Britannia Stop Lock

Britannia Stop Lock
Waterway	Limehouse Cut
County	Tower Hamlets Greater London
Maintained by	N/A
Operation	Redundant
Fall	Stop lock
Distance to Old Ford Lock	1.9 miles (3.1 km)
Distance to Limehouse Basin	0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Coordinates	51°30′44″N 0°01′54″W / 51.51235°N 0.0318°W / 51.51235; -0.0318Coordinates: 51°30′44″N 0°01′54″W / 51.51235°N 0.0318°W / 51.51235; -0.0318

Britannia Stop Lock was a lock on the Limehouse Cut in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It was built in 1853. The gates were either side of Commercial Road bridge and were oriented such that a boat travelling from south-west to north-east would ascend in height.

From 1 January 1854, the Regents Canal took control of Limehouse Cut and built a connecting link into the Regents Canal Dock, now called Limehouse Basin. At the same time, a third set of gates was added to Britannia Lock. These faced the other way to the existing gates and were installed to cope with the situation where the level in the dock was higher than that of Limehouse Cut.

The link was short-lived and in May 1864, it was filled in. A report in 1893 noted that there was no evidence that the third set of gates at Britannia Lock had ever been used, that they had been removed around 1868 and that the other gates had also been removed because they were useless. Following the takeover of the canal by British Waterways in 1948, a vertical guillotine gate was fitted on the north side of Commercial Road bridge but this was removed in the 1990s.

Public access

Pedestrian and cycle access via the towpath that forms part of the Lea Valley Walk.

Public transport

The nearest Docklands Light Railway station is Limehouse.

External links

Limehouse Cut, Bromley Lock and Britannia Lock

Locks and Weirs on the River Lea, England
Counties	Bedfordshire Hertfordshire Essex Greater London
Locks	Hertford Lock Ware Lock Hardmead Lock Stanstead Lock Feildes Weir Lock Dobbs Weir Lock Carthagena Lock Aqueduct Lock Cheshunt Lock Waltham Common Lock Waltham Town Lock Rammey Marsh Lock Enfield Lock Ponder's End Lock Pickett's Lock Stonebridge Lock Tottenham Lock Pond Lane Flood Gates Old Ford Lock Bow Locks
Weirs	Horns Mill Weir Hertford Castle Weir Hartham Weir Ware Weir Feildes Weir Dobbs Weir Carthagena Weir Kings Weir Newmans Weir Middlesex Filter Beds Weir
Hertford Union Canal (branch from Hackney Cut)	Hertford Union Bottom Lock No. 3 Hertford Union Middle Lock No. 2 Hertford Union Top Lock No. 1 Regent's Canal
Limehouse Cut (branch, at Bow Locks)	Bromley Stop Lock Britannia Stop Lock Limehouse Basin
Bow Back Rivers (branches of the Old River Lea)	Three Mills Lock City Mill Lock Carpenter's Road Lock (Under restoration, est. completion March 2017) Marshgate Lane Lock (defunct) Three Mills Wall River Weir (These rivers form the waterways within the 2012 Olympic Park - they flow into Bow Creek)

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