London: South Kensington; Saturday, 27 August, 2022

My first stop of the morning was back along the Cromwell Road to the third of the big three museums in South Kensington – the Victoria and Albert.

This is an absolutely enormous museum and I spent several hours wandering round the galleries taking in the exhibits, but I probably only scratched the surface on what there was to see.

I had a quick pit stop lunch at a sushi place near South Kensington tube station and then hopped on the Piccadilly line up to Hyde Park Corner for my next attraction of the day, the Wellington Arch.

The Arch sits at the centre of the large traffic intersection at the top of Hyde Park and houses a couple of small exhibition spaces in one of the legs of the arch, as well as viewing platforms either side of the arch at the top. From the viewing platforms there are pretty good views over the grounds of Buckingham Palace, Green and Hyde Parks and across to my next museum to visit – Apsley House.

Also known as Number 1 London, as it was originally the first building in London that you reached if you were coming from the West, the house’s most famous resident was the Duke of Wellington, who lived here for a number of years, and held annual Waterloo Banquets in the upper floors to celebrate his most famous victory. The house is still in the hands of the current Duke of Wellington, though it’s cared for by English Heritage and open to the public. Along with he rooms left as they would have been when the Duke lived here the is also a small museum showing some of the gifts the Duke received from grateful monarchs around Europe once he’d disposed of Europe’s Napoleon problem once and for all.

From Apsley house I made my way back to the tube station and headed up to Kings Cross where I walked over to the London Canal Museum. Located in a former Ice Store for an ice-cream magnate in a basin just off of the Regents Canal this small museum tells the history of the canal network in London and the unique issues that the canals faced in London whilst they were still being used as commercial waterways up until after the Second World War.

After taking in the museum I wandered back along the canal to Granary Square. This area was originally part of the goods yards for Kings Cross Station, but fell into disuse as goods traffic switched to the roads. At one point this was a particularly nasty and dangerous bit of London, but over the last 20 years or so has been so fully rejuvenated that its now a popular place for people to visit and a convenient place to start the mile or so walk along the Canal towpath past the first five locks on the Regents Canal back to Camden Market.

I followed the tow path back to Camden and had a quick wander round the market before it was time to head over to the boarding pier for the London Waterbus which I was booked on to take me back along the last stretch of the Regents Canal from Camden, through the grounds of London Zoo, under Maida Hill in a lengthy tunnel and through to Little Venice, the point where the Regents Canal meets the Grand Union Canal.

From Little Venice I wandered back to the nearby tube station and caught the Bakerloo line down to Charring Cross and stopped off for some dinner there before hopping on the District Line back to Gloucester Road and my hotel bed.