The first canal scheme in London

The Limehouse Cut was the first navigable artifical waterway in London (the much earlier New River was built as a water supply aqueduct and not intended for navigation)

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Commercial Road crosses this bridge. There used to be a sluice gate here to keep tides out of Limehouse Basin - the grooves on the offside can be seen in the picture

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Old factory adjacent to Commercial Road, at the time of photography much equipment still existed inside these buildings

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New flats being built, 2001. Mooring pontoons now grace the frontage along here. There's a Lidl's superstore on Burdett Road

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The Premier Metropolis factory, Burdett Road, Limehouse

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'The Pier' or whatever! Useful observation platform for looking up and down the straight section of the Limehouse Cut

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New flats and a small basin at Stainsby Road

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The scene in 2001 before the new flats and basin at Stainsby Road were built

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Another bygone scene from 2001 looking westwards, showing many of the later warehouses that existed between Burdett Road and Upper North Street. All of these have now been demolished

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View looking west down the Limehouse Cut at Alphabet Square, showing the generous proportions of the waterway

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Indus and Picton on a rare outing supplying aggregates to works at Violet Road where towpath resurfacing and a retaining wall was being rebuilt in 2001

NEXT: Limehouse Cut Part Three

Follow the Lee Navigation from Bow Locks to Old Ford and northwards to Hertford