This excursion will be back soon. In the meantime we’d be happy to organise a private tour for you. Please contact us on 020 7624 3978 | [email protected] to make a booking.
This excursion will be back soon. In the meantime we’d be happy to organise a private tour for you. Please contact us on 020 7624 3978 | [email protected] to make a booking.
Manor House tube station, London
Guided by Canal Guides
Adult: £20 · Students & Seniors: £15 · Children: £5
Long version: They (walkers) often murmur: “this is really beautiful.” Hardly surprising given that this is a walk through two parks and past two reservoirs (one of which is a world of water and reeds and birds – hey, it’s a nature reserve). So, an eye feast for starters. And ear niblets – all that birdsong. And – goes without saying, this, because it’s a London Walk – lots of food for thought. This dish, for example: very few bits of London are 400 years old. Let alone still doing what they were built to do four centuries ago. Forget London or England – let’s wheel in Europe to get the measure of this. Look around Europe – yeah, there are some spectacular Roman aqueducts. But they’ve been bone dry for many centuries. The watercourse we’re exploring – the New River – is still doing what it was built to do 400 years ago: fetching water – yes, drinking water – to London. Some fetch: 38 million gallons of water a day. More stats? How’s about 21 pumping stations? And the Chalk Aquifer 150 metres or so below us? H20 of the drinking variety for 1.2 million Londoners. Even the unpacking of the lumpen name – the North london Artificial Recharge Scheme – is a bit of fun. (Engineers – you have to marvel at how no-nonsense they are). What else? Well, you got a King to the rescue. In return for a return of course. And Nimbies who had a change of heart. And a “Scottish castle.” And the best rock climbing in the London area. And a knight who went bust. He was the Elizabethan Lone Ranger. Hi-Yo Gold! Away! Knight errant. He was all over the place. Still is. Very much with us today. London’s full of him, like rooks in a tree. Any of that – let alone all of it – is reason for going on this walk. But in addition to seeing a bit of London that’ll be virgin territory to virtually all of you there’s the satisfaction of getting under the bonnet, finding out about a critical piece of the city’s infrastructure, a development that made London possible.
The 400 Years of the New River walk takes place at 2.30 pm on XXXXXXXX. The meeting point is just outside the exit of Manor House Tube, the Finsbury Park exit.
The Regent’s Canal and other Inland Waterways Walks are well and truly a labour of love because the guides who lead them – all of them members of the Inland Waterways Association – donate their fee to the IWA. So you’re not just signing up for a fascinating walking tour, you’re supporting a good cause.
“by far the most impressive series of walks that I have ever encountered are those offered by London Walks” Travel & Enjoy
“you can’t do better than London Walks” London Day by Day
If you can’t make one of the regularly scheduled, just-turn-up, public 400 Years of the New River walks do think about booking one as a private tour. If you go private you can have the 400 Years of the New River Walk – or any other London Walk – on a day and at a time that suits your convenience. We’ll tailor it to your requirements. And – always – we go to great lengths to make sure the guide-walker(s) “fit” is well-nigh perfect. Ring Fiona or Niamh or Peter or Mary on 020 7624 3978 or email us at [email protected] and we’ll set it up and make it happen for you. A private London Walk is good value for an individual or couple and sensational value for a group. And the clincher: a private London Walk makes an ideal group or educational or birthday party or office (team-building) or club outing. Or indeed a fab present – be it a birthday or anniversary or get-to-know-your-new neighbourhood gift or Christmas present or whatever. Merchandise schmerchandise (gift wrapped or not) – but giving someone an experience, now that’s special. Memories make us rich.