River Lee Navigation alongside the old Matchbox factory
Introduction
The photograph on this page of River Lee Navigation alongside the old Matchbox factory by Marathon as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
River Lee Navigation alongside the old Matchbox factory
Image: © Marathon Taken: 19 Nov 2014
The original River Lea flowed 70 miles from Leagrove Marsh near Luton to the River Thames at Bow Creek. The River Lee Act of 1766 provided for the construction of 15 new cuts to straighten the course of the river by eliminating loops which made it difficult to navigate. This is one of those cuts and hence it is a navigation rather than a river. The Lea passes to the east here, beyond Hackney Marshes. Historically the river is spelled Lea while the navigation is Lee. This is just north of Homerton Road. The flats opposite on the left were built on the site of the Matchbox factory which was demolished in 2012 - see http://www.vintagebritishdiecasts.co.uk/factory.htm for a collection of photographs of the factory and also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesney_Products
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
51.551954
Longitude
-0.031473