Bow Locks No. 20 () is a set of bi-directional

locks Lock(s) may refer to: Common meanings *Lock and key, a mechanical device used to secure items of importance *Lock (water navigation), a device for boats to transit between different levels of water, as in a canal Arts and entertainment * ''Lock ...

Bromley-by-Bow Bromley, commonly known as Bromley-by- Bow, is a district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in East London, located on the western banks of the River Lea, in the Lower Lea Valley in East London. The area is distinct from Bow, which li ...

in the

London Borough of Tower Hamlets The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is a London boroughs, London borough covering much of the traditional East End of London, East End. It was formed in 1965 from the merger of the former Metropolitan boroughs of the County of London, metropol ...

and

Newham The London Borough of Newham is a London borough created in 1965 by the London Government Act 1963. It covers an area previously administered by the Essex county boroughs of West Ham and East Ham, authorities that were both abolished by the s ...

. The locks link the tidal Bow Creek to the

River Lee Navigation The Lee Navigation is a canalised river incorporating the River Lea (also called the River Lee along the sections that are navigable). It flows from Hertford Castle Weir to the River Thames at Bow Creek (England), Bow Creek; its first lock is H ...

, which is a canalised river. These locks were first built in 1850 and then rebuilt in 1930, at the same time as the

Prescott Channel The Prescott Channel was built in 1930–35 as part of a flood relief scheme for the River Lee Navigation in the East End of London, England, and was named after Sir William Prescott, the then chairman of the Lee Conservancy Board.

was cut nearby. At high tide, the tide from Bow Creek formerly flowed through Bow Locks, to raise the level of the canals, such as the

Limehouse Cut The Limehouse Cut is a largely straight, broad canal in the East End of London which links the lower reaches of the Lee Navigation to the River Thames. Opening on 17 September 1770, and widened for two-way traffic by 1777, it is the oldest cana ...

. In 2000, these locks were modified to keep the tide out, to reduce silting in the canal system.

History

Bow Locks has a long history, as the first recorded mention of a water control structure at the site was during the reign of

Edward I Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vassal o ...

, when Henry de Bedyk, the prior at

Halliwell Priory Holywell Priory or Haliwell, Halliwell, or Halywell (various spellings), was a religious house in Shoreditch, formerly in the historical county of Middlesex and now in the London Borough of Hackney. Its formal name was the Priory of St John the ...

and owner of the nearby tide mills. He erected a structure some time before 1307. Despite juries ruling in 1345 and 1362 that it should be removed, it remained in place, and its existence was not contested when commissioners were appointed in 1551. A description of its operation in 1416 indicates that it was similar to a

flash lock A flash lock is a type of lock for river or canal transport. Early locks were designed with a single gate, known as a flash lock or staunch lock. The earliest European references to what were clearly flash locks were in Roman times. Developme ...

, consisting of a dam with a navigable channel through it. The channel was wide, and could be closed off using flashboards, to maintain water levels above it. The owners of the mills rebuilt the structure, referred to as a lock, in 1573. In order to ensure that navigation would be maintained on the Lea, the City of London appointed a Dutch surveyor to inspect the plans, and a committee to oversee the work. A report by Lord Burghley in 1588 suggests that the gates opened automatically when the level in Bow Creek exceeded the level above the lock, and were shut once the tide started to fall. This arrangement caused complaints in 1581, when neap tides did not reach a level to cause the gates to open, and the lock keeper would not open them because the water was used by the mills. The use of flashboards was again recorded in the 1660s, but shortly after 1713, the cill of the structure was raised, and a pair of gates were installed. This improved water levels for the millers, but again caused problems for navigation, with bargees complaining that the gates could not be opened at neap tides. In 1721, the cill was lowered by the mill owners, following recommendations by George Succold, and the work was overseen by a surveyor appointed by the City of London. The conflicting interests of bargees and millers continued. As the river was important for trade, the engineer

John Smeaton John Smeaton (8 June 1724 – 28 October 1792) was a British civil engineer responsible for the design of bridges, canals, harbours and lighthouses. He was also a capable mechanical engineer and an eminent physicist. Smeaton was the fir ...

was asked to recommend improvements in 1765. He produced a report in 1766, in which he suggested a cut from Bow Locks to Limehouse, to provide a better route to the Thames than that through the gates and Bow Creek, and the conversion of flash locks to pound locks. The

was built, opening in its final form in 1777, but the lock was not altered. A pound lock was eventually constructed between 1851 and 1852, to accommodate barges up to . Use of the river was toll-free, up to the lock at Old Ford, and the principle was maintained by a clause in the enabling Act of Parliament. However, the trustees imposed a toll for using the lock once it had been built, which was unpopular with the bargees. A compromise was reached, where use of the lock required the payment of a toll, but use of the adjacent flood gates, which could only be used at certain states of the tide, did not. A clause to formalise this arrangement was removed by Parliament from a subsequent Act in 1868, but the practice of free passage through the gates but not the lock continued. The lock was rebuilt in 1900, when its length was reduced to , and a second lock of the same size was built next to it in 1931. Extreme high tides continued to flow over the top of the lock, inundating the Limehouse Cut until 2000, when a

flood wall A flood wall (or floodwall) is a primarily vertical artificial barrier designed to temporarily contain the waters of a river or other waterway which may rise to unusual levels during seasonal or extreme weather events. Flood walls are mainly u ...

and a second set of gates were installed, enabling to lock to be used at all states of the tide and preventing overtopping. Funding for the project was provided by the London Waterway Partnership. In 2004–05,

British Waterways British Waterways, often shortened to BW, was a statutory corporation wholly owned by the government of the United Kingdom. It served as the navigation authority for the majority of canals and a number of rivers and docks in England, Scotland ...

refurbished the historic footbridge which crosses the locks. The bridge was originally built as part of the 1930s upgrade to the Bow Back Rivers, and was an early example of the use of reinforced concrete to achieve a slender design. Work included replacing some defective concrete with new, replacement of the handrails, installing a new surface to the walkway, and the application of a protective coating to the structure. The work cost £3.3 million, and required a complex arrangement of scaffolding, to allow boats to continue to use the lock during the bridge's 6-month refurbishment.

Access and transport

There is pedestrian and cycle access via the towpath which also forms part of the

Lea Valley Walk The Lea Valley Walk is a long-distance path located between Leagrave, the source of the River Lea near Luton, and the Thames, at Limehouse Basin, Limehouse, east London. From its source much of the walk is rural. At Hertford the path follows t ...

. The nearest

London Underground stations The London Underground is a metro system in the United Kingdom that serves Greater London and the home counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire. Its first section opened in 1863, making it the oldest underground metro system in the ...

are

and

West Ham West Ham is an area in East London, located east of Charing Cross in the west of the modern London Borough of Newham. The area, which lies immediately to the north of the River Thames and east of the River Lea, was originally an ancien ...

Gallery

File:Bow Locks3.jpg, 2005 File:Bow Locks in fog.jpg, In fog, 2007 File:Bow Locks - geograph.org.uk - 949788.jpg, September 2008

History

Access and transport

Gallery

See also

Bibliography

References

External links