Upstream view northwards of Bow Creek from start of ‘Island’

London City Island, or Goodluck Hope Peninsula as it used to be called, will one day be part of the Lea Valley Walk.

A year ago it was possible to have a first look and try the link over Bow Creek from Canning Town Station to London City Island.

Work on the riverside wall starts next month.

The Accumulator Tower below St Anne’s

Historic England has added two historic buildings in Limehouse as being at risk and placed then on the 2017 Heritage at Risk Register.

St Anne’s Limehouse is at the climax of the Lea Valley Walk for those who stay by the navigation channel to end the route at Limehouse Basin. The church is on the final bend into the Basin.

This is a Nicholas Hawksmoor church completed in 1730. The church, being so close to not just the River Lea but the Thames, was a navigation landmark. Its clock is the highest church clock in London.

The building was known to Charles Dickens whose godfather lived in its shadow and more recently is featured in BBC TV’s Call The Midwife.

The church sadly qualifies for the at Historic England Risk Register because of water damage to the interior.

Less well-known is the nearby Accumulator Tower by the high railway line on the north side of Limehouse Basin.

The octagonal accumulator tower and chimney stack was built in 1869 by William Armstrong, inventor of the hydraulic crane.

This is the last surviving accumulator tower of three built in the canal dock. All were connected to a pumping station which fed water under high pressure into a hydraulic main that powered coal cranes.

The structure has suffered water damage, vegetation growth and now also has graffiti.

The Lea Valley has won several Green Flag Awards both inside and outside the regional park boundary.

There are now flags from Wardown Park near the River Lea source to Bow Creek Ecology Park.

In between Rye House, Waltham Abbey Gardens, Tottenham Marshes, Walthamstow Marsh, Hackney Marshes and Millfields are among the winners.

Also included is Cedars Park, the former Theobalds royal residence, near Waltham Cross.

The Green Flag Awards, begun twenty years ago, are administered by Keep Britain Tidy.

The Princess of Wales pub at Lea Bridge near Clapton is reopening on Friday 26 May at the start of Spring Bank Holiday weekend.

The riverside pub has been closed since the start of May for refurbishment.

Despite closure The Princess of Wales was still the gathering point on Rogation Sunday for Beating the Bounds of the Leyton and Walthamstow Marshes. Willows for beating the boundary markers were prepared on the outside tables.

This year’s walk, revived by the Lammas Lands Defence Committee, was organised by the Save Lea Marshes campaign.

Virginia Quay’s memorial to those who sailed to Virginia in 1606

Virginia Quay is on the route from the end of Lea Valley Walk at East India Dock to East India Dock DLR Station.

However, the west end of Virginia Quay remains closed for repair work.

The best way to the station is to go behind the Virginia founders memorial, up the steps and left along Jamestown Way. This bears right. Go  left into Newport Avenue and right along Prime Meridian Walk.

Lea River Park exhibition at the Building Centre

Lea Valley Park: a new landscape for London exhibition at New London Architecture looks at the land along the last three miles of the River Lea which is being called the Lea River Park.

The new park’s main feature is a plan to improve the Lea Valley Walk’s climax from Bow to the River Thames.

The is being branded The Leaway as it is part of a local route out of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. It dovetails with the Lea Valley Walk at Three Mills.

The key link highlighted in the exhibition is between Cody Dock and Canning Town where an isolated length of riverside path exists at Electra Wharf.

The Lea River Park has been developed by London Legacy Development Corporation and the London Boroughs of Newham and Tower Hamlets

Available at the exhibition are free copies of three Odd Guides to the Leaway highlighting history and nature. The booklets can also be collected by walkers at Three Mills and other key points along the Lea Valley Walk to the south.

The New London Architecture exhibition on the Leaway is at the Building Centre, 26 Store Street (opposite the Co-op), London WC1E 7BT until Thursday 27 April; open Mon–Fri 9am-6pm; Sat 10am-5pm; admission free.

Green dots indicate the immediate path plan. Red is a longer term objective.

• 5th Studio director Tom Holbrook, who is heading the Lea River Park design team, is leading a walk along the route  on Saturday 22 April 2pm-4.30pm.

Virginia monument (Historic England © Julian Walker)

The climax of the Lea Valley Walk is East India Dock opposite the O2.

The way to the DLR station is across Virginia Quay from where adventurers, including Captain John Smith, set out for America in 1606.

Captain John Smith went on to establish Jamestown. Princess Pocahontas is said to have saved his life when he was captured by Indians. She died at Gravesend four hundred years ago,

Virginia Quay’s massive Settlers Monument, dating from 1928, has been listed Grade II by Historic England as part of the Pocahontas 2017 celebrations.

Peter Marshall at his exhibition opening

Peter Marshall has been photographing the Lea Valley since 1981.

He has recorded the source as well as the Lower Lea and Bow Creek.

An exhibition of just some of Peter’s black and white photographs is now at Cody Dock.

The pictures chosen for his exhibition show the valley just before any change.

His views of an inaccessible river bring to mind Prince Charles’ claim just over forty years ago that the Lea Valley was “a classic example of what could be done with derelict land if impetus and determination was there”.

Now Cody Dock itself is leading the way in opening up the Lea at its southern end and engaging so many local and artistic people.

Peter Marshall‘s pictures are a very rare record and worth seeing to understand what we now enjoy and what still needs to be safeguarded.

The exhibition is open free from Friday to Monday 10am (Sun 2pm) to 5pm until Sunday 23 April.

Nadia’s Cody Dock Cafe is open daily.

Cody Dock is on the Lea Valley Walk. Go south from Three Mills and Twelvetrees Bridge; nearest station Bromley-by-Bow (Underground). Or to walk upstream go to Star Lane (DLR).

The Old Independent Chapel in Ware associated with William Godwin is to be converted into five flats.

The building in Church Street was completed in 1778 as the date above the front door records.

William, now best known as the husband of pioneer feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, was the first minister of the brand new chapel.

When William arrived in Ware in June 1778 he was still single and would not even meet Mary for over a decade.

Ware was a brewing town with the smell of malt blowing along the high street where there were substantial inns with large gates at their archway entrances.

The Great Bed of Ware, mentioned by William Shakespeare in Twelfth Night, was still at The Bull Inn.

William stayed two years before moving to Stowmarket and worship continued until 1918. The frontage was slightly altered in 1859 when the doorway was enhanced with a Norman-style arch.

During the last century the building has been used as a hall, Masonic hall, club, auction room and printing works.

Wiiliam eventually met Mary Wollstonecraft in 1791 but they did not get to know each other well until 1796. They married the following year and soon after Mary died giving birth to a daughter, later to be known as Mary Shelley.

Turning off the towpath at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park to follow The Greenway can be handy for Pudding Mill Lane Station, on the Docklands Light Railway.

Note that Pudding Mill Station is likely to be closed during most weekends until September.

This is due to Crossrail workings in the area.

Planned closure dates:

18-19 March

25-26 March

1-2 April

8-9 April

Easter weekend

May Holiday weekend