Limehouse, E14, the quiet end of the line
Limehouse is where E14 begins, a long way in feeling from the towers that share its postcode. Commercial Road along the top, the basin and the river at the bottom, and the oldest canal in London running north out of it. Almost nobody here books a hotel. This page covers the ground, the stations, the people who write in and what the evenings cost.
Landmarks on the arrival slip
By postcode, never by name- E14 8RSCanary Wharf
- E14 4EDWest India Quay
- E14Canary Wharf
Nearest platforms
Walking time- Limehouse2 min walk
- Westferry5 min walk
- West India Quay9 min walk
Nearest carriages to Limehouse
Margo and Thea give Limehouse as the stop they work most, and the 6 carriages above are the nearest on service tonight. Any of the 28 on the the board can be asked for by name instead.
The west end of E14
The Limehouse Cut was dug in 1770 to save barges the long loop of the river, and it runs dead straight north east from the basin to the Lea at Bow. The towpath along it is a proper walk, industrial for most of its length and empty after dark, and it is the reason a number of people here moved in.
Commercial Road runs along the top of the district, carrying traffic west to Aldgate in about ten minutes and east to the Wharf. Salmon Lane crosses it and leads up into Stepney. Below the road the streets are terraces and low blocks, with the towers only starting once you are past Westferry. The Limehouse Link tunnel takes the through traffic underneath all of it, which is why the surface is so quiet.
Flats, not lobbies
There is no hotel in Limehouse and the district is better for it. Every booking we take here is at somebody's home: a flat in one of the blocks off Salmon Lane, a conversion behind the basin, a terraced house on Newell Street near the church. Street doors, buzzers, stairs.
Guests who want a room stay east on the estate. The riverside tower at E14 8RS is five minutes away by road, the house at E14 4ED stands at West India Quay one DLR stop out, and a newer one is a short walk beyond that. None of the three is connected to us in any way and we take nothing from listing them.
DLR in two, Westferry in five
Limehouse station is two minutes from the top of Narrow Street and carries the DLR along with the c2c line into Fenchurch Street. Westferry is five minutes east on the DLR, and West India Quay is nine, which puts the whole estate within a quarter of an hour on foot.
Her own journey comes across the City and down Commercial Road, about forty minutes in the early evening and thirty after nine. It is a long run and the desk says so rather than trimming the number. E14 is Zone 2, so nothing is added to the figure for it.
Who writes in from the Cut
Residents, and settled ones. People who work at the Wharf but refused to live in it. A fair few who work odd hours, on the river or in the City overnight, and who book at times that would be strange anywhere else. Almost everybody here hosts at home and almost everybody books three hours or more, because getting somebody out to E14 for sixty minutes strikes them as a waste of a good evening. They are pleasant, specific bookings to arrange.
They also tend to book the same names again, which out here is worth doing: a companion who has already found the door once arrives faster the second time.
A quiet Wednesday, by the hour
Eight o'clock, a flat behind the basin, three hours at £700. She comes up, and the first half hour happens at a window with the water going still outside. Dinner is a short walk along the towpath to a table, or it stays in the kitchen, which is the more common choice out here. By ten the district has gone entirely quiet and the booking closes at eleven with the DLR still running for her.
Four hours at £900 is the length that suits a cooked dinner and no rush at either end. The overnight, ten hours at £1,800, is the other one we are asked for regularly in E14.
Who comes down here, and what sits either side
Margo and Thea are the two anchored in Limehouse. Liana and Samanta come down from Bow, Laura and Violetta across from Whitechapel. The whole roster is on the board and none of them charges more for the distance.
Whitechapel is fifteen minutes north west along Commercial Road. Aldgate is ten minutes beyond it on the same road, and Bow is four minutes north on the DLR from Westferry. Canary Wharf sits a stop east, though this desk keeps to the older side of E14.
Two notes worth reading for Limehouse
Limehouse, asked and answered
01How long does she take to get to E14?
About forty minutes in the early evening and thirty later on, coming across the City and down Commercial Road. Nell quotes the honest figure and then meets it.
02There is no hotel here. Can she come to a flat?
That is nearly all we do in Limehouse. Give the street, the buzzer name and the floor, and she is at the door at the time you were told.
03What do three and four hours cost?
£700 and £900. Two hours is £500 and the ten hour overnight is £1,800. Travel into Zone 2 is inside every one of them.
04Can she come at an unusual hour?
Yes. The desk is staffed around the clock and a five in the morning start is priced exactly like a five in the afternoon.
05Do you cover Westferry and the streets towards Stepney?
Yes, as far east as West India Quay and north up Salmon Lane. The figure stays the same across all of it.
Next along from Limehouse
The trains stop. We do not.
One message with the date, the time and the postcode, and the rest of the night is arranged quietly, anywhere from Hoxton down to the basin at Limehouse.