Limehouse

[Gary Barnett]

Limehouse Causeway

Looking back (east) towards the viaduct?

[Gary Barnett]

Limehouse Causeway

This, I believe, is the south eastern corner, just before the Causeway met Gill Street. It's tagged as the southern side of the street, and the 'Borough of Poplar' plaque seems to confirm it as that corner.

[Gary Barnett]

Limehouse Causeway

Looking west from under the viaduct:

[Gary Barnett]

Limehouse Causeway

Here's the entrance from the WIDR. The shop where Anna May Wong was photographed - San Sam Sing & Co. at no. 5 LC - is on the left, behind the lamp post.

[Gary Barnett]

Limehouse Causeway

There are some gaps in the LC jigsaw. This fits in somewhere west of the viaduct:

[Gary Barnett]

Limehouse Causeway

One more image of the exit into the WIDR:

[Gary Barnett]

Limehouse Causeway

I know this is a repeat, but it helps put the photos into context - the PO Directory of 1931:

[Gary Barnett]

When my dad was 5/6 he was sent to Holmes ironmongers to get the family's radio valve* charged/exchanged.

As he told the story, it was an autumn afternoon, the light was draining from the sky and a mist was rolling in from the river. As he made his way back from the ironmongers a sinister-looking Chinese man, complete with a Fu Man Chu beard, loomed out of an alley or doorway. Terrified, he dropped the valve, which smashed on the granite sets (colloquially known as cobbles), and ran like the wind back to the safety of no. 36, where, of course, he received the traditional 'good hiding'.

* Something like this, I imagine:

[Gary Barnett]

15, Limehouse Causeway was the address of Wilhelmina Morganstern in 1897 when she married Thomas Fenwick.

This report is from 1920 during the ‘Yellow Peril’ era:

[Anna Morris]

That area became heavily Asian in a couple decades?

[Gary Barnett]

Any Film buffs out there?

What are the chances that a copy of Shadows of Limehouse still exists?

[ATTACH]17580[/ATTACH]

23/10/1931

I’m still on the look out for this.

I recently came across a reference to another pre-war film that had been filmed in Limehouse. When London Sleeps (1926) was a Warner Brothers movie in the Rin-Tin-Series about a Scotland Yard detective and his faithful dog investigating crime in the East End. Sadly there are no known copies of it still in existence, but there are a few intriguing stills, posters etc to give some idea of what it was like.

[Gary Barnett]

Does anyone else watch the tv programme The Footage Detectives?

I only recently discovered it and I sent them an email yesterday asking for info about ‘Shadows of Limehouse’. They have a section in the programme where they discuss viewers queries about old films/tv programmes. Who knows, someone out there may have or may know the whereabouts of a copy of ‘Shadows…’


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IsEM0yy-ehQ

[Rob Clack]

I've watched a couple of episodes. It can be quite interesting but there are a lot of home movies being shown and they are the typical seaside resort types. The Talking Pictures channel is one of my favourites, it shows a lot of old British movies.

[Gary Barnett]

I've watched a couple of episodes. It can be quite interesting but there are a lot of home movies being shown and they are the typical seaside resort types. The Talking Pictures channel is one of my favourites, it shows a lot of old British movies.

Yes, they show some great old films and TV stuff. I’ve got a few episodes recorded.

[Dusty Miller]

>>I recently came across a reference to another pre-war film that had been filmed in Limehouse. When London Sleeps (1926) <<

"When London Sleeps" is a different film, "While London Sleeps" is the one you're thinking of. Set in Limehouse, but filmed in America.

Looks like it has a strong German Expressionist feel to it.