Narrow Street

Narrow Street is a narrow road running parallel to the River Thames through the Limehouse area of east London, England. It used to be much narrower, and is the oldest part of Limehouse, with many buildings originating from the eighteenth century.[1]

Looking the other way from the above picture, shows four of the high rise buildings of Canary Wharf, Sept. 2007.
For the 1925 silent film, see The Narrow Street.

Early Georgian terrace on Narrow Street, with The Grapes public house to the right

History

Most archaeologists believe that Narrow Street represents the line of the medieval river wall. The wall was built to reclaim riverside marshland and to protect it from the tides. Houses were built, on the wall itself at first, but then outwards onto the foreshore by a process of encroachment. The eastern end of Narrow Street was previously known as Fore Street.[2]

Main article: Embanking of the tidal Thames § Encroachment into the stream

A combination of tides and currents made this point on the Thames a natural landfall for ships, the first wharf being completed in 1348. Lime kilns or oasts ("lymehostes") used in the production of mortar and pottery were built here in the fourteenth century.

The area grew rapidly in Elizabethan times as a centre for world trade and by the reign of James I nearly half of the area's 2,000 population were mariners. The area supplied ships with ropes and other necessities; pottery was also made here for the ships. Ship chandlers settled here building wooden houses and wharves in the cramped space between street and river. Narrow Street may take its name from the closeness of the original buildings. An 1865 report to Parliament noted that no part of Narrow Street was wider than 25 feet.[3]

The Limehouse Cut for barges, which ran under Narrow Street and led to the Lee Navigation, was established in 1766. Limehouse Basin was built in 1820, to transship goods to barges on the Regent's Canal.

In 1661, Samuel Pepys wrote in his diary of a visit to a porcelain factory in Narrow Street alighting via Duke Shore Stairs[4][5] while en route to view work on boats being built for herring fishing. The Limehouse area fitted out, repaired and resupplied ships. In 1772, Smith & Sykes ran a sugar house, a small factory that baked and refined sugar.[6]

Limehouse Cut was redirected into Limehouse Basin, which was one of the first docks to close in the late 1960s. Nicholas Hawksmoors' Church St Anne's Limehouse was designated a conservation area by the London Docklands Development Corporation in the 1980s.

For much of the 20th century the area was dominated by the tall chimney of Stepney Power Station at Blyth Wharf, which has since been demolished.

Access to the area was always difficult, with the dock standing to the north, and the entrance to the Rotherhithe Tunnel at one end. In 1993 the 1.8 kilometres (1.1 mi) Limehouse Link tunnel was completed, further restricting traffic to the riverside area. The Narrow Street swing bridge is sited between Limehouse Basin and the Thames.

In 1977 the north side of the street was demolished. Until then it was half its present width.[7]

Chinatown

In the eighteenth century a small group of Chinese sailors from Canton and Southern China settled along the old Limehouse Causeway creating the original London Chinatown. The Chinese community later moved to Soho following the Blitz.

Historic buildings
Charles Napier Hemy: The Limehouse Barge-Builders (Narrow Street from the river)

On the south side of Narrow Street is a rare example of an early Georgian brick terrace. With the exception of the westernmost property (The Grapes public house) it was standing derelict and abandoned, but in 1964 the writer Andrew Sinclair bought and saved one[8] of the houses[9] and persuaded his Cambridge friends to buy the others. (Early Georgian houses can be distinguished from late ones in the way that the windows are not set back from the brick frontage.) The Grapes (formerly The Bunch of Grapes, and known to the young Charles Dickens) was notably bought in 2011 by actor Sir Ian McKellen, director Sean Mathias and Evening Standard owner Evgeny Lebedev.[10]

Redevelopment

The late twentieth century brought much development to the area, with the erection of the Canary Wharf tower close by. Since the 1990s, many new apartment complexes have been built around the Limehouse Basin as well as Victorian warehouse conversions, with Limehouse now being one of the most sought after property sites in London. Its close proximity to the River Thames has made property prices around Limehouse and the Docklands soar over the last decade. However a 2001 Census listed 5.4 per cent of homes in Poplar and Limehouse as being without central heating and/or private bathroom.[11]

The street is home to a number of pubs and restaurants, including The Narrow, a gastropub run by Gordon Ramsay. Booty's Riverside Bar, which closed in 2013, was an independently owned pub dating to the 16th century. In the 18th century Booty's was an engineering shop for the barge builders, Sparkes. In the 19th century it was re-fronted, and by the 1870s it was a licensed bar called The Waterman's Arms owned by Taylor Walker. It was absorbed by Woodward Fisher, a lighterage firm run by Anne Fisher, popularly known as Tugboat Annie. She was a real-life London version of the protagonist in the film of that name. One of the great East End characters, she commanded a fleet of 200 barges.

Residents

Famous residents include or have included the poet Ernest Dowson,[12] actors Sir Ian McKellen, Steven Berkoff and Cleo Rocos, the politician Lord Owen, and the authors Matthew Parris and Andrew Sinclair. The writer, photographer and television presenter Daniel Farson lived at number 92 for several years. It was also the home of the film director Sir David Lean.

Art and literature

Its picturesque buildings and atmospheric location abutting onto the River Thames attracted artists and writers.

Transport

Cycle Superhighway 3 CS3 between Tower Gateway to Barking and is one of London's first Cycle Superhighways. Some residents raised a petition calling for CS3 to be moved from Narrow Street onto the A13 Commercial Road, arguing that the street was too narrow and that incidents of abuse and aggression had risen sharply since the route was introduced. Transport for London (TfL) said they had no plans to move it. Mayor Boris Johnson defended the choice as a road that was already popular with cyclists to and from the City.[13] The London Cycling Campaign supported the route but called for improvements.[14] In 2011, TfL agreed to remove logos from the road surface, but not to change the route.[15]

The National Trail Thames Path for walkers runs along Narrow Street and it is also included in the London Marathon course.

Docklands Light Railway stations are Limehouse (for National Rail as well) and Westferry.

The London River Services pier is Canary Wharf Pier.

See also

Notes
  1. Al Naib, S. K. (July 1990). London Docklands:Past, Present and Future. University of East London. p. 36.
  2. Divers, David (2000). "Excavation of Post-Medieval Wharfside Buildings, Dunbar Wharf, Narrow Street, Limehouse, 1996". Industrial Archaeology Review. XXII (1): 53–62. doi:10.1179/iar.2000.22.1.53. S2CID 110154113.
  3. Fawcett, John Henry; Littler, R. D. M. (1866). A treatise on the Court of Referees in Parliament, containing chapters on the practice and jurisdiction of the court, on the locus standi of petitioners in the House of Commons, and reports of the cases decided in the court during last session, reprinted by permission (with additions) from "The Law Times". p. 54. Retrieved 21 July 2019.
  4. Saturday 19 October 1661 (Pepys' Diary)
  5. Public stairs on the Thames – 18th Century London
  6. wapping
  7. Rozelle Raynes, Limehouse Lil., Catweasel Publishing, 2004, 183.
  8. No. 88: Rozelle Raynes, Limehouse Lil, Catweasel Publishing, 2004
  9. Andrew Sinclair, Down Under Milk Wood: of Burton and Taylor, O'Toole and Others, Dylan and Me, 2014, Timon Films Ltd.
  10. "The Grapes, History", thegrapes.co.uk.
  11. "Poplar and Limehouse". UK Polling Report. Retrieved 1 July 2017.
  12. Flower, Desmond; Maas, Henry, eds. (1967). The Letters of Ernest Dowson. Farleigh Dickinson University Press. p. 14. ISBN 9780838667477.
  13. Our street is too narrow for a cycle superhighway Archived 10 November 2010 at the Wayback Machine, Evening Standard, 27 October 2010
  14. Do you think Narrow Street is wide enough for bicycles?, London Cycling Campaign, November 2010
  15. Marina Thomas (8 February 2011). "Narrow Street cycle highway logos to be removed after campaign". The Docklands. Archant. Archived from the original on 27 July 2011. Retrieved 12 February 2011.

The Anglo-Saxon word tirl, means 'narrow street' or a 'gate' to keep horses and other cattle out of the city.

51°30′32″N 0°2′1″W

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