East Enders' Hidden History

For centuries the valley of the River Lea, which flows into the Thames at Bow Creek, has been regarded as London's dustbin. Now, by a strange twist of fortune, its network of waterways offers some of the greenest and most tranquil spots in inner London; its 800-year industrial history is being unpicked from the tat; and film-makers have pounced on a group of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century mills and warehouses barely 250 metres from the rush and roar of the Blackwall Tunnel approach road as a handy and glamorous setting for all manner of soaps, period dramas, and pop videos.

 

Three Mills Island at Bow does indeed present a delightful group of buildings. Passing the car park of a 1990s Tesco, you look across a bridge over the Lea, and they are: the House Mill (1776, Grade I); the Mill (1750-1817, Grade II); and the stone-paved quay and roadway serving them.