Canal Walks: Hayes to Brentford

Key facts:

• Start = Hayes & Harlington train station
• End = Kew Bridge train station
• Distance = 12.5 km

This walk was as pretty, if not more so, than the Aplerton to Hayes walk, and it had the added bonus of seeing Isambard Kingdom Brunel's last great piece of engineering, the famous Three Bridges.

On a spring day (yup, bit behind with blogging at the moment) with blue skies and hot sun (well that is topically at least) it had a very pleasant rural feel, not at all as if within the largest city in Europe:

As the canal gently heads down to the Thames there are a picturesque series of locks:

On one side of the canal is a old brick building with a bricked up entrance: this used to be an asylum but not is a hospital for those with mental health issues:

A high spot of this leg is the famous "Three Bridges" which a pedant might point out is really two. Here a road goes over the canal which itself goes over a railway:

Bravo Brunel!!

Towards the end there is a bit of a mess of industry with surprisingly (to me) large working boatyards:

The path winds itself around these until it reaches the Thames, last seen something like 50 km previously at Limehouse. But here it is the civilised upper river with Kew Gardens on the opposite bank:

With that it was time to head onwards to Kew Bridge and the station to take me home.