Your navbar component (as you described it in your question) is probably not the route component, right? By route component I mean the one that you use in your react-router configuration that is loaded for a specific route.

this.props.location is accessible only on such route component, so you need to pass it down to your navbar.

Let's take an example:

Your router config:

<Router>

    <Route path=/ component={App}>

    // ...

</Router

Route component App:

class App extends React.Component{

  // ...

  render() {

    return <Navbar location={this.props.location}/>

  }

}