Limehouse Lock

[Lumisid]

Has anyone come into Limehouse (from the tideway) since the switchover to CRT? As it’s not the Limehouse keeper who do you call to prep the lock when coming down from Tower Bridge? 
thanks 

[blackrose]

I'm pretty sure you do call the Limehouse lockkeeper. Last time I did it was around 2013 but I wasn't aware it had changed?

[Lumisid]

1 minute ago, blackrose said:

I'm pretty sure you do call the Limehouse lockkeeper. Last time I did it was around 2013 but I wasn't aware it had changed?

Yeah it’s changed late 2023, CRT are responsible for the lock now not the marina anymore. That phone call is key!

[Alan de Enfield]

Info from C&RT :

 

Customers who wish to use Limehouse lock are advised to contact Aquavista on 020 7308 9930 before making passage because of issues with lock operation.

Currently, the lock is operating approximately two hours either side of High Water London Bridge.

It's important to note that the inner pontoon is no longer in position. The outer pontoon is available for boats waiting to use the lock.

The Trust are working alongside Aquavista to get the required repair works carried out.

If your tidal journey starts or ends at Thames Lock, at Brentford, we ask that you please contact Canal & River Trust on 0303 040 40 40 or email us at enquiries.londonsoutheast {at} canalrivertrust.org.uk 

We are also currently working to enhance our online booking system, so that passage between Limehouse lock and Thames lock can be booked online, alongside our current online booking system for Thames lock for transits to and from Teddington lock

Edited January 15 by Alan de Enfield

[blackrose]

Just now, Lumisid said:

Yeah it’s changed late 2023, CRT are responsible for the lock now not the marina anymore. That phone call is key!

 

Ok I thought it used to be BW and then it was CRT. I never even realised it was the marina.

 

Anyway if you Google "Thames tideway handbook downstream" there's a useful guide you can download and print off. It gives you step by step instructions for navigating & negotiating each bridge. Quite useful to have someone reading it to the helmsman as you go.

 

Good luck with that turn into Limehouse! It certainly gets the adrenaline going on a canal boat!

[Lumisid]

1 minute ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Customers who wish to use Limehouse lock are advised to contact Aquavista on 020 7308 9930 before making passage because of issues with lock operation.

Currently, the lock is operating approximately two hours either side of High Water London Bridge.

It's important to note that the inner pontoon is no longer in position. The outer pontoon is available for boats waiting to use the lock.

The Trust are working alongside Aquavista to get the required repair works carried out.

If your tidal journey starts or ends at Thames Lock, at Brentford, we ask that you please contact Canal & River Trust on 0303 040 40 40 or email us at

It’s changed since after summer 2023. it used to be aqua vista and the lock keeper had a mobile number you could call. CRT are responsible for Limehouse Lock now and it’s booked in the same way as Thames Lock online. Problem is who do you call when your on your way down…

1 minute ago, blackrose said:

 

Ok I thought it used to be BW and then it was CRT. I never even realised it was the marina.

 

Anyway if you Google "Thames tideway handbook downstream" there's a useful guide you can download and print off. It gives you step by step instructions for navigating & negotiating each bridge. Quite useful to have someone reading it to the helmsman as you go.

 

Good luck with that turn into Limehouse! It certainly gets the adrenaline going on a canal boat!

Yeah for sure I’ve done it maybe 4/5 times, every time I think never again but…

haven’t hit the wall yet ! 

[Alan de Enfield]

4 minutes ago, Lumisid said:

It’s changed since after summer 2023. it used to be aqua vista and the lock keeper had a mobile number you could call. CRT are responsible for Limehouse Lock now and it’s booked in the same way as Thames Lock online. Problem is who do you call when your on your way down…

 

I think I have answered that, but it is blocked by the moderators as it includes an email address.

Hopefully it will be approved quickly.

 

Mods have unblocked it - see above.

Edited January 15 by Alan de Enfield

[magnetman]

I would ring the existing number for the office and ask them what the deal is. 

 

 

[Ex Brummie]

2 hours ago, blackrose said:

 

Ok I thought it used to be BW and then it was CRT. I never even realised it was the marina.

 

Anyway if you Google "Thames tideway handbook downstream" there's a useful guide you can download and print off. It gives you step by step instructions for navigating & negotiating each bridge. Quite useful to have someone reading it to the helmsman as you go.

 

Good luck with that turn into Limehouse! It certainly gets the adrenaline going on a canal boat!

And when the lock keeper tells you to come straight in, ask him to confirm that the lock really is empty. 

DAMHIK.

[PeterScott]

4 hours ago, Lumisid said:

... haven’t hit the wall yet ! 

In 2012, Jubilee pageant year after a StPancras trip to Barking Creek: sitting on the front deck of Fulbourne in readiness for throwing a rope in the lock - we had been waiting on the ebbing tide, and found a contrary-swirl which sent us in an upriver direction and knocked the white bit out of the corner of the wall. _sigh_

[magnetman]

There is an eddy there at certain times. One has to go really close to the downstream side if coming in on a falling tide. 

 

I mean really close to that big wooden fender then turn in onto the waiting pontoon. You never want to be anywhere near the centre of that chanel as it will take you to the wall. 

 

I've done it in various Boats from 20ft GRP cruiser to 57x12ft barge never got anywhere near the wall. 

 

I always turn downstream then motor back up against the tide as it gives you the option to bail out if you don't fancy the line because the Boat is pointing directly into the flow. 

 

The 'torpedo' entrance manoover needs to be done right and at speed otherwise you get caught by the eddy and slide sideways. 

 

 

 

 

[GUMPY]

5 hours ago, blackrose said:

Good luck with that turn into Limehouse! It certainly gets the adrenaline going on a canal boat!

It's easy just go downstream turn there come back up ferry glide into and roll round the downstream campshed. You never get near the top wall.

[magnetman]

1 minute ago, GUMPY said:

It's easy just go downstream turn there come back up ferry glide into and roll round the downstream campshed. You never get near the top wall.

Exactly. 

 

Great minds think alike see above. 

[Scholar Gypsy]

Just to add that

• a number of representative bodies are in discussion with CRT about the new arrangements. 
• The slots currently offered on the CRT website are sub-optimal, and discussions will happen soon with CRT to improve this.  
• We are very seized of the importance of effective comms with the lock keeper en route.
• A key issue is sorting out the operating hours. To date (with prior booking) 0500 to 2200 all year round. This used to be the case at Brentford, but is now 0700 to 1900 (1600 in winter).

Nearly all the relevant websites (PLA, Acquavista, CRT) are now out of date, please don't rely on them. I will be updating http://thamescruising.co.uk/?page_id=648 as soon as I can.

Edited January 15 by Scholar Gypsy
Incompetence

[Lumisid]

13 hours ago, Scholar Gypsy said:

Just to add that

• a number of representative bodies are in discussion with CRT about the new arrangements. 
• The slots currently offered on the CRT website are sub-optimal, and discussions will happen soon with CRT to improve this.  
• We are very seized of the importance of effective comms with the lock keeper en route.
• A key issue is sorting out the operating hours. To date (with prior booking) 0500 to 2200 all year round. This used to be the case at Brentford, but is now 0700 to 1900 (1600 in winter).

Nearly all the relevant websites (PLA, Acquavista, CRT) are now out of date, please don't rely on them. I will be updating http://thamescruising.co.uk/?page_id=648 as soon as I can.

That’s great to know, thanks 

[cheesegas]

If this ends up anything like Brentford Thames Lock which is CRT managed, it'll be a bad thing and Aquavista were hardly brilliant at picking up the phone!

 

At Brentford I've had two no-shows where you end up on the pontoon outside overnight which is not fun, once the lock keeper forgot his keys and had to go home to get them, and I seem to remember a few occasions where they were late as well. 

[magnetman]

I didn't think there was a pontoon at Brentford because the creek dries out. 

 

I have been on the Limehouse outer waiting pontoon and it is pretty rough there. strong ropes wanted. 

[cheesegas]

1 minute ago, magnetman said:

I didn't think there was a pontoon at Brentford because the creek dries out. 

It's not in the creek - there's a swinging pontoon owned by Brentford Marina in the main channel. If you call the marina and pay a small amount, you'll be able to use it if no one else is coming into the marina lock at high tide. 

[magnetman]

Ah yes the marina pontoon. I did wonder after posting if thats what you meant. Handy to know about it. 

 

 

I went in Limehouse lock office yesterday and had a chat with the Aquavista lady. 

 

It is ironic that such a well positioned office with a commanding view and cctv cameras has nothing to do with the lock and she confirmed they do not monitor any VHF channels. The office building was transferred to Aquavista as part of the deal. The lock wasn't. 

 

Of course the lock controls are outside so the building is not technically needed for locking although it is incredibly obvious that is what it was designed for. 

 

The CRT online booking system is flawed. I suspect the best option is to telephone the Docklands CRT office and talk to a human for advice. 

 

 

 

 

[cheesegas]

Just now, magnetman said:

Ah yes the marina pontoon. I did wonder after posting if thats what you meant. Handy to know about it. 

Yep, it's definitely not as unpleasant as the Limehouse pontoon but it's on long chains so at low tide the pontoon ends up quite some way from the bank...to get ashore you have to pull the pontoon and your boat in to the bank and then climb the ladder, can be tricky with a heavy narrowboat! I've heard of people tying up to the risers on the left in the creek just before the lock though, apparently with a flat bottom it's ok as you sit on the mud but I didn't have the balls to try it, scared of ending up in the wrong position and tipping over...

[magnetman]

I wouldn't fancy the lock entrance. I've seen it when dry and it is not all that flat. 

 

As for the pontoon I always have a dinghy so would be able to get ashore with that if needed. 

[Tacet]

On 15/01/2024 at 17:47, Scholar Gypsy said:

Just to add that

• a number of representative bodies are in discussion with CRT about the new arrangements. 
• The slots currently offered on the CRT website are sub-optimal, and discussions will happen soon with CRT to improve this.  
• We are very seized of the importance of effective comms with the lock keeper en route.
• A key issue is sorting out the operating hours. To date (with prior booking) 0500 to 2200 all year round. This used to be the case at Brentford, but is now 0700 to 1900 (1600 in winter).

Nearly all the relevant websites (PLA, Acquavista, CRT) are now out of date, please don't rely on them. I will be updating http://thamescruising.co.uk/?page_id=648 as soon as I can.

A good while back, the lock was meant to be available according to tides and times rules.  But it was unreliable and there always seemed to be new, previously undisclosed rule when complaints were laid e.g. the hours were different following a bank holiday or it wasn't available if the rules otherwise meant it would only be open for only one hour.

 

Seeking to make the east London canals better used, my father sought to collate all the known rules and then wrote a programme to calculate the times for the next year; inputting the tides was a faff.

 

The timetable was then sent to BWB (for it was they) with a request for confirmation that the times would be as stated.  Somewhat to his surprise, confirmation was given together with a request to either buy the programme or have the times calculated. For several years, he produced the timetable under contract.

 

[magnetman]

 I was told by the lady in the Aquavista office yesterday that there was an error with the tide times produced by the CRT so its probably worth double checking this, 

 

 

Errors do crop up. I had the tide table for Maldon in  Essex for 2023 produced by the RNLI and the entire list was one day out in the sense that a Friday would be shown as for example the 3rd of the month when in fact the Friday that week was the 4th of the month. 

 

Maybe RNLI trying to drum up some business !

 

 

 

Edited January 17 by magnetman

[Peugeot 106]

11 hours ago, cheesegas said:

If this ends up anything like Brentford Thames Lock which is CRT managed, it'll be a bad thing and Aquavista were hardly brilliant at picking up the phone!

 

At Brentford I've had two no-shows where you end up on the pontoon outside overnight which is not fun, once the lock keeper forgot his keys and had to go home to get them, and I seem to remember a few occasions where they were late as well. 

My only one experience was that the lock keeper (or the man acting as lock keeper) was arrogant and most unhelpful giving flippant and in my view dangerous advice eg you’ll be at Teddington in 2 hours. He wasn’t at all clear with his intentions although he had sounded helpful previously on the telephone when I rang enquiring a few months before. He had agreed to let us out a lot earlier than he actually did. Others we met had also had a very poor experience at Limehouse. They didn’t seem to be a very happy bunch of employee's

 

I don’t think the lockeepers are of the same mettle that they used to be. I’ve had very poor advice on the Crinan canal too. I think it’s actually quite dangerous when they don’t know what they are talking about. Some people will take their advice as gospel and not do their own calculations.
 

All I’m saying is best stick to your own working’s out or take expert advice especially for sea and river locks

l

[PeterScott]

2 hours ago, magnetman said:

... error with the tide times [CRT]...    ... entire list was one day out [RNLI]...

1980 in the early morning ... it was a carefully timed fortnight's hire, and we had arranged an overnight mooring in Richmond (minimising Thames registration charges) and heading for Brentford. I had taken the tide times from a calendar which said the times were BST and that the relevant tide time was at 0658.

 

But the calendar lied and had published the GMT time as if it was  BST. So it ought to have been printed as 0558, which being before 0600 was classed by BW as a night tide, when Brenford was therefore not open. We hadn't found the problem when we beat on the lockkeepers' door, and a bleary-eyed lockkeeper answered while affixing various items of clothing. Very appologetic about not having set the alarm, and we were almost through the lock beore he worked out that he need not to have been on duty at all.

 

 

 

Anyway we parted friends and had successfully escaped the mud and the tidal river. Still had to wait for the evening tide for the other lock at Brentford. And then whiz around the canals to Limehouse, for our afternoon floodtide through the then-big Limehouse lock, upriver and back through Brentford the next evening, where there was a different lockkeeper on duty...