Narrow Street is a narrow road running parallel to the River Thames through the Limehouse area of east London, England. It used to be much narrower, and is the oldest part of Limehouse, with many buildings originating from the eighteenth century. [1]
Most archaeologists believe that Narrow Street represents the line of the medieval river wall. The wall was built to reclaim riverside marshland and to protect it from the tides. Houses were built, on the wall itself at first, but then outwards onto the foreshore by a process of encroachment. The eastern end of Narrow Street was previously known as Fore Street. [2]
A combination of tides and currents made this[ citation needed ] point on the Thames a natural landfall for ships, the first wharf being completed in 1348. Lime kilns or oasts ("lymehostes") used in the production of mortar and pottery were built here[ citation needed ] in the fourteenth century.
The area grew rapidly in Elizabethan times as a centre for world trade and by the reign of James I nearly half of the area's 2,000 population[ citation needed ] were mariners. The area supplied ships with ropes and other necessities; pottery was also made here for the ships. Ship chandlers settled here building wooden houses and wharves in the cramped space between street and river. Narrow Street may take its name from the closeness of the original buildings. An 1865 report to Parliament noted that no part of Narrow Street was wider than 25 feet. [3]
The Limehouse Cut for barges, which ran under Narrow Street and led to the Lee Navigation, was established in 1766. Limehouse Basin was built in 1820, to transship goods to barges on the Regent's Canal.
In 1661, Samuel Pepys wrote in his diary of a visit to a porcelain factory in Narrow Street alighting via Duke Shore Stairs [4] [5] while en route to view work on boats being built for herring fishing. The Limehouse area fitted out, repaired and resupplied ships. In 1772, Smith & Sykes ran a sugar house, a small factory that baked and refined sugar. [6]
Limehouse Cut was redirected into Limehouse Basin, which was one of the first docks to close in the late 1960s. Nicholas Hawksmoors' Church St Anne's Limehouse was designated a conservation area by the London Docklands Development Corporation in the 1980s.
For much of the 20th century the area was dominated by the tall chimney of Stepney Power Station at Blyth Wharf, which has since been demolished.
Access to the area was always difficult, with the dock standing to the north, and the entrance to the Rotherhithe Tunnel at one end. In 1993 the 1.8 kilometres (1.1 mi) Limehouse Link tunnel was completed, further restricting traffic to the riverside area. The Narrow Street swing bridge is sited between Limehouse Basin and the Thames.
In 1977 the north side of the street was demolished. Until then it was half its present width. [7]
In the eighteenth century a small group of Chinese sailors from Canton and Southern China settled along the old Limehouse Causeway creating the original London Chinatown. The Chinese community later moved to Soho following the Blitz.
On the south side of Narrow Street is a rare example of an early Georgian brick terrace. With the exception of the westernmost property (The Grapes public house) it was standing derelict and abandoned, but in 1964 the writer Andrew Sinclair bought and saved one [8] of the houses [9] and persuaded his Cambridge friends to buy the others. (Early Georgian houses can be distinguished from late ones in the way that the windows are not set back from the brick frontage.) The Grapes (formerly The Bunch of Grapes, and known to the young Charles Dickens) was notably bought in 2011 by actor Sir Ian McKellen, director Sean Mathias and Evening Standard owner Evgeny Lebedev. [10]
The late twentieth century brought much development to the area, with the erection of the Canary Wharf tower close by. Since the 1990s, many new apartment complexes have been built around the Limehouse Basin as well as Victorian warehouse conversions, with Limehouse now being one of the most sought after property sites in London. Its close proximity to the River Thames has made property prices around Limehouse and the Docklands soar over the last decade. However a 2001 Census listed 5.4 per cent of homes in Poplar and Limehouse as being without central heating and/or private bathroom. [11]
The street is home to a number of pubs and restaurants, including The Narrow, a gastropub run by Gordon Ramsay. Booty's Riverside Bar, which closed in 2013, was an independently owned pub dating to the 16th century. In the 18th century Booty's was an engineering shop for the barge builders, Sparkes. In the 19th century it was re-fronted, and by the 1870s it was a licensed bar called The Waterman's Arms owned by Taylor Walker. It was absorbed by Woodward Fisher, a lighterage firm run by Anne Fisher, popularly known as Tugboat Annie . She was a real-life London version of the protagonist in the film of that name. One of the great East End characters, she commanded a fleet of 200 barges.
Famous residents include or have included the poet Ernest Dowson, [12] actors Sir Ian McKellen, Steven Berkoff and Cleo Rocos, the politician Lord Owen, and the authors Matthew Parris and Andrew Sinclair. The writer, photographer and television presenter Daniel Farson lived at number 92 for several years. It was also the home of the film director Sir David Lean.
Its picturesque buildings and atmospheric location abutting onto the River Thames attracted artists and writers.
Cycle Superhighway 3 CS3 between Tower Gateway to Barking and is one of London's first Cycle Superhighways. Some residents raised a petition calling for CS3 to be moved from Narrow Street onto the A13 Commercial Road, arguing that the street was too narrow and that incidents of abuse and aggression had risen sharply since the route was introduced. Transport for London (TfL) said they had no plans to move it. Mayor Boris Johnson defended the choice as a road that was already popular with cyclists to and from the City. [13] The London Cycling Campaign supported the route but called for improvements. [14] In 2011, TfL agreed to remove logos from the road surface, but not to change the route. [15]
The National Trail Thames Path for walkers runs along Narrow Street and it is also included in the London Marathon course.
Docklands Light Railway stations are Limehouse (for National Rail as well) and Westferry .
The London River Services pier is Canary Wharf Pier.
The Anglo-Saxon word tirl, means 'narrow street' or a 'gate' to keep horses and other cattle out of the city.
London Docklands is the riverfront and former docks in London. It is located in inner east and southeast London, in the boroughs of Southwark, Tower Hamlets, Lewisham, Newham, and Greenwich. The docks were formerly part of the Port of London, at one time the world's largest port. After the docks closed, the area had become derelict and poverty-ridden by the 1980s. The Docklands' regeneration began later that decade; it has been redeveloped principally for commercial and residential use. The name "London Docklands" was used for the first time in a government report on redevelopment plans in 1971 and has since been almost universally adopted. The redevelopment created wealth, but also led to some conflict between the new and old communities in the area.
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.
Limehouse is a district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in East London. It is 3.9 miles (6.3 km) east of Charing Cross, on the northern bank of the River Thames. Its proximity to the river has given it a strong maritime character, which it retains through its riverside public houses and steps, such as The Grapes and Limehouse Stairs. It is part of the traditional county of Middlesex. It became part of the ceremonial County of London following the passing of the Local Government Act 1888, and then part of Greater London in 1965.
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.
Canary Wharf is an area of East London, England, located near the Isle of Dogs in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Canary Wharf is defined by the Greater London Authority as being part of London's central business district, alongside Central London. Alongside the City of London, it constitutes one of the main financial centres in the United Kingdom and the world, containing many high-rise buildings including the third-tallest in the UK, One Canada Square, which opened on 26 August 1991.
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 on the Isle of Dogs in London the first of which 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.
Blackwall is an area of Poplar, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, East London. The neighbourhood includes Leamouth and the Coldharbour conservation area.
The Limehouse Cut is a largely straight, broad canal in the East End of 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.
Limehouse Basin is a body of water 2 miles east of London Bridge that is also a navigable link between the River Thames and two of London's canals. First dug in 1820 as the eastern terminus of the new Regent's Canal, its wet area was less than 5 acres originally, but it was gradually enlarged in the Victorian era, reaching a maximum of double that size, when it was given its characteristic oblique entrance lock, big enough to admit 2,000-ton ships.
Regent's Canal is a canal across an area just north of central London, England. It provides a link from the Paddington Arm of the Grand Union Canal, 550 yards (500 m) north-west of Paddington Basin in the west, to the Limehouse Basin and the River Thames in east London. The canal is 8.6 miles (13.8 km) long.
Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, east of Rotherhithe, west of Cubitt Town, and has a long shoreline along London's Tideway, part of the River Thames. It was part of the County of Middlesex and from 1889 the County of London following the passing of the Local Government Act 1888, it later became part of Greater London in 1965.
The Pool of London is a stretch of the River Thames from London Bridge to below Limehouse.
The A13 is a major road in England linking Central London with east London and south Essex. Its route is similar to that of the London, Tilbury and Southend line via Rainham, Grays, Tilbury, Stanford-Le-Hope & Pitsea,and runs the entire length of the northern Thames Gateway area, terminating on the Thames Estuary at Shoeburyness. It is a trunk road between London and the Tilbury junction, a primary route between there and Sadlers Hall Farm near South Benfleet, and a non-primary route between there and Shoeburyness.
Ratcliff or Ratcliffe is a locality in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames between Limehouse, and Shadwell. The place name is no longer commonly used.
St Anne's Limehouse is a Hawksmoor Anglican Church in Limehouse, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It was consecrated in 1730, one of the twelve churches built through the 1711 Act of Parliament.
The London Borough of Tower Hamlets, in spite of being close to the centre of London and perhaps retaining the idea of it being the docklands area, has over 100 areas of parks and open spaces within its boundaries. These range from the huge to small gardens and squares. In common with all the London boroughs, these green spaces provide "lungs" for the leisure pursuits of the inhabitants.
The Grapes is a public house situated directly on the north bank of the Thames in London's Limehouse area, with a veranda overlooking the water. To its landward side, the pub is found at number 76 in Narrow Street, flanked by former warehouses now converted to residential and other uses. It is listed Grade II on the National Heritage List for 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".
Cycleway 3 (C3) is a cycle path in London, England. It is part of the Cycleway network coordinated by TfL. It runs from Barking in the east to Lancaster Gate in central London. It is a popular route with both commuter and leisure cyclists, passing a number of major destinations in London along its route. For almost the entire route, cyclists are separated from other traffic in segregated cycle lanes, and cycling infrastructure has been provided at major interchanges. The cycleway, originally called CS3, is renamed to Cycleway 3 (C3) in January 2023.
