A Little Oasis

There’s an enclave of London – a city that sprawls upwards and outwards with shards of gleaming new buildings and the domes of much older ones – which is characterised by no singular feat of architecture. There were no laws passed here, nor battles won. There is no palace or great bridge on which to hang its hat.

Yet what this patch of the capital, nestled between Edgware Road and the Westway, does boast is a key network of canals. This is where the Regent’s Canal meets the Paddington arm of the Grand Union Canal, and it is this that has earned the area the name Little Venice.

Unlike its Italian namesake, there are no gondolas here, but Little Venice is surely up there with some of the prettiest parts of London. Beautiful Georgian houses stand