Limehouse Cut
The Limehouse Cut is a straight, wide canal in the East End of London , England that connected the River Lea to the Thames . Now he is connecting the Limehouse Basin , which in turn is connected to the Thames after its course was changed in 1968.
The canal branches off at Bow Locks at the transition from Lea to Bow Creek ; he runs 3.2 km in a south-westerly direction through the London Borough of Tower Hamlets to the Limehouse Basin.
history
The Limehouse Cut was by the River Lee Act , decided an Act of Parliament on 29 June 1767 after John Smeaton had stated that it was necessary to create different channels in the region of Lea and the existing weirs with locks to replace. Two days after the law was passed, Thomas Yeoman was appointed the land surveyor in charge and one of his first tasks was to find a route for the Limehouse Cut. It was to create a shortcut from the River Lea at Bromley-by-Bow to the Thames at Limehouse Basin and bypass the winding stretch of the river at Bow Creek, as well as avoid detours around the Isle of Dogs due to the tides . The proposal for the route from Yeoman was accepted on September 14, 1767. It led to Dingley's Wharf on the Limehouse Basin. The contract to build was shared. Charles Dingley, the owner of the quay, received the southern half as far as Rose Lane and Jeremiah Ilsley received the northern half.
The construction of the Bromley Lock was commissioned to a Mr. Cooper, the owner of mill rights in Bromley. The Thames lock was designed by a Mr Collard and was expected to cost £ 1547. However, Collard was wrong in calculating the length and it had to be lengthened by 4.9m, bringing the cost to £ 1696. In 1769 the first sections of the connection could be used by ships and in May 1770 the opening date of the entire route was set for July 2nd. But an 18-meter-long piece of brick wall collapsed and postponed the opening to September 17, 1770.
In December 1770, a bridge collapsed and blocked the canal.
Since the canal was only wide enough to allow a ship to pass through, a passing point was built in May 1772. But in March 1773 it was decided to widen the entire canal so that it could be used by two ships. The construction contract was awarded to Jeremiah Ilsley in June 1776 and the widespread canal was opened to traffic on September 1, 1777 at a construction cost of £ 975.
In 1854 the Bromley Lock was relocated and expanded to accommodate larger ships. An 1888 report found that the sluice was so full of trash that it did not hold the water when the adjacent section was low. In 1899 it was reported that the lock was only used when the water level was low. The southern gates were removed soon afterwards and only the northern gates remained.
The Britannia Lock was built at the southwest end of the canal in 1853. The gates were on either side of the bridge over Commercial Road.
From January 1, 1854, the canal came under the control of Regent's Canal and a connection was built to what was then Regent's Canal Dock, today's Limehouse Basin. At the same time, a third pair of gates was installed at the Britannia Lock, which served in the event that the water level in the Limehouse Cut was lower than in the Limehouse Basin.
The connection existed only for a short time and was filled in in May 1864. The third pair of gates were removed from the Britannia Lock around 1868, as were the other lock gates because they were found to be useless, an 1893 report found. After British Waterways took over the canal in 1948, a drop gate was installed on the Commercial Road bridge, but this was removed in the 1990s.
Renovation work on the Bow Locks in 2000 enables the lock to be used at any water level and has stabilized the water level in the canal.
In the 1960s, the lock that connected the canal to the Thames had to be renewed. It was built in 1865 and was constructed in such a way that wooden beams prevented the walls from deforming. These were replaced by a steel structure. But access to the lock was also difficult and the gates had to be operated by winches, as the space was very limited. The construction of a new lock would have meant considerable restrictions for freight traffic at that time. It was therefore decided to build a new connection to the Regents Canal Dock. The route from the 1860s could not be used because it had been built on. For this reason, a connecting canal only 61 m long was dug, which was put into operation on April 1, 1968. The old lock was filled in and only a winch was set up at Hampstead Lock as a memento.
Further development
The factories and warehouses that used to be supplied from the canal can now be reached by road. Today the canal is mostly used for leisure activities. Regent's Canal, Hertford Union Canal , the canalized sections of Lea, and Limehouse Cut form a 8.9 km circle that can be used on foot or by bike.
Access to the Limehouse Cut was difficult in the area of the Blackwall Tunnel , it was improved by adding a floating walkway. The footpath, which was opened in July 2003, consists of 60 floating pontoons that span a length of 240 m.
The Limehouse Cut is part of the canalized River Lea and is managed by the Canal & River Trust . It can be used by ships up to a length of 26.8 m and a width of 5.8 m. The headroom is limited to 2.06 m. The original lock between the Thames and Limehouse Basin has been replaced by another lock. The first lock is now just a shallow pond, but the houses that were built there in 1883 have been preserved despite many modifications in the area.
At the end of the 2012 Olympic Torch Relay , David Beckham took a speedboat across the Limehouse Cut to the Olympic Games opening ceremony .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ John Boyes, Ronald Russell: The Canals of Eastern England. David and Charles, Newton Abbot 1977, ISBN 0-7153-7415-X , pp. 20-21.
- ↑ John Boyes, Ronald Russell: The Canals of Eastern England. , Pp. 21-22.
- ↑ Richard Thomas: Limehouse Cut, Bromley Lock and Britannia Lock. Retrieved June 12, 2016.
- ↑ Richard Thomas: Bow Back Rivers. Retrieved June 12, 2016.
- ^ A b Richard Thomas: Limehouse Lock. Retrieved June 12, 2016.
- ↑ John Boyes, Ronald Russell: The Canals of Eastern England. David and Charles, Newton Abbot 1977, ISBN 0-7153-7415-X , p. 38.
- ↑ Jane Cumberlidge: Inland Waterways of Great Britain. 8th edition. Imray Laurie Norie and Wilson, 2009, ISBN 978-1-84623-010-3 , pp. 136-137, p. 168.
- ↑ Walking on Water. ( Memento of February 16, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Cities Of Science London.
- ^ Grand Union, Oxford and the South East (= Nicholson Guides . 1: Waterways guide. ). Harper Collins, Nicholson, London 2006, ISBN 0-00-721109-0 , pp. 100 .
Coordinates: 51 ° 30 ′ 57 ″ N , 0 ° 1 ′ 24 ″ W.