Time Travellers Walk - East London Waterways

Just a few steps away from the bustle of modern life in East London is a quiet, green world of canals, boats and wildlife. Explore this attractive area on foot, by bike or with a boat trip and discover the intriguing story of the waterways, past, present and future.

It is also particularly interesting for its birdlife - mallards, swans, coots and kingfishers as well as visiting Canada geese, herons and terns.

1. From Three Mills join the Lee Navigation, walking under the A11 and later under the Northern Outfall Sewer (built by Joseph Bazalgette in the 1860s) which looks like a bridge, as far as the junction with the Hertford Union Canal.

2. Turn left along here (alternatively known as Duckett's Cut) and follow the Canal with Victoria Park - London's oldest municipal park - on your right-hand side. Follow until you reach the junction with Regent's Canal and turn left to follow this canal all the way down to Limehouse Basin (formerly Regent's Canal Dock) and the Limehouse Link viaduct (now used by the Docklands Light Railway).

This stretch is fascinating for its history of industries, from chocolate works, a shirt and collar factory and a pharmaceutical manufacturers, to a lime-juice factory and previously the largest of Dr. Barnardo's Ragged School, now a Museum.

3. Having turned left again here, follow the Limehouse Cut past the beautiful St. Annes Church, Limehouse, famous amongst mariners for many years as the first major bnuilding to be seen by ships on their way up the Thames to the Port of London.

4. Continue along until you pass under the A12 and Bow Locks, and then reach your starting point once again.

Getting there

Parking: The Tesco car park opposite has limited public car parking.

Public transport: By overland train: Bow Church DLR (10 minutes' walk); West Ham Silverlink Metro (15 minutes' walk) By underground: Bromley-by-Bow District Line (5 minutes' walk); West Ham District Line (15 minutes' walk) By bus: S2 and 108 stop outside Tesco's; D8 and 25 stop at Bow flyover By car: A12 from Hackney or from Blackwall Tunnel or A11; take roundabout under Bow flyover, head south as if joining the A12 (Blackwall Tunnel Northern Approach), take second left for Tesco superstore.