A focus on Harlesden 2026

A look at what is happening

Our site at Harlesden Canalside has provided us with some great opportunities, thanks to some excellent partnership working. As always we are looking at how we can improve what we do and how we can get more people active.

The Site

Based in Barrett’s Green Road Car Park on Disraeli Road , NW10 7AE. We store our boats in a shipping container and have access to the canal via steps (there is a ramp for wheelchair users) to our own pontoon.

The Site and facilities have been created by working with the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC), part of the Mayor of London’s Office, and other key partners including KSP London (GLi Urban Life), and Canal and River Trust.

In addition operationally we have also been helped through partnerships with; Young Brent Foundation, and Harlesden Primary School, and we are working with the Jason Roberts Foundation to improve what we can offer to participants throughout the year.

This Year

Harlesden PrimarySchool

With the help of KSP we have continued our Schools Programme, they have been sponsoring these sessions for a number of years and have helped many youngsters to come canoeing and kayaking with us. We are actively seeking more schools to join this programme, which at present is free to the youngsters who take part If your school is interested, please do get in touch; call/text 07951 770241 or email: canoeing@thesharks.org.uk.

Our Competitive Paddlers

We have had over fourteen youngsters from Harlesden racing in national competitions; including Marathons, Slaloms, and Wild Water Races. with some incredible results, especially in their age groups. Looking forward to we hope we will have someone racing internationally as a junior and then seniors.

Our ling with Harlesden Primary School has enabled local youngsters to take part in these competitions, non of these paddlers had any experience of canoeing or kayaking till they started to attend with the school and now they are on the verge of representing their country.

Some links from some of this year’s events.

Club Sessions

During the Summer months we host sessions at Harlesden Canalside every Monday and Wednesday, which are open to people of all ages, not just for children. You don’t need any equipment as we will supply it, you don’t need any experience we teach beginners and well as coach more experience paddlers. The sessions are fun, affordable, and a great way to keep/get fit. Being near the water is not just good for physical health, but also mental health.

As well as our club and school sessions we have also run sessions for Scouts and other such groups. We are always looking to work with other organisations to get more people more active.

If you are interested in joining us or want more information for yourself or your group, please do get in touch via email: canoeing@thesharks.org.uk or by telephone/text on 07951 770241.

During the Winter months; November to March, we paddle on Saturday mornings, if we are not racing, so please do check before arriving. We also host evening sessions on Wednesday evening for our experienced paddlers who are using racing boats. At the time of writing we are working with the Jason Roberts Foundation in Harlesden to provide land based sessions for paddlers of all standards.

We also run Sunday sessions at our Harefield site throughout the year on Sunday mornings, at this site we can introduce paddlers to moving water and are please that many of our Harlesden Paddlers are coming over to train.

Charity Races

Each year on the last Wednesday of September we host the Great Harlesden Charity Race, which raises money for local charities; The Brent Food Bank and Queens Park Rangers Community Trust.

We are always looking for teams to take part, it is a fun event, which raises money for good causes, for more information please contact: canoeing@thesharks.org.uk, or call/text 07951 770241. Maybe you can help us organise this event and help grow it so we can raise even more money.

The future

We want to continue to expand our activities in Harlesden, and elsewhere, to enable more people to enjoy the benefits of this local resource. We will support all our members to achieve their ambitions, to reach their full potential.

We are looking for new partners to help us extend our reach into the wider community, to make Harlesden a major centre for Paddle Sports, including Canoeing, Kayaking, and Stand-up-Paddling. To do this we need your help and your involvement, yes we want people to take up paddling, we need people who want to train (and earn money) to teach and coach. We have an excellent record of developing staff from within. We also need people to help us develop the Club and the projects we run, from doing admin, helping us time events, getting kit ready and to the right place for races etc. If you are interested; get in touch: canoeing@thesharks.org.uk, or call/text 07951 770241.

To run The Sharks at Harlesden cost around £50k a year (and that doesn’t include investment in new kit), we want to keep costs to partisans as low as we cane, we need to grow events, so if you know anybody who wants to sponsor us, are aware of grants (or can help us get grants), fund raising ideas, please do get in touch.

Published 30th October 2026