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River Lea pre-industrial history to be celebrated at Cody Dock

Vikings and monks are just two of the groups who have shaped the east London we know today

Dividing line: The River Lea was once the border between Wessex and the Danelaw – image by Jon Massey / Wharf Life

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Stories are important.

They help us make sense of who we are and where we are.

Whether passed mouth-to-mouth or written down, they have been the main conduit for human communication down the centuries. 

Even in the age of social media, where video is the dominant force, we can’t do without explanation – an editorial take on what’s being presented.

Images alone are not enough, we have to tell each other what they mean through captions or voiceovers. 

The world over, the recording and telling of tales about the world defines our species – bees in the hive doing a complicated waggledance to tell others where the honey is and whether it’s any good.

The Greeks and Romans had their philosophical dialogues, their myths and their plays. The Vikings had their sagas and the people of Wessex and England had the Anglo Saxon Chronicle.

Cody Dock, an ecological regeneration project on the edge of Canning Town, is a keeper of many stories. 

Replica Viking longship the Saga Farmann sails up the Thames on its way to the Classic Boat Festival at St Katharine Docks on September 6 and 7, 2025 – image by Jon Massey / Wharf Life

first, a bit of context

As part of a £1.6million National Lottery Heritage Fund grant, its Lighting Up The Lea initiative will see a home for history created on the banks of the river. 

The roof of its glass Heritage Pavilion will be the Frederick Kitchen – a Welsh lifeboat that was probably the last vessel built at the Thames Ironworks.

It is currently being restored on-site and has stories of its own to tell. 

When work is finished, its keel will shelter quarterly exhibitions about the history of the River Lea and the lands along its length – stories for the people who are here now, drawing them closer to the past.

As that project sails steadily onwards, Wharf Life will be working in partnership with Cody Dock to dip readers’ toes in some of the extraordinary tales that London’s second largest natural waterway has been a party to over the centuries.

In more recent times the area has been fertile ground for social change and industrial endeavour, but for this article we’re going back a bit further…

An artist’s impression of Cody Dock’s new Heritage Pavilion, which is set to be built on the banks of the River Lea – image by Cody Dock

Viking aggression on the River Lea

There are ships sailing up the Lea.

It’s 894 AD – 1,131 years ago –  and Danish Vikings from Mersea Island in Essex are progressing up the river.

Their aim is to build a fortress roughly 20 miles north of London.

It’s a febrile time, but for a while there has been peace.

After King Alfred of Wessex defeated Danish warlord Guthrum and the Great Heathen Army in 878, the Lea took on a new significance – it became a border, a line of division through a marshy landscape of wetlands.  

The Treaty Of Alfred And Guthrum – which survives to this day in the collection of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge – officially created that frontier. 

Different gods, different ways of life, but a pledge of loyalty by the Danes to Alfred in return for peace – an accord that included a schedule for “weregild” or man price.

This was a fine that would be paid by one side to the other should there be future killings, with the amounts subject to the status of the victims. 

Alfred also insisted Guthrum convert to Christianity and be baptised as his godson, taking the name Æthelstan. 

For a while the Danelaw, as it became known, worked.

The Vikings had their substantial chunk of England and the Anglo Saxons had theirs.

But change is a constant. It couldn’t last. Guthrum died in 890.

a test for Wessex

Now the Danes are restless and flexing.

Their voyage up the Lea is a test of Wessex and Alfred’s resolve, directly on the border.

Their arrival prompts swift action.

First a local force of Saxons rises up and routs the provocateurs as they are constructing their fortifications.

Then Alfred arrives and messes with the river itself.

Exactly where and how is unclear – he may have dammed it, obstructed it or fortified it – but both banks are likely involved.

This may have been in what we now know as east London or further upstream, the Anglo Saxon Chronicle isn’t completely clear.

Suddenly, though, the Danes find themselves unable to escape in their ships and they flee with the Saxon army in hot pursuit.

Eventually they wind up in Shropshire.

The tale, however. doesn’t end there. Londoners sail some of the abandoned Viking ships back down the Lea in triumph, breaking up any that are unserviceable.

While we can’t be certain, there’s every possibility that these captured vessels provided vital intelligence and inspiration, with King Alfred ordering a series of long ships built just one year later – vessels with 60 oars or more that would prove decisive in naval battles against the Danes on the south coast. 

So next time you take a walk along the River Lea, remember it was once a dividing line between two countries, that its waters are rich with history and that the aftermath of a battle fought somewhere along its length a little over a thousand years ago may have led to what many regard as the birth of the English Navy.  

from Vikings to monks

This story of Viking unrest, religious diplomacy and clever military tactics is far from the only tale of the Lea in pre-industrial times.

In a valley carved out by the meltwater of the ice age, the river has a long and complex narrative, much of which is sadly lost to the passage of time.

We know Old Ford is where the Romans crossed on their way to Colchester.

We know the river’s course has changed radically through human action – the felling of forests, the draining of marshes, the digging of culverts and the creation of fish traps and channels for water mills.

Today it’s part of the boundary between Tower Hamlets and Newham, but it’s also divided Essex and Middlesex and was once fortified as a potential line of defence during the Second World War.

But there’s much to be gained by looking further back.

Few, for example, may know that Abbey Road station on the DLR and the street it serves are echoes of Stratford Langthorne Abbey. 

Little is left, but this institution exerted a profound influence on the area for 400 years some 240 after the Vikings were sailing up and down.

 From its creation in 1135, the abbey acquired much land, farming the surrounding marshes and cutting channels to lessen the risk of flooding. 

It also owned and operated tidal mills on the River Lea that ground flour to make bread for the bakers of Stratford-Atte-Bow who supplied the City Of London.

There are even reports that a small river port was created to serve the needs of both the institution’s monks, lay brothers and other inhabitants.

It served as the court of King Henry III in 1267, where he met emissaries of the pope and made peace with the barons after the Battle Of Evesham.

It was also sacked during the peasants revolt – singled out as a Cistercian abbey for its “acquisitiveness in matters of land and tithes”.

An unpopular landlord, perhaps.

But by the time of the Dissolution Of The Monasteries under Henry VIII, the abbey was the fifth largest in England, easily on a level of importance with its sister institutions at Jervaulx, Rievaulx and Fountains in North Yorkshire. 

a home for the stories

It’s stories like these that will be celebrated and explored under the mahogany curve of the Frederick Kitchen when Cody Dock’s Heritage Pavilion comes to fruition.

Here will be a place where Vikings and monks can come alive, overlooking the curves of the river that shaped their times. 

One of the founding principles of the Gasworks Dock Partnership which is undertaking the ecological regeneration of Cody Dock is to provide engagement for local people. 

By continuing to research and showcase the remarkable history of the area, it adds a further dimension to that work – offering a vessel for the living history of local residents and a way to present meaningful tales from the far flung past.

Today we smile and take photos of a replica Viking long ship sailing up the Thames to take part in a boat festival at St Katharine Docks.

But just imagine the terror and uncertainty spotting a host of Danes from Essex slipping quietly up the Lea must have generated.

What did they want? Why were they here? Who could we turn to? What a sight it must have been.

Additional research by Cody Dock’s Julia Briscoe

key details: River Lea heritage at Cody Dock

Cody Dock is located on the edge of Canning Town right beside the River Lea. The closest public transport is Star Lane DLR station.

The regeneration project offers a wide range of volunteering opportunities and runs regular events and activities aimed at engaging the local community with its work to regenerate the area and protect and record the wildlife of the River Lea.

You can find out more at its Lighting Up The Lea event on Saturday, September 20, 2025, which is free to attend from 11am-6pm.

Find out more about Cody Dock here

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Cody Dock set to host Lighting Up The Lea event this September

Event on Saturday, September 20, 2025, will see visitors welcomed to the ecological regeneration project for art, workshops, exhibitions, performances and live music

Artist Zhiyan Cai will unveil her Cabinet Of Curiosity at Cody Dock's Lighting Up The Lea event - image by Jon Massey / Wharf Life
Artist Zhiyan Cai will unveil her Cabinet Of Curiosity at Cody Dock’s Lighting Up The Lea event – image by Jon Massey / Wharf Life

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Cody Dock is getting ready to host Lighting Up The Lea later this month.

The event, which will take place on Saturday, September 20, 2025, features workshops, exhibitions, performances, a plant sale, food stalls, live music and more as the ecological regeneration project throws wide its gates to the community.

The event is officially part of three festivals – Open House, Totally Thames and Newham Heritage Month – and will also see the unveiling of Cody Dock’s second Cabinet Of Curiosity.

Commissioned as part of the project’s National Lottery Heritage Fund grant, artist Zhiyan Cai has been asked to explore the pre-industrial history of the River Lea for the installation.

“I started off studying architecture and then worked in that industry for a year, but while it was an interesting thing to study, the work was boring,” she said. 

“However, I did learn about structures, rendering animations.

“I started off making digital art for myself, but people liked what I created and so I thought it could be a pathway for me.

“I’m from China originally and I first came to the UK to study in Glasgow. I decided to move to London because of the opportunities to practise art here.”

Zhiyan, who has just completed a four-month residency at Arebyte Gallery in London City Island, responded to Cody Dock’s open call to create the next in its series of cabinets and won the commission.

Zhiyan's prototype lightbox for her Cabinet Of Curiosity project - image by Jon Massey / Wharf Life
Zhiyan’s prototype lightbox for her Cabinet Of Curiosity project – image by Jon Massey / Wharf Life

a portal to the past at Cody Dock

“I really wanted to make something 3D but, of course, everything we have from that time is either documents or 2D paintings,” she said.

“What I’m doing is using structures within the cabinet that will look three dimensional when viewed from the front. 

“It will be like a portal people can feel like they’d pass through – like a magical door from Dr Who. It’s a great idea to bring a history from the abstract into real life.

“I also work with projector mapping so there will be animation involved.

“The piece I’ve created will be in the middle of the cabinet and I’ve worked with children in workshops at Cody Dock to help them build lightboxes inspired by the area’s history.

“The idea is to combine all these different angles on the past – from me, from local kids – and, that way, to build connection.”

Angles is the right word. Zhiyan’s light boxes use optical illusion to create a sense of depth and movement as the viewer literally changes the perspective in her creations by moving their heads.

She hopes her work will encourage visitors to take a fresh look at their surroundings with the content she has created – all inspired by the research she has done alongside Cody Dock’s Julia Briscoe into the area’s past.

“We visited archives and found out about the design of Stratford Langthorne Abbey, which was located near here and founded in 1135,” said Zhiyan.

“I’ve used that information to create a kind of gallery as a framing device – it’s like a memory hall, so people can see this area at different periods in time.

“It’s about the wetlands with the plants waving in the wind, the Vikings and the abbey itself.  I live in Canning Town myself and it’s really interesting to find out about the history of the land along the river.

“I was surprised to learn about the life of the abbey and the farming that happened around it as well as the fact local people simply took the bricks after it was demolished after the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII.

“They used the stone to make new buildings.

“Things were always changing here – some of those materials may still exist in buildings in this areas and I hope my work helps to illustrate these things.”

A lightbox by one of Zhiyan's young workshop participants - image by Zhiyan Cai
A lightbox by one of Zhiyan’s young workshop participants – image by Zhiyan Cai

Lighting Up The Lea

In addition to seeing the new Cabinet Of Curiosity, visitors to Lighting Up The Lea will also be able to enjoy Dock Tours, try beeswax candle rolling, purchase Cody Dock honey, and see the site’s singular rolling bridge turn over.

Also on the agenda will be the chance to meet artist-in-residence Remiiya Badru who is working at Cody Dock over the course of a year to explore the area’s relationship with the textile calico and pigment Prussian Blue.

She will be inviting visitors to share their stories, inspired by items in the collection at V&A East Storehouse with the aim of producing an artwork related to her research.

Those interested in participating should sign up in advance for one of three Common Threads workshops to be held on the day.

The link can be found via linktr.ee/codydock.

The children's work will form part of the finished cabinet at Cody Dock - image by Zhiyan Cai
The children’s work will form part of the finished cabinet at Cody Dock – image by Zhiyan Cai

key details: Lighting Up The Lea

Lighting Up The Lea is set to take place at Cody Dock on Saturday, September 20, 2025, from 11am-6pm.

Entry is free and all are welcome. 

Find out more details here

Read more: How Canary Wharf has enjoyed its strongest year for office leasing in a decade

Read Wharf Life’s e-edition here

Subscribe to our free Wharf Whispers newsletter here

Subscribe To Wharf Life