Limehouse Cut

[cuthound]

I subscribe to a blog called "A London Inheritance", which covers a different part of London every week.

 

This week (and next) they are covering the Limehouse Cut.

 

I have attached a link below ti the first part of the blog on the Limehouse Cut for anyone interested.

 

https://alondoninheritance.com/london-canals/walking-the-limehouse-cut-part-1/

[Mike Hurley]

Interesting read.

[magpie patrick]

I was aware that the Limehouse Cut did not originally connect to Limehouse Dock, but I hadn't appreciated that it predated the dock - such an arrangement, with adjacent locks onto the Thames, makes much more sense now. 

IIRC the present connection was built in the 1960s, but there had previously been a connection, so it was a bit of an on-off arrangement!

 

ETA - I've now found this in the blog

 

Quote

The two entrances to the river for the Regent’s Canal Dock and the Limehouse Cut were very close together, and for eleven years between 1853 and 1864, the Limehouse Cut was diverted into the Regent’s Canal Dock, however after 1864 the original entrance was back in use, with a new bridge carrying Narrow Street over the canal. It seems that the return to the original route into the Thames was down to the imposition of additional charges and rules by the owners of the Regent’s Canal Dock on the users of the Limehouse Cut, who now had to pass through the dock to reach the Thames.

 

Use of the original route would last for another 100 years, when the Limehouse Cut was rediverted back into what is now Limehouse Basin, a routing it retains today.

 

[pearley]

Does anyone recall the tidal barrier that once existed on the cut? Are there any signs of it now?

[Tacet]

29 minutes ago, pearley said:

Does anyone recall the tidal barrier that once existed on the cut? Are there any signs of it now?

Yes, I recall it but never saw it used.

 

This site includes a picture and, to mind, is a pretty definitive history.  There are some signs remaining

 

http://www.leeandstort.co.uk/Limehouse_Cut.htm

 

On spring tides, Bow Creek used to top the Cut by opening the lock gates at Bow.  It flooded around the locks and I recall it lapping at the lock house threshold.

 

As a consequence, Limehouse Basin was sometimes subject to the tides.  One of the earlier schemes for its redevelopment was residential development over berths, which would have been interesting given the proposed limited headroom.  Additional gates and other works have removed the phenomenon.

 

I once asked on this forum if anyone had worked the old Limehouse Cut to Thames Lock (i.e. pre 1968) but no-one came up.  The changes predate my own experience of this area by a few years.  To be honest, such details were of no interest to me as a kid, it's only later you realise the significance.

[pearley]

4 hours ago, Tacet said:

Yes, I recall it but never saw it used.

 

This site includes a picture and, to mind, is a pretty definitive history.  There are some signs remaining

 

http://www.leeandstort.co.uk/Limehouse_Cut.htm

 

On spring tides, Bow Creek used to top the Cut by opening the lock gates at Bow.  It flooded around the locks and I recall it lapping at the lock house threshold.

 

As a consequence, Limehouse Basin was sometimes subject to the tides.  One of the earlier schemes for its redevelopment was residential development over berths, which would have been interesting given the proposed limited headroom.  Additional gates and other works have removed the phenomenon.

 

I once asked on this forum if anyone had worked the old Limehouse Cut to Thames Lock (i.e. pre 1968) but no-one came up.  The changes predate my own experience of this area by a few years.  To be honest, such details were of no interest to me as a kid, it's only later you realise the significance.

We cruised the Cut and under the barrier in 1990 but on later visits in 2008 and 2015 don't recall seeing it.

 

Get what you mean about significance. Wish digital cameras had been around back in 80s but couldn't afford film processing so had to ration what I photographed.

[David Mack]

11 hours ago, magpie patrick said:

I was aware that the Limehouse Cut did not originally connect to Limehouse Dock, but I hadn't appreciated that it predated the dock - such an arrangement, with adjacent locks onto the Thames, makes much more sense now. 

IIRC the present connection was built in the 1960s, but there had previously been a connection, so it was a bit of an on-off arrangement!

 

ETA - I've now found this in the blog

 

 

One of the consequences of reinstating the connection between the Limehouse Cut and Limehouse Basin is that the water level in the Basin is now at the same level as the Cut. Previously the Basin level could be varied at will, according to the needs of shipping (by pumping from the Thames if necessary). I believe that in commercial days it was maintained at a higher level to provide greater draft for loaded ships, but presumably this was no longer an issue by 1968.

Edited September 2, 2025 by David Mack

[Ronaldo47]

My daughter and her husband spent a couple of years in a rented flat in one of the houses in Albert Mews that line the site of the old lock. When we visited them, the water was clear! 

 

There are two colour photos, taken in 1969,  of the lock when it was clearly near the end of the process of being filled in, in the book " The East End in Colour 1960 - 1980" of colour photos taken by  David Granick, ISBN 978-1-910566-31-2. It was being filled up to pavement level, so the decision to make a water feature must have been made later.

 

 

Edited September 2, 2025 by Ronaldo47

[Tim Lewis]

22 hours ago, pearley said:

Does anyone recall the tidal barrier that once existed on the cut? Are there any signs of it now?

 

A photo of mine from 1990, complete with Hovercraft!

On 01/09/2025 at 10:34, Mike Hurley said:

Interesting read.

 

Some old photos here:

 

(58) Pinterest

23 hours ago, magpie patrick said:

I was aware that the Limehouse Cut did not originally connect to Limehouse Dock, but I hadn't appreciated that it predated the dock - such an arrangement, with adjacent locks onto the Thames, makes much more sense now. 

IIRC the present connection was built in the 1960s, but there had previously been a connection, so it was a bit of an on-off arrangement!

 

ETA - I've now found this in the blog

 

 

 

From a BW publication

[magpie patrick]

34 minutes ago, Tim Lewis said:

 

A photo of mine from 1990, complete with Hovercraft!

 

 

Some old photos here:

 

(58) Pinterest

 

From a BW publication

 

 

I went through Limehouse cut towards Bow in 1996 and 1999, before the outward facing gates were fitted at Bow locks - certainly on the second occasion the tide came down Limehouse Cut

 

Love the pics on Pinterest! I'm not sure I've seen pics of Limehouse Cut lock before, I see at least one was taken by Edmund Bastow, who was a friend of dad's

 

Edited to add - I'm assuming Edmund Bastow and Edmund Barstow are the same person! Dad's friend did an awful lot of boating in the 50s and 60s

28 minutes ago, magpie patrick said:

 

I went through Limehouse cut towards Bow in 1996 and 1999, before the outward facing gates were fitted at Bow locks - certainly on the second occasion the tide came down Limehouse Cut

 

It has occurred to me that once the Thames Barrier was built they may have been less worried about the tide - when I worked in the area in the noughties most flood defence protection assumed that the Thames barrier would cut in above a given level

[Tacet]

2 hours ago, Tim Lewis said:

 

A photo of mine from 1990, complete with Hovercraft!

 

Some old photos here:

 

Nice additional photos.

 

The hovercraft one must have been taken mid morning or earlier, as no sign of the naughty boys who would be sure to pelt stones should you dare not be off Limehouse Cut by 11.00.

[David Mack]

When was the overhead propping installed in the old lock? Presumably needed to prevent the sides moving in, and indicative of the state of the lock.

Reminiscent of "Mr Hutchings monstrous erection" at Stratford.

 

[Mike Adams]

I remember the barrier being down in early 1980’s. We were coming down the River Lea down the cut and couldn’t get through. We had to turn around and go out of Bow Creek via Bow locks and then upriver. We ran out of tide at about Chiswick and one boat ran out of fuel but we did manage to get to Richmond after several hours breasted up. In those days there was still lighterage at Bow so the locks were always manned.

[Tacet]

29 minutes ago, David Mack said:

When was the overhead propping installed in the old lock? Presumably needed to prevent the sides moving in, and indicative of the state of the lock.

 

In 1865 when the first link to Regent's Canal Dock was closed - and then with "arched sheets" which were later replaced with the steel beams.

 

The old lock had bulged before and was in poor order, which was one reason for the first link.  The lock was enlarged and the overhead work was to avoid the expense of ground ties and possibly  the space on the lock side was a bit tight too.

 

Contemporary records state:

 

“The lock would be built with timber sides with arched sheets overhead to prevent bulging and save the necessity of land ties; this is the Dutch fashion so often advocated by the noble Chairman. If greenheart timber be used, the work may be very permanent but the invert can be made of concrete and brickwork".

 

So the strutting was not retrofitted.

 

[Ronaldo47]

Here's the 1969 photos.

[MPR]

On 02/09/2025 at 11:26, Tacet said:

I once asked on this forum if anyone had worked the old Limehouse Cut to Thames Lock (i.e. pre 1968) 

Slightly off topic but, in the late 1950s, whilst at King Teds a certain Captain Hussey had us rigging a breeches buoy across the Limehouse Cut.  We also learned to row a whaler in the West India Dock.  Neither skill did I ever have to use.

[cuthound]

The second part of the article is here.

 

https://alondoninheritance.com/london-canals/walking-the-limehouse-cut-part-2/

 

At the end of the article are links to other articles about the Limehouse Cut.

Edited September 14, 2025 by cuthound
To add the last paragraph

[Ronaldo47]

Thanks for the link to the  latest article.

 

In the 1960's there was some grafitti on the towpath wall next to Three Mills that was visible to passengers of passing  District Line trains. It grew over time, and in around 1963 I did manage to snap part of it from the train. I always wondered who "Saitch" was.