NCN 6 Paddington to St. Albans
The Grand Union Canal, near Hayes
London to St. Albans 68km,.
Overview.
This is a lovely ride out of London along the very rural Grand Union Canal. Rather than towers of glass, you have towers of poplars, rather than factories and housing, you have willows and birds’ nests. The way is lined with flowers and trees, canal boats add colour and sometimes puffs of grey coal smoke. There are fishermen, usually from the far-flung corners of Europe, catching roach and perch. For the thirsty, there are many canalside pubs to while away an hour or two. After Watford, you take the country route into St.Albans to arrive at the magnificent abbey church. The town itself is England encapsulated and the remains of the Roman town of Verulanium are some of the best examples of a Roman city in Britain from their occupation.
Ride details
Distance: 68km
Start: Paddington Basin
Finish: St. Alban’s Cathedral.
Nearest Mainline/overground stations to the start: Paddington
Nearest Mainline/overground to the finish: St.Albans City
Time needed: half day.
Difficulty: Easy and flat.
Traffic and Surfaces: Shared paths alongside the Grand Union canal and the disused railway lines. Generally surfaces are reasonable, although the tarmac is often worn and lumpy. Through Watford and St. Albans, the signage is good.
Cycle Paths: London Cycle Network C16. Links to NCN 61, 57.
Cafes/Pubs: plenty of choice all along the route.
What to see: St. Albans Cathedral and extensive Roman Ruins.
Link to Stage 2
Paddington
The official start of the NCN 6 is at a road bridge over the Grand Union Canal (GUC) on the western outskirts of London. However, if you wish for a more ‘Grand Départ, where there’s a sense of place and occasion to begin, or end your 800km journey, then the Paddington basin at the end of the GUCl is a much better option. It’s full of bustle, eclectic restaurants and pubs and has a real big city feel. A place to be bad farewell, and ‘bon voyage’.
Paddington Basin
You’ll be following the GUC all the way out of London. From the basin, you pass new and gleaming buildings which crowd around the canal. The path forms part of the Cycleway 16, a traffic-free London route and is well used.
London Cycling Network C16
The processed food capital of Britain
A few kilometres in and the human traffic diminishes. You pass the Trellick Tower, one of London’s most celebrated brutalist buildings. Parks edge onto the path, trees become more numerous, and you feel less confined by the city. You pass Wormwood Scrubs - the famous prison is just visible through the trees - and Old Oak Common, a major new junction for the new HS2.
By km16 of increasingly peaceful riding, you pass the grey metal box sheds of Greenford, the food processing capital of Britain. Prepare to be hungry. Smells of curry, biscuits, cakes, tomato sauce and much more are wafted across the path and canal from by extractor fans. Beyond Park Royal, stop for a moment. The only noise you’ll hear are the birds and the silence, yet, you are still very much in London. Dense willows border the path. Verges are filled with flowers. There are few people - perhaps a fisherman or two.
Traffic-free riding along the Grand Union Canal
Bricks
A hundred and fifty years ago, this canal would have been far from the peaceful backwater that it is today;. Brick works lined the canal, which resulted in the two-way trade of bricks going east and the city’s rubbish coming west, to in-fill the clay pits.
The Grand Union Canal
21km into your ride, you’ll arrive at Bull’s Bridge where the Paddington Branch joins the GUC proper. The path narrows and the surface can be bumpy with broken tar and rough rubble, but it’s always rideable, even with a 30mm touring tyre.
Traffic-free riding along the Grand Union Canal
Ebury Way
Beyond Uxbridge you leave London and ride along the Ebury Way, (once part of the Watford and Rickmansworth railway), passing lakes, woods and fields, until you are shocked out of your rural torpor by the streets of Watford. However, the way is on quietist roads with good signage through the town. Thereafter there is a mixture of housing estates and quiet roads into St. Albans.
St. Albans
St. Albans is a good place to halt, either for the night or for a mid-ride rest. In the town there are numerous pubs and independent cafes where another hour or two can swiftly pass. Even if you have no religious pretensions, the cathedral is a sanctuary of peace and beauty after the bumpy riding. Nearby are the extensive Roman remains, including an amphitheatre. Direct trains to London take less than 1/2 hour. There are plenty of hotels in the town if you wish to stay.
The Cathedral & Abbey Church of Saint Alban
Every route on this website has been carefully researched as well as ridden. However situations on the ground can change quickly. If you know of changes to this route, or cafes, pubs and the like which you think other cyclists need to know about, feel free to share your thoughts below.
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