canal, inspiring none of the joy of seeing Venice. The short street leading down to the canal passes a Caribbean takeaway; speciality curried goat. On a raw, grey November morning the canal was drab and has a serious litter problem. It runs through a gritty landscape a million miles in appearance from Little Venice. The banks are flanked with warehouses and light industry, the moored boats are in terrible condition, in some cases barely afloat. It is eerily quiet compared to the Thames towpath as there are no ‘planes. The avian population consists mostly of moorhens and coots.

A pleasure of towpath walking is seeing new things and this was certainly new. I have never seen so many trains parked together.

It is the North Pole Train Maintenance Centre at Old Oak Common. Then there is this fine gasometer.

Gradually the litter level decreases, the narrow boats and pleasure craft get smarter and the architecture gets more interesting. Unfortunately Ernö Goldfinger’s Grade II* Listed, late 60s, Trellick Tower was covered in scaffolding. Actually I didn’t recognise it at first.

In the 19th century the canal was a vital artery supplying London with fuel, building materials and food and taking away detritus such as ash and manure and other waste. I did see two working barges heading out of London, one was empty the other full of brashings and other foliage but on a November weekday morning it was very quiet. Much of the Victorian building along the canal has been demolished although this terrace, worthy of Venice, is a rare survivor.

Then a modern transport artery passes overhead: the Westway.

And we are almost in the familiar purlieus of Little Venice and Paddington.

An iconic entry into a city is portrayed in Fellini’s Roma, released in 1972. It is twilight, raining and there is a traffic jam on the Raccordo Anulare. The camera cranes mounted on trucks are clearly in shot with protective plastic sheeting flapping around them as they drive into Rome. All very 70s funky Fellini.

When I flew into the old Hong Kong airport in the early 80s the ‘plane skirted round the Peak and came into land, the wings almost brushing the washing hanging out to dry from blocks of flats. In the 60s I found the drive from Heathrow into central London along the elevated section of the M4 amazingly glamorous. The Grand Union Canal does not have that Wow! Factor.