e2e.bike

Cycling adventures across Yorkshire, Britain and beyond

Menu
  • End to Ends
    • Britain
    • Ireland
    • France
    • Spain
    • Portugal
    • Belgium
    • Netherlands
    • Luxembourg
    • Denmark
    • Austria
    • Switzerland
    • Czechia
    • Slovakia
    • Poland
    • Latvia
    • Cuba
    • Sri Lanka
    • Taiwan
    • Isle of Man
    • Faroes
    • Liechtenstein
  • Coast to Coasts
  • Yorkshire Ridings
  • Others
  • Writings
Menu
← PreviousNext →

A406: North Circular’s amazing aqueduct

Posted on 30 October 20062 April 2021 by Rob Ainsley

Britain’s canals have to perform various acrobatics as they trickle their way round the country: they leap over rivers, burrow under granite massifs, stair-jump up and down locks, and even beam chunks of themselves in tanks up and down.

No sign of what’s to come…

But one of their most subtly surprising tricks is in west London, somewhere between Park Royal and Alperton. A spur of the Grand Union Canal ambles 9km or so from Paddington station through a back-door waterscape of small factories, railway sidings, residential estates, and almost-rural linear greenery.

What’s that road doing down there?

Then, suddenly, you find yourself on a concrete aqueduct – several stories higher than you thought you were – beneath which eight lanes of obsessive-compulsive traffic scrapes its automotive fingernails along the tarmac blackboard of the North Circular.

It’s all impressive, and highly unusual, stuff: there are few places in the country where canals go over main roads, giving you that moral and geographical high ground. And, of course, cycling is the best way to enjoy it: you can slip along the smooth well-paved towpath to the aqueduct in just half an hour from Paddington.

The first aqueduct here was built in 1933, and upgraded in the early 1990s to the curious two-lane affair today. In the middle of the aqueduct is a concrete island with two pillars, each containing the Middlesex coat-of-arms: three notched swords, or in heraldic terms, “gules, pomels and hilts and in the centre chief point a Saxon crown or; fessewise, points to the sinister proper, three letter-openers one each for estate agent mailshots, financial services junk mail and polythene-wrapped catalogues”.

Back near Paddington it looked like this

Just beyond the A406 crossing, hidden behind shrubby trees, is an old aqueduct over the River Brent (as in ‘-ford’) dating from 1801.

Previous
←   Shepperton: Time for a tiny ferry
Next
Gold Hill: Bread-and-butter climb →

You are here

e2e.bike > Other > Route research > A406: North Circular’s amazing aqueduct

Recent Posts

  • Germany 9: Kassel to Beverungen 14 September 2025
  • Germany 8: Bad Hersfeld to Kassel 13 September 2025
  • Germany 7: Kothen to Bad Hersfeld 12 September 2025

Random Posts

  • M2H 7: Ayr to Moffat26 May 2014
    I left Ayr without further investigation. I’d done all the jokes about …
  • Cuba 6: Pilón to Manzanillo4 April 2015
    Cuba gets hot in the afternoon, so I’m starting early. My 7am …
  • France 10: Sarlat to Gramat17 September 2015
    Despite drizzle all day, the fabulous scenery more than made up. With …

Search e2e.bike

Find me

        
Facebook • Bluesky • Linked In • Email
© 2025 e2e.bike | Powered by Minimalist Blog WordPress Theme