Lee Lighters

A Broader Outlook: NarrowBoat, Spring 2015

Hugh Potter

Hugh Potter visited east London's river just at the end of commercial carrying

The waterways of east London, based around the River Lee, saw much publicity as part of the 2012 Olympics, and many promises were made about the benefits that the games would bring to them. However, the commercial traffic never materialised, despite building the huge and expensive new Three Mills Lock. And the improvements to navigation on the Bow Back Rivers has yet to be appreciated by boaters as the waterways are still closed. Canal & River Trust told NB “it will not be possible to navigate the Bow Back Rivers until at least 2016 due to the de-construction of the Olympic venues and infrastructure”. Over thirty years earlier, the area hosted the Inland Waterways National Rally in 1980 and I visited it then to see what commercial traffic was still operating. It was fortunate that I went when I did because, just a few years later, traffic on the once busy river had finished.…