The Lea Valley Walk by Leigh Hatts

Following a plea in The Daily Telegraph letters page for us to agree on a spelling for the Lea/Lee Valley before the Olympics I have joined in the debate.

I have for some time been thinking that we ought to adopt the Lea spelling not only for the river but also the valley. I sometimes use Lea for the valley when talking about the river route rather than just place.

A second letter in the Telegraph today disagrees but it is difficult to hold the line. There have been many variations over the last two centuries so it is not  a matter of being correct. Maybe we need to be consistent. The press now tends to use Lea for both and river and valley.

BBC London has some surprising pictures of Limehouse Basin at the end of the Lea Valley Walk.

The Story of Limehouse is an audio slideshow of old and new pictures starting at the Narrow Street swing bridge.

The lock keeper reminds us that St Anne’s Church at Limehouse was there before the Lea Navigation. We do I think often forget that it was not always a waterside church.

See page 124.

By the Thirties the Lea Valley contained the largest concentration of greenhouses in the world.

Indeed Tesco headquarters is at Cheshunt because that was near the glasshouses and salad supplies.

The Lowewood Museum at Broxbourne is looking for old film and pictures.

“Jim Lewis is an extraordinary man” says architect Terry Farrell who credits him with revealing that the Lea Valley was the cradle of the post-industrial revolution.

It was thanks to Richard Rutter at the Lee Valley Park, now with British Waterways, that I first came across Dr Lewis. That was ten years ago.

Another book soon followed and now there are three new ones published by the Middlesex University Press.

In Battleships, Buses and Bombers: A history of transport in the Lea Valley, the author proves that it was not just British flying that was developed in the Lea Valley but steam engines and buses. London Transport was invented there.

Brunel’s Tamar bridge has girders supplied by the Thames Ironworks in Bow Creek where great ships were built.

Most revealing is the chapter explaining how the name Vauxhall was taken to London in the 13th century and brought back to Luton with the invention of the motor car.

Water and Waste: Four hundred years of health improvements in the Lea Valley starts with the parallel New River, still bringing water to the capital, and ends with the revolutionary London Waste EcoPark between Pickett’s Lock and Tottenham Marshes.

A chapter called ‘The Valley That Feeds The Metropolis’ has pictures of cucumber greenhouses at Cheshunt and flower pot drying houses at Tottenham.

Particularly interesting is the chapter on the recently reopened Markfield Pumping Station at Tottenham.

The third book, From Gunpowder to Guns, is the story of the Gunpowder Mills at Waltham Abbey, a forgotten site until a few years ago, and the Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield which has now become a residential island.

The chapters in each book are concise. There are maps and the illustrations show both the past and present of the now Olympic valley.

Indeed I await with great interest Dr Lewis’s next book in this series which is called From Eton Manor to the Olympics: More Lea Valley secrets revealed.

Forman’s, the smoked salmon company forced to relocate as it was in the Olympic Park, found a new site on Fish Island.

The company has launched a webcam showing the Lea Valley Walk towpath just above Old Ford Lock with the Olympic stadium beyond. You can watch progress.

I am interested to discover that the new film Fantastic Mr Fox was made the Three Mills Studios.

This is another major feat to add to the long list of inventions and creations in the Lea Valley.

The studios up to now have been known for Kavanagh QC, Bad Girls, Footballers’ Wives and, of course, the original Big Brother.

Incidently, the approach to Three Mills from Bromley-by-Bow Station is about to be improved by the rebuilding of Tesco.

See pages 119 and 120.

Leo Hickman has an interesting article in today’s Guardian on the River Lea. There has been recent suggestions that it could and should be much cleaner.

Over the weekend I picked up conkers in Springfield Park opposite Walthamstow Marsh and at Bow Creek.

The two Lea Valley Walk routes on the Walk London programme were enjoyed in lovely weather. We had a small group on Saturday for the Ponders End to Clapton Common walk.

But on Sunday a large number turned up at Bromley-by-Bow Station to walk as best one can the last few miles from Three Mills to the river mouth.

We were able to see the future thanks to Julia Humphreys from the London Thames Gateway project who pointed to new planned riverside paths and bridges which will keep walkers by the river for most of the final stretch.

We walked along some grim streets but the new route, known as the Fatwalk, should be finished by the end of 2011. It’s an ambitious and very exciting plan and we were fortunate to have Julia with us in this so far largely unknown part of London.

More Walk London walks during the last weekend in January 2010.

This morning I walked in lovely sunshine from Ponders End To Clapton Common.

This was to check out the route for next Saturday (26 September) when I shall be leading a Walk London walk.

It starts at Ponders End Station at 11.15am. We shall walk south from Wright’s four mill stopping at Pickett’s Lock. We shall have a proper pause for food and toilets at the far end of Tottenham Marsh.

The end is a mile walk along Walthamstow Marsh with a stop to remember AV Roe’s pioneer flight a century ago. Officially it’s just under six miles. Hope to be at Clapton before 2pm.

On Sunday I shall be at Bromley-by-Bow Station at 1.30pm for a ramble down the River Lea to its mouth. There is a bit of doubling back and grim streets but there are also some good views. We shall visit the light house too.

For those who still have energy there is a final stretch down the east side of the Isle of Dogs to Greenwich.

It’s 5 miles but I am not sure how long we shall take.

Walk London is on Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 September. All walks are free.