Graffiti in the Hamlets

The next day promised to be warm and calm and so I set off for Limehouse where I would join the Thames again
I got away promptly and paced myself for the 8 locks ahead of me. I thought that if I didn't rush them then another boat might catch me up and we could go through together. Just makes life easier.

There was  CRT working boat using the same bit of canal and I had some help at a couple of the locks and then the last 2 into Limehouse I shared with another boat. So it went well and had time to give Tara a break as well because it was getting really hot in the afternoon.


On arrival at Limehouse there were several moorings, but against a high wall which would make it difficult for me to get Tara off safely on my own
So I pressed on up the Limehouse Cut which goes up towards the Olympic Park and I moored up just above Old Ford Lock (not to be confused with the one on the Regents) in the shadow of the Olympic Stadium.

For Tara it was actually better there as we were now much closer to Victoria Park which we had passed on the Regents Canal.

We spent a couple of days there. To be honest I had had enough of London and was really looking forward to locking out of Limehouse on the Saturday. The boaters were lovely. Mostly young people, a lot of students and it had a bit of a Little Venice feel to it, albeit a little downmarket.

There is a lot of amazing graffiti in this area

These were all in the basin below Old Ford Lock

And these are just amazing.

They certainly brighten up life inTower Hamlets

And then I found a viewing platform to see the Olympic Park. 

 It originally looked as if they were still finishing it off........

But then it dawned on me that they were redeveloping it!!!!

So this is how they spend our taxes. They spend millions building sports complexes and roads for one event and then change it all for use by the general public. Am I missing the point here?

Surely it would be better to design something that could be used by both without having to spend millions changing it. Doh!

On the planned site of the Olympic Park was the last remaining salmon smokery in London. The owners apparently refused to be bought out by the developers and fought a compulsory purchase order.   

A Stratford salmon factory under threat from Olympic development has agreed a deal with the London Development Agency to relocate two hundred metres away

Nestled in an industrial corner of Stratford, H Forman & Son has supplied smoked salmon to London's top restaurants for more than 100 years.

Plans for Olympic development in the area had threatened to relocate the company, which employs around 50 people, much further away from Central London.

The design of the new factory

But the salmon supplier has struck a deal with the London Development Agency which means that its new site will be just two hundred metres away, in an area of Stratford known as 'Fish Island'.

The new factory will be shaped like a piece of salmon, with a roof looking like salmon skin. It will also include a delicatessen and a visitor's centre. Construction is expected to be completed by July 2007.

The cost of relocation is being shared between H Forman & Son and the London Development Agency (LDA).

It is apparently a very good restaurant as well.

But by Hackney Marshes, we found a wood !!!

And tomorrow we were bound for Limehouse. With high winds and a wet morning forecast, I moved the boat in the evening to a mooring in the basin below the lock.