Along the canal

Walking along the Regent’s Canal from Camden, the zoo lies on the left as the towpath reaches a striking mesh structure above the trees: the former Snowdon Aviary, now London Zoo’s “Monkey Valley”. Here the canal forms part of the zoo’s edge, with fences and enclosures dropping to the water so walkers and boat passengers can glimpse animals, while narrowboats between Camden and Little Venice often point out this landmark.

Designed in the early 1960s by Cedric Price with Frank Newby and Lord Snowdon, it opened in 1965 as Britain’s first walk‑through aviary and became a key work of London modernism. Now Grade II* listed, it used tensioned cables and light mesh to create an unusually open space where visitors moved on raised walkways while birds flew freely around them, a strikingly immersive idea for its time.