Limehouse Basin

Limehouse Basin is a body of water two miles (3.2 km) 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 five acres (2.0 hectares) 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.

Throughout its working life the basin was better known as the Regent's Canal Dock, and was used to transship goods between the old Port of London and the English canal system. Cargoes handled were chiefly coal and timber, but also ice, and even circus animals, Russian oil and First World War submarines. Sailing ships delivered cargoes there until the Second World War, and can be seen in surviving films and paintings. The dock closed for transshipment in 1969 and eventually passed into disuse. Following closure of the basin and much of the wider London docks, the surroundings were redeveloped for housing and leisure in the late 20th century. Sometimes now referred to as the Limehouse Marina, the Basin lies between the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) line and historic Narrow Street; the Limehouse Link tunnel passes beneath. Directly to the east is Ropemaker's Fields, a small park.

To warm their homes and cook their food Londoners at one time burned wood, but local woodlands, though managed as renewable resources, could not keep up with the rising demand. Thus by the 18th century the town's fuel was chiefly coal, imported from Newcastle upon Tyne by sea — hence, sea coal. It was transported in colliers, typically small brigs. Because voyages could be extremely hazardous, these were built for strength, "certainly not for looks".

Arriving in the Thames, a collier tried to find a mooring in the highly congested Pool of London. Once moored, a fleet of small barges, called lighters, relieved her of her cargo. But these lighters were used as floating warehouses, perhaps taking a long time to unload. They attracted "River-Pirates, Night-Plunderers, Lightermen, Burgemen, Watermen, Bumboatmen, and Peter-Boatmen", to the point that rivermen rarely paid for their coals, or so said Patrick Colquhoun, founder of the Thames River Police.

Some inland towns depended on the English canal system for their coals, yet access from the Pool of London was difficult, the nearest Thames link being at Brentford. The Regent's Canal Company proposed to tackle this problem by digging their canal to skirt round existing London to the north. Horse-towed barges would convey goods from Limehouse to the Paddington Branch of the Grand Union Canal (opened 1801), and onwards. "The Regent's Canal was intended to and still does bring the Thames into watery contact with, say, Birmingham". Later, it was sometimes found cheaper to import coal in the opposite direction. The Newcastle mine owners were in a cartel to keep up prices and, when they went too far, midland coalfields sent their produce to London down the Regent's Canal.

Where a canal joined a tidal river there was usually a small basin where barges could wait for the right state of the tide to go over. The Regent's Canal Company, short of capital, thought it would be enough to provide a small 1 1⁄2 acre basin of that sort at Limehouse. However, they were converted to a bolder idea: making it big enough to receive the Newcastle sailing colliers themselves, which could then unload at their convenience.

The chief engineer was James Morgan and the contractor was Hugh McIntosh; the basin's wet area was 4 1⁄2 acres.

The basin formally opened on 1 August 1820. The Regent's Canal entered the basin through the Commercial Road Lock, which is still in use.