Barging on Bow Creek: On Wednesday 12 October 2011 I used to be happy to receives a commission to return to Bow Creek and take images of a working barge on Bow Creek in Poplar.
Bow Creek is the decrease a part of the River Lea, between Bow Locks and the River Thames. Bow Locks mark the southern finish of the Lea Navigation and since London’s oldest canal, the Limehouse Minimize opened in 1770, most canal visitors took benefit of this to take a extra direct path to the Thames and keep away from the damaging and meandering tidal Bow Creek.
The River Lea stays tidal some miles above Bow Lock, however this tidal part is separate from the navigation, though there are numerous channels and locks comparable to Metropolis Mill Lock and Carpenters Lock on the Olympic web site which hyperlink the 2.
Bow Creek continued for use for navigation, together with for convey coal to West Ham Energy Station and the massive Imperial Gasoline Gentle & Coke Firm gasoline works at Bromley-by-Bow.
However the gasoline works closed in 1976 though its gasholders stay – they had been nonetheless in use for gasoline storage till 2010. (I went inside the location to {photograph} them in 2022.) Planning permission has now been granted for two,200 new houses on the location, retaining the seven gasholders. The gasoline works dock is now Cody Dock, a inventive and neighborhood hub with moorings and a brief stroll from the DLR at Star Lane, internet hosting many intersting occasions.
West Ham Energy Station ended manufacturing in 1983 and was then demolished to construct a enterprise park. Within the decrease sections of Bow Creek there have been nonetheless various timber yards and a ship restore enterprise nonetheless utilizing the creek at the least within the Nineteen Eighties, however I feel all all industrial visitors has now ended.
A lot was made in the course of the building of the Olympic web site of using barges to hold waste away from the realm, and a brand new lock was constructed at nice expense on the Prescott Channel at Three Mills Inexperienced, however I feel barges had been solely used for PR images and the massive majority of waste was taken out by lorries.
So I used to be happy to listen to that “the individuals cleansing up the gasoline works web site at Poplar … had been utilizing barges to hold out the extremely poisonous soil from the location* and “… “was delighted to be given a fee to go and {photograph} the barging.”
On My London Diary I write extra about my relationship with the River Lea which had begun in 1981 when “I heard a narrative on the radio that industrial barge visitors was about to come back to an finish on the Lea Navigation, and determined to journey throughout London to report its final days.” From then I carried out a significant challenge on the river, however was disenchanted to have a funding utility turned down.
I returned to the River round ten years later and once more within the early 2000s, with extra frequent visits after the Olympic bid was profitable – though entry to the principle web site was quickly unimaginable. In 2010 I revealed Earlier than the Olympics, ISBN: 978-1-909363-00-7 with over 200 photos from the supply to the Thames.
The My London Diary put up additionally describes my expertise on the go to – how I needed to gown as much as take the images – and that though I’d been promised I’d have half an hour to take images it truly ended up as 11 minutes.
After taking the images – each for the challenge PR and myself – I had the remainder of the day to take a stroll alongside Bow Creek once more and made my strategy to the Thames on the Greenwich meridian, the place I discovered “a brand new marker put in within the Virginia Quay property subsequent to West India Docks station, constructed since I carried out my ‘Meridian Venture‘ within the Nineties and made an unsuccessful bid to create a’Meridian Stroll’ to mark the brand new millennium.” Now there’s a sculpture path, The Line, which partly follows Bow Creek – and consists of work at Cody Dock.
All photos on this put up are from Wednesday 12 October 2011. There are various extra photos from my stroll in addition to the barging at Barging on Bow Creek
Flickr – Fb – My London Diary – Hull Photographs – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photographs
All images on this web page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
Contact me to purchase prints or licence to breed.
Tags: barge, Barging on Bow Creek, Earlier than the Olympics, Bow Creek, Cody Dock, contaminated soil, gasoline works, Greenwich Meridian, Lea Navigation, lighter, London, London Photographs, Meridian Stroll, peter Marshall, Poplar Gasoline Works, River Lea, The Line, poisonous soil, tug, Virginia Quay
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