Limehouse

Limehouse is a place in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is on the northern bank of the River Thames opposite Cuckold's Point and between Shadwell to the west and the Isle of Dogs to the east.

Geographically, Limehouse is commonly thought to be centred on Narrow Street and the Limehouse Basin. It gives its name to Limehouse Reach, a lengthy section of the Thames which actually runs all the way from Shadwell to Millwall.

Origins

The name 'Limehouse' is often thought to have been derived from the nickname for the seamen that disembarked there, who had earned the name 'Lime-juicers' or 'limeys' after the obligatory ration of lime juice the English Navy gave their sailors to ward off scurvy. However, the name is in fact due to the local lime-kilns operated by the large potteries that served the London docks.

History

From its earliest days, Limehouse, like neighbouring Wapping, has followed the sea. This was one of London's most important ports from late medieval times, with extensive docks and wharves, including the enclosed Limehouse Basin.

Limehouse Basin was actually opened in 1820 as the Regent's Canal Dock. It was an important connection between the Thames and the British canal system where cargoes could be transferred from larger ships to the shallow-draught canal boats. This mix of vessels can still be seen in the basin, canal narrow boats rubbing shoulders with sea-going yachts.

The dock basin with its marina is, then, still a working facility. The same is not true of those wharf buildings that have survived, most of which are now highly desirable residential properties.

The Limehouse area was also notorious for opium dens in the late 19th century. This notion of Limehouse as a lurid, crime-ridden area was often featured in pulp fiction works by Sax Rohmer and others. Like much of the East End it was a focus for immigration, particularly by Chinese people. As the community prospered it moved west to the current Chinatown in Soho.

The area inspired Douglas Furber (lyricist) and Phillip Braham (composer) in 1921 to write the popular jazz standard "Limehouse Blues" which was introduced by Jack Buchanan and Gertrude Lawrence in the musical revue "A to Z". Much later, it was reprised in the ballet "Limehouse Blues" featuring Fred Astaire and Lucille Bremer in the musical film Ziegfeld Follies (1946). In both instances the actors were heavily disguised as Chinese.

Notable residents

Sir Humphrey Gilbert (1539 - 1578), the exponent of opening up the Northwest Passage lived here. This inspired Martin Frobisher to sail to Greenland returning with a mysterious black rock. Gilbert set up the Society of the New Art with Lord Burghley and the Earl of Leicester who had their alchemical laboratory in Limehouse. 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.)

Captain Christopher Newport lived in Limehouse for several years up until 1595. 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 ran his sail-making business from Limehouse and James McNeill Whistler and Charles Napier Hemy sketched and painted at locations on Narrow Street's river waterfront. Contemporary residents include the actor Sir Ian Mckellen and David Owen, and it was also the home of the late film director Sir David Lean, whose house is still owned by his family.

Buildings

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. For several years this housed the National Museum of Labour History and included trade union banners and other artefacts including the table that once belonged to Peter Kropotkin, the Russian Anarchist Prince. Now it is the home of the FacultyUnix FreeBSD workshops, Boxing Club and the Space Hijackers. Across the road is the Sailors' Mission, where the Situationist International held its conference in 1960. The building subsequently became a run-down hostel for the homeless which became notorious for its squalor.

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, well-known to Charles Dickens. He featured it in Our Mutual Friend as 'The Six Jolly Fellowship Porters'.

Limehouse library has a statue of Clement Attlee, who was Member of Parliament for Limehouse from 1922 and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951.

On January 25, 1981 MPs Shirley Williams, Roy Jenkins, William Rodgers and David Owen made the Limehouse Declaration from Owen's house in Limehouse, which 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. They soon became leading politicians in the Social Democratic Party.

From Sunday May 11 to Sunday June 15, 2003 the Cartographic Congress, a meeting of maps and mapmakers from all corners of cartography took place in Limehouse Town Hall.

Nearest places

Transport

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