Limehouse#Cultural references

{{Short description|District in Tower Hamlets, London}}

{{Other uses}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2019}}

{{Use British English|date=September 2015}}

{{Infobox UK place

| country = England

| region = London

| official_name = Limehouse

| static_image_name = LimehouseTownHall0.jpg

| static_image_caption = Limehouse Town Hall on Commercial Road, built in 1878 for the Limehouse District

| coordinates = {{coord|51.5158|-0.0318|display=inline,title}}

| os_grid_reference = TQ365815

| population = 15,986

| population_ref = (2011 Census, Ward){{cite web|url=http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadKeyFigures.do?a=7&b=13689087&c=Limehouse&d=14&e=62&g=6338102&i=1001x1003x1032x1004&o=362&m=0&r=1&s=1476695284085&enc=1|title=Tower Hamlets Ward population 2011|access-date=17 October 2016|publisher=Office for National Statistics|work=Neighbourhood Statistics|archive-date=21 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161021060215/http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadKeyFigures.do?a=7&b=13689087&c=Limehouse&d=14&e=62&g=6338102&i=1001x1003x1032x1004&o=362&m=0&r=1&s=1476695284085&enc=1|url-status=dead}}

| post_town = LONDON

| postcode_area = E

| postcode_district = E14

| london_borough = Tower Hamlets

| dial_code = 020

| constituency_westminster = Poplar and Limehouse

}}

Limehouse is a district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in East London. It is {{convert|3.9|mi|km|1}} 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.

The area gives its name to Limehouse Reach, a section of the Thames which runs south to Millwall after making a right-angled bend at Cuckold's Point, Rotherhithe. The west-to-east section upstream of Cuckold's Point is properly called the Lower Pool.Port of London Authority Map of the River Thames, Lower Pool to Limehouse Reach (October 2013 – January 2014); Chandler, The New Seaman's Guide and Coaster's Companion; Henry Wheatley, London Past and Present, 362; Norie, New and Extensive Sailing Directions for the Navigation of the North Sea. It can be seen clearly in Stanford's Library Map of London 1872 [http://london1872.com/stanford38.htm] vs. [http://london1872.com/stanford39.htm] accessed 27 April 2015.

History

{{Moresources|section|date=June 2023}}

=Etymology=

File:Stepney Civil Parish Map 1870.png

File:Stepney Met. B Ward Map 1916.svg

The name relates to the local lime kilns or, more precisely, lime oasts, by the river. The name is from Old English līm-āst "lime-oast", and appears in a 1335 record.{{cite book|year=1998|title=A History of the County Middlesex|volume=11|chapter=Stepney: Settlement and Building to c.1700|publisher=Victoria County History|location=London|url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol11/pp13-19|access-date=16 March 2024}}

The name is found used in 1417:

Inquisicio capta sup' litus Thomisie apud Lymhosteys pro morte Thome Frank.


("Inquest held on the shore of the Thames by Lymhosteys for the death of Thomas Frank")


17 Aug, 5 Henry V. [A.D. 1417], inquest held before "les Lymehostes" within the liberty and franchise of the City, before Henry Bartone, the Mayor, and the King's Escheator, as to the cause of the death of Thomas Franke, of Herewich, late steersman (conductor) or "lodysman" of a ship called "la Mary Knyght" of Danzsk in Prussia. A jury sworn, viz., John Baille, Matthew Holme, Robert Marle, Henry Mark, Alexander Bryan, John Goby, Richard Hervy, Walter Steel, Peter West, Richard Stowell, John Dyse, and Walter Broun. They find that the said Thomas Franke was killed by falling on the sharp end of an anchor

=Administrative history=

The area was part of the historic (or ancient) county of Middlesex, but military and most (or all) civil county functions were managed more locally, by the Tower Division (also known as the Tower Hamlets), under the leadership of the Lord-Lieutenant of the Tower Hamlets (the post was always filled by the Constable of the Tower of London).

The role of the Tower Division ended when Limehouse became part of the new County of London in 1889. In 1900, metropolitan boroughs were created for the County of London, and Limehouse became a part of the Metropolitan Borough of Stepney. In 1965, the County of London was replaced by Greater London, and Stepney borough merged with neighbouring boroughs to form Tower Hamlets.

=Post-industrial regeneration=

File:Limehouse Basin - geograph.org.uk - 5525884.jpg

Limehouse Basin was amongst the first docks to close in the late 1960s. By 1981, Limehouse shared the East London-wide physical, social and economic decline which led to the setting up of the London Docklands Development Corporation. In November 1982, the LDDC published its Limehouse Area Development Strategy.{{cite web|url=http://www.lddc-history.org.uk/wapping/index.html#Intro |title=LDDC Completion Booklet – Wapping and Limehouse |website=Lddc-history.org.uk |access-date=14 December 2016}} This built on existing plans for Limehouse Basin, and offered a discussion framework for future development, housing refurbishment and environmental improvements across the whole of Limehouse. It was based on four major projects: Limehouse Basin, Free Trade Wharf, what was then known as the Light Rapid Transit Route (DLR) and the Docklands Northern Relief Road, a road corridor between The Highway and East India Dock across the north of the Isle of Dogs.

In the mid-1980s, developments on the nearby Isle of Dogs (particularly at Canary Wharf), proved to be the catalyst to delivering infrastructure improvements which benefitted Limehouse and some other areas of the London Docklands.{{Citation needed|date=December 2009}}

The sheer scale of the Canary Wharf proposals, and, in due course, the rapid implementation of the first phase of development, provided the impetus to the transport improvements which completely altered prospects for Limehouse as well as for the Isle of Dogs.{{Citation needed|date=December 2009}} The derelict Regent's Canal Dock was converted into Limehouse Marina.

Politics

File:Clement Attlee statue - Limehouse library.jpg, mayor of Stepney (1919) and MP for Limehouse stands outside the former Limehouse Library.]]

On 30 July 1909, the Chancellor of the Exchequer David Lloyd George made a polemical speech in Limehouse attacking the House of Lords for its opposition to his "People's Budget" and speaking of the Budget's social aims. This was the origin of the verb 'to Limehouse', "To make fiery (political) speeches such as Mr. Lloyd George made at Limehouse in 1909".Oxford English Dictionary, "Limehouse".

From 1906 to 1909, Clement Attlee worked as manager of Haileybury House, a club for working class boys in Limehouse run by his old school. Before this, Attlee's political views had been conservative, but he was shocked by the poverty and deprivation he saw while working with slum children, and this caused him to become a socialist. He joined the Independent Labour Party in 1908, and became mayor of Stepney in 1919. At the 1922 general election, Attlee became Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of Limehouse, which he represented while Deputy Prime Minister. After WWII, in 1950, he moved constituencies to Walthamstow West.Beckett, Francis. (1997) Clem Attlee: A Biography Francis Beckett (Richard Cohen Books) {{ISBN|1-86066-101-7}}

On 25 January 1981, MPs Shirley Williams, Roy Jenkins, William Rodgers and David Owen made the Limehouse Declaration from the bridge over Limehouse Cut in Narrow Street: it announced the formation of the Council for Social Democracy in opposition to the granting of block votes to the trade unions in the Labour Party to which they had previously belonged.{{Cite book|title=Roy Jenkins- A well Rounded Life|last=Campbell|first=John|publisher=Jonathan Cape|year=2014|isbn=978-0-224-08750-6|pages=558–9}} They soon became leading politicians in the Social Democratic Party.

Today, Limehouse is part of the constituency of Poplar and Limehouse and has been represented in the House of Commons since 2019 by Apsana Begum MP (Independent), and in the London Assembly since 2016 by Unmesh Desai AM (Labour).

Society

File:Limehouse, The Mission - geograph.org.uk - 3100845.jpg

St Anne's Limehouse was built by Nicholas Hawksmoor. A pyramid originally planned to be put atop the tower now stands in the graveyard. The church is next door to Limehouse Town Hall and close to Limehouse Library, both Grade II listed buildings, the former now used as a community centre and the latter as a hotel. Across the road is the Sailors' Mission, where Situationist International held its conference in 1960. The building subsequently became a run-down hostel for the homeless which became notorious for its squalor, although it has since been converted into a luxury apartment block.

Further to the southwest, Narrow Street, Limehouse's historic spine, which runs along the back of the Thames wharves, boasts one of the few surviving early Georgian terraces in London. Next to the terrace is the historic Grapes pub, rebuilt in 1720 and well known to Charles Dickens, featuring as the Six Jolly Fellowship Porters in Our Mutual Friend. A few doors along was Booty's Riverside Bar but this closed down in 2012. Almost every building on the other side of Narrow Street was destroyed by bombing in the Second World War, including hundreds of houses, Taylor Walker & Co's Barley Mow Brewery and a school. One notable exception is a former public house, known locally as 'The House They Left Behind', because it was the only Victorian terrace to survive. It still stands today, with the aid of three large supporting pillars.

Further along the street is 'Bread Street Kitchen on the River', a gastropub, now run by Gordon Ramsay. It is housed in the Grade II listed, former dockmaster's and customs house, for Limehouse Dock.{{NHLE |num=1242313 |desc=British Waterways Customs House on West Quay of Regent's Canal Dock Entrance |access-date=13 December 2008}}

Education

{{For|details of education in Limehouse|List of schools in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets}}

The Stepney Greencoat School is a Church of England primary school that was founded in 1710 by leading community members to local children, it has served the area as it transformed from an industrial to the mixed, multicultural settlement that Limehouse has become today.{{Cite web|url=https://www.stepneygreencoat.towerhamlets.sch.uk/our-school/our-history|title=Our History|first=Stepney Greencoat CE Primary|last=School|website=Stepney Greencoat CE Primary School}}

Transport

Limehouse station, opened in 1987, is served by National Rail c2c and Docklands Light Railway.{{cite web | url=http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/stations/s/stepney_east/index.shtml | title=Subterranea Britannica – Stepney East }} On 22 April 1991, two trains collided between Limehouse and Poplar during morning rush hour, requiring a shutdown of the system and evacuation of passengers by ladder.{{cite news |url=http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/11.52.html#subj1.1 |title=Another commuter train wreck in London |author=Kamens, Jonathan I. |work=RISKS Digest |volume=11 |issue=52 |date=23 April 1991 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070726094556/http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/11.52.html#subj1.1 |archive-date=26 July 2007 |df=dmy-all }}{{cite news |title=Computer-controlled commuter trains collide in east London |agency=UPI |date=22 April 1991}}

A number of London Buses routes serve Limehouse, including routes 15, 115, 135, D3 and night bus routes N15, N550 and N551.{{cite web |url=http://content.tfl.gov.uk/bus-route-maps/limehouse-a4.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191128091726/http://content.tfl.gov.uk/bus-route-maps/limehouse-a4.pdf |archive-date=2019-11-28 |url-status=live |title=Buses from Limehouse |publisher=Transport for London |date=1 September 2018 |access-date=28 November 2019}}

File:Corner of Burdett Road and Commercial Road, E14 - geograph.org.uk - 1367105.jpg

Limehouse is connected to the National Road Network by the A13 Commercial Road which passes west–east through Limehouse, while the A1203 Limehouse Link tunnel passes under Limehouse Basin, linking The Highway with the Docklands Northern Relief Road. The northern entrance of the Rotherhithe Tunnel emerges in Limehouse, to the west of the Basin and close to Limehouse railway station.{{cite news |url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13924687 |title= The UK's last, great, expensive, short roads |first=Tom |last=de Castella |date= 27 June 2011 |work=BBC News }}

Narrow Street forms a part of the north bank of the Thames Path and had previously been the principal street in Limehouse. It includes the Cycleway 3 between Tower Gateway to Barking, one of London's first Cycle Superhighways.

Though no longer a working dock, Limehouse Basin with its marina remains a working facility. The same is not true of the wharf buildings that have survived, most of which are now highly desirable residential properties. Limehouse Basin connects to the Regent's Canal via the Commercial Road Lock to the north, and the River Thames via Limehouse Basin Lock to the south. The Limehouse Cut connects the Basin to the River Lea in the east.

Notable residents

File:SirGilbertHumphrey.jpg, c. 1583]]

Sir Humphrey Gilbert lived here,{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Gilbert, Sir Humphrey |volume=12 |page=7}} and was an advocate of opening up the Northwest Passage. This inspired Martin Frobisher to sail to Baffin Island, and he returned with a mysterious black rock.{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Frobisher, Sir Martin |volume=11 |pages=237–238}} Gilbert set up the Society of the New Art with Lord Burghley and the Earl of Leicester, who had their alchemical laboratory in Limehouse;Calendar of the Patent Rolls, Elizabeth I, Vol. VI, 1572–1575 Joel Hurstfield The English Historical Review, Vol. 91, No. 358 (January 1976), pp. 127–129 however, their attempts to transmute the black rock into gold proved fruitless. (Humphrey's brother Adrian Gilbert was reputed a great alchemist and worked closely with John Dee.) {{Cite book|last=Parry|first=G. J. R.|title=The Arch-conjuror of England : John Dee|publisher=Yale University Press.|year=2011|isbn=9780300117196|location=New Haven}}

Captain Christopher Newport lived in Limehouse for several years up until 1595.K.R. Andrews, Christopher Newport of Limehouse, Mariner, William and Mary Quarterly 3d ser., 11, no. 1(January 1954):28. He rose through the sailing ranks from a poor cabin boy to a wealthy English privateer and eventually one of the Masters of the Royal Navy. He became rich pirating Spanish treasure vessels in the West Indies. In 1607 he sailed the Susan Constant, followed by the Godspeed and Discovery, as Admiral of the Fleet to Jamestown. He helped secure England's foothold in North America through five voyages to Jamestown. He sailed his entire life, dying on a trading voyage to Bantam, on the island of Java in present-day Indonesia. His sailing experience in Limehouse made him known as Captain Christopher Newport, of Limehouse, Mariner.

Charles Dickens' godfather, Christopher Huffam,West, Gilian. "Huffam and Son." Dickensian 95, no. 447 (Spring, 1999): 5–18. ran his sailmaking business from 12 Church Row (Newell Street).{{Cite web|url=http://www.eastlondonhistory.com/dickens.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040813022525/http://www.eastlondonhistory.com/dickens.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=13 August 2004|title=charles dickens|date=13 August 2004}} Huffam is said to be the inspiration for the Paul Dombey character in Dickens' Dombey and Son.

James McNeill Whistler{{cite web|url=http://www.davidrumsey.com/amico/amico1093308-4593.html |title=James McNeill Whistler / Limehouse / 1878 |website=Davidrumsey.com |access-date=14 December 2016}} and Charles Napier HemyThe Barge Builders in The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 126, No. 981 (December 1984), p. 786+804 sketched and painted at locations on Narrow Street's river waterfront.

Contemporary residents include the actor Sir Ian McKellen,{{cite web|author=Keith Stern/CompuWeb |url=http://www.mckellen.com/life/per.htm |title=Sir Ian McKellen Personal Bio | Prior to launch of his website |website=Mckellen.com |date=25 May 1939 |access-date=14 December 2016}} Matthew Parris,{{cite news|last=Farndale |first=Nigel |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/donotmigrate/3583637/Well-always-have-Parris.html |title=We'll always have Parris |newspaper=Telegraph |date=3 October 2002 |access-date=14 December 2016}} comedy actress Cleo Rocos,{{cite web|url=http://icthewharf.icnetwork.co.uk/thewharf/headlines/tm_headline=new-forum-fighting-for-a-limehouse-focus&method=full&objectid=18492430&siteid=71670-name_page.html |title=The Wharf: News from Canary Wharf and the Docklands |website=Icthewharf.icnetwork.co.uk |access-date=14 December 2016}} actor Steven Berkoff,{{cite web|url=http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/article2124821.ece|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070107071043/http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/article2124821.ece|url-status=dead|archive-date=7 January 2007|title=Independent Online Edition > Profiles|date=7 January 2007}} comedian Lee Hurst ,{{cite web|url=http://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/news/heritage/limehouse-comedian-lee-hurst-joins-park-protesters-on-march-to-city-hall-1-831549|title=Limehouse comedian Lee Hurst joins park protesters on march to City Hall|first=Marina|last=Thomas|date=16 March 2011|access-date=14 November 2018}} as well as politician Lord David Owen.{{cite web|url=http://sca.lib.liv.ac.uk/collections/Owen/biog.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010709091000/http://sca.lib.liv.ac.uk/collections/Owen/biog.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=9 July 2001|title=David Owen Papers – Biographical notes|date=9 July 2001}} Limehouse was also the home of the late film director Sir David Lean,{{cite web|url=http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19971025/ai_n14142206 |title=CBSi |website=FindArticles.com |access-date=14 December 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924095152/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19971025/ai_n14142206 |archive-date=24 September 2015 }} and Charlie Magri, world champion flyweight boxer, who grew up on the Burdett Estate.

References

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