The Paddington Arm runs 13.6 miles from Little Venice to Bulls Bridge Junction at Hayes, and in all that distance there is not a single lock. That is the whole point of it: a flat, continuous towpath out of central London into the western suburbs, with no gates to open and no steps to climb.
It is a branch, not a main line. The Grand Union Canal proper comes up from the Thames at Brentford and heads north for Birmingham; the Paddington Arm leaves that main line at Bulls Bridge, near Hayes, and cuts east across west London to end in Paddington Basin. The Canal & River Trust, which owns and manages it, gives the length as 13.6 miles in its boating data and rounds it to fourteen in the prose on the same page.
Most visitors meet it at the eastern end without knowing its name. The pool at Little Venice, where it joins the Regent's Canal, is where the narrowboat trips to Camden start, and our guide to Little Venice and the Regent's Canal covers the boats, the fares and the towpath east towards Camden. This page goes the other way: west, out of the postcard bit, along the stretch almost nobody walks.
The Paddington Arm in numbers
- Length
- 13.6 miles, Little Venice to Bulls Bridge Junction (Canal & River Trust boating data)
- Locks
- None
- Opened
- 1801, as the Paddington arm of the Grand Junction Canal
- Maximum beam
- 4.3 m (14 ft)
- Headroom under bridges
- 2.67 m (8 ft 9 in)
- Depth (draught)
- 1.3 m (4 ft 3 in)
- Cost to walk or cycle
- Nothing
- Towpath surface
- Sealed and level for most of the inner miles; rougher and narrower west of Alperton
What "no locks" actually buys you
A lock-free canal is not just a convenience for boats. It means the towpath has no flights of steps, no lock beams to squeeze past and no changes in level beyond the gentle camber of the bank. For a walker it is the flattest 13 miles in London. For a family with a pushchair, or anyone who tires on hills, it is the one long London route that never climbs.
It also explains the canal's shape. Because the engineers would not spend water on locks, the Arm had to follow a single contour line, which is why it wanders: north around Kensal Green, a long loop out to Alperton, a swing south through Perivale and Northolt. The map looks indirect because the water is staying at exactly the same height the whole way.
The Trust's own dimensions tell you the rest. Headroom under the bridges is 2.67 m, which is why the towpath ducks low at several crossings; anyone over about six feet will find themselves stooping under a couple of the older brick arches.
Photo: Doyle of London · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · resized
Little Venice to Kensal Green: the stretch to walk
If you have one afternoon, walk west from Little Venice to Kensal Green and no further. This is the stretch with the most to look at and the easiest escape at each end.
Start at Warwick Avenue station, which is two minutes from the water. Go down to the towpath on the Blomfield Road side and turn west, away from the island in the pool. Within ten minutes the white stucco has gone and you are in a cutting behind the Westway, with the backs of Paddington's terraces above you on the right and moored boats on the left. Transport for London's journey planner gives 22 minutes on foot between Warwick Avenue and Westbourne Park station, and a further 29 minutes from there to Kensal Green; the towpath is the natural line between them, and those figures are the right order of magnitude for the walk.
Westbourne Park is the halfway bail-out. Past it the canal runs along the northern edge of the Kensal area, and the character changes again: gasworks land on one side, a supermarket car park on the other, then quite suddenly a long brick wall on your left with cypress trees behind it. That is the cemetery.
The Arm has no towpath signposts to Uxbridge, whatever a map suggests. The Paddington Arm ends at Bulls Bridge, by Hayes. Uxbridge sits on the Grand Union main line, further north-west, and reaching it means changing canals at the junction. Treat Bulls Bridge as the end of this walk, not a waypoint.
Kensal Green Cemetery, and the coffins that came by boat
The canal borders Kensal Green Cemetery, opened in 1833 as the first of London's great commercial burial grounds, and the Trust's own account of the Arm points to the landing platforms there, where coffins once arrived by narrowboat. The plan was a full water funeral service; in practice it was used rarely, but the stonework on the canal side is the evidence that it existed at all.
Historic England's open data makes the scale plain. The cemetery landscape is registered at Grade I, the top grade, registered on 1 October 1987 and covering 28.6 hectares. Query the listed-building layer for a box around the walls and more than a hundred separate listed structures come back, nearly all of them individual tombs: Charles Babbage, George Cruikshank, the Hardwicks, the Reformers' Memorial. Our guide to the Magnificent Seven cemeteries has the opening times and which of the seven to pick.
You cannot get from the towpath into the cemetery. The wall is continuous; the entrances are on Harrow Road, on the far side. Leave the canal at Ladbroke Grove or at Kensal Green station and walk round.
The middle miles: Alperton, Perivale and the aqueduct nobody photographs
West of Willesden the Arm becomes an industrial back road with water in it. This is not a criticism. It is quiet in a way that no park in London is quiet, and the birdlife on the long straight past Park Royal is better than the setting deserves.
Alperton is the practical access point, on the Piccadilly line. Paddington to Alperton takes about 33 minutes with one or two changes and costs £3.60 off-peak on contactless; our page on the Piccadilly line explains how its branches work. From Alperton the journey planner gives 28 minutes on foot to Perivale, which is roughly the towpath distance between them.
Between them the canal crosses the River Brent on an embankment and then runs past the edge of Horsenden Hill. This is the Ealing and west London hinterland, and if you want a single afternoon that combines canal and a view, the Horsenden side is the better bet than the towpath alone.
Bulls Bridge, and where the water comes from
Bulls Bridge, in Hayes, is the western full stop: a T-junction where the Arm meets the main line. It is an unglamorous place, hemmed in by a retail park, and the honest verdict is that it is not worth a journey in itself. It is worth reaching if you are walking the whole Arm and want an end point you can get home from: Hayes & Harlington station is nearby, and Paddington to Hayes & Harlington takes 17 to 18 minutes on the Elizabeth line for £3.80.
North-west from the junction the main line runs up towards Cowley and Uxbridge; south, it drops through the Hanwell locks to the Thames at Brentford. Our guides to Southall and Brentford and Isleworth cover the two best things on that main line — Brunel's Three Bridges and the Brentford lock basin — neither of which is on the Paddington Arm.
The Arm is fed, in part, from reservoirs rather than from a river at the top. The Canal & River Trust lists Brent Reservoir, better known as the Welsh Harp, among the places to visit near the Paddington Arm and states that its waterways are fed by local reservoirs. The Welsh Harp is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, free to walk into, with no toilets on site and Hendon and Neasden stations at opposite ends of it. It is a two-mile detour off the towpath, not a stop on it.
Walking it whole, and how long that takes
Nobody needs to walk 13.6 miles of canal, but people do. At a steady three miles an hour, allowing for two short stops, our estimate is four and a half to five hours from Little Venice to Bulls Bridge (September 2026). Cycling it takes about half that, and the towpath is legal to cycle for its whole length.
| Access point | Line | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Warwick Avenue | Bakerloo | The eastern start, at Little Venice |
| Westbourne Park | Hammersmith & City, Circle | Halfway on the inner stretch |
| Kensal Green | Bakerloo, Overground | The cemetery, and the end of the good bit |
| Alperton | Piccadilly | The quiet middle miles |
| Perivale | Central | The Brent crossing and Horsenden Hill |
| Hayes & Harlington | Elizabeth line | Bulls Bridge, the western end |
Cyclists and walkers share the whole width of the path, and the Trust asks cyclists to slow down and give way. Our page on cycling in London covers hire bikes, and the one on walking in London explains when a walk beats the Tube.
What it is like in February
Bleak, and better for it. Without leaves you can see the structure of the thing: the brickwork, the wharf edges, the backs of buildings that were built to face the water. The towpath drains poorly in a few places west of Alperton and you will want boots rather than trainers. Light is the real constraint — the path has no lighting for most of its length, so plan to be off it before dusk rather than at a fixed hour.
In summer the inner stretch is busy with runners and moored boats, and the water smells of warm diesel. The best months are April and October, when the towpath is dry and empty at the same time.
Is it worth the trip out?
The three miles from Little Venice to Kensal Green: yes, without reservation, and it costs nothing, which puts it among the better entries in our round-up of free things to do in London. The middle miles around Alperton: only if you actively like industrial edge-land, and many people do. Bulls Bridge: no, unless you are completing the whole thing.
If what appeals is a short, self-contained London canal with locks and a pub at each end, two other branches do that better. Our pages on the Hertford Union Canal and the Limehouse Cut cover both, and both take an hour rather than a day. The residential canal life at the eastern end, meanwhile, belongs to St John's Wood and Maida Vale, and the dead-end basin behind the station to Paddington and Bayswater.
Towpath closures are posted as boating stoppages, not as walking notices. When the Trust repairs a bank or a bridge it publishes the work on its stoppages page, and the towpath usually shuts with it. Check before you commit to a long one-way walk with a station at the far end.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Paddington Arm really lock-free for its whole length?
Yes. The Canal & River Trust's boating information for the Arm lists the number of locks between Bulls Bridge and Little Venice as none. That makes it the longest lock-free stretch of canal in London, and the flattest long walking route in the city.
Can you walk from Little Venice to Uxbridge along the canal?
Not along the Paddington Arm, which ends at Bulls Bridge near Hayes. From the junction you would continue north-west on the Grand Union main line, which does have locks. Plan the two sections separately and do not treat Uxbridge as the end of the Arm.
How long does the whole towpath take on foot?
Our estimate is four and a half to five hours at a steady three miles an hour with a couple of short stops, for the full 13.6 miles (September 2026). Most people do it in two or three sections, using the Bakerloo, Piccadilly, Central and Elizabeth lines to get in and out.
Can you get into Kensal Green Cemetery from the towpath?
No. The cemetery wall runs unbroken along the canal and the gates are on Harrow Road, on the opposite side. Leave the water at Ladbroke Grove or Kensal Green station and walk round to the main entrance.
Is the towpath lit after dark?
Not for most of its length. There is some spill from streets and bridges on the inner miles, but from Willesden westwards the path is unlit. Treat dusk rather than a clock time as the cut-off, which in London means about 4.30pm in December and after 9pm in June.
Sources
- Canal & River Trust - Paddington Arm (Grand Union Canal) (checked September 2026)
- Canal & River Trust - Boating the Paddington Arm: length, locks and dimensions (checked September 2026)
- Canal & River Trust - Brent Reservoir (Welsh Harp) (checked September 2026)
- Historic England - Kensal Green (All Souls) Cemetery, registered park and garden, Grade I (checked September 2026)
- Transport for London - Tube and rail fares (checked September 2026)