England -- Description and travel; London (England) -- Description and travel; Thames River (England)
Limehouse follows on the northern shore, and is perhaps, even more than
Wapping, the marine district of these days. Here, in a place known as
the Causeway, is the celebrated Chinese quarter. Regent’s Canal Dock,
which includes the well-known Limehouse Basin, a considerable expanse
of water, is the place where the Regent’s Canal begins its course
away to the midlands. The chief goods handled at Limehouse Basin were
formerly timber and coal, but since the War this has become the centre
for the German trade. Here are frequently to be seen most interesting
specimens of the northern “wind-jammers.”
Leaving Limehouse, the River sweeps away southwards towards Greenwich,
and then turns sharply north again to Blackwall. By so doing it forms
a large loop in which lies the peninsula known as the Isle of Dogs—a
place which has been reclaimed from its original marshy condition, and
covered from end to end with docks, factories, and warehouses, save at
the southernmost extremity, where the London County Council have made a
fine riverside garden. In the Isle are to be found the great West India
Docks and the Millwall Docks. The former receive most of the furniture
woods—mahogany, walnut, teak, satin-wood, etc.—and also rum, sugar,
grain, and frozen meat; while the latter receive largely timber and
grain.
On the Surrey side of the River, practically opposite the West India
and Millwall Docks, are the Surrey Commercial Docks, occupying the
greater portion of a large tongue of land in Rotherhithe. To these
docks come immense quantities of timber, grain, cattle, and hides—the
latter to be utilized in the great tanning factories for which
Bermondsey is famous.
Blackwall, the last riverside district within the London boundary, is
famous for its tunnel, which passes beneath the bed of the River to
Greenwich. This is but one of a number of tunnels which have been made
beneath the stream in recent years. There is another for vehicles and
passengers passing across from Rotherhithe to Limehouse, while further
upstream are those utilized by the various tube-railways in their
passage from north to south.
Blackwall has a number of docks, large and small. Among the latter are
several little dry-docks which exist for the overhauling and repairing
of vessels. There was a time when shipbuilding and ship-repairing were
considerable industries on the Thames-side, when even battleships were
built there, and thousands of hands employed at the work; but the trade
has migrated to other dockyard towns, and all that survive now are the
one or two repairing docks at Blackwall and Millwall.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account