View source for Limehouse Cut

{{Short description|Canal in East End of London, England}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2015}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2015}}
{{Infobox Canal
  |name        = Limehouse Cut
  |image       = Limehouse Cut viewed Northeast from Burdett Road Bridge.jpg
  |image_caption     = Looking North East along the Limehouse Cut
  |pushpin_map = United Kingdom London Tower Hamlets
  |pushpin_map_caption = Location in Tower Hamlets
  |former_names      =
  |original_owner     = Trustees of the Lee Navigation
  |engineer    = {{ubl|John Smeaton|Thomas Yeoman}}
  |other_engineer  = {{ubl|James Meadows Rendel|Nathaniel Beardmore}}
  |date_act    = 1766
  |date_use    = 1769
  |date_completed   =
  |date_closed =
  |date_restored   =
  |len         =
  |len_in      =
  |original_boat_length       =
  |original_boat_length_in    =
  |len_note    =
  |beam        =
  |beam_in     =
  |original_beam      =
  |original_beam_in   =
  |beam_note   =
  |start_point       = [[Bow Locks]]
  |original_start     =
  |start_note  =
  |end_point         = [[Limehouse Basin]]
  |original_end       =
  |end_note    =
  |branch      =
  |branch_of   =
  |connects_to        = (part of) [[Lee Navigation]]
  |locks       =
  |original_num_locks     =
  |lock_note   =
  |elev        =
  |elev_note   =
  |status      = Open
  |navigation_authority         = [[Canal and River Trust]]
}}
{{Limehouse Cut map}}
The '''Limehouse Cut''' is a largely straight, broad [[canal]] in the [[London Borough of Tower Hamlets]] in east London which links the lower reaches of the [[Lee Navigation]] to the [[River Thames]]. Opening on 17 September 1770, and widened for two-way traffic by 1777, it is the oldest canal in the London area.  Although short, it has a diverse social and industrial history.  Formerly discharging directly into the Thames, since 1968 it has done so indirectly by a connection through [[Limehouse Basin]].

The Cut is about {{convert|1.375|mi|km|1|adj=ri1}} long.<ref>{{harvnb |Edwards |1972 |p=134}}</ref> It turns in a broad curve from [[Bow Locks]], where the Lee Navigation meets [[Bow Creek (England)|Bow Creek]]; it then proceeds directly south-west through Tower Hamlets, finally making a short hook to connect to Limehouse Basin.

== Origins ==

===Before the Cut===
[[File:The River Lea navigation in Elizabethan times (map).png|thumb|upright=1.75|'''Elizabethan watermen towing barges near Enfield Lock'''. Detail from a large strip map<ref name="Bull 1958 377">{{harvnb|Bull|1958|p=377}}</ref> of the River Lea preserved at [[Hatfield House]]]]

Already in Elizabethan times there was a vigorous river trade between towns on the [[River Lea]]<!---Spelling of "Lea" and "Lee": please do not change unless you know the convention.---> and the City of London, but watermen had to await the tides and row round the [[Isle of Dogs]]. Thus, in 1588 (wrote G. B. G. Bull): {{blockquote|A fleet of 44 barges, bearing such names as Maltsack, Ramshead, Greyhound, Pheasant, Primrose, Hind and Cock, with a total capacity of 1100 [[Quarter (unit)#Weight|quarters]] were engaged in transporting wheat and malt from the Hertfordshire markets of [[Ware, Hertfordshire|Ware]] and [[Hoddesdon]] to [[Queenhythe]] in London. Barges were loaded at Ware on Saturday, reached Bow Lock on Monday,<ref>If conditions were favourable.  In extremely dry weather barges might be held back a fortnight: {{harvnb|Fairclough|1989|p=IV}}</ref> and awaited the opening of the gates with the turn of the tide. Brisk rowing on the Thames brought the barges to London within four hours of clearing the Lea.<ref>Assuming favourable tides and winds.  They were unreliable, so that some traders preferred to [[transshipment|transship]] at Hackney or Stratford and continue by road: {{harvnb|Fairclough|1986|p=283}}.</ref>  The return journey, with passengers or with a load of coal, pig-iron or salt, began on the ebb tide. When the tide changed, Bow Lock opened once more. From thence to [[Waltham Abbey|Waltham]] took six hours, and to Ware six hours more.<ref name="Bull 1958 377">{{harvnb|Bull|1958|p=377}}</ref>}}  The goods came from even further afield:  by 1663 the road from [[Huntingdon]] and Cambridge was worn out "by reason of the great Trade of Barley and Mault, that cometh to Ware, and so is conveyed by water to the City of London".  In 1739, 25,000 tons of malt and "all sorts of Grain, Flower, and other Commodities" went by the Lee.  When the Limehouse Cut was built this traffic had increased to 36,000 tons—about a quarter of London's grain supply.<ref>{{harvnb|Fairclough|1989|p=III}}</ref>

===Planning and authorisation===
The Limehouse Cut was authorised by the Lee Navigation Improvement Act 1767 ([[7 Geo. 3]]. c. 51),<ref>{{harvnb|Lee Navigation Improvement Act 1767}}.</ref><ref>The official short title of Acts of Parliament relating to the navigation of this river is "The Lee Navigation Improvement Act" followed by the year of its enactment: {{harvnb|Lee Navigation Improvement Act 1850}} s.90.</ref> after the engineer [[John Smeaton]] identified the need to make several cuts and to replace existing [[flash lock]]s on the river with [[Lock (water transport)|pound locks]].<ref>{{harvnb|Smeaton|1837|pp=374–7}}</ref> It occurred to Smeaton<ref>Already in 1573 a Dutch engineer had proposed and drawn a canal between the Lea and Limehouse: {{harvnb|Fairclough|1986|pp=31–35}}.</ref> as an afterthought<ref>Wrote Smeaton: "On inspection of the plan, it seems very desirable that a cut should be carried from the four mill pond at Bromley to the Thames at Limehouse hole, and which, from a general knowledge of the ground, I believe very practicable; yet, as this thought did not occur to me till I was compiling the plan, I must refer the gentlemen to Mr. YEOMAN's Report thereupon, to whom the same thought has occurred, and who has viewed and levelled the same, and which I shall inspect when I go up to town, if thought eligible.": {{harvnb|Smeaton|1837|p=376}}</ref> to have a cut from Bromley to the Thames at Limehouse and his assistant [[Thomas Yeoman]] had the same idea.  Thomas Yeoman was appointed as the surveyor to the River Lee trustees, and one of his first tasks was to investigate a route for the Limehouse Cut. As authorised by Parliament, it would provide a short-cut from the [[Lee Navigation]] at [[Bromley-by-Bow]] to the River Thames "at or near Limehouse Bridge Dock",<ref>{{harvnb|Lee Navigation Improvement Act 1767|p=705}}</ref> avoiding the tortuous curves of the lower reaches of the River Lea at [[Bow Creek (England)|Bow Creek]], and the need to wait for the tide to make the long detour round the [[Isle of Dogs]]. The trustees accepted Yeoman's proposed route on 14 September 1767, which would terminate at Dingley's Wharf at Limehouse.

===Excavation and lock building===
[[File:Map of the southern end of the River Lee Navigation.png|thumb|left|upright=1.75|'''The area in 1834.''' From Thomas Telford's ''Map of the New River from its Source near the Town of Ware to London.'' {{color|red|1}} Limehouse Lock  {{color|red|2}} Britannia Bridge   {{color|red|3}} Stinkhouse Bridge  {{color|red|4}} Leamouth (traditional outlet)]]

The contract for the excavation of the cut was split into two, with Charles Dingley, owner of the wharf and also a trustee, getting the southern section up to Rose Lane and Jeremiah Ilsley getting the northern section to Bow Locks.<ref>{{harvnb |Boyes |Russell |1977 |pp=20–21}}</ref>  Dingley contracted to make his end of the canal for 10[[penny|d.]] per foot; Ilsley's charge was 7d. per foot.<ref>{{harvnb |Appleby |1995 |pp=184–5}}</ref>

The construction of Bromley Lock was let as a separate contract, which was awarded to a millwright from Bromley called Mr Cooper, who also built some of the locks on the Edmonton Cut. The lock into the Thames was designed by Mr Collard, another of the trustees, who produced a model and plan for the structure. The estimated cost was £1,547, but Collard had miscalculated the length, and it had to be increased by {{convert|16|ft|m}}, resulting in the estimate's rising to £1,696.

===Inauguration and widening===
By 1769, barges were using part of the cut, and in May 1770 an opening date of 2 July was set. However, {{convert|60|ft|m}} of brickwork failed, and fell into the canal, delaying the opening until 17 September. There were further problems in December, when a bridge collapsed, blocking the canal, but once the teething problems were resolved, traffic increased steadily.

The cut was only wide enough for one barge, and in May 1772, a passing place was added, but by March 1773, the company had decided to widen the whole cut, so that barges could pass at any point. The contract for the work was given to Jeremiah Ilsley in June 1776, and the widened cut was operational from 1 September 1777, having cost £975.<ref>{{harvnb |Boyes |Russell |1977 |pp=21–22}}</ref>

===Further widening===
[[File:Limehouse Middx 1809.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|'''Limehouse Cut in 1809''' — apparently being widened.  In the background is St Anne's Church and the recently built Commercial Road.]]
At some stage the Cut was further widened from 55 feet to its present width of 75 feet. When this happened is unclear. It has been suggested it happened during the Beardmore modifications of the 1850s<ref>{{harvnb|London Borough of Tower Hamlets|2011|p=7}}</ref> (see below), but this seems improbable.  Widening was not called for by Rendel's plans, nor is it mentioned by Beardmore himself.  Possibly it happened during the construction of the [[Commercial Road]].  An 1809 print seems to show widening excavations alongside the Cut.

===Hydraulics===
Although the newly constructed Limehouse Cut could save vessels time navigating down Bow Creek and around the Isle of Dogs, its performance was suboptimal.  Unusually, it was a tidal canal.  It could be short of water and liable to [[shoal]].

At the northern end of the Cut was a conflict with a property called Four Mills, which was in fact a group of five [[tidal mills|tidal water wheels]].<ref>The Four Mills were about half a mile downstream the still-surviving [[Three Mills]]: {{harvnb|Beardmore|1854|p=450 (Plate I)}}</ref>  Nathaniel Beardmore, the Lee trustees' engineer, described the conflict as it was in early Victorian times:{{blockquote|The Four Mills Head has always formed part of the navigation of the River Lee, but as the water was the common property of so many [other] mills [as well], it became, systematically, a race, after each period of high water, which of them should draw the fastest, and practically, the result was always in favour of the Four Mills, which had five large wheels, with the greatest fall and the largest head-channel ... Under these circumstances, the interest of the proprietor of the Four Mills was entirely adverse to any regularity of navigation below Old Ford Lock; for in the Four Mills Head, unless barges could travel during about one hour of high water, they were constantly liable to take the ground when the water was lowered by the working of the mills; and, as the Limehouse Cut depended entirely on the tidal water, and was not navigable at [[Tide#Range variation: springs and neaps|neaps]], there were frequently intervals of some days, during which there was no means of affording a passage to the Thames.<ref>{{harvnb|Beardmore|1854|pp=242–3}}</ref>}} At an 1850 inquiry by [[William Cubitt]] it was explained that because the Cut was unnavigable for four or five days at neap tides, barges had no way out to the Thames except via Bow Creek (which was toll free).  Hence the tolls were lost.<ref>{{harvnb|''Hertford Mercury''|1850a|p=5}}</ref>

The Cut had no locks except at either end—despite the fall in the land, which was 17½ feet.<ref>{{harvnb|Priestly|1831|p=411}}; {{harvnb|Bradshaw|1832|p=6}}</ref>  The shallowest point was therefore critical.  "Limehouse Cut had always occasioned a great deal of trouble", added Beardmore, "on account of the water falling short, and of the slipping of the moving sands and gravel, which lay where the London clay was denuded".<ref>{{harvnb|Beardmore|1854|p=250}}</ref>  No systematic attempt to improve the navigation was made until the Victorian era.

<gallery mode="packed" heights="170px">
File:Limehouse Cut at the beginning of the 19th century.jpg|'''Limehouse Cut c.1800''', the only canal in London—called 'Poplar Cut' in this map
File:The Limehouse end of the Limehouse Cut c.1800.jpg|'''River Thames or Limehouse end''', including the basin and its island ({{color|red|arrow}})
File:The Bromley end of the Limehouse Cut c.1800.png|'''River Lee or Bromley end''', showing junction with the Four Mills Head
</gallery>

===The Limehouse basin—first of three===
Near its Limehouse end the Cut was widened to form a basin with an island in it.  This was the first Limehouse basin, made 25 years before the better known Regent's Canal Dock.  The reason for this is described below, see "The Island in the Cut and its mills".

==Victorian modifications==
===Railway competition===
By 1843 a railway had been built from [[Stratford, London|Stratford]] to [[Hertford]]: it became the [[Eastern Counties Railway#Development|Eastern Counties Railway]].  The line ran<ref>And runs.</ref> beside the River Lee<ref>{{harvnb|Field|1866|p=20}}</ref> and threatened its carrying trade.

===Closing the Four Mills===
As an essential first step in 1847 the trustees of the Lee Navigation bought out the troublesome Four Mills and gradually stopped them using water power.<ref>{{harvnb|Beardmore|1854|p=243}}</ref>

===James Rendel's scheme===
In 1849 [[James Meadows Rendel (engineer)|James Rendel]] was asked to devise a scheme to improve the infrastructure, which was dilapidated.  He reported that "if [the Navigation] is to compete successfully with Railways, it should be made an efficient branch of the Thames, viz. navigable by the largest class of barges there employed".<ref>{{harvnb|Rendel|1850|p=5}}</ref>  He proposed, besides numerous improvements on the river proper, the reconstruction of Bromley Lock; deepening the Limehouse Cut; forming a towing path under Britannia Bridge (Commercial Road); and the construction of a new outfall lock into the Thames, with cills 19 feet below Trinity High Water, and with tide gates.<ref name="Rendel 1850 15">{{harvnb|Rendel|1850|p=15}}</ref>

===Financing and politics===
[[File:James Gascoyne-Cecil, 2nd Marquess of Salisbury by DJ Pound.jpg|thumb|upright|left|'''The Marquess of Salisbury''', chief promoter of the scheme]]
[[File:John Bright.jpg|thumb|upright|'''John Bright''', the radical MP who denounced it]]
The engineering of the Limehouse Cut was affected by political disputes upstream. The Lee had multiple uses.  It was a highway for traders.  It supplied London with drinking water.  It powered grain mills.  It was a sewer for towns and factories.  There was no Conservancy Board to manage these clashing interests, just the trustees responsible for its navigation.<ref>{{harvnb|Rivers Pollution Commissioners|1867|pp=vii–xxiv}}. The 1864 cholera epidemic in East London prompted a Royal Commission to examine the pollution of the River Lee and take evidence:  Their report led to the Lee Conservancy Act, 1868.</ref>

The navigation of the River Lee was governed by a board of 65–120 unpaid trustees, typically country magistrates.  The most influential was [[James Gascoyne-Cecil, 2nd Marquess of Salisbury]], who became chairman in 1851.  A powerful nobleman<ref>"In every important sphere of activity in Hertfordshire and in neighbouring counties he accrued titles and powers which he was shameless in using to promote and enforce his will; though this was always within the letter and upholding of the law": {{harvnb|Webster|2016|p=68}}</ref> with a deep knowledge of parliamentary procedure, his biographer has described him as an eighteenth century aristocrat in a nineteenth century world.<ref>{{harvnb|Webster|2016|pp=52–55}}</ref>  Of the few trustees who used to turn up to meetings, only one was a trader who owned barges.<ref>{{harvnb|Rivers Pollution Commissioners|1867|pp=xxiii, 32}}; {{harvnb|Lee River Conservancy Bill, Minutes of Evidence|1868|pp=40, 44, 50}}; {{harvnb|Hansard|1868|p=998}}.</ref>

[[File:John Bright's 1850 speech to ithe House of Commons.png|thumb|'''John Bright MP''' suspects a scam.]]
Rendel's estimate for his scheme was £230,000<ref>{{harvnb|Rendel|1850|p=30}}</ref>—about £30 million today<ref>According to {{harvnb|Bank of England Inflation calculator}}</ref>—yet the Trust's revenue was small.<ref>At that time the Trust's main source of income was tolls on goods traded on the navigation, which brought in about £6,000 p.a.; the outgoings were roughly the same: {{harvnb|Rivers Pollution Commissioners|1867|pp=15–7}}.</ref>  However, John Marchant, clerk to the trustees, had hit on the idea of borrowing the capital and paying off the loans by selling more water to the London water companies.<ref>{{harvnb|''Hertford Mercury''|1850d|p=2}}.  According to the ''Hertford Mercury''—a warm Marchant admirer—he was really the scheme's originator and joint author.  It had a second, even more ambitious, part: persuading the water companies to invest a further £750,000 on reservoirs; but they shrank at the expense: {{harvnb|''Hertford Mercury''|1865|p=4}}.</ref>  This was essential to the scheme's success, Hertford's MP [[William Francis Cowper-Temple, 1st Baron Mount Temple|William Cowper]] told Parliament.<ref>"The reason we cannot part with that ... clause is that the sale of the money may realize the money which is necessary to enable the Trustees to improve the Navigation": {{harvnb|''Hertford Mercury''|1850c|p=2}}</ref>

The scheme was controversial.<ref>Before Rendel's time the River Lee had been made deep enough for navigation by being embanked i.e. the water level was raised above the adjacemt lands.  Since these could not drain in rainy weather, they flooded. ({{harvnb|Rendel|1850|p=5}}.)  An important aspect of Rendel's scheme was to remove those banks and deepen the river bed instead.  It was of benefit to adjoining landowners—many of whom were Lee trustees.  But barge owners complained it was like "paying 30s. for a sovereign": their arguments were put by Mr Cobham at the Ware meeting, below.</ref>  It was opposed by many river traders who complained the benefits were not worth the money and the Trust would incur large debts: meaning higher tolls.  Its promoters were certain it would pay for itself.<ref>"He should presently show the meeting, by a few figures, that the advantages which the Metropolis would derive from the supply of water obtainable from the river, when the proposed improvements had been effected, were so great as to leave no doubt that, from this source alone, sufficient funds would be provided to effect them, without rendering any charge upon the Navigation necessary."  The Rendel scheme would yield an extra 53 million gallons of water per day; said Salisbury; but other pending London water schemes showed that such an amount of water could be sold for very much more than an investment of £230,000.  (Speech of Lord Salisbury to the trustees of the Lea Navigation, Ware Town Hall, 14 May 1850.) {{harvnb|''Hertford Mercury''|1850b|p=2}}</ref>  At an unusually large meeting of the Trust at Ware, the scheme was carried by 27–25 votes.<ref>Mr Cobham, opposing, said there was no advantage in catering for bigger barges, because they took longer to load.  Nor did celerity of navigation matter much:  "Malt could even now conveyed to London by barge quicker than by railway. It could be loaded overnight, and delivered in London before 11 o'clock in the morning". {{harvnb|''Hertford Mercury''|1850b|p=2}}</ref>  A Bill was put before Parliament to authorise it<ref>Including the power to borrow £230,000 mortgaged on the security of the tolls: {{harvnb|Rivers Pollution Commissioners|1867|p=137}}.</ref> and, despite opposition from radical politician [[John Bright]]—who suspected an ulterior motive<ref>{{harvnb|''Hertford Mercury''|1850c|p=2}}</ref>—became law on 1 August 1850.<ref>{{harvnb|Lee Navigation Improvement Act 1850}}</ref>

The pessimists proved correct.  While the London water companies were interested in buying the water, and had said so, they had not tied themselves to a price; and soon showed who had the stronger bargaining power.<ref>A miller on the Lee wrote: "The power of ... these Water Companies, arising from their wealth, and consequent power of hiring first-rate professional assistance, and from the influence of the proprietors themselves... is such, that if they act in a tolerably correct manner as regards the public, they are practically invulnerable." {{harvnb|Burch|1853|p=50}}</ref>  First, the New River [Water] Company struck a deal with the town of Hertford to get water from the pure and copious [[River Mimram]]—an upstream tributary, outside the Lee Trust's jurisdiction.<ref>{{harvnb|''Herts Guardian''|1852a|p=3}}</ref>  Then they and the [[East London Waterworks]] applied for Acts of Parliament of their own, by which they would get the River Lee's water.<ref>"A clause which enacted robbery and plunder", said Hertford's MP: {{harvnb|''Hansard''| 1852|p=397}}</ref> There was litigation; the Trust ran into cashflow problems; and the eventual compromise was that the Companies got the whole of the River Lee's water—apart from that required for navigation—for comparatively small amounts.<ref>The Trust got a one-off capital sum of £42,000, and the annual aggregate payment was raised from £2,100 to £3,500: {{harvnb|River Lee Water Act|1855|pp=3–6}} note Preamble and sections IV–VIII.</ref>

The upshot was that though there were valuable improvements, the Trust incurred a large debt without any obvious means to pay it off.<ref>By December 1866 their debt was £174,287.  Their annual income from the tolls, the water companies and sundries was £17,212 but their outgoings (including interest on loans) were about the same: {{harvnb|Rivers Pollution Commissioners|1867|p=145}}.</ref>  Though they had increased the tolls (sometimes steeply),<ref>Statement of Mr Beardmore, col. 2: {{harvnb|''Herts Guardian''|1853b|p=4}}; Marchant's evidence to Parliament {{harvnb|Lee River Conservancy Bill, Minutes of Evidence|1868|pp=41, 43}}; {{harvnb|Despard|1858|pp=394–8}}</ref> they ran out of funds.  Sacrifices had to be made, and were made on the Limehouse Cut.

===Beardmore's implementation===
[[File:River Lee Navigation General Plan of Tidal Portion 1854.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|'''1854 improvements''' of the tidal Lee Navigation (general plan); the {{color|red|arrow}} indicates Limehouse Cut]]

Rendel's plans were implemented by his former pupil [[Nathaniel Beardmore]].<ref name="Beardmore 1854 248">{{harvnb|Beardmore|1854|p=248}}</ref>   The first tranche of work was supposed to comprise the tidal portion (from the Thames to Old Ford), hence the Limehouse Cut.  However funds ran out, work stopped in 1853,<ref>{{harvnb|Beardmore|1856|p=669}}; {{harvnb|Despard|1858|p=386}}</ref> and some of Rendel's plans had to be curtailed.  When more funding became available in 1855 it had to be devoted to non-tidal parts of the Lee.<ref>As required by the 1855 Act: {{harvnb|Despard|1858|p=386}}.</ref>

Some changes were made before funds ran out, with the following effect.  The governing level in Limehouse Cut was increased: the water was not allowed to fall 2 feet below [[Trinity High Water]] mark.<ref>{{harvnb|Beardmore|1854|p=244}}; {{harvnb|Beardmore|1856|p=669}}</ref>  The Cut under the Commercial Road bridge was made wider and given a towpath.  Larger barges could now be handled:<ref>{{harvnb|Beardmore|1854|pp=241, 244}}</ref>
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Barge Dimension (max)
! With old Lee Navigation
! With improved Lee Navigation
|-
| Draught
| 4 feet
| 6 feet
|-
| Length
| 85 feet
| 110 feet
|-
| Beam
| 13 feet
| 19 feet (via Regent's Canal outlet)
|}

These and other improvements were said to increase the tonnage on the Lee Navigation by 25% (but the tolls by 50%), despite competition from the [[Eastern Counties Railway]].<ref>{{harvnb|Despard|1858|pp=394, 398}}</ref>

====The Regent's Canal Company: temporary link to their basin====
[[File:Relationship_between_Limehouse_Cut_and_the_Regent's_Canal_1863.jpg|thumb|right|'''The short-lived Basin link {{color|red|1}}''' — an alternative to using the Thames lock '''{{color|red|2}}''']]
[[File:Limehouse Basin and Cut.png|thumb|right|'''Independence.''' After the link had been filled in]]

The outlet to the Thames, "an old timber lock of small dimensions", had become "more and more ruinous".<ref>{{harvnb|Colburn|1869|p=384}},</ref>  In October 1852 Beardmore reported that "The Limehouse Lock has bulged and the late Lock keepers house must be pulled down both to get at the repair required and because the house is in the act of Tumbling down".<ref name="harvnb|Thomas|2010c">{{harvnb|Thomas|2010c}}</ref>

At about this time the Lee trustees, who were afterwards alleged to be too cosy<ref>A meeting of Lee and Stort traders resolved as follows: "That the agreement of 1852 made between the Regent's Canal Company and the River Lee Trustees, by which the Lee Trusr have affected or pretended to sell to the Company a portion the Limehouse cut, appears to the traders upon the Lee navigation to involve (if carried out) the sacrifice of public navigation to a private company; and that in their opinion, such an arrangement has been much facilitated by the fact of ''several of the trustees being owners and shareholders of the Regent's Canal, and particularly the chairman of the Lee Trust being also chairman of the Regent's Canal Company, and having signed the agreement of 1852, and the deputy-chairman of the Canal Company being also a trustee of the River Lee." '' {{harvnb|Herts Guardian|1864|p=8}}</ref> with the [[Regent's Canal Company]], agreed to sell it the southern portion<ref>From the Commercial Road to the Thames.</ref> of the Limehouse Cut.  Since it was public trust property it could not be done without the sanction of Parliament, to whom a Bill was presented.<ref>{{harvnb|Herts Guardian|1852b|p=1}}</ref>  The nearby Regent's Canal Dock, already enlarged to a 9-acre basin, was crowded with shipping so the Company intended to enlarge it further, absorbing Limehouse Cut's lock and the remnants of its basin.<ref name="Colburn 1869 384">{{harvnb|Colburn|1869|p=384}}</ref>

While this matter was pending a link was dug (early 1854) to the Regent's Canal Dock, thus affording an alternative<ref>The old Limehouse Cut lock to the Thames continued to function.  One bargeman claimed that, in 1863, 95% of Lee barges chose it; another said only 50% did: {{harvnb|Herts Guardian|1864|p=8}} col. 1, Manser and Tomlin.</ref> outlet to the river.<ref name="Beardmore 1854 249">{{harvnb|Beardmore|1854|p=249}}</ref>  Work south of the Commercial road was supervised jointly by Beardmore and the Regent Canal's engineer.

The new route to the Thames could get congested<ref>"It is also possible to get in at the Regent's Canal entrance just above Limehouse Cut, but the communication between the Regent's Canal Basin and Limehouse Cut is not unfrequently blocked up by craft and barges, thereby causing much trouble and loss of time to small boats", wrote a pleasure-boat owner: {{harvnb|Field|1866|p=20}}.  There could anyway be a long time to wait at the Regent's Canal's lock to the Thames: {{harvnb|Brees|1839|pp=234, 273}}.  The Lee and Stort bargemen complained that the Regent's Canal Dock was too crowded and one said that less than 1 in 10 barges chose the Dock route: {{harvnb|Herts Guardian|1864|p=8}} col. 1, Barnard and Manser.</ref> and the proposal was not popular with the Lee and Stort bargemen. {{blockquote|The river Lee was a public highway for all the Queen's subjects to go upon with their goods and Barges when and where they pleased ... as much a public highway as Ratcliffe Highway or Cheapside}} said a Harlow bargeman. They disliked the prospect of being under Regent's Canal regulations.  They organised meetings,<ref>{{harvnb|Herts Guardian|1853a|p=8}}; {{harvnb|Herts Guardian|1864|p=8}}</ref> learnt to use the democratic machinery of the day,<ref>They memorialised the Board of Trade and petitioned Parliament (which gave them a right to oppose the Bill).</ref> and defeated the proposal in Parliament<ref>{{harvnb|Board of Trade|1864|pp=1–2}}; {{harvnb|House of Commons|1865|pp=73, 227, 245}}</ref> reputedly at small cost to themselves.<ref>{{harvnb|Hertford Mercury|1868|p=4}}</ref>  The Regent's Canal Company had to be content with a more modest dock enlargement<ref name="Colburn 1869 384" /> and in May 1864 the link was filled in.<ref name="harvnb|Thomas|2010b">{{harvnb|Thomas|2010b}}</ref>

Beardmore replaced the old timber Limehouse Lock with an "economical structure"<ref name="Colburn 1869 384" /> which was wider and had arched sheets overhead to stop bulging, after the Dutch fashion.<ref name="harvnb|Thomas|2010c" />

====Britannia Bridge and Lock====
[[File:Britannia Bridge, Commercial Road, 2019.jpg|thumb|left|'''Britannia Bridge in 2019.'''  An 1853 example of a [[skew arch]] bridge]]

Britannia Bridge is where the Commercial Road crosses the Cut.  It was named after the Britannia Tavern (c.1770-1911), which can be found in Horwood's 1819 map{{sfn|Horwood|Faden|1819}} and is visible in the image  ''Limehouse in 1809'' (above, "Further widening"), left background.  The original bridge cramped the Cut and interrupted its towpath.{{sfn|Rendel|1850}}

When the Limehouse Cut was connected to the Regent's Canal Dock (above), a potential hydraulic problem was created.  Since the Limehouse Cut was tidal, but the Regent's Canal was not, at times water might escape from the Dock and move up the Cut.  (Conversely, at other times water from the Cut might overfill the Dock.)  To restrict the loss of water a new lock was built at Britannia Bridge. It was a double regulating lock, with gates pointing in both directions, and new wing walls so as to form, conjointly, a new and more spacious Bridge.  Horses could pass along the new towpath underneath.  The work was supervised jointly by Beardmore and the Regent Canal's engineer.<ref name="Beardmore 1854 249" />

The lock gates were little used ("they never were, nor could be, used to keep out the tidal water, which comes into the Cut through many channels", wrote engineer Joe Child), and they were removed.<ref name="harvnb|Thomas|2010b">{{harvnb|Thomas|2010b}}</ref>

====The new Bromley Lock====
Bromley Lock was completely rebuilt in a slightly different<ref name="harvnb|Thomas|2010b">{{harvnb|Thomas|2010b}}</ref> position.  Said Beardmore:{{blockquote|The old Bromley Entrance Lock of the Limehouse Cut, and the other works, were much dilapidated, and the 300 yards of the Cut, adjacent to the lock, having been originally made in rather heavy cutting, through London clay capped by running sands and gravel, had frequently slipped, and had been protected, from time to time, by piles; these again had slipped and formed such serious impediments to the passage of the barges, that at every neap tide, the Cut was practically useless for several days.

The works have, therefore, embraced the re-construction of Bromley Lock Entrance to the Limehouse Cut, and the deepening, widening, walling, and cutting down the slopes, on the portion above described.<ref>{{harvnb|Beardmore|1854|p=245}}</ref>}} The new lock was 137 feet long and 22 feet broad, with cills 11 feet below Trinity high water mark.<ref name="Beardmore 1854 248" />

In 1888 Joe Child (one of Beardmore's successors) wrote:{{blockquote|The pointings and chambers of these locks were so filled up with mud, rubbish, old pans and kettles thrown in that when the gates were closed for the purpose of drawing the water at Limehouse or Bow the leakage was so great that we could not keep a head of water in the Cut so that before again drawing it was necessary to clear out the locks which has been done but the gates at Bromley still leak very much ..and will require a short stoppage for repair.<ref name="harvnb|Thomas|2010b">{{harvnb|Thomas|2010b}}</ref>}}  Bromley Lock was finally removed; according to Lee historian Richard Thomas, one gate can still be seen, behind the floating towpath.<ref name="harvnb|Thomas|2010b">{{harvnb|Thomas|2010b}}</ref>

==Twentieth century modifications==
[[Bow Locks]] were originally semi-tidal, as high spring tides flowed over the top of the locks, altering the level in the Limehouse Cut and the southern section of the Lee Navigation. They were modified in 2000, when a [[flood wall]] and an extra pair of flood gates were installed, enabling the lock to be used at all states of the tide and stabilising the level of the cut.<ref>{{harvnb |Thomas |2010a}}</ref> Funding for the project was provided by the London Waterway Partnership.<ref name="bw-potted">{{Cite web |title=Bow Back Rivers – A potted history |url=http://www.britishwaterways.co.uk/olympics/history |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120207004136/http://www.britishwaterways.co.uk/olympics/history/ |archive-date=7 February 2012 |publisher=British Waterways |df=dmy-all}}</ref>

Following the takeover of the canal by British Waterways in 1948, a vertical guillotine gate was fitted on the north side of Britannia Bridge but this was removed in the 1990s.<ref>{{harvnb |Thomas |2010b}}</ref>

===New link to Limehouse Basin===
By the 1960s, the lock that connected the cut to the Thames was in need of replacement. It had been rebuilt in 1865, after the closing of the link to the Regents Canal Dock, and the design had included massive timber ties over the top of it to prevent bulging of the walls. These were eventually replaced with a steel cage, which served the same purpose.<ref name="thomas2010c">{{harvnb |Thomas |2010c}}</ref> Access to the lock from the cut and from the Thames was awkward, and the gates were operated by winches and chains as the site was too narrow to accommodate balance beams. At the time, there was significant commercial activity on the cut, which would have been severely disrupted by the construction of a new lock. The solution adopted was to reinstate a link to the Regents Canal Dock. The route used in the 1860s could not be reused, as it was now covered by buildings, and so a new length of canal, only about {{convert|200|ft|m}} long, was built. The new link was opened on 1 April 1968, when the tug ''Miriam'' towed four lighters through it. The old lock was then filled in but one of the winches was saved and was put on display at [[Hampstead Lock]].<ref>{{harvnb |Boyes |Russell |1977 |p=38}}</ref>

== Social and industrial history ==

===The Island in the Cut and its mills===
John Cary's ''New and Accurate Plan of London'' of 1795 shows that, by that date, a portion of the canal, near its outlet at Limehouse, had been expanded to form a large basin, with an island in the middle marked "Timber Yd", accessible by a causeway.<ref>{{harvnb|Cary|1795}}</ref> This was the first basin in Limehouse, built 25 years before the better known Regent's Canal dock, a little to the west, which now bears that name.  (There was yet another of that name: the western entrance to the West India Docks.).{{efn|See [[Limehouse Basin#Not the first Limehouse basin]]}}

====Charles Dingley's sawmill====
[[File:The_Island,_Limehouse_Cut.png|left|thumb|'''The Island, Limehouse Cut in 1819''' (red arrow) and (left) the newly built Limehouse Basin of the Regent's Canal<ref>From Richard Horwood's map of London, 4th ed (Richard Faden: London), 1795.</ref>]]
[[File:A Perspective and Political View of the Timber Yard at L------e.png|thumb|right|'''Election cartoon:''' Charles Dingley vs. [[John Wilkes]], with the unpopular Dingley as the man who sawed up Englishmen's traditional rights.]]

In Richard Horwood's 1819 map<ref>{{harvnb|Horwood|Faden|1819}}</ref> (extract reproduced here) the basin with Island are drawn to scale; nearby rows of houses are named 'Island Row' and 'Mill Place', respectively.  Those streets still exist in Limehouse but the "Island" and the "Mill" themselves are largely forgotten.  They originated as follows.

Charles Dingley was an entrepreneur and speculator who built, amongst many other things,{{efn|He also built the [[Marylebone Road|Marylebone]], [[Euston Road|Euston]], [[Pentonville Road|Pentonville]] and [[City Road]]s (op. cit.).}} the southern end of the Limehouse Cut. At that time wooden planks were expensive because they were sawn by hand, or imported ready sawn;<ref>{{harvnb |Appleby |1995 |pp=179–181}}</ref> in England<ref>As opposed to Scotland ({{harvnb|Cooney|1998|p=86}}), colonial America ({{harvnb|Jones-Baker|1995| p=22}}), or Holland ({{harvnb|Cooney|1998|p=85}}).</ref> there was hostility to sawmills,<ref>{{harvnb|Cooney|1998|p=84}}</ref> which were thought to be illegal.<ref>{{harvnb|Cooney|1991|pp=31–33}}</ref>  Dingley, who was also a major timber merchant, decided to defy convention by building a wind-powered sawmill.  He bought up a "stranglehold" of land in Limehouse and built the sawmill strategically<ref>{{harvnb |Appleby |1995 |pp=182, 185}}</ref> close to the line of the intended Cut,<ref>At that time the land transport of timber for 20 miles probably doubled its cost: {{harvnb|Cooney|1998|p=84}}.</ref> which he may have promoted with that very intention.  It was the only sawmill in England and did good business.

However, on 10 May 1768—the day of the [[St George's Fields Massacre]] riots—a mob of 500 men, including hand-sawyers, attacked his sawmill and destroyed the machinery—anticipating the [[Luddite]] machine-smashers of later years.<ref>{{harvnb |Appleby |1995 |pp=118–182}}</ref> It caused Parliament to pass the [[Malicious Injury Act 1769]] ([[9 Geo. 3]]. c. 29) making it a felony to vandalise mills. Dingley repaired his mill by 1769.<ref name="Appleby 1995 182">{{harvnb |Appleby |1995 |p=182}}</ref> Surviving records are consistent with the island and basin being constructed to isolate and protect the repaired sawmill.<ref>Appleby sought to pinpoint the sawmill's location but was unable to do so with confidence, though he thought it must have been, at least, near the island shown on a 1799 Horwood map ({{harvnb |Appleby |1995 |p=192}}).  However the documents he cites at pp. 185–6 show that the basin was in fact made after the mob attacked the sawmill.  Hence it is at least possible that the Cut was deliberately enlarged around the sawmill in order to isolate it.</ref>

====The Island Lead Mills====
[[File:The_Island_Lead_Mills,_Limehouse.png|left|thumb|'''The Island Lead Mills''', 1885, with their barges in the foreground]]
[[File:Victory_Place,_Limehouse.jpg|thumb|right|'''The site of the Island today.''' Victory Place, Limehouse]] 
The sawmill fell into disuse before 1806,<ref name="Appleby 1995 182" /><ref>Morning Advertiser, 10 July 1806, p. 4 (sawmill sold for scrap),</ref> but by 1817<ref>''Morning Chronicle'', 27 March, p. 2</ref> a lead mill was built on the island, called The Island Lead Mills.  It continued a thriving business into the twentieth century—it had one of the first telephones in the East End of London<ref>'''East 10''': London Telephone Directory, 1922, p. 444.</ref>—and its barges used the Cut; the company ceased to exist only in 1982.<ref>''The London Gazette'', 5 March 1982, p. 3122.</ref>

By about 1868, however, the expanding Regent's Canal Dock had encroached so that the Island was no longer strictly such, and further portions were filled in later in the nineteenth century.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Maps of the East London Historical Society |url=http://www.mernick.org.uk/elhs/maps/maps2a.htm |access-date=10 July 2019}}</ref>  Even so, traces can still be discerned adjacent Victory Place, Limehouse, which is built on the site.

===Boatbuilding alongside Limehouse Cut===
[[File:Forrestt's_Lifeboat_Building_Yard,_Limehouse.png|thumb|left|'''Forrestt's Boatyard.''' Most of the Victorian era's lifeboats were built here.]]

At Limehouse, across the Cut from the Island, was the boatyard of T & W Forrestt, builders to the [[Royal National Lifeboat Institution]].{{sfn|Grace's Guide}}{{sfn|The Times|1858|p=12}}{{sfn|Illustrated London News|1860|p=478}}  The firm built the Institution's self-righting lifeboat,{{sfn|Illustrated London News|1858|p=532}} which they publicised by testing in the waters of the adjoining Cut.{{sfn|Greenock Advertiser|1859|p=1}}{{sfn|Norfolk Chronicle|1854|p=4}}  Reportedly these boats saved upwards of 12,000 lives.{{sfn|Illustrated London News|1886|p=666}} Other notable builds included the Admiralty's fast anti-torpedo boats powered by the noiseless [[Willans engine]],{{sfn|The Times|1878|p=6}} and the yawl '' Rob Roy'' (one of the first vessels used in solo adventuring).<ref>{{harvnb|Leather|2001|p=163}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Macgregor|1880|p=3}}</ref>  When it became urgent to send an [[Nile expedition|expedition to the Sudan]] to rescue [[Charles George Gordon|General Gordon]] the firm built and delivered, in less than a month, 100 boats to a special design for ascending the [[cataracts of the Nile]].<ref>{{harvnb|Butler|1887| pp= 8–29, 371–376}}</ref>

Forrestt's yard was called Norway Yard, a name that survives in Norway Place.  The image—an engraving in the [[Illustrated London News]]—shows the boatyard after its restoration from a disastrous 1858 fire. In the foreground is the [[London and Blackwall Railway]] with (in the distance) Stepney Station, now [[Limehouse station|Limehouse DLR]].  The railway arches traverse Mill Place and Island Row.  The Cut is visible at left centre.  Across the Cut is the Island, with the Island Lead Mills (smoking chimney). The rigging in the background reveals shipping lying in the Thames (left) or in the Regent's Canal Dock (centre).

===Stinkhouse Bridge===
Bow Common Lane met the Cut at Stinkhouse Bridge, so called even in official documents.  The name first appears in an 1819 map<ref>{{harvnb|Horwood|Faden|1819}}.  In this map it is called ''Stink House's Bridge''.  The "house" emitting the stink at this early date appears to be a soap works.</ref> and in an 1826 magistrates' report listing the bridges of Middlesex.<ref>{{harvnb|Committee of Magistrates|1826|p=306}}</ref>

It was a desolate area originally, recalled a local historian, so chemical manufacturers went there for the opportunity to pollute.  Hence the stench and the name.<ref>{{harvnb|Dunstan| 1862|p=239}}</ref> A subsidiary cause was filth from the notorious Black Ditch—a medieval sewer, originating in Spitalfields and discharging its waste in Limekiln Dock.<ref>{{harvnb|Baker|1998}}, loc=fn.(38)</ref> At this place an open ditch, it had been fed under the Cut by a syphon, but it overflowed in stormy weather. More than once Stinkhouse Bridge required the attention of [[Joseph Bazalgette]] himself.<ref>{{harvnb|Metropolitan Board of Works|1866|p=1019}}</ref> "The smell is so bad that sometimes we cannot sleep in our beds", complained an 1856 petition. The main cause of the stink, thought Bazalgette, was factories discharging effluent into the Cut.{{sfn|London Evening Standard|1856|p=1}}

[[File:Testing_lifeboat_in_Limehouse_Cut.png|thumb|left|'''Near Stinkhouse Bridge, 1885.'''  The RNLI's storeyard where lifeboats were tested before release to service]]
As time went by Stinkhouse Bridge became the nucleus of "the largest chemical and inflammable factories in London": the district was a fire risk. In 1866 it caught fire at last. So tremendous was the blaze that, reportedly, every unit in the London Fire Brigade knew to turn out—and where to go—just by "the great light in the sky".  Many people jumped into the Cut to avoid being burned to death.{{sfn|Leeds Times|1866|p=8}}

About 200 yards up the Cut<ref>At 27 Broomfield Street: {{harvnb|Select Committee on the Royal National Lifeboat Institution| 1897|p=643}}.</ref> was the RNLI's storeyard.<ref>It had no connection with Forrestt's boatbuilding yard much further down the Cut.</ref>  Lifeboats were kept there prior to release to service.  Before that, they were sunk in the waters of the Cut to test their self-righting powers, as shown.  The tests also required men to stand on a gunwale until it was submerged.<ref>{{harvnb|Staniland|1886|p=342}}</ref>  Across the Cut began the notorious Fenian Barracks slum area, see below.

There are many reports of individuals trying to end their lives by jumping off Stinkhouse Bridge. In 1909 Coroner [[Wynne Baxter]] remarked that he had held inquests on over 50 suicides there. In a derisory attempt to enhance its image it was renamed Lavender Bridge.{{sfn|Tower Hamlets Independent|1909|p=8}} So dirty was the water that when a local labourer dived in to save a woman trying to drown herself, the magistrate awarded him special compensation from the poor box.{{sfn|London Evening Standard|1906|p=10}}

The bridge was rebuilt in 1929.<ref>{{harvnb|London Borough of Tower Hamlets|2011|p=15}}</ref> It continued to be a well known East End placename even after the stink had gone. In ''Call the Midwife: A True Story of the East End in the 1950s'' the runaway Irish girl Mary lingers at Stinkhouse Bridge. "It was pleasant standing by the bridge, looking down at the moving water."<ref>{{harvnb|Worth|2012|p=194}}</ref>

===Bathing===
In 1833 the Limehouse Cut was the place most frequented for bathing, an East London magistrate told Parliament.  The authorities tried to ban the practice for indecency.<ref>{{harvnb|Loudon|1836|pp=370–1}}</ref>

===Pollution.  The cholera and smallpox controversies.===

====The Cut becomes an open sewer====
[[File:'Oracle',_28_September_1798.png|thumb|left|'''A gruesome find.''' (''Oracle'', 1798)]]

Until about 1815 it was illegal to discharge human waste except into [[cesspools]]; "sewers" originally were for rainwater.  Then the practice gradually changed and in 1846 it became compulsory to drain houses into sewers.<ref>{{harvnb|Bazalgette|1865|p=5}}</ref>   Sewers had always discharged into the Thames, and so Limehouse Cut itself became another sewer — in the modern sense — and,  when population and industries crowded around its banks, a "very filthy" one.<ref name="Flower 1877 691">{{harvnb|Flower|1877|p=691}}</ref>

[[William Farr]] wrote that in 1849 some houses near the Lea had no drinking-water supply, so the poor were forced to dip their pails in the Limehouse Cut.  Apart from the chemical waste, he said, "the canal is a receptacle for dead dogs, cats, and other small animals, frequently seen floating on the discoloured waters; and on every occasion of opening the locks at Bromley there is a rush of floating scum into the Lea'.  Amongst those who drank the water, deaths by cholera were observed.<ref>{{harvnb|Farr|1852|p=204}}</ref>

As population increased the Lee itself became polluted with sewage, as did the Thames: the sewage was brought in by the tides and locked in the Cut, where it accumulated.<ref>{{harvnb|Rivers Pollution Commissioners|1867|pp=xii-xiii}}</ref>  In 1866 the Lee Navigation's engineer agreed that in hot dry weather the Cut was "An open continuous cesspit ... As foul as it could be.".<ref>{{harvnb|Rivers Pollution Commissioners|1867|p=31}}</ref> In 1877 it was complained the layer of sediment was several feet thick.<ref name="The Times 1877 12">{{harvnb|The Times|1877|p=12}}</ref>

[[File:'"The Times", 23 September 1865.png|thumb|left|''' Letter from "A Sufferer", 1865.'''  Agitation gradually led to its cleanup.]]

====Cholera epidemic====
In 1866, there was a major cholera epidemic in East London. Conventional medicine (the [[miasma theory]]) blamed polluted air, so there was an outcry against the Limehouse Cut. However, ''[[The Lancet]]'' appointed a sanitary commission who plotted the cases on a large map and discovered that living near (or far from) the canal had nothing to do with the risk of dying of the disease. They were led to reject the miasma explanation and to suspect the drinking-water.<ref>{{harvnb|The Lancet Sanitary Commission|1866|pp=273–4}}</ref> It was afterwards proved that faecally contaminated water had got into the [[East London Waterworks Company]]'s supply and been pumped to households — a step in medical science towards rejecting the miasma theory and establishing the currently accepted [[germ theory of disease]].

But Thomas Orton, the Limehouse medical officer of health, was not a convert. In his district, he said, "water-drinkers" (teetotallers) scarcely ever got the cholera: it must be the bad air from the canals.<ref>{{harvnb|Orton|1866|p=6}}</ref>

====The smallpox hospital====
[[File:East_London_Observer.png|thumb|left|'''"Blow it up!".''' Smallpox hospital beside the Cut infuriates East Enders.]]

In 1876, there was a smallpox outbreak in London and the authorities struggled to find suitable hospital accommodation.  Some patients were placed in a hospital in Hampstead but this attracted the ire of local residents; one of them, [[Sir Rowland Hill]], sued.  The authorities then rented the disused Silver factory - sandwiched between the Limehouse Cut and Dod Street - and made plans to convert it into a hospital.  It infuriated East Enders that West End bureaucrats should send smallpox patients to a crowded working district in Limehouse ("Another opportunity for the West to look down on and revile the denizens of the East" sneered the ''East London Observer'') and there were demonstrations in Trafalgar Square and threats of violence.<ref>{{harvnb|Ayers|1971|pp=32–59}}; {{harvnb|Kerr|2015}}; {{harvnb|East London Observer|1877|p=5}}</ref>

Samuel Charlesworth, Rector of [[St Anne's Limehouse]], wrote that it was a very bad place for patients anyway.  Highly insalubrious, it had no ventilation "to move the fog often settling there, except the current of offensive vapour moving up and down the fœtid canal."  He, the Rev. Charleswoth, knew the Cut was unhealthy because he lived next to it himself;<ref>The Rectory grounds were on the west bank of the Cut near Britannia locks: {{harvnb|Ordnance Survey|1895}}.</ref> his children "when at home always fail in health".  Opposite, six children of one family had died in one month — of some blood infection.  Their coffins had been superposed in the same grave.<ref name="The Times 1877 12" />

====Cleanup====
But the cleanup of Limehouse Cut was already underway.  It worked for two reasons: Bazalgette's strategic system of intercepting sewers; and an act of Parliament, the [[Rivers Pollution Prevention Act 1876]] ([[39 & 40 Vict.]] c. 75), which gave the Lee Conservancy Board powers to pursue polluters — for this purpose the Limehouse Cut was deemed to be part of the Lee — and to dredge sewage.<ref>{{harvnb|Higgins|1877|pp=47–8}}</ref>  In the Cut, already by 1877 the board had closed down 36 private sewers.<ref name="Flower 1877 691" /> By the end of the century its dredgers were removing 40 tons of sediment a day.<ref>{{harvnb|London County Council|1903|p=220}}</ref>

===The Burdett Road Bridge enclave===
[[File:Horwood's_1819_map_showing_the_Limehouse_Cut,_London.png|thumb|upright=1|'''The Cut in 1819.'''  {{color|red|1}} The Island. {{color|red|2}} Britannia Bridge.  {{color|red|3}} Huddart's Patent Cable Works (afterwards the Burdett Road). {{color|red|4}} Stinkhouse Bridge.]]

In 1819, the Cut ran through open countryside from Bromley lock to Britannia Bridge, Commercial Road.  There was no way of crossing this except at Stinkhouse Bridge.  To the northwest, see map, was the Patent Cable Works, a long ropewalk founded by Captain [[Joseph Huddart]] where was made his twice-as-strong ship's cable.<ref>{{harvnb|Sargent|2015}}</ref>  In due course the area was built up, the Cable Works closed and in 1858 its line was used to construct the "Victoria Park Approach Road" — soon renamed [[Burdett Road]] after philanthropist [[Angela Burdett-Coutts]].  A new bridge had to be made over the Cut.  For the sake of the barge traffic Parliament required the bridge to allow headroom of at least "Eight Feet above High Water Mark, Trinity Standard".<ref>{{harvnb|Victoria Park Approach Act|1858|pp=489–494}}</ref>

====Dod Street and socialism====
[[File:Dod_Street_meetings,_Limehouse.png|thumb|upright=1.25|left|'''Dod Street demonstrations.'''  Speakers here included Bernard Shaw, Eleanor Marx and William Morris.]]
Dod Street, on the corner by Burdett Road Bridge and whose factories overlooked the Cut, was built and named by 1861.<ref>{{harvnb|Metropolitan Board of Works|1861|p=419}}</ref>  It first attracted public attention in the smallpox hospital controversy (above) and then as a site for Sunday political meetings.  Socialists like [[John Burns]],<ref>{{harvnb|Pett Ridge|1923|p=110}}</ref> [[Amie Hicks]],<ref>{{harvnb|Sloane|2018|p=70}}</ref> [[Henry Hyndman]]<ref>{{harvnb|Hyndman|1911|pp=421–2}}</ref> [[Eleanor Marx]],<ref>{{harvnb|Holmes|2014|p=245}}</ref> [[William Morris]]<ref>{{harvnb|von Helmholtz-Phelan|1927|p=84}}</ref> and [[George Bernard Shaw]],<ref>{{harvnb|London Borough of Tower Hamlets| 2011|p= 13}}</ref> among others, were speakers there.

====The Dod Street trick====
[[File:The_Earthly_Paradox.png|thumb|upright=1|left|'''The law blacks William Morris' boots.'''  A gentleman, he was treated leniently.]]
Dod Street gave rise to the expression "the Dod Street trick" used in socialist politics.  The police felt these meetings were subversive and sought to prevent them by arresting demonstrators for highway obstruction.  Since there was no traffic to obstruct — it was a street of canal-side factories on a Sunday — the police were perceived as denying freedom of speech.

The Dod Street trick, devised to counter this, was thus described by Bernard Shaw:<ref>{{harvnb|Keller|2009|pp=21, 94, 101}}</ref>{{blockquote|Find a dozen... who are willing to get arrested at the rate of one a week by speaking in defiance of the police.  In a month or two, the repeated arrests, the crowds which they attract, the scenes which they provoke, the sentences passed by the magistrates... and the consequent newspaper descriptions, rouse sufficient public feeling to force the Home Secretary to give way whenever the police are clearly in the wrong,}} which is what happened.  Public indignation gathered enormous crowds of people — only a very few of which were socialists<ref>"Out of our wonderful show of 50-70-80 or a hundred thousand men at Dod St., [subsequent] polling has proved that not a hundred were Socialists" wrote Bernard Shaw: {{harvnb|Bevir|1996|p=182}}</ref> — and they were let alone.<ref>{{harvnb|Keller|2009|p=101}}</ref>

The image captioned ''The law blacks William Morris' boots''<ref>{{harvnb|Stafford|1885}}</ref> is a political caricature mocking class justice and Morris' genteel socialism. At a trial in Arbour Square magistrates court, plebeian demonstrators had been found guilty and punished, but Morris was only dismissed with a warning. It symbolically has the law blacking Morris' boots in Dod Street — his foot rests on comrades who did get jail time or "smarting" fines — while on his banner is an ironical reference to his high-flown poem [[The Earthly Paradise]].<ref>{{harvnb|Sunday Times|1885|p=6}}; {{harvnb|Hillier|1994|p=37}}.</ref>

[[File:Dod_Street,_Limehouse_(1885).png|left|thumb|upright=1.75|'''Dod Street''' sketched on Sunday 27 September 1885<ref>''The Graphic'' 3 October 1885</ref>]]

The cartoon captioned ''Dod Street Demonstrations''<ref>{{harvnb|The Graphic|1885}}</ref> contains an inset which, though incidentally, illustrates the area in late Victorian times.  The detail is reproduced here.  The {{color|red|arrow}} points towards Limehouse Cut.

In the left foreground {{color|red|1}} is the rubber factory of Abbott, Anderson & Abbott who made the capes for the Metropolitan Police<ref>{{harvnb|Cassidy|1895|pp=198, 202}}</ref> and oilskins for the Royal Navy.<ref>{{harvnb|Post Office London|1891|p=736}}</ref>

The last building {{color|red|2}} on the left — the one with the double lamps — is the "Silver Tavern" public house,<ref>{{harvnb|Post Office London|1891|p=886}}</ref> informal headquarters of the East End Football Association,<ref>{{harvnb|Sporting Life|1886a|p=3}}; {{harvnb|Sporting Life|1887a|p=2}}</ref> in which played such teams as [[Millwall Rovers]], [[Tottenham Hotspur]]<ref>{{harvnb|Sporting Life|1886b|p=4}}</ref> and the East End mission of [[Eton College]].<ref>{{harvnb|Sporting Life|1887b|p=3}}</ref>

In the distance {{color|red|3}} is St Anne's Limehouse, while at the bottom of the street can be seen the Burdett Road horse-drawn tramway — a tram {{color|red|4}} has just crossed the Bridge.  Across Burdett Road begins the notorious St Anne Street Rookery, described below.

The last building on the right {{color|red|5}} is a warehouse soon to become the Outcasts' Haven (below).

====Cutting edge industry====
[[File:Herrmann's_Furniture_Factory,_Limehouse.png|thumb|right|upright=1.5|'''H Herrmann's furniture factory.'''  Notice the electric travelling crane, highly innovative in 1888.]]
Taking up most of the north side of Dod Street and backing onto the Limehouse Cut was the highly innovative H. Herrmann factory.  Opened in 1877 by American Henry Herrmann, it made hardwood furniture and was the first in England to do so almost entirely by machine.<ref>{{harvnb|Edwards|1995|p= 214}}</ref> Its stock of timber — easily imported by water — was described in the ''East London Observer'' as "something enormous", yet swiftly turned into good furniture "at the lowest possible prices".<ref>{{harvnb|East London Observer|1880|p=5}}</ref>  Handled by a steam crane — risky in timber yards — the whole factory burned down in a colossal fire in 1887.  (The fire got dangerously close to the East London Saltpetre Works, until extinguished by the Fire Brigade's floating engines on the Cut).<ref>{{harvnb|London Evening Standard|1887|p=3}}</ref>  Herrmann rebuilt the factory and introduced one of the world's first electric travelling cranes to save on the steep insurance premiums.  As there was no electrical supply in London, he generated his own, and had the factory electrically lit.<ref>{{harvnb|The Times|1888|p=9}}</ref>

At Herrmann's in 1884, while planning his London bombing campaign, worked Irish-American [[dynamitard]] Harry Burton;<ref>{{harvnb|Old Bailey|1885}}</ref> he lodged round the corner in Pelling Street.<ref>{{harvnb|Dundee Courier|1885|p=5}}</ref>

The Fire Brigade continued to use floating fire engines on the Cut ("fire boats") until at least 1929.<ref>{{harvnb|Aberdeen Press and Journal|1929|p=7}}</ref>

====The Outcasts' Haven====
[[File:The_Irish-Stew_Dinner_at_Limehouse.png|thumb|upright=1.5|'''A charity stunt.'''  Walter Austin and Frances Napton lived well off charity appeals, keeping no proper accounts.]]
In a disused warehouse at 1A Dod Street, opposite the Silver Tavern, was the Outcasts' Haven.  According to [[Charles Dickens Jr.]], the first rule of the establishment was this: {{blockquote|Any outcast boy or girl, up to the age of sixteen, without parents, guardians or friends, and who has no home but the streets, will be admitted at once, at any hour of the day or the night free, and be provided with a bath, warm clothes, food and a bed.}}  Any policeman on the beat "who finds some poor outcast shrinking from the flash of his lantern", wrote Dickens, knew to send the child to Dod Street.<ref>{{harvnb|Dickens|1888|p=30}}</ref>

But, according to an exposé in the investigative journal  ''[[Truth (British periodical)|Truth]]'', it was part of a charity scam.  Run by a man called Walter Austin and his mistress Frances Napton ("the Lady Superintendent"),  the charity put on stunts (see illustration), sent out heart-rending appeals, collected large donations, but kept no proper accounts.  While it did spend some money on homeless children, its proprietor lived well.<ref>{{harvnb|East London Observer|1890|p=4}};  {{harvnb|Lloyds Weekly Newspaper|1890|p= 9}}; {{harvnb|Sevenoaks Chronicle|1891|p=4}}; {{harvnb|Lloyds Weekly Newspaper|1891|p=2}}</ref>

[[File:The Limehouse, Cut, London, 1886.png|thumb|'''Limehouse Cut, 1886''', near Copenhagen Place, with the Copenhagen Oil Mills (centre)]]

===Victorian recycling===
East End refuse collectors — called "dustmen", because households produced much coal ash — took the product to two yards<ref>Copenhagen Wharf (on the north side of the Cut, opposite the VIP Garage), and Abbott's Yard (in Dod Street).</ref> on the Limehouse Cut, where it was hand-sorted into separate hills by gangs of old men, women and boys.  The ash and breeze was sent by barge to Kent, where it was made into bricks; the rags, bones and metal were sold to "marine-store dealers";<ref>Victorian ancestors of scrap metal yards, so called because they originally bought anchors, sails etc.</ref> the old tin was sold to trunk-makers; the old bricks and oyster shells were sold to builders and road-makers; the old boots were sold to [[Prussian blue]] manufacturers; the money and jewellery were kept.<ref>{{harvnb|Mansion House Council|1897|pp=187, 196–7}}; {{harvnb|Mayhew|1861|pp=170–172}}.</ref>

The Copenhagen Wharf recycling facility can just be discerned in the 1886 photograph (left background).  The scene is a few yards west of Burdett Road bridge.  In the centre is Hirsch's Copenhagen Oil Mills, where seeds were crushed to make oil.  Dumb barges are moored in the foreground.  To the right is the Victoria Lead Works.

===Rookeries===
A [[Rookery (slum)|rookery]] was a slum area whose inhabitants aggressively and cooperatively opposed law enforcement.

====St Anne's Street Rookery====
[[File:The_St_Anne_Rookery,_Limehouse.png|thumb|'''In St Anne's Rookery.''' ''Lloyds Weekly Newspaper'', 5 October 1872.]]

Across Burdett Road was St Anne's Rookery, "a vile quarter lying between Limehouse Church and Limehouse-cut".<ref>{{harvnb|Godwin|1868|p=65}}</ref>  Marked black on [[Charles Booth (social reformer)|Charles Booth's]] [[poverty map]]s — the colour coding denoted "Lowest class.  Vicious, semi-criminal" — it was one of the few slums alongside the Cut; usually, the land was too valuable for housing.<ref>{{harvnb|Booth|1898}}</ref>

This notorious enclave, into which a policeman might be dragged by a mob,<ref>{{harvnb|East London Observer|1885|p=3}}</ref> continually featured in newspaper reports.  It included St Anne Street, where a man starved his wife in "peculiarly horrible" circumstances (1872);<ref>{{harvnb|Morning Post|1872|p=7}}</ref> and Merchant's Row, where a labourer kicked his mother to death (1897).<ref>{{harvnb|Tower Hamlets Independent|1897|p=3}}; {{harvnb|Old Bailey|1897}}</ref>  Law enforcement could be dangerous.<ref>{{harvnb|Lloyds Weekly Newspaper|1872|p=7}}</ref>

====The Fenian Barracks====
[[File:The Fenian Barracks.png|thumb|left|'''The Fenian Barracks''' ('''black'''): the most dangerous rookery in London. The fat refinery (arrow) attracted the even more terrifying canalside rat hordes.<ref>From Charles Booth's poverty maps: {{harvnb|Booth|1898}}</ref>]]

Even more dangerous to police was the district near Stinkhouse Bridge bounded by Limehouse Cut to the south and centred on Furze Street.<ref>{{harvnb|Thomas|1936|p=6}}; {{harvnb|Vaughn|2018|pp=120–1}}</ref>  Charles Booth's police informants called it the [[Fenian]] Barracks, which "sent more police to hospital than any other block in London and in which only Irish were tolerated to settle".<ref>{{harvnb|Feldman|1983|p=188}}</ref>

[[George Herbert Duckworth|George H. Duckworth]], one of Booth's researchers,<ref>His duties required him to walk every street of London —  as a sort of quality control  — with a local police inspector: {{harvnb|Llewellyn-Smith|1929|pp=553–4}}</ref> wrote that the Barracks was about the worst district in London — "three policemen wounded there last week".  According to his informant Inspector Carter, if they attempted an arrest "a rescue is always organized.  They fling brick bats, iron, any thing they can lay their hands on."<ref>{{harvnb|Duckworth|1897|pp=31–33}}</ref>  As was typical for rookeries, adjoining houses had internal passages designed for eluding police pursuit.  Summarised Duckworth:{{blockquote|Men travel from house to house from within if chased.  A cry of police brings help from every house.  The inhabitants hustle the police, they organize rescues; not the least bit of good [using] anything less than 6 constables ... if there is any prospect of having to haul off anyone to the police station.<ref>{{harvnb|Duckworth|1897|p=59}}</ref>}}  In contrast, rent collectors went about the district in broad daylight wearing top hats and black coats and carrying umbrellas.<ref>{{harvnb|Duckworth|1897|p=61}}</ref>

A fat refinery alongside the canal<ref>In Hawgood Street.</ref> attracted visitors who, said Inspector Carter, were more terrifying than the human inhabitants: {{blockquote|You should come down here on an early summer morning; if possible after a shower of rain; Rats, not in twos or threes or in 10s or twentys,  but in thousands and tens of thousands: the street will be covered with them, so will be the yard of the factory: rats, not small rats but big & fat, the size of cats : you knock a flagstone with your boot and away they go with a rush and a hissing sound from their feet upon the pavements that will make your blood run cold.<ref>{{harvnb|Duckworth|1897|pp=33–5}}</ref>}}

The East End was surveyed again in 1929 by researchers from the [[London School of Economics]] who found that, though poor areas in East London were much less widespread than in Charles Booth's time, the Fenian Barracks area was still an ugly pocket of chronic poverty.<ref>{{harvnb|Vaughn|2018|p=120}}</ref>

===Caird & Rayner===
[[File:VIP Garage.jpg|thumb|left|'''The innovative Caird & Rayner works''', latterly the VIP Garage, derelict]]
[[File:Caird & Rayner.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|'''Canal towpath side''']]

At 777 Commercial Road, opposite [[St Anne's Limehouse|Limehouse Church]], and backing onto the Limehouse Cut, stands a derelict building bearing the faded sign ''V.I.P. Garage''.  Originally (1869) a ships chandler's, with the best surviving example of a sail loft in Docklands, it was then extended to the east and formed the workshop and offices of Caird & Rayner.  This firm specialised in desalination apparatus, crucial for maintaining ship's boilers — and drinking water — on long sea voyages.  Patented in 1888, their apparatus was fitted on [[dreadnoughts]], British and Japanese battleships, [[Cunard]] liners, and "the [[Czar]]'s new yacht".  A specimen is in the [[Science Museum, London|Science Museum]].  Water from the Cut was used for testing the equipment.  The firm moved in 1972.

In 2000 the building was listed, both for its historical and architectural interest.  The engineering workshop is a very early example of fully steel structural framework, probably the only surviving one in London.<ref>{{harvnb|Robinson|1895|p=164}}; {{harvnb|Historic England|Caird & Rayner}}</ref>

===National politics===
On 25 January 1981 the [[Gang of Four (SDP)|Gang of Four]] stood on the bridge over former Limehouse Lock and issued the [[Limehouse Declaration]].

===Other names===
Limehouse Cut has been known by other or alternative names:

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! NAME(S) !! SOURCE!! DATE
|-
| "River Lea" (even where entering Thames at Limehouse)||[[John Cary]]'s New and Accurate Plan of London and Westminster{{sfn|Cary|1795}} || 1795 
|-
|"Limehouse Cut or Bromley Canal"||John Fairburn's Map of London and Westminster{{sfn|Fairburn|1802}} || 1802
|-
|"Poplar Cut" (not to be confused with [[Poplar Gut]])|| [[Edward Mogg]]'s London in Miniature{{sfn|Mogg|1809}} || 1809
|-
|"Lea Cut" (in Bromley); "Limehouse Cut" (in Limehouse)|| [[George Frederick Cruchley|G. F. Cruchley's]] New Plan of London{{sfn|Cruchley|1827}} || 1827 
|-
|"Bromley Canal or Lea Cut"||[[Frederic Festus Kelly|Kelly's]] [[Kelly's Directory|Post Office Directory]] Map{{sfn|Kelly|1857}} || 1857
|-
|"Lea Cut" (east of Bow Common Lane); "Limehouse Cut" (to west) ||Cross's New Plan of London{{sfn|Cross|1861}} || 1861 
|}

== Today ==
[[File:Bow Locks4.jpg|thumb|'''Choice''': to the left, Bow Locks and to [[Leamouth]]; to the right, the Cut and to Limehouse Basin]]
[[File:The Cut - Floating Towpath.jpg|thumb|'''Floating towpath'''.  This award-winning structure was installed 2003 to link the existing towpath to [[Bow Locks]].]]

Most use of the canal is for pleasure, both on the water and beside the water on the towpaths. Regent's Canal, the [[Hertford Union Canal]], the Lee Navigation and the Limehouse Cut form a four-sided loop, covering a distance of {{convert|5.5|mi|km}}, which can be walked or cycled.<ref>{{harvnb |Cumberlidge |2009 |pp=136–137, 168}}</ref> The scenic [[towpath]]s cut across roads and railways in the area, providing a distinct viewpoint.

Access on foot along the Limehouse Cut was difficult in the area below the [[Blackwall Tunnel]] approach road, but was made easier as a result of an innovative scheme to create a floating towpath. This was opened in July 2003 and consisted of 60 floating pontoons, creating a {{convert|240|m|yd|0|adj=on}} walkway complete with green glowing edges.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Walking on Water |url=http://www.citiesofscience.co.uk/go/London/ContentPlace_2810.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080216042130/http://www.citiesofscience.co.uk/go/London/ContentPlace_2810.html |archive-date=2008-02-16 |publisher=Cities Of Science London}}</ref>

The Cut is part of the Lee Navigation and is administered by the [[Canal & River Trust]]. It was built for sailing barges, and can accommodate vessels which are {{convert|88|by|19|ft|m}}. Headroom is limited to {{convert|6.75|ft|m}}.<ref>{{harvnb |Nicholson |2006 |p=100}}</ref> The lock from Limehouse Basin to the Thames was originally a ship lock, but has been replaced with a smaller one. Although the area around Limehouse Basin and the original lock into the Thames have been extensively developed as part of the Docklands Regeneration scheme, the row of houses overlooking the lock, which were built in 1883 by the Lee Conservators, have been retained and refurbished, while the site of the lock is now a shallow pool.<ref name=thomas2010c /> At the end of the London 2012 torch relay, [[David Beckham]] arrived with the Olympic torch on a speedboat via the Limehouse Cut to the Olympic opening ceremony.

=== Points of interest ===
{{GeoGroup}}
{{PoIgb start|type=collapsed}}
{{PoIgb|Bow Locks|51.5233|-0.0081|TQ382823|northern end of cut}}
{{PoIgb|A12 Blackwall Tunnel Approach|51.5216|-0.0104|TQ381821|Floating towpath under bridge}}
{{PoIgb|Docklands Light Railway bridge|51.5192|-0.0154|TQ377818|}}
{{PoIgb|A13 road bridge|51.5124|-0.0318|TQ366811|}}
{{PoIgb|Limehouse Basin|51.5111|-0.0362|TQ363809|southern end of cut}}
{{PoIgb end}}
{{Clear}}

== See also ==
{{Portal|United Kingdom|Transport}}
* [[Spratt's Complex]], an adjacent warehouse conversion including a large building called Limehouse Cut
* [[Canals of the United Kingdom]]
* [[History of the British canal system]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
{{bots|deny=Citation bot}}
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*{{Cite journal |year=1836 |editor-last=Loudon |editor-first=J. C. |title=Report of the Committee on Mr Martin's Plan for the Improvement of the Banks of the Thames |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044108362872&view=1up&seq=395 |journal=The Architectural Magazine and Journal of Improvements in Architecture, Building and Furnishing |location=London |publisher=Longmans |volume=III |pages=360–383 |access-date=23 September 2019 }}
*{{Cite book |last=Macgregor |first=John |url=https://archive.org/details/voyagealoneinya00macggoog/page/n9 |title=The Voyage Alone of the Yawl "Rob Roy" |publisher=Sampson Low, Marston, Searle and Livingston |year=1880 |edition=4 |location=London |access-date=14 July 2019}}
*{{Cite book |last=Mansion House Council on the Dwellings of the Poor |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.31951000897590t&view=1up&seq=7 |title=A Manual of the Law Affecting the Housing and Sanitary Condition of Londoners |publisher=Cassell |year=1897 |location=London |ref={{harvid|Mansion House Council|1897}} |access-date=27 September 2019}}
*{{Cite book |last=Mayhew |first=Henry |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark:/13960/t5m90kg9h&view=1up&seq=202 |title=London Labour and the London Poor: Cyclopædia of the Conditions and Earnings of Those that ''Will'' Work, Those that ''Cannot'' Work, and Those that ''Will Not'' Work |publisher=Griffin, Bohn |year=1861 |volume=II |location=London |access-date=27 September 2019}} 
*{{Cite book |last=Metropolitan Board of Works |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112097776923&view=1up&seq=598 |title=Minutes of Proceedings |year=1861 |location=London |access-date=21 July 2019}}
*{{Cite book |last=Metropolitan Board of Works |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kCNJAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA1008&dq=bazalgette+stinkhouse#q=bazalgette%20stinkhouse |title=Minutes of Proceedings, July–December |publisher=Brickhill and Batsman |year=1866 |location=London |access-date=16 July 2019}}
*{{Cite book |last=Nicholson |title=Nicholson Guides Vol 1: Grand Union, Oxford and the South East |publisher=Harper Collins |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-00-721109-8 |author-link=Nicholson Guides}}
*{{Cite book |last=Orton |first=Thomas |url=https://wellcomecollection.org/works/qgtcpjr6/items?sierraId=b22412177&langCode=eng&canvas=6 |title=Special report by Mr Orton, Medical Officer of Health, upon the cholera epidemic of 1866 |publisher=Board of Works for the Limehouse District |year=1866 |location=London |access-date=18 July 2019}}
*{{Cite book |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044106493133&view=1up&seq=693 |title=Parliamentary Papers |publisher=HMSO |year=1864 |volume=LIV |location=London |chapter=Board of Trade further report, Regent's Canal (Limehouse Basin) Bill |ref={{harvid|Board of Trade|1864}} |access-date=27 September 2019}} 
*{{Cite book |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044106494743&view=1up&seq=417 |title=Parliamentary Papers, 1867-1868, Reports from Committees |publisher=HMSO |volume=XI |location=London |chapter=Proceedings of the Select Committee on the Lee River Conservancy Bill, Minutes of Evidence |ref={{harvid|Lee River Conservancy Bill, Minutes of Evidence|1868}} |access-date=20 September 2019}}
*{{Cite book |last=Pett Ridge |first=W. |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.208834/page/n127 |title=A Story Teller Forty Years in London |publisher=Hodder & Stoughton |year=1923 |location=London |access-date=21 July 2019}}
*{{Cite book |last=Post Office London |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u307AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA735&dq=abbott+%22dod+street%22 |title=Commercial and Professional Directory for 1891 |year=1891 |access-date=21 July 2019}} 
*{{Cite book |last=Priestly |first=Joseph |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.$c13952&view=1up&seq=435 |title=Historical account of the navigable rivers, canals, and railways, throughout Great Britain, as a reference to Nichols, Priestley & Walker's new map of inland navigation, derived from original and parliamentary documents in the possession of Joseph Priestley, Esq |publisher=Longman |year=1831 |location=London |access-date=31 July 2019}}
*{{Cite journal |last=Rendel |first=James Meadows |title=Report on the proposed improvement of the River Lee navigation. |journal=Lse Selected Pamphlets |publisher=Trustees of the Lee Navigation |year=1850 |edition=LSE Selected Pamphlets |location=Hertford, England |jstor=60240262}}
*{{Cite book |last=Robinson |first=C.N. |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b2905131&view=1up&seq=188 |title=The Naval Annual |publisher=J. Griffin |year=1895 |editor-last=Brassey |editor-first=T. A. |location=Portsmouth |chapter=Chapter VIII - Naval Reinforcements in War Time - The Supply of Warship Material and Machinery |access-date=30 September 2019}}
*{{Cite web |last=Sargent |first=Edward |year=2015 |title=A History of Rope Making (Docklands History Group Meeting March 2015) |url=http://www.docklandshistorygroup.org.uk/ES%20%20Rope-making%20Talk.pdf |access-date=21 July 2019}}
*{{Cite book |last=Select Committee on the Royal National Lifeboat Institution |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433010755043&view=1up&seq=691 |title=Report of |publisher=Her Majesty's Stationery Office |year=1897 |access-date=18 July 2019}}
*{{Cite book |last=Sloane |first=Nan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hPSGDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA70&dq=%22john+burns%22+%22dod+street%22|title=The Women in the Room: Labour's Forgotten History |publisher=Tauris |year=2018 |isbn=978-1-78831-223-3 |location=London and New York |access-date=21 July 2019}}
*{{Cite book |last=Smeaton |first=John |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433087551846&view=1up&seq=510 |title=Reports of the late John Smeaton, F.R.S. made on various occasions in the course of his employment as a civil engineer |publisher=M. Taylor |year=1837 |edition=2 |volume=I |location=London |chapter=Upon the New Making and Completing the Navigation of the River Lea, from the River Thames, through Stanstead and Ware to the Town of Hertford |access-date=14 July 2019}}
*{{Cite book |last=Staniland |first=C.J. |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015056059689&view=1up&seq=354 |title=The English Illustrated Magazine 1885-1886 |publisher=Macmillan |year=1886 |location=London and New York |chapter=Lifeboats and Lifeboat-Men |access-date=18 July 2019}}
*{{Cite journal |last=The Lancet Sanitary Commission |date=8 September 1866 |title=Report on the Epidemic of Cholera in the East End of London |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SxxAAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA273&dq=%22cholera+in+the+east+end%22+intitle:the+intitle:lancet#q=%22cholera%20in%20the%20east%20end%22%20intitle%3Athe%20intitle%3Alancet |journal=The Lancet |volume=II |pages=273–274 |access-date=17 July 2019}}
*{{Cite journal |last=Thomas |first=Brinley |year=1936 |title=The New Survey of London Life and Labour |journal=Economica |series=New Series |publisher=Wiley on behalf of The London School of Economics and Political Science and The Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines |volume=3 |issue=12 |jstor=2549252 |pages=461–75}}
* {{Cite book |last=Thomas |first=Richard |url=http://www.leeandstort.co.uk/Bow_Back_Rivers.htm |title=Bow Back Rivers |publisher=Richard Thomas |year=2010a |series=History of the Lee and Stort Navigation}}
* {{Cite book |last=Thomas |first=Richard |url=http://www.leeandstort.co.uk/Limehouse_Cut.htm |title=Limehouse Cut |publisher=Richard Thomas |year=2010b |series=History of the Lee and Stort Navigation}}
* {{Cite book |last=Thomas |first=Richard |url=http://www.leeandstort.co.uk/Limehouse_Lock.htm |title=Limehouse Lock |publisher=Richard Thomas |year=2010c |series=History of the Lee and Stort Navigation}}
*{{Cite book |last=Vaughn |first=Laura |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G_xuDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA120&q=%22fenian+barracks%22 |title=Mapping Society: The Spatial Dimensions of Social Cartography |publisher=UCL Press |year=2018 |isbn=978-1-78735-305-3 |doi=10.14324/111.9781787353053 |access-date=10 February 2019}}
*{{Cite book |last=von Helmholtz-Phelan |first=Anna A. |author-link=Anna Augusta Von Helmholtz-Phelan |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015073390661&view=1up&seq=102 |title=The social philosophy of William Morris |publisher=Duke University Press |year=1927 |access-date=22 July 2019}}
*{{Cite book |last=Webster |first=Nicky |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y_UEDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA53&dq=trustees+salisbury+%22river+lee%22#q=trustees%20salisbury%20%22river%20lee%22 |title='My Lord Salisbury': An Eighteenth Century Aristocrat in a Nineteenth Century World |publisher=Matador |year=2016 |isbn=978-1785891-458}}
*{{Cite book |last=Worth |first=Jennifer |title=Call the Midwife: A True Story of the East End in the 1950s |publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-297-868-781|edition=Illustrated }}

===Acts of Parliament and law reports===
*{{Cite book |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.35112204864492&view=1up&seq=679 |title=Anno Regni Georgii III. Regis Magnæ Britanniæ, Franciæ & Hiberniæ, Septimo |publisher=Mark Baskett, King's Printer |year=1766 |location=London |chapter=An Act for Improving the Navigation of the River Lee, from the Town of Hertford to the River Thames; and for extending the said Navigation to the Flood-gates belonging to the Town Mill, in the said Town of Hertford |ref={{harvid|Lee Navigation Improvement Act 1767}} |access-date=14 August 2019}}  ("Lee Navigation Improvement Act 1767") 
*{{Cite book |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.35112203465911&view=1up&seq=1163 |title=Local and Personal Laws 1850 ch. 51-112 13 & 14 Vic. |year=1850 |location=London |chapter=An Act to alter and amend the Acts relating to the Navigation of the River Lee, in the Counties of Hertford, Essex, and Middlesex, and to enable the Trustees further to improve the Navigation, and to dispose of the surplus water, and for other purposes. |ref={{harvid|Lee Navigation Improvement Act 1850}} |access-date=14 August 2019}} ("Lee Navigation Improvement Act 1850")
*{{Cite book |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.35112103536415&view=1up&seq=1105 |title=Local and Personal Laws 1855 ch. 151-198 17 & 19 Vic. |year=1855 |location=London |ref={{harvid|River Lee Water Act|1855}} |access-date=24 September 2019}} ("River Lee Water Act, 1855")
*{{Cite book |last=Rickards |first=George Kettilby |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112106250654&view=1up&seq=515 |title=The Statues of Great Britain and Ireland 21 & 22 Victoria, 1857-8 |publisher=Eyre & Spottiswood |year=1858 |location=London |chapter=Victoria Park Approach Act, 1858 |ref={{harvid|Victoria Park Approach Act|1858}} |access-date=21 July 2019}} (""Victoria Park Approach Act, 1858")
*{{Cite web |date=20 April 1885 |title=The Queen v. Gilbert (James George), Burton (Harry) |url=https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?id=t18850420-532&div=t18850420-532&terms=burton_cunningham#highlight |access-date=25 July 2019 |website=Old Bailey online |ref={{harvid|Old Bailey|1885}}}}
*{{Cite web |date=26 July 1897 |title=The Queen v. O'Connell (Patrick), Sullivan (Johanna) |url=https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?div=t18970726-507 |access-date=8 September 2019 |website=Old Bailey online |ref={{harvid|Old Bailey|1897}}}}

===Maps===
*{{Cite map |last=Booth |first=Charles |title=Maps Decriptive of London Poverty |year=1898 |publisher=London School of Economics |sheet=1 |url=https://booth.lse.ac.uk/map/17/-0.0294/51.5127/100/0 |access-date=7 September 2019}}
*{{Cite map |last=Cary |first=John |title=New and accurate Plan of London and Westminster |year=1795|url=http://mapco.net/cary1795/cary24b.htm|access-date=13 March 2022}}
*{{cite map|last=Cross|first=J.|title=New Plan of London|year=1861|url=http://mapco.net/cross1861/cross32b.htm|access-date=13 March 2022}}
*{{cite map|last=Cruchley|first=George Frederick|title=New Plan of London|year=1827|url=http://mapco.net/cruchley/cruch17b.htm|access-date=13 March 2022}}
*{{cite map|last=Fairburn|first=John|title=Map of London and Westminster|year=1802|url=http://www.mernick.org.uk/elhs/maps/s1802.htm|access-date=13 March 2022}}
*{{Cite map |last1=Horwood |first1=Richard |last2=Faden |first2=William |title=Plan of the Cities of London and Westminster the Borough of Southwark, and parts adjoining shewing every house |year=1819 |edition=4 |location=London |url=http://www.romanticlondon.org/the-1819-plan/#13/51.5084/-0.0795 |access-date=16 July 2019}}
*{{cite map|last=Kelly|first=Frederic Festus|author-link=Frederic Festus Kelly|title=Kelly's Post Office Directory|year=1857|url=http://mapco.net/kelly1857/kelly15.htm|access-date=13 March 2022}}
*{{cite map|last=Mogg|first=Edward|title=London in Miniature|year=1809|url=http://www.mernick.org.uk/elhs/maps/bp1809.htm|access-date=13 March 2022}}
*{{Cite map |author=Ordnance Survey |title=OS London 1:1,056 — Sheet VII.70 |year=1895 |url=https://maps.nls.uk/view/101201607 |access-date=20 July 2019}}
*{{Cite map |author=Ordnance Survey |title=Surrey III.NE six inch map |year=1898 |url=https://maps.nls.uk/view/101436346 |access-date=26 September 2019}}
*{{Cite map |last=Stanford |first=Edward |title=Library Map Of London And Its Suburbs 1864 |year=1864 |url=http://london1864.com/stanford38b.htm |access-date=26 September 2019}}
*{{Cite map |last=Telford |first=Thomas |year=1834 |title=Map of the New River from its Source near the Town of Ware to London |publisher=British Library Maps.Crace.VIII.54 |url=http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/crace/m/007000000000018u00056000.html |access-date=22 September 2019}}

===Newspaper and magazine reports===
'''Note:'''  ''Newspapers that are not free-to-view (blue link) are mostly accessible at the [[British Newspaper Archive]] (subscription required).''

*{{Cite news |date=28 September 1798 |title=News |work=Oracle |publisher=17th and 18th Century Burney Collection |ref={{harvid|Oracle|1798}}}}
*{{Cite news |date=13 April 1850 |title=The River Lea. Proposed Improvement of the Navigation. |work=Hertford Mercury and Reformer |ref={{harvid|Hertford Mercury|1850a}}}}
*{{Cite news |date=18 May 1850 |title=Improvement of the River Lee |work=Hertford Mercury and Reformer |ref={{harvid|Hertford Mercury|1850b}}}}
*{{Cite news |date=1 June 1850 |title=Improvement of the River Lee |work=Hertford Mercury and Reformer |ref={{harvid|Hertford Mercury|1850c}}}}
*{{Cite news |date=7 September 1850 |title=Improvement of the River Lee: Dinner to John Marchant |work=Hertford Mercury and Reformer |ref={{harvid|Hertford Mercury|1850d}}}}
*{{Cite news |date=8 May 1852 |title=Town Council Meeting |work=Herts Guardian, Agricultural Journal, and General Advertiser |ref={{harvid|Herts Guardian|1852a}}}}
*{{Cite news |date=27 November 1852 |title=Lee River Trust. Consolidation and Amendment of Acts |work=Herts Guardian, Agricultural Journal, and General Advertiser |ref={{harvid|Herts Guardian|1852b}}}}
*{{Cite news |date=26 March 1853 |title=The River Lee Tolls |work=Herts Guardian, Agricultural Journal, and General Advertiser |ref={{harvid|Herts Guardian|1853a}}}}
*{{Cite news |date=28 April 1853 |title=River Lee Tolls |work=Herts Guardian, Agricultural Journal, and General Advertiser |ref={{harvid|Herts Guardian|1853b}}}}
*{{Cite news |date=28 April 1853 |title=River Lee Tolls |work=Herts Guardian, Agricultural Journal, and General Advertiser |ref={{harvid|Herts Guardian|1853c}}}}
*{{Cite news |date=18 February 1854 |title=New Life Boats |work=Norfolk Chronicle |ref={{harvid|Norfolk Chronicle|1854}}}}
*{{Cite news |date=19 November 1856 |title=Examinations at the Incorporated Law Society |work=London Evening Standard |ref={{harvid|London Evening Standard|1856}}}}
*{{Cite magazine |date=4 December 1858 |title=The Life-Boats of the Royal National Life-Boat Institution |magazine=Illustrated London News |ref={{harvid|Illustrated London News|1858}}}}
*{{Cite news |date=21 June 1858 |title=Fire at Limehouse |work=The Times |ref={{harvid|The Times|1858}}}}
*{{Cite news |date=28 June 1859 |title=The Ayr New Life-Boat |work=Greenock Advertiser |ref={{harvid|Greenock Advertiser|1859}}}}
*{{Cite magazine |date=16 November 1860 |title=Messrs. Forrestt's Life-Boat Building Yard |magazine=Illustrated London News |ref={{harvid|Illustrated London News|1860}}}}
*{{Cite news |date=20 February 1864 |title=Meeting of Traders on the Lee and Stort Rivers |work=Herts Guardian, Agricultural Journal, and General Advertiser |ref={{harvid|Herts Guardian|1864}}}}
*{{Cite news |date=17 June 1865 |title=The River Lee Navigation |work=Hertford Mercury and Reformer |ref={{harvid|Hertford Mercury|1865}}}}
*{{Cite news |last=Greville F. |date=6 January 1866 |title=The River Lea and its Tributaries |work=Field, The Country Gentleman's Newspaper |ref={{harvid|Field|1866}}}}
*{{Cite news |date=12 May 1866 |title=Tremendous Conflagration in London |work=Leeds Times |ref={{harvid|Leeds Times|1866}}}}
*{{Cite news |date=29 February 1868 |title=Local Intelligence. Conservancy of the Lee. |work=Hertford Mercury and Reformer |ref={{harvid|Hertford Mercury|1868}}}}
*{{Cite news |date=17 August 1872 |title=Shocking Affair at Limehouse |work=Morning Post |ref={{harvid|Morning Post|1872}}}}
*{{Cite news |date=6 October 1872 |title=Suspicious Death of a Policeman |work=Lloyds Weekly Newspaper |ref={{harvid|Lloyds Weekly Newspaper|1872}}}}
*{{Cite news |date=6 May 1878 |title=Naval and Military Intelligence |work=The Times |ref={{harvid|The Times|1878}}}}
*{{Cite news |date=13 January 1877 |title=The Proposed Small-Pox Hospital in Limehouse |work=East London Observer |ref={{harvid|East London Observer|1877}}}}
*{{Cite news |date=15 January 1877 |title=East London Smallpox Hospital |work=The Times |ref={{harvid|The Times|1877}}}}
*{{Cite news |date=23 October 1880 |title=An East London Industry |work=East London Observer |ref={{harvid|East London Observer|1880}}}}
*{{Cite news |date=24 February 1885 |title=The Alleged Dynamitards |work=Dundee Courier |ref={{harvid|Dundee Courier|1885}}}}
*{{Cite news |date=8 August 1885 |title=The Police and the Public |work=East London Observer |ref={{harvid|East London Observer|1885}}}}
*{{Cite news |date=27 September 1885 |title=Mr William Morris Taken Into Custody |work=Sunday Times |ref={{harvid|Sunday Times|1885}}}}
*{{Cite magazine |date=3 October 1885 |title=The Socialist Sunday Meetings at the East End |magazine=The Graphic |ref={{harvid|The Graphic|1885}}}}
*{{Cite magazine |last=Stafford |first=John Phillip |date=10 October 1885 |title=The attitude of the police |magazine=Funny Folks }}
*{{Cite news |date=27 November 1886a |title=East-End Football Association |work=Sporting Life |ref={{harvid|Sporting Life|1886a}}}}
*{{Cite news |date=8 December 1886b |title=East-End Football Association |work=Sporting Life |ref={{harvid|Sporting Life|1886b}}}}
*{{Cite magazine |date=18 December 1886 |title=A Life-Boat Competition |magazine=Illustrated London News |ref={{harvid|Illustrated London News|1886}}}}
*{{Cite news |date=3 February 1887a |title=Sporting Diary |work=Sporting Life |ref={{harvid|Sporting Life|1887a}}}}
*{{Cite news |date=8 November 1887 |title=Great Fire at Limehouse |work=London Evening Standard |ref={{harvid|London Evening Standard|1887}}}}
*{{Cite news |date=12 November 1887b |title=East End Football Association |work=Sporting Life |ref={{harvid|Sporting Life|1887b}}}}
*{{Cite magazine |last=Dickens |first=Charles Jr. |date=14 January 1888 |title=The Outcasts' Havens |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hxtapv&view=1up&seq=40 |magazine=All the Year Round |access-date=28 July 2019 }}
*{{Cite news |date=12 December 1888 |title=An Electric Travelling Crane |work=The Times |ref={{harvid|The Times|1888}}}}
*{{Cite news |date=4 October 1890 |title=An East End 'Mission' Examined |work=East London Observer |ref={{harvid|East London Observer|1890}}}}
*{{Cite news |date=5 October 1890 |title=Mr Walter Austin and His 'Charities' |work=Lloyds Weekly Newspaper |ref={{harvid|Lloyds Weekly Newspaper|1890}}}}
*{{Cite news |date=28 June 1891 |title=About Miss Napton and Walter Austin |work=Lloyds Weekly Newspaper |ref={{harvid|Lloyds Weekly Newspaper|1891}}}}
*{{Cite news |date=3 July 1891 |title=Truth |work=Sevenoaks Chronicle and Kentish Advertiser |ref={{harvid|Sevenoaks Chronicle|1891}}}} 
*{{Cite magazine |last=Cassidy |first=James |year=1895 |title=Peeps Into Busy Places: In an Indiarubber Manufactory |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b2860914&view=1up&seq=198 |volume=XXVI |access-date=8 September 2019 |magazine=Chatterbox |pages=198–199, 202–203}}
*{{Cite news |date=31 July 1897 |title=Kicking A Mother To Death In Limehouse |work=Tower Hamlets Independent and East End Local Advertiser |ref={{harvid|Tower Hamlets Independent|1897}}}}
*{{Cite news |date=27 July 1906 |title=Bankruptcy Court |work=London Evening Standard |ref={{harvid|London Evening Standard|1906}}}}
*{{Cite news |date=28 August 1909 |title=Eastern Echoes |work=Tower Hamlets Independent and East End Local Advertiser |ref={{harvid|Tower Hamlets Independent|1909}}}} 
*{{Cite news |date=11 July 1929 |title=Destructive Oil Works Fire |work=Aberdeen Press and Journal |ref={{harvid|Aberdeen Press and Journal|1929}}}}
*{{Cite magazine |last=Hillier |first=Bevis |date=12 November 1994 |title=Books: Knowledge of two lifetimes |url=http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/12th-november-1994/37/books |magazine=The Spectator |access-date=22 July 2019 }}

===Tools===
*{{Cite web |last=Bank of England |year=2019 |title=Inflation calculator |url=https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator |access-date=20 September 2019 |ref={{harvid|Bank of England Inflation calculator}}}}
{{Refend}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
* [http://www.leeandstort.co.uk/Limehouse_Cut.htm Limehouse Cut – a history]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjW75N3kxMI/ Old Ford to Limehouse Basin (Video in rapid motion showing part of the Lee Navigation and the whole of Limehouse Cut)]
*[https://spitalfieldslife.com/2015/04/07/at-caird-rayner/ At Caird & Rayner (detailed history of the firm with numerous photographs)]

{{Canals of Britain}}
{{Locks and Weirs on River Lea}}

{{Coord|51.51670|-0.02141|type:river_region:GB|display=title}}

[[Category:Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets]]
[[Category:Canals in London]]
[[Category:Canals opened in 1769]]
[[Category:Geography of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets]]
[[Category:Lee Navigation]]
[[Category:Limehouse]]
[[Category:Poplar, London]]
[[Category:Bow, London|Bow]]
[[Category:Bromley-by-Bow]]
[[Category:Transport in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets]]
[[Category:Transport in the London Borough of Newham]]