Tuesday, August 18, 2020
The River Lea in London is surprisingly hard to cross. Only a handful of roads cross the river in the 12 miles from the M25 down to the Thames, plus some railways, but not a particularly great number of footbridges. It's not quite such an impenetrable barrier as the Thames, but there are sound historic reasons why it formed a natural dividing line between Middlesex and Essex.
A particular hindrance is that the Lea is generally at least two streams of water, one artificially navigable and the other either a flood channel or an echo of the original course. Having to cross two channels makes the Lea harder to traverse, and the land inbetween is often unsuitable for development.
So I thought I'd tot up how few ways there are to cross the Lea on its path through East London and then try to create a graphic to show the results, not because I thought you'd find it interesting but because I like a challenge.
| M25 |
| | | Enfield | | |
| Enfield Lock | access roads×2 | Island | footbridge×3 | Sewardstone |
| | footbridge | Village | | |
| | | | | |
| | | King | | |
| | | George's | | |
| | | Reservoir | | |
| | | | | |
| Ponders End | Lea Valley Road | Chingford |
| | | | | |
| | | William | | |
| | | Girling | | |
| | | Reservoir | | |
| | | | | |
| Edmonton | North Circular Road (& slip roads) | South Chingford |
| | footbridge | | Harbert Road | |
| | footbridge | | footbridge | |
| | | Walthamstow | footbridge | |
| | | Wetlands | | |
| Tottenham Hale | Ferry Lane / Forest Road | Blackhorse Road |
| | Victoria line / Overground | |
| | | Walthamstow | | |
| | | Wetlands | | |
| | footbridge×2 | Walthamstow | Coppermill Lane | |
| | | Marshes | | |
| | Greater Anglia / Overground | |
| | | Walthamstow | footbridge | |
| | footbridge | Marshes | | |
| Clapton | Lea Bridge Road | Lea Bridge |
| | footbridge×2 | | footbridge | |
| | footbridge×2 | Hackney Marshes | | |
| | | | footbridge | |
| | Homerton Road | | Ruckholt Road | |
| Hackney Wick | A12 East Cross Route | Leyton |
| | Eastway | | | |
| | | QEOP | footbridge×3 | |
| | footbridge | | Westfield Avenue | |
| | Overground / HS1 | |
| | White Post Lane | | Carpenters Road | |
| | | | | |
| | footbridge×2 | QEOP | footbridge×4 | |
| | | | Sidings Street | |
| | Greenway | |
| | Greater Anglia / Central / DLR / Crossrail | |
| Bow | Stratford High Street | Stratford |
| | | Three | | |
| | Three Mill Lane | Mills | footbridge×2 | |
| | | |
| | | District / c2c | | |
| | | (private road) | | |
| | | | | |
| | | East India Dock Road | | |
| | | footbridge | | |
| | East India | DLR / Crossrail | Canning Town | |
| | | footbridge | | |
| | | Lower Lea Crossing | | |
| | | | | |
| THAMES |
<< click for Newer posts
click for Older Posts >>
click to return to the main page
