Leamouth

Last updated

Leamouth
City Island - 2022-03-28.jpg
London City Island development in 2022
Greater London UK location map 2.svg
Red pog.svg
Leamouth
Location within Greater London
OS grid reference TQ394807
London borough
Ceremonial county Greater London
Region
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town LONDON
Postcode district E14
Dialling code 020
Police Metropolitan
Fire London
Ambulance London
UK Parliament
London Assembly
List of places
UK
England
London
51°30′39″N0°00′23″E / 51.510719°N 0.006317°E / 51.510719; 0.006317

Leamouth is a locality in the Blackwall area of Poplar, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. [1] The area takes its name from the former Leamouth Wharf and lies on the west side of the confluence of the Bow Creek stretch of the Lea, at its confluence with the River Thames.

Contents

The neighbourhood consists of two small peninsulas, [2] separated from the rest of Poplar by the remaining part of the East India Docks. The northern peninsula lies in a hairpin meander and is named Goodluck Hope after one of the adjacent reaches of the Lea, while the other is known as Orchard Place. The area was traditionally the easternmost part of Middlesex, with Essex on the other side of the Lea.

The area was long referred to locally as Bog Island, due to its inaccessibility and propensity to flood; however the building of the Thames Barrier and the artificial raising of the more vulnerable riverside land, means the nickname refers to a now much reduced threat.

Administration

The area was historically part of the Hamlet of Poplar, an autonomous area of the Manor and Ancient Parish of Stepney. The Hamlet of Poplar became an independent parish in 1817. The civil parish of Poplar had a vestry committee which organised services such as poor relief and road maintenance. [3] [4]

History

Trinity Buoy Wharf on the Goodluck Hope peninsula, Leamouth Trinity Buoy Wharf 07.jpg
Trinity Buoy Wharf on the Goodluck Hope peninsula, Leamouth

Orchard Place was the name of its manor house on the spit; this had become an eponymous public house from 180060. Orchard Place gives its name to the area's main street with extends into both of the local peninsulas.

Isolation

Always an isolated location, Leamouth was made more inaccessible by the construction of the East India Docks, which opened in 1806. After that, the only access was from Leamouth Road which connects to a remote part of the East India Dock Road. Improved road connections were made available in the late 20th century.

Social condition

To house the area's workers, there were about 100 small two-storied cottages built from the 1820s and condemned in 1935. [5] There was the Bow Creek school (founded in 1865), but few shops, and The Crown, a public house, opened about 1840. [6] By the late 19th century the vicinity of Orchard Place had become a deprived and overcrowded area. In the late 1930s, all homes and shops were demolished in a slum clearing project with residents moved out of the area. [7]

Industry

The Thames Plate Glass Works was a major employer until its closure 1874; many of the hands who had migrated to the area from Tyneside and St Helens in the 1840s followed the glassworks to New Albany, Indiana. The site of the glass works was subsequently occupied by Pura Foods Pura Foods vegetable oil refinery until its closure in 2006. For many years the sugar firm Fowler's, a significant maker of treacle, was in Leamouth.

There were iron and engineering works, and shipping interests such as Samuda Brothers, Castle Shipping Line, Orchard House Yard and the Thames Iron Works. The Thames Ironworks was based at the mouth of Bow Creek at the confluence of the Lea and Thames. [8] The yard started at Leamouth Wharf, on the Blackwall side of the Lea, and subsequently extended to include a much larger site at Canning Town, in the parish and borough or West Ham, on the eastern side. These two parts of the shipyard were linked by a chain ferry capable of carrying 200 workers at a time. The yard was responsible for many shipbuilding and other engineering projects including the revolutionary HMS Warrior and the dreadnought HMS Thunderer.

Warships being built at the eastern site in or slightly before 1902 Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company circa 1902.jpg
Warships being built at the eastern site in or slightly before 1902

Sporting legacy

The Thames Ironworks Yard shut in 1912, but its work team Thames Ironworks F.C., founded in 1895, continues to the current day as West Ham United. Another Leamouth shipyard was the repair yard of the Castle Shipping Line, their works team Castle Swifts would indirectly merge with the Thames Ironworks football team in 1895.

Contemporary Leamouth

Trinity Buoy Wharf contains London's only lighthouse. There are also live-work units, many in the form of the Container Cities.

Redevelopments projects

The London City Island is a major redevelopment project by architects Glenn Howells that will provide 1,706 homes, stores, shops, restaurants, cafés, and arts facilities including the English National Ballet and London Film School. [9]

Roads

The Leamouth Peninsula has historically had poor transport links compared to the rest of Poplar, today it is connected to it by a main road splitting its halves: the A1020 Lower Lea Crossing which is a local by-pass of the A13.

Public transport

The "Jubilee" pedestrian bridge across the Lea links the area to the east bank of the Lea, and Canning Town station.

Leamouth has been served by the London Buses network for the first time by the D3 to Bethnal Green which starts and ends on Orchard Place since 2017. [10] The N550 between Canning Town station and Blackwall was rerouted via Leamouth to provide night links whenever access to Canning Town station is restricted; [11] implemented in September 2018. [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Isle of Dogs</span> Area in the East End of London, England

The Isle of Dogs is a large peninsula bounded on three sides by a large meander in the River Thames in East London, England, which includes the Cubitt Town, Millwall and Canary Wharf districts. The area was historically part of the Manor, Hamlet, Parish and, for a time, the wider borough of Poplar. The name had no official status until the 1987 creation of the Isle of Dogs Neighbourhood by Tower Hamlets London Borough Council. It has been known locally as simply "the Island" since the 19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Poplar, London</span> Area of East London, England

Poplar is a district in East London, England, now part of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Five miles (8 km) east of Charing Cross, it is part of the East End.

The Port of London is that part of the River Thames in England lying between Teddington Lock and the defined boundary with the North Sea and including any associated docks. Once the largest port in the world, it was the United Kingdom's largest port as of 2020. Usage is largely governed by the Port of London Authority ("PLA"), a public trust established in 1908; while mainly responsible for coordination and enforcement of activities it also has some minor operations of its own.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bromley-by-Bow</span> Human settlement in England

Bromley, commonly known as Bromley-by-Bow, is a district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in East London, located on the western banks of the River Lea, in the Lower Lea Valley in East London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">West India Docks</span> Historic dock site, now part of Canary Wharf area.

The West India Docks are a series of three docks, quaysides, and warehouses built to import goods from, and export goods and occasionally passengers to the British West Indies. Located on the Isle of Dogs in London, the first dock opened in 1802. Following their commercial closure in 1980, the Canary Wharf development was built around the wet docks by narrowing some of their broadest tracts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blackwall, London</span> Area of the East End of London, England

Blackwall is an area of Poplar, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, East London. The neighbourhood includes Leamouth and the Coldharbour conservation area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canning Town</span> District in Newham, East London, England

Canning Town is a district in the London Borough of Newham, East London. The district is located to the north of the Royal Victoria Dock, and has been described as the "Child of the Victoria Docks" as the timing and nature of its urbanisation was largely due to the creation of the dock. The area was part of the ancient parish of West Ham, in the hundred of Becontree, and part of the historic county of Essex. It forms part of the London E16 postcode district.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cubitt Town</span> Area on the Isle of Dogs in London, England

Cubitt Town is a district on the eastern side of the Isle of Dogs in London, England. This part of the former Metropolitan Borough of Poplar was redeveloped as part of the Port of London in the 1840s and 1850s by William Cubitt, Lord Mayor of London (1860–1862), after whom it is named. It is on the east of the Isle, facing the Royal Borough of Greenwich across the River Thames. To the west is Millwall, to the east and south is Greenwich, to the northwest Canary Wharf, and to the north — across the Blue Bridge — is Blackwall. The district is situated within the Blackwall & Cubitt Town Ward of Tower Hamlets London Borough Council.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orchard House Yard</span>

Orchard House Yard was an English shipbuilding yard located at Leamouth, on the River Lea at Bow Creek. Forming part of the Orchard House estate, a number of shipbuilders occupied the site over time:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company</span> Former shipbuilders in London

The Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company, Limited was a shipyard and iron works straddling the mouth of Bow Creek at its confluence with the River Thames, at Leamouth Wharf on the west side and at Canning Town on the east side. Its main activity was shipbuilding, but it also diversified into civil engineering, marine engines, cranes, electrical engineering and motor cars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">East London</span> Northeastern part of London, United Kingdom

East London is the northeastern part of London, England, east of the ancient City of London and north of the River Thames as it begins to widen. East London developed as London's docklands and the primary industrial centre. The expansion of railways in the 19th century encouraged the eastward expansion of the East End of London and a proliferation of new suburbs. The industrial lands of East London are today an area of regeneration, which are well advanced in places such as Canary Wharf and ongoing elsewhere.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuda Brothers</span>

Samuda Brothers was an engineering and ship building firm at Cubitt Town on the Isle of Dogs in London, founded by Jacob and Joseph d'Aguilar Samuda. The site is now occupied by Samuda Estate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">East India Docks</span> Historic docks in Blackwell, London

The East India Docks were a group of docks in Blackwall, east London, north-east of the Isle of Dogs. Today only the entrance basin and listed perimeter wall remain visible.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brunswick Wharf Power Station</span> Former coal and oil-fired power station

Brunswick Wharf Power Station was a coal- and oil-fired power station on the River Thames at Blackwall in London. The station was planned from 1939 by Poplar Borough Council but construction only started in 1947 after the Second World War. It was decommissioned in 1984, and the site was redeveloped.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">London Buses route 277</span> London bus route

London Buses route 277 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, England. Running between Cubitt Town and Dalston Junction station, it is operated by Stagecoach London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A1206 road (Great Britain)</span> Road around the Isle of Dogs, in the east of London, England

The A1206, also known as the Isle of Dogs Distributor Road, is a crescent-shaped ring road around the Isle of Dogs, in the East End of London. It is made up of Westferry Road, Manchester Road and Prestons Road and is the main road through the area, connecting parts of the London Docklands.

The Millwall Iron Works, London, England, was a 19th-century industrial complex and series of companies, which developed from 1824. Formed from a series of small shipbuilding companies to address the need to build larger and larger ships, the holding company collapsed after the Panic of 1866 which greatly reduced shipbuilding in London. Subsequently, a recovery was made by a series of smaller companies, but by the later 19th century the location was too small for the building of ships on the scale then required. Most of its buildings, being near the apex of the peninsula in the Isle of Dogs, survived the Blitz and have been made into apartment blocks in a residential estate, Burrells Wharf.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coldharbour, Tower Hamlets</span> Street and wider conservation area in Blackwall, London, England

Coldharbour is a street and wider conservation area in Blackwall, lying on the north bank of the River Thames, east of Canary Wharf. The area is said to be "[t]he sole remaining fragment of the old hamlet of Blackwall" and "one of the last examples of the narrow streets which once characterised the river's perimeter".

The Limmo Peninsula is an area of Canning Town in the London Borough of Newham in London's East End. It lies on the east bank of Bow Creek at the mouth of the River Lea near Leamouth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">East India Dock Road</span> Major arterial route in London

East India Dock Road is a major arterial route from Limehouse to Canning Town in London. The road takes its name from the former East India Docks in the Port of London. To the west it becomes Commercial Road and to the east Newham Way. It forms part of the A13, a major road connecting the historic City of London to Tilbury and Southend.

References

  1. "Pg24, citing study into West Hams community ties" (PDF). Leeds Metropolitan University. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 January 2005.
  2. "Leamouth Road and Orchard Place: Historical development | British History Online".
  3. Church of England Website Poplar ecclesiastical parish map
  4. A Survey of London 1994, Hermione Hobhouse (Gen. Ed.)
  5. The cottages typically consisted of four rooms and a wash-house.
  6. Charles Lammin Memories of Orchard House (East London History Society, 1961)
  7. "Leamouth - Hidden London".
  8. Survey of London: volumes 43 and 44, Leamouth Wharf edited by Hermione Hobhouse, 1994
  9. "GHA Project | London City Island". Glenn Howells Architects. Retrieved 23 May 2019.
  10. Bus Services Changes 19 August to 8 October inclusive Transport for London
  11. "Have Your Say Transport for London".
  12. "Permanent bus changes - Transport for London". Archived from the original on 18 March 2018.