Prescott Channel

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The Prescott Channel in July 2006, with cultivated fig tree

The Prescott Channel was built in 1930-1935 as part of a flood relief scheme for the River Lee Navigation in the East End of London, and was named after Sir William Prescott, the then chairman of the Lee Conservancy Board.^[1] Rubble from the demolished Euston Arch was used in later times to improve the channel.^{[citation needed]}

Work began in March 2007 to build a lock in the channel to allow passage of freight for the London 2012 Olympics by a process of canalisation (with the result of stopping the tidal flow) on the channel and the River Lee northwards. The work is scheduled for completion in the summer of 2008.^[2] ^[3] The project will also offer other benefits:-

"As well as helping barges carrying construction materials and recyclables between Stratford and the River Thames, the lock will also create new opportunities for leisure boats, water taxis, trip boats and floating restaurants."

The new lock will be 62 metres long, 8 metres wide and 2.4 metres deep, and will be able to hold two 350 tonne barges (the present locks on the Lower Lee limit barges to about 120 tonnes).^[1]

On 2 June 2008, work on the channel brought up a 2,200 pounds (1 t) Hermann war time bomb. Residents were evacuated, tube and rail services were disrupted, and flights from London City Airport were curtailed during the emergency. The 67-year old, booby-trapped bomb was finally made safe, after five days, in a controlled explosion that threw 400 tonnes of sand into the air. Major Matt Davies, of the Army Bomb disposal unit said “If it had gone off in wartime there would have been large fragments up to a mile away which could have destroyed buildings and sewers". He added "This is the biggest unexploded bomb we have found in central London."^[4]