Through Old West Ham to Cody Dock & River Lea (4K) 

Thank you so much for your channel! I really enjoy it:) I learnt som much about the city via the lovely walks! Thank you.

I always look forward to your videos ,they have inspired me to go out and walk more.

Thank you for taking us with you on your walks. It makes my day when you post a new video.

I noticed on the board, Wild Life @ Cody Dock...children 😊 Another lovely & interesting walk with you John! Thank you really enjoyed this, can't wait for our next walk...Take care!

Oddly enough John, I'm the youngest of 8 and sadly lost both my parents at different stages of my teens. When I was 11('76) my poor mum was diagnosed with what was then almost unheard of 'Alzheimer's'. A few years ago now a brother succumbed to 'pix disease'. Obviously concerned for my own future outcome I had an idea of putting a small postcard album together of some good old personal memories, you know, in the hope to keep a flicker. Well It got to about 30 when I thought maybe I could put together a complete album of my environments in postcards of my life from birth to now, including places of school, work, pubs etc...4 albums and several hundred postcards later I'm up to date with my current location (Morden). Some quite rare from the start of the 20thC. I have made a start with taking a few 'as they are now shots' and hopefully one day will get round to making a 'morphing video' of the lot. I know I've wandered from your original recording (great job again by the way) but thought you may find this odd but interesting little story.?..and just to say, I'm all for change but of course have a preference in time...I truly miss that old feeling of community more than anything.👍🏻

I'm a newcomer to this channel. It's a real gem. I particularly enjoy watching your walks around my local haunts in East London, the historical information you provide is great. Thank you.

No thank you John, it was a great walk. It was nice for folks to see the old industrial side of London. I know that part of London so in many ways you have archived it in archived it in film before it is gone. Great maps btw👍🏼 😊

Loving the docks and the Kingfisher John. Good walk. Mark

Oh, how delicious - a blast from my past. I was born in Harlow near the mill and used to do many walks along the river, and my dad is in Enfield near lea valley reservoir so anything in that area is reminiscent for me. Mind you you would absolutely adore where I live now, on the shores of loch rannoch in the highlands

just loved that the east end is changing and it aint for the better love it when the sun makes long shadows about time you got some sort of award for this work it is class i so much look forward to these your a gent cheers mate

This is up to your usual phenomenal high standards- it really brings the area to life. It reminds me of my walk along this section of the Lea Valley Walk on 9 March 2018- the walk is on my channel if you're curious. Really looking forward to your future walks.

Thanks John.

Brilliant stuff as usual John, thanks👍👍👍

Fantastic video yet again John. It caused me to laugh when you stated that all of your maps are from the 1950s! Your videos have given me so many hours of pleasure, would it be possible for you to set up an electronic method by which your supports can purchase you some updated ones? I say this as someone who takes enjoyment in seeing you getting lost so often. ;)

Hi John, I've recently discovered your videos and find them very relaxing and interesting. This video was specially interesting as I used to live in a high rise block in Bromley By Bow in the 60s/70s. I could view the River Lea from high up and would regularly see small ships docking at high tide on the wharves opposite my block. Unfortunately access to the river was difficult as all the factories were all operational. Cody Dock would also receive ships, coal from Germany ISTR. There was a power station alongside it, which I presume was the destination for the coal. Your video at 10:24 shows the Emu Australian Wine warehouses (as was) and the cleared area to its right was Jacobs Waste Paper. The high rise with the orange stripe appears to have replace my old block!

Thanks John for another interesting video increasing my knowledge of my own city. Look forward to seeing what your next offering is.

I was watching a fishing video on the tidal Lea at Bow a few weeks ago. They were fishing for carp and had an issue with the amount of mullet coming upstream. It may still look as though nothing would live in it but has improved hugely over the years. Many thanks John.

Superb John as always. The small bridge across bow locks to Limehouse cut is part of my commute. There is a narrow boat not far away called "Never mind - bow locks".

Excellent walk through an area that seems to change by the minute.

Always great depth in your narrative John. I grew up in the area and we roamed far and wide. I recognise the landscape features and they are enriched by the commentary. Great work.

Very enjoyable! I like the music. I remember going with my mum and dad to visit my gran in Langthorne hospital about 1954 - except children weren't allowed in the wards so my brother and I had to hang around outside!

Lovely-jubbly. Found out just recently that my father's side of the family hails from West Ham/Stratford/Poplar so espcially pleased to see this.

Great stuff John very interesting walk , thanks for the posting.

Fabulous video thanks. I'd been looking for stuff on old West Ham a little while back, but this never came up in my searches until now!

Thanks John; much appreciated. Great to see wild nature and the city juxtaposed.

A good place I'd recommend is the London Village of North Ockendon, its about quarter of an hour on the bus from Upminster. Its very surreal cause I felt like I was in the fens but the London skyline hovers in the distance.

Great film John, I love that you still use old maps but I think you should carry a step ladder to climb over locked gates lol 👍😂

so good much enjoyed

Wow what a amazing walk I did not know about cody dock be for this video thank you for doing this my family used to live in manor rd in 70s keep the good work up

Thanks John, there was a programme on BBC2 yesterday called River Walks about the last few miles of the Lea from Tottenham Hale to the Trinity Wharf by the Thames, it was interesting but I wished you could have presented it instead, all the best..

Nice one John ! Cheers.

Yet another great walk. Thank you John

lovely walk John tied in the music good one ...clive..

Another nice one. Thanks for making & sharing these.

I used to work in Bromley by Bow as a driver, and have vague memories, brought back by this video, of being able to drive down a weird shortcut that emerged near that locked gate/sewer bridge on Manor Road, as recently as 2005 or so? Looking on Google maps now I think it was Crows Rd, which goes right past the gas works and emerges between West Ham Station and the Greenway, but they closed it at some point.

The magical River Lea -- love it

I worked in one of the plants on a Cody Road in 2002-2003, lived in Canning town. it is very nice to see that the area is being developed. Keep up the great work, John. Loving all your videos. Regards from Ukraine 🇺🇦

Great walk as always John. 1919 was the date of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, the official end of WWI, where as 1918 is the date of the signing of the Armistice. In some, mostly eastern european, countries the war continued into the twenties.

Thank you xxx

Great footage much enjoyed

The point in the video where your path was blocked by the fence sparked a flashback to a novel I just read: Am Fluss by Esther Kinsky, translated as River. I'm mentioning it on the off chance that you haven't been pointed towards it yet.

Did you see the BBC River Walks episode on the Lea recently? On i-player. Very light, but worth a watch

What a super walk

I love the area!! :))

1.22 Former GER/LNER printing works in Burford Road, Stratford dates from 1893. Used to print railway tickets, timetables and posters.

I might very well do this walk today.

Great video as always. Those gasometers are the reason the road is gated and locked (after an IRA bomb blast in 1979) there used to be houses down there at one time owned by the gas board. Before the bus depot there was a large chemical works on the site

My GGG Grandfathers were Bargeman on the River Lea. One of them used to Live at Prince of Wales Terraces which is where the carpark is behind the pub of the same name at Lea Bridge. it would have taken him longer to put his hat and coat on than it would have taken him to walk to the pub or work.

Near the start of this walk you mentioned "Langthorn Hospital". This was a DREADED geriactic hospital that people were afraid of ending up in. In the early 1950`s my grandfather was put in there by three of his sons who lived with him on the Warners Estate off Lea Bridge Rd despite his pleas not to. I was taken to visit him towards his end. I was only about seven years old,but I can still recall what a terrible place it was. My father who was away at sea at the time refused to speak to any of them for years.

Very interesting ,worked in Cody road in one of the new at the time 90s ind units print finisher now that area well 🤙

One thing you failed to mention John was the commercial success of Stratford Langthorne Abbey as a major producer of flour for bread making, which put the monks in competition with the Guild of Bakers, 'who sought powers to levy a toll on loaves entering the City at Whitechapel'; as you will see below: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratford_Langthorne_Abbey This is of particular interest in view of what we discussed at an earlier juncture with regard to the Coal Tax Post that you passed whilst out and about on the London Loop a few weeks back. Once again, the City Guilds appear to have used their special privileges to put themselves ahead of their rivals in another important commercial enterprise. This time in relation to bread making and flour milling; as opposed to coal importation. Although I have not so far located a properly documented mark stone in this part of the Borough of Stratford, or adjacent Whitechapel akin to the celebrated Whittington Stone over at Archway, there is definitely a mark tree, which doubtless fulfilled a similar purpose in Saxon times, nearby; in that 'Stretford' or Stratford Langthorne appears to have been named ''after a distinctive thorn tree (probably a pollarded Hawthorn) which was mentioned in a charter of 958 AD.' See here for more on this: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratford,_London This seems to put the origin of the name 'Langthorne' to well before the Norman Conquest and several centuries before the foundation of the Abbey referred to in your video.

The Old Canning Town Gasworks Next To West Ham Bus Station That Used To Parcelforce Depot That Ran From 1968 Till 2002

Anyone remember the stinky glue factory down sugar House Lane in the 1970"s..? 🤣 🤣

My grandfather was from Stratford and as a 14 year old he worked on the River lea during the first world war . They were unloading Russian furs from the ships to be treated of insect infestations with costic soda huge rotating drums . Each man would be sent in after a two day treatment with a rope tied around his waist , when he passed out due to the fumes they'd pull him out by the rope and send in the next man . Don't think this happens on the River lea anymore .

Brilliant

your going to run circles around Shakespeare when all is said and done John

Where are the little statutes on top of The Old Town Hall.

john how do i get in touch with you i have someting i want to send you via e mail

Great job john...call me melancholy but them old industrial sites make me feel at home....ex E15'er.👍🏻

I’m just so sad about all the new development.