Narrow Street Narrow Street Conservation Area 1. Character Appraisal 2. Management Guidelines London Borough of Tower Hamlets Submitted for Adoption: November 2009 Narrow Street Conservation Area Page 1 of 18 Narrow Street Introduction Conservation Areas are parts of our local environment with special architectural or historic qualities. They are created by the Council, in consultation with the local community, to preserve and enhance the specific character of these areas for everybody. This guide has been prepared for the following purposes: To comply with the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990. Section 69(1) states that a conservation area is “an area of special architectural or historic interest, the character or appearance of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance” To provide a detailed appraisal of the area’s architectural and historic character. To provide an overview of planning policy and propose management guidelines on how this character should be preserved and enhanced in the context of appropriate ongoing change. Narrow Street Conservation Area Page 2 of 18 Narrow Street Narrow Street Conservation Area Page 3 of 18 Narrow Street 1. Character Appraisal Overview The Narrow Street Conservation Area was designated in December 1975 and extended in October 2008. It covers the narrow Thames waterfront that once linked Limehouse to Ratcliffe. This includes the entrance to the Limehouse Cut, now filled-in, and Limekiln Dock, enclosed by historic 19th century warehouses. It also encompasses the Limehouse Basin (the Regents Canal Dock). The area is characterised by 19th and 20th century wharf-side buildings relating to the port and commercial activities which developed following the opening of Regent’s Dock in the early 19th century. Three Colt Street, one of the original streets in Limehouse, forms the eastern boundary of the Conservation Area. The western edge runs alongside the lock entrance to Limehouse Basin. ‘The Grapes’ Public House forms the end of an important Georgian terrace which preserves the scale of earlier 18th century riverside development. History The area of Limehouse was named after the lime kilns located at Limekiln Dock. Established by the 14th century when chalk was brought in from Kent to serve the London building industry, lime burning was the first of the ‘obnoxious industries’ located downwind of the city. The historic Lime House which stood at its southern end, was demolished in 1935. Limehouse was home to a busy mercantile community, supporting industries such as shipbuilding and provisioning, with rope works located out in the fields. The small, early 19th century warehouses of Dunbar Wharf which back onto Limekiln Dock where named after the shipbuilders Duncan Dunbar & Sons, who ran a famous fleet of fast sailing ships to India, Australia and North America. Between 1610 and 1710, the hamlet more than tripled in size, and by the early 18th century, it was absorbed by London’s eastern expansion. Limehouse became part of the industrial East End, notably and principally for its Chinatown centred on the Limehouse Causeway. In 1769-70, the River Lea Navigation (falling outside this Conservation Area) were canalised, and new sections such as Hackney Cut and Narrow Street Conservation Area Page 4 of 18 Narrow Street Limehouse Cut built to shorten the shorten some water journeys. The Limehouse Cut was opened in 1770 to provide a short cut for grain and malt barges, from the River Lea at Bromley by Bow to the River Thames at Limehouse. The Regent’s Canal Company was formed in 1812 to construct a canal to link the Grand Junction at Paddington with the Thames at Limehouse. Completed in 1820 with the construction of Regent’s Canal Dock (now Limehouse Basin), the entrance to the Regent’s Canal provided the gateway to the whole of England’s canal system. Between 1853 and 1864, this end of the Limehouse Cut was diverted through the Regent’s Canal Dock. The original river entrance was re-opened in 1865 and the old Narrow Street bridge was replaced by the present wrought-iron girder bridge. The river entrance was finally closed in 1968 and the entrance lock was infilled. Its walled sides are seen on the north side of the 1865 road bridge, lined by a row of late 19th century lock-keepers’ cottages. By 1968, river-borne trade waned and industrial activity had all but disappeared, and Regent’s Canal Dock was closed and renamed Limehouse Basin. Part of the Lock is now preserved on the north side of Narrow Street. The Limehouse Basin marina, north of the Conservation Area, was privately developed in the 1980s and included the loss of modest areas of water above the Limehouse Link Tunnel for residential development. Although the establishment of these canals, the Commercial Road and the London Blackwall Railway between London and its docklands stimulated industry in the area, the amenity of the hamlet was largely destroyed in the process, and was further threatened by the proposed construction of a ‘northern relief route’ in 1979. Instead, the implemented road scheme (1989-93) reduced the pressure of through traffic on Narrow Street, hiding it in a tunnel beneath the Limehouse Basin, and led to Limehouse being developed as a desirable residential address. Character By 1880, the riverside was lined with small warehouses and industrial buildings on narrow plots. Up to 3-storeys high and only a few bays wide, the warehouses along Narrow Street Conservation Area Page 5 of 18 Narrow Street Limekiln Dock still convey the atmosphere of the historic 19th century docklands industry. Their original loading doors and cast iron windows are preserved, and they are examples of the successful conversion of this building type to residential use. The late 17th and 18th terraced housing on Narrow Street also provides one of the few surviving examples of this characteristic Limehouse dwelling type, evidence of the wealth of the once vibrant, sea-faring community. The street facades remain largely intact, some with surviving historic shopfronts, although street-level use is now predominantly residential and the architectural integrity of some parts of the river frontage has been compromised. The scale of these listed houses and narrow warehouse buildings give Limehouse a more intimate and domestic character than neighbouring Wapping. The character of the Narrow Street Conservation Area is also defined by its historic riverfront. The surviving industrial heritage contributes to the character and interest of the Thames shoreline, the organic development of the area evidenced in the different projections of buildings on the river face. The river edge, historically lined with walls that protected the inland marshes from the river’s tidal flow, are now lined with a wall of warehouse buildings and residential developments. These are periodically interrupted by wharves, jetties and small-scale inlets, where steps and ramps down to the water’s edge once provided access for passengers and watermen at a time when rowing boats provided river crossings and serviced ships. Duke Shore Stairs was the lowest point on the northern bank for passenger embarkation and provides a framed glimpse of the Thames from Narrow Street. Draw Docks, dry docks, entrance locks and the associated industrial archaeology all contribute to the character and historic interpretation of the area’s industrial past and many have been successfully preserved. Land Use With the decline of river transport in the 20th century, riverside uses changed and new development was sought to stem the decay of the Thames riverfront. Post-war Government funding supplemented some costs of the residential redevelopment of the Docklands after the closure of the docks, and the Limehouse riverfront was Narrow Street Conservation Area Page 6 of 18 Narrow Street transformed from a run down and neglected industrial landscape to an attractive residential area. The balance between council-owned housing (once 95% of housing in the Limehouse area) and private housing dramatically shifted following the demolition of a number of local authority-owned flats for the construction of the Limehouse Link. The Narrow Street terrace represents the earliest housing of this type to survive in the area. The early gentrification of the riverfront houses in the late 1950s was followed by the redevelopment of the other wharves at the western end of Narrow Street in the 1970s. The redevelopment of the smaller warehouses was initially delayed by the Borough’s zoning policies, seeking the retention of industrial use in the area. These problems were finally eliminated when the London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) took over the responsibility for facilitating the docklands redevelopment in 1981, and as a result several of the smaller riverside wharves are now in residential use and Grade II listed. Although housing has almost entirely replaced industry in Limehouse, the few remaining commercial uses in the area are very important for the character of the streets, and for the local community. Open space The historic sense of enclosure once provided by buildings lining both sides of Narrow Street has significantly altered in recent years, with the opening-out of the northern street edge. Halfway along its length, Narrow Street expands into a wedge of open space laid out by the LDDC in 1994, linking the Conservation Area with Ropemakers Fields, a public park named after the ropewalks that occupied the area up to the mid 18th century. Other pedestrian open space has been created around the former entrance lock to Regent’s Canal Dock, and at the mouth to Limekiln Dock, forming part of the Thames riverfront walk. Narrow Street Conservation Area Page 7 of 18 Narrow Street Scale The scale varies throughout the area. In general, buildings are relatively low, and the historic terraces are between 2 and 4 storeys. The warehouses around Limekiln Dock are approximately the same height.