An Urban Wander around Limehouse, London E14

At last, as sunny day. It’s cold, very cold, but I much prefer this to cold and wet. Catching the train into London this morning I couldn’t help noticing, and not for the first time, that there’s a train at almost exactly the same time as the London train, that goes to Devon. Also, and I don’t think I’d noticed this before, it’s actually called The Devon Express. It would have been a perfect day to hop over on to the other platform for a day out of the rat race.

However, the rat race seems to be unavoidable for now, but fortunately I managed a temporary escape from it this week at work, when once again I found myself with spare time before a meeting over in Docklands. I alighted the DLR at Limehouse and wandered through the streets to Canary Wharf, taking a slightly different route to the one I’d taken a few weeks before (see my previous Limehouse to Canary Wharf urban wander). Today's urban wander took me by past some older, more interesting buildings than the new ones on the riverside and in the docks.

This first picture is of an old wharf building, complete with the winch fittings that would have been used to haul goods up to the first and second floors and in through the doors.

Limehouse Wharf, Narrow Street, London E14

Narrow Street, Limehouse, London E14

This third photo is probably my favourite of the batch, and the greyness of the sky is easily compensated by the vibrant blue of what I assume to be a former pub judging by its location, windows and signage.

Former pub(?), Narrow Street, Limehouse, London E14

However, what caught my notice more than anything on the wander were a couple of sign posts pointing north away from Limehouse along the Limehouse Cut, which goes up to the Lea Valley. Obviously no time to explore this route today, but definitely one for another day, and a quick bit of internet research this morning has promoted this future trip quite high up the agenda.

In other news, I am still struggling through Iain Sinclair’s Lights Out for the Territory. If I’m honest I’m finding it a bit hit-and-miss, with some chapters being such hard-going that I lose track, whilst others I seem to breeze through. Maybe it’s just me and I’m reading at the wrong times of day when I'm easily distracted by other things.

    

And stay tuned folks, I actually managed two urban wanders again this week. The second one was from King's Cross to Oxford Circus, through mews and passageways.