The Soho Loop: how to walk Birmingham's old canal bend

Start at Brindley Place, follow the Mainline Canal towards Wolverhampton, and turn right at the signposted junction. That is the Soho Loop, and walking it costs nothing. It is a stretch of the Old BCN Main Line, and it is the quiet, winding version of a canal that Birmingham later straightened.

What the loop is

The Soho Loop is about 1.2 miles (2 km) long, give or take: one source rounds it up to two miles, so treat the figure as approximate. It sits about 1.2 miles west of the city centre, through Winson Green and Hockley. According to Wikipedia, it opened to traffic on 6 November 1769, and it is a remnant of James Brindley’s line, which hugged the contours from Wolverhampton. The Birmingham Canal was completed in 1772 and became the Main Line of the Birmingham Canal Navigations (the BCN).

It is also called the Winson Green Loop. The loop is the original route, left behind when the canal was improved.

Why it exists at all

The locks at Smethwick became a bottleneck. According to the Inland Waterways Association, Thomas Telford was consulted in 1824 and recommended extensive improvements. By 1827 a new, wider and deeper channel with twin towpaths had been cut straight across the winding original. The Soho Loop was bypassed in September 1827 by a straight 0.75-mile section of the New Main Line.

That left three loops serving the works along their banks: Oozells Street, Icknield Port and Soho. The IWA says all three still survive, while the Cape Loop is largely closed and the Soho Foundry loop has disappeared entirely.

How to walk it

• Start: Brindley Place, in the City Centre. Follow the Mainline Canal towards Wolverhampton.
• Turn: at Winson Green Junction, the west end of the loop, where a finger sign marks the BCN Main Line. The loop leaves there and rejoins at Rotton Park Junction.
• Underfoot: a towpath runs along the whole outside of the loop. It passes under the Stour Valley Railway twice.
• Cost: free.

The Wildlife Trust, in its directions to Centre of the Earth, offers this canal route as an alternative to the A457 Dudley Road. Before you set out, check the Canal and River Trust stoppage notices for closures. Plan your own way there and back by tram or bus, and bring what you need, as there are no verified facilities en route.

What is left of the old industry

Winson Green Prison

The towpath skirts the southern boundary of the prison. It is a high wall beside the water and a reminder that this was always a working edge of the city, not a postcard one.

The City Hospital site, Dudley Road

Much of the land enclosed by the loop was occupied by City Hospital, formerly Dudley Road Hospital. It opened in 1897 as an infirmary and workhouse extension. The NHS trust marked the end of an era when A&E closed at 5am and 320 inpatients moved to the new Midland Metropolitan University Hospital in Smethwick. According to Wikipedia, the Treatment Centre and the Birmingham and Midland Eye Centre remain on the Dudley Road campus, and the rest is earmarked for housing.

Hockley Port

This is the best piece of surviving industrial canal on the loop. Hockley Port is a dead-end branch of about 310 yards (280 m), all that remains of the old Soho Branch. According to Geograph, that branch once served Matthew Boulton’s Soho Manufactory at Soho Wharf, and the later GWR railway interchange basins were built on the site of the Hockley goods yard.

Today it is the Canal & River Trust’s largest residential mooring site in Birmingham, with three mooring areas: two basins and the main arm. It is private, with no public access, so look in from the loop and do not expect to walk in.

Next door: the Icknield Port Loop

The Soho Loop connects to the Icknield Port Loop on the opposite side of the New Main Line. That loop is 0.6 miles and also opened on 6 November 1769. Its Canal & River Trust depot yard and crane are both Grade II listed. The Canal & River Trust says outline planning consent is secured for about 43 acres, with up to 1,150 homes plus retail, leisure and other uses, under the Port Loop name.

What to skip, and what to book

• Centre of the Earth, 42 Norman Street, Winson Green, B18 7EP: the Wildlife Trust site beside the loop, with a pond, wildflower meadows, woodland and sculptures. It is not a drop-in site. The Trust runs wildlife walks and canal-side litter picks, so check its events page first.
• Soho Foundry: the Boulton & Watt works of 1796 is a separate site about a mile west of the Manufactory, private and still operational. Admire it from the history books, not the gate.

The foundry’s story is worth knowing. The Birmingham Canal Company bought 19 of the first 54 pumping engines built there, and in 1802 the first gas lights ever seen in public lit its front, according to the BCN Society. The Smethwick Engine, built to recover water used in the canal locks at Smethwick Summit, is now in Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museum.

The loop is not a day out with a pub at the end of it. It is a walk for people who like to see where the city made its money, and a free one.