Abbey Road - from Little Venice to the Beatles and Sherlock Holmes

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I'm glad I thought of this walk. We start at Warwick Avenue Underground Station (Zone 2 on the Bakerloo Line - just one stop north of Paddington) and finish on the Circle & District Line platform of Baker Street, the worl'd first underground railway opened in 1863. Baker Street is also on the Metropolitan, Bakerloo, Jubilee and Hammersmith & City lines.

The walking is easy. There are lovely houses and interesting places to see. Most of the route is free of the noisiest traffic. Like the walk to Campden Lock, we start by the cab shelter by St Saviour's Church where there is also a Boris Bikes stand, and walk down Warwick Avenue to the Grand Union Canal at Little Venice. I describe the history of Maida Vale and St John's Wood as we walk beside the canal towards a tunnel under Aberdeen Place.

Where the Campden Lock walk continues along the towpath towards London Zoo, this time we turn left and walk up Lisson grove to Lord's Cricket Ground. Here a guided tour of the home of cricket is recommended. For details of availability, click here. Continuing up Grove End Road brings us to Abbey Road with its famous EMI recording studios and the pedestrian crossing made famous by the Beatles on their 1969 album cover. The EMI studio was the first custom designed recording studio complex built anywhere in the world. Artists associated with the studios include Edward Elgar (Land of Hope & Glory 1931), Yehudi Menhuin, Thomas Beecham, Janet Baker, Glen Miller, Cliff Richard, Max Bygraves, George Formby as well as the Beatles themselves. In recent times, the Abbey Road studios were responsible for recording music used in the films Raiders of the Lost Ark, Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter.

At Abbey Road we pause to look at the graffiti left by Beatles fans from all over the world on the walls and gates of the studios.

There is an opportunity for some snacks, coffee, or drinks in St John's Wood High Street. The shops are elegant and upmarket. This shopping street is an unexpected and welcome haven of calm after the frenetic northbound A41. After some refreshment here, we enter the old burial ground of St John's Wood Church, now a park, but originally the final resting place of more than 50,000 souls. Some of the ancient headstones remain in a wildlife garden. Leaving the church, we cross the busy roundabout and enter Regent's Park beside the London Central Mosque. From Hanover Gate, we walk alonside the boating lakes, past the fantastic Nash terraces including the London Business School and exit into Baker Street by way of Clarence Gate.

Where else but 221B Baker Street would one look for the fictional rooms where Holmes and Dr Watson lived. Nowadays the shop is a museum. Tat for the tourists, of course, but fans of Conan Doyle will not want to miss it.

The platforms of Baker Street Circle & District Line are the end point of the walk. Here one can see the brass plate recording the first steam trains running from Paddington undersround, and see the original brick vents where smoke escaped. The railway with its open trucks must have been a wonder to behold, as well as very unpleasant to ride in.

A fascinating and lovely walk. Lots to see. Lots to do. A pleasant stroll of some 3 miles. I hope you enjoy it.