{"id":17367,"date":"2025-05-09T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/?p=17367"},"modified":"2025-05-05T12:59:59","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T11:59:59","slug":"three-colt-street-limekiln-dock-1990","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/?p=17367","title":{"rendered":"Three Colt Street & Limekiln Dock – 1990"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Three Colt Street & Limekiln Dock: My walk in Limehouse on Sunday 6th January 1990 continued. The previous post from this walk is More from Narrow Street \u2013 1990<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"Limekiln<\/a>\n<\/div>
Limekiln Wharf, Development, Three Colt St, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-1b-34<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Limehouse gets its name from the making of quicklime here, an industry dating back here into antiquity getting its first written reference in 1335. The newly developed flats of Limekiln Wharf and Dundee Wharf on the south side of Limekiln Creek (or Limekiln Dock) are probably on the site of old lime kilns (lime oasts) where chalk (calcium carbonate) brought by boats from Swanscombe or Northfleet or other areas of North Kent was brought ashore in the Creek and roasted to give quicklime (calcium oxide) the vital ingredient for cement, mortar and concrete and with many other uses. When water is then added it forms slaked lime (calcium hydroxide.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along the street are the late-Victorian buildings of the Dundee, Perth, and London Shipping Co. which were used by the London Docklands Development Corporation which was responsible for the redevelopment of docklands, over-riding the normal functions of the local authorities and still have the LDDC logo as a weathercock, though this was not in place in 1990.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"Limekiln<\/a>\n<\/div>
Limekiln Dock, Three Colt St, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-1b-36<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The always interesting ‘A London Inheritance<\/em>‘ has a fascinating and very detailed account of the area, based on considerable research, Limekiln Dock and the Black Ditch<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Black Ditch has been much mythologised as one of ‘London’s Lost Rivers<\/em>‘ and its lower parts were after the 1855 replaced by the Limekiln Dock Sewer. I imagine the Black Ditch and this were both subsumed into Bazalgette’s grand designs in the 1860s and now flow to Beckton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The view here is looking out towards the River Thames. Since 1996 there has been a swing bridge taking the Thames Path across the mouth of the creek. It had to be built as a swing bridge because of the ancient rights of navigation into the dock, though I would be surprised to find that it has ever needed to be swung to allow this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"Limekiln<\/a>\n<\/div>
Limekiln Dock, Three Colt St, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-1b-25<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There seemed to be quite a lot of rubbish in the dock in 1990, but in earlier years things were much worse. The post in ‘A London Inheritance’ quotes a court case from 1893 where it is described as “the common receptacle for the sewerage of part of Fore-street, and also being a harbour for a large portion of the animal refuse of the Thames<\/em>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"J<\/a>\n<\/div>
J R Wilson, Ship Stores, Limekiln Dock, Three Colt St, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-1b-26<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

J R Wilson, Ship Stores at Limehouse Wharf has a frontage on Narrow Street and its back faces Limekiln Dock. I think the area from which I took this and the other pictures is no longer open to the public, but gave access to the Thames Path before the footbridge across the dock was built. In the foreground is the white-painted flood wall which was built around the Thames in London in the 1970s. Together with the Thames Barrier this has protected London from the serious floods of earlier years, but with rising sea levels will soon become inadequate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"110,<\/a>\n<\/div>
110, Three Colt St, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-1b-11<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The late-Victorian buildings of the Dundee, Perth, and London Shipping Co were in 1990 in use by D D Repro Limited, ‘Plain Paper & Dyeline Specialists. Their board on the building depicts the rough outline of the Thames from Tower Bridge around the Isle of Dogs and on to Beckton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"The<\/a>\n<\/div>
The Enterprise, pub, Milligan St, 145, Three Colt St, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-1b-12<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The sign on the pub shows a three-masted ship caught in ice. The ships on Sir John Franklin’s doomed 1845 search for the North-West Passage were last seen by the whaler ‘Enterprise’, and I think this picture may be a depiction of one of his two ships, which were abandoned after being ice-bound for over a year. It was a story that very much caught the Victorian imagination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pub is said to have closed in 1963, but was open again in 1990, It closed in 2001, the pub became an Indian restaurant but is now an estate agents with another floor added in recent years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still more to come from my Limehouse walk in 1990.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Flickr<\/a> – Facebook<\/a> – My London Diary<\/a> – Hull Photos<\/a> – Lea Valley<\/a> – Paris<\/a>
London’s Industrial Heritage<\/a> – London Photos<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

All photographs on this page are copyright \u00a9 Peter Marshall.
Contact me to buy prints or licence to reproduce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three Colt Street & Limekiln Dock: My walk in Limehouse on Sunday 6th January 1990 continued. The previous post from this walk is More from Narrow Street \u2013 1990. Limehouse gets its name from the making of quicklime here, an industry dating back here into antiquity getting its first written reference in 1335. The newly … Continue reading Three Colt Street & Limekiln Dock – 1990<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,3],"tags":[20404,1336,20395,20396,20402,7626,20394,20406,20409,20401,9357,1740,20397,20392,17,1343,20398,20405,20393,83,943,20400,20408,20399,2842,20403,6613,442,20407],"class_list":["post-17367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-londonphotos","category-my-own-work","tag-20404","tag-1336","tag-and-london-shipping-co","tag-black-ditch","tag-d-d-repro","tag-development","tag-dundee","tag-enterprise","tag-ice-bound","tag-j-r-wilson","tag-lddc","tag-limehouse","tag-limekiln-dock","tag-limekiln-wharf","tag-london","tag-london-photos","tag-londons-lost-rivers","tag-milligan-st","tag-perth","tag-peter-marshall","tag-pub","tag-ship-stores","tag-sir-john-franklin","tag-swing-bridge","tag-thames-path","tag-the-enterprise","tag-three-colt-st","tag-tower-hamlets","tag-whaler"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17367"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17368,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17367\/revisions\/17368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}