Limehouse Basin and a taste of what is to come

Friday, 26 August 2011 08:00

Limehouse Basin is where the Regents Canal meets the River Thames and Limehouse Cut, which leads to the River Lee Navigations.

Old Regents Canal Dock, from storyboard

Regents Canal Dock, as it was known, was opened in 1820 and was initially a commercial failure ......

The Basin was renamed becasue of the lime kilns that were there in C14th and possibly before that. There were three entrance locks to the Thames to separate barge and ship traffic. Now there is only the one.

Limehouse Lock

Around the Basin are a number of historic buildings and many new ones: mainly residential but attractive in a modern way. Narrow Street houses a number of old buildings and Ropemaker's Fields commemorates the old trade of rope making in the area. Wharves, rope walks, wooden structures and cranes have all disappeared and the London and Blackwell Railway line is now the DLR (Docklands Light Railway).

John Rennie designed the impressive arches, but George and son Robert Stephenson built them

The hydraulic Accumulator Tower, built by William George Armstrong, used to provide water pressure and thus power for the capstans, cranes, lock gates and other dockside equipment.

Accumulator Tower

BWML's Limehouse Marina is in the Basin - we were interested to see a planning application notice for change of use of 22 leisure moorings to residential berths. If the Basin was not in London I would quite like to live here as it is very quiet. There are a few visitors, a few boat movements each day and a number of local residents come and go during the day.

Limehouse Marina

One of the three Lock Keepers recorded a bit for the BBC about the Basin and its history - it makes interesting watching. The Regeneration of Limehouse Basin was part of the London Docklands Development and began in 1983. Despite setbacks a lot of the area was finished by 2003.

Plaque to commemorate the first phase of development

There was still more to come though and the LDDC website has more information.

Narrowboats moor on the wall visitor moorings - Ok if you are agile. However there is a new pontoon with disabled access

We were fortunate to "gongoozle" as three narrowboats, The Chiseller, Alpine Mist and Schipperke, went out onto the tideway. The narrowboats went out; watching them disappear up river made me want to go too.

Limehouse Lock with narrowboats

Limehouse Lock empties

Off they go upstream into the evening sunshine on the flood tide

The swing bridge was then opened for cruiser Nepos to enter

So, reassured about our eventual trip upriver, we came down and enjoyed a couple of nights in the basin ourselves.

Moored with other boats on the wall

The lights at night make it all look very pretty

There are lots more photos in our Limehouse album, including more of the boats going out onto the Thames.