The Prescott Channel was built in 1930–35 as part of a flood relief scheme for the River Lee Navigation in the

County Borough of West Ham West Ham was a local government district in the extreme south west of Essex from 1886 to 1965, forming part of the built-up area of London, although outside the County of London. It was immediately north of the River Thames and east of the Rive ...

, England, and was named after Sir William Prescott, the then chairman of the Lee Conservancy Board.''Notes and News''
(April 2007) (Greater London Industrial Archaeology Society) Rubble from the demolished Euston Arch was used in 1962 to improve the channel, which forms part of the

Bow Back Rivers Bow Back Rivers or Stratford Back Rivers is a complex of waterways between Bow, London, Bow and Stratford, London, Stratford in east London, England, which connect the River Lea to the River Thames. Starting in the twelfth century, works were ca ...

Details

Three Mills Lock is a

lock Lock(s) or Locked may refer to: Common meanings *Lock and key, a mechanical device used to secure items of importance *Lock (water navigation), a device for boats to transit between different levels of water, as in a canal Arts and entertainme ...

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. It was constructed between March 2007 and June 2009. Additional benefits credited to the project include the potential for leisure boats to use the Bow Back Rivers at all times. A major benefit for British Waterways was the increased value of the land which it holds in areas no longer subject to flooding, which it was expected would exceed the cost of the project. The lock is 62 metres long, 8 metres wide and 2.4 metres deep, and can hold two 350 tonne barges (other locks on the Lower Lee limited barges to about 120 tonnes). It was designed by Tony Gee and Partners and built by Volker Stevin. On 2 June 2008, work on the channel brought up a '' Hermann''

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

time bomb. Residents were evacuated, tube and rail services were disrupted, and flights from

London City Airport London City Airport is an international airport in London, England. It is located in the Royal Docks in the London Borough of Newham, Borough of Newham, about east of the City of London and east of Canary Wharf. These are the two centres ...

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." In 2009, again as part of the project to build the lock, 29 stones from the Euston Arch were raised from the river bed and presented to the Euston Arch Trust. One stone had already been salvaged in 1994 by Dan Cruickshank, as part of a

BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1 January 1927. It p ...

programme called '' One Foot in the Past''.

Criticisms of canalisation

Three Mills Lock was delivered ten months behind the planned schedule, which severely limited its usefulness to the builders of the various Olympic Park venues. A further planned use was for the delivery of materials for the

Crossrail Crossrail is a completed railway project centred on London. It provides a high-frequency hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit system, akin to the Réseau Express Régional, RER in Paris and the S-Bahn systems of German-speaking countries, kn ...

project. However the lock has in fact rarely been used by freight barges. In August 2013, a long period of hot dry weather followed by heavy rain washed polluted road run-off water into the Lower Lea, causing deoxygenation of the water. The role of the canalisation of the Bow Back Rivers in and around the Olympic Park, with its consequences for tidal flow have been implicated in the considerable levels of fish kill which resulted from the incident.Fish killed in the River Lea. Pushed to their limits by environmental mismanagement
(Martin Slavin, Gamesmonitor, July 2013) accessed 11 August 2013.

References

Other sources

* ''East London Record'', No. 18 (1996)

External links

British Waterways Prescott Channel FLICKR group £15m sluice system is Prescott's watergate

Geo links for Prescott Channel