Limehouse, London's Lost Chinatown: collaboration with St Anne's Limehouse

This tour is a collaboration with Care for St Anne's, a charity supporting restoration work at St Anne's church in Limehouse.Their exhibition on Chinese Limehouse runs from 20 March 2026 [https://www.careforstannes.org/]and your ticket includes a 2 donation to Care for St Anne's.Not a good date for you? Here is the full schedule of tours. [https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/andrew-humphrey]From about 1870 to 1960 Londons original Chinatown was in Limehouse by the docks in the East End. Many original buildings and some whole streets are now gone, but we can still trace the sites of the Chinese homes and businesses of Pennyfields and Limehouse Causeway, we can see the seamen's missions where Chinese sailors first stayed when they arrived in London, and explore some of the side streets where people lived, worked and played.This tour digs deep and shows you the remaining physical traces of the Limehouse Chinese community, and brings the community to life with the stories of people who lived and worked there. We will retrace the footsteps of some real and fictional heroes, villains and regular folks of Limehouse Chinatown, and we will get to know the generation of mixed British-Chinese children who were born and raised here and whose descendants can trace their origins back to these few streets.Limehouse and its residents were regularly portrayed in contemporary novels, songs and films. Interrogating these very varied depictions, some of them problematic and some downright racist, can help us understand the communitys resilience and its place in British Chinese life and in popular culture. In recent years a new generation of local creatives is exploring the legacy of Limehouse Chinatown in their own work.The tour will last approximately 3 hours, walking at a leisurely pace, and including a short break half-way. After the tour there will be an optional family-style meal at a local Chinese restaurant where you can share your reflections of our time in Limehouse. I will email you after you have booked to check whether you would like to join us for lunch.The 15 ticket price includes a 2 donation to Care for St Anne's [https://www.careforstannes.org/].Ticketsource adds a 1.26 booking fee.Starting point: 10:30 a.m. near Canary Wharf, West India Quay and Westferry tube/DLR. Exact location provided when you book.
Ending point: 1:30 p.m. at St Anne's Limehouse, Three Colt Street, London E14 8HHYour guide: Andrew Humphrey
Check my Google reviews [https://share.google/E7KLEBPx7HLZQ9MyU]I have devised and led walking tours of Soho Chinatown for China Exchange and for the new Chinatown Collective [https://www.chinatowncollective.london/]since 2021. This tour of the original London Chinatown is my personal project. You can follow me on Instagram at @theandrewhumphrey [https://www.instagram.com/theandrewhumphrey/], where I often post about Chinatown.