River Brent Walk – Perivale to Hanwell

The walk originally planned for today, Sunday 5th October 2025, was cancelled due to the walk leader not being available, so I decided to lead this one, which I had planned for a while, but have had to defer on several occasions.

Arriving at Perivale on the Central Line, I met up with Louise and we were soon joined by Cathy S and Lorraine. We headed left out of the station, crossing over the busy A40 by footbridge with the Hoover building visible along the road, past a very old church, and soon entered into a park, crossing over the River Brent, stopping to watch the ducks and then turned right to follow the river on our right.

We passed an old recently demolished sports centre in Perivale Park, passing under a railway viaduct and continued along the footpath between the road and the river until we almost reached Greenford. We rejoined the road and crossed over it to continue alongside the river which had now decided to head south. We soon came across a tree which looked to have been recently knocked down, possibly by Storm Amy a day or two earlier, but it was a wide expanse of grassland so we were able to continue. At the end of the path there was a children’s playground with seats, ideally situated for a lunch stop.

After our stop, our path diverged; we could either follow the river through the golf course or take a path uphill, before entering another park and rejoining the river. Not wanting to be hit by a golf ball, we took the latter route and rejoined the river following it to where it passed under the magnificent Wharncliffe Viaduct, which was designed by Brunell. It now carries the Great Western Railway and is also home to a colony of bats which roost in the piers. We then continued next to a hay meadow to reach and cross under a road, to follow the river to its confluence with the Grand Union Canal at the bottom of the Hanwell Lock flight, a set of 6 locks.

At the canal we got talking to an angler, who was watching a massive Koi Carp over the other side of the river, and he said that he had caught it last week. I thought this a “fishy” tale (pun fully intended) however, he had the photos to prove it, and it was a whopper of a fish, so well done to him.

We then retraced our steps back along the river to the road and crossed over the Hanwell bridge to head towards the railway station, making a well-earned stop at a nearby pub to quench our thirst before catching the train back. It had been a lovely gentle downhill walk of just under 6 miles with beautifully sunny weather. Well done to those who came and made it so enjoyable.

Trev (Pathfinder) Eley,  8th October 2025