London Canal Grime and Graffiti Tour
On Saturday I was out and about wandering around London on my be a tourist day. By divine intervention I amazingly got myself to where I was intending to be. Limehouse Basin, was the place I wanted to be at and after one hell of a long walk and a few pints of Fosters lager in the Prospect of Whitby pub, I eventually stumbled upon my intended destination.
My goal before I had started out many hours and miles earlier, was to walk from Limehouse Basin, and carry along Regents Canal until I came to Kings Cross where I would take the tube back home to the centre of the Universe…Kilburn! But after about 5 minutes of walking along Regents Canal I was wondering what the fuck am I doing here. It was a terrible place to walk, the canal was strewn with tons of rubbish, there was grime and graffiti everywhere. It was a nightmare.
The start of the walk is very nice indeed, there has obviously been a lot of money spent turning Limehouse Basin into a desirable place to live. The area takes a nosedive as soon as you walk out of the basin, where you suddenly feel like you are in the heart of the ghetto. I would compare it to starting a bungee jump in Buckingham Palace and by the time you hit the bottom you are in Nelson Mandela House! What a nightmare.
Only 5 minutes into the walk the first thing I see as soon as I left Limehouse Basin was a couple of young Indian kids pushing two shopping trolleys into the canal laughing like hyenas, as they did so. They must have been around 9 or 10 years old. I should have about turned and went back to the Prospect of Whitby pub and sank a few more overpriced pints of lager!
I think the stretch of Regents Canal from Limehouse Basin to Angel, where I eventually managed to escape back to civilization, should be renamed Grime and Graffiti Canal. Today I have decided to feature some of the better graffiti that I encountered – some of it good, some not so good and some of it a waste of paint..!
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Hmmm…I hate cycling in London. And as I’m training for a tri, I was considering cycling along the canal this weekend to avoid the cars. Given your story, maybe I’ll avoid it
It’s not the best place I have been to in London…Nightmare!