The Grand Union's Paddington Arm
Part two - past Southall and Hayes
The remotest section of the arm is that between Bulls bridge and the Uxbridge Road. Despite being in Southall with views of the prominent blue gasholder, and a vehicle compound on the other side of the fence, it does feel like somewhere on the Midlands canals. Its remoteness is because there hasnt been anywhere to get off the towpath since Bulls Bridge
The houses by the Uxbridge Road in Southall. There are official visitor moorings for shopping but I've not seen anyone, other than Granny Buttons, make a stop here!
The view from the Uxbridge Road. The canal here forms the boundary between Southall and Hayes and the area northwards was known as Hayes Gate after its nearby farm. The red arrow indicates the point at which the seven mile long Ruislip Canal feeder once emptied its waters into the Paddington Arm. For more information on that particular aspect of the London Canals see the Ruislip Canal Feeder. Here's a shortcut to the page featuring the Hayes Gate section of the Ruislip Feeder the picture at the bottom of that page shows the view from Tollgate Drive onto the Paddington Arm as well as a map of the area
A bit further north the canal enters a section with two linear parks. The first is Spikes Bridge and as this information board tells us, it opened as a sports ground in 1937, having once been part of the large Hayes Gate farm estate. There were a number of cuts off both sides of the canal at this location some of them quite long
Next is the large Willowtree Marina with its houses and lifting bridge. There's a huge Tescos superstore nearby and in some ways its more pleasant than the one at Bulls Bridge. The only problem is it is not accessible from the towpath. Try to moor in the marina (seek permission first) or next to the bridge on the main canal itself near the diesel point.
There used to be a lengthy branch off the canal to the north of Willowtree marina and it extended westwards to a wharf on Willowtree Lane. It passed the site of what is now the large Tesco superstore and reached its furthest extremity at the roundabout on what is now the A321. There was another lengthy branch further north that reached a different part of Willowtree lane (at the present junction of Kingfisher Drive and Glencoe Road) but what it served I do not know
I have a number of pics of the Willowtree marina and its lifting bridge and of the canal as it passes through Willowtree, but I cant find these so lets move on... I'll include these later
The large Wiilowtree park to the north used to be known as Durdans park originally. There used to be another branch canal on the towpath side and a turn over bridge existed. This served the Durdans Works
Engineers Wharf, Northolt, before its stop planks were lifted and the marina opened up for boats
The main feature of the Paddington Arm at the nearby Ruislip Road crossing used to be the factory with its buildings right across the waterway. Building structres in this way is not such a novel idea as one might like to think and this was an early attempt at that kind of thing. It was demolished in the 1990's
The Kensington Road crossing in Northolt. The old crossing was known as Ealing Road bridge
Wooden bridge at Farrier Road, Northolt just before the A40 Westway crossing. There are two wooden footbridges on the Paddington Arm
Paddington Arm - Part three
