Trinity Buoy Wharf
Attraction · Poplar, England
Trinity Buoy Wharf stands at 64 Orchard Place, where the Lea meets the Thames, and holds a lighthouse of 1864-66 by James Douglass. The site opens 7am to 7pm every day apart from Christmas Day. The Trinity House chain locker and lighthouse block is Grade II, NHLE 1242382, listed on 1 July 1983. The lighthouse has no step-free access, its staircase is narrow and fairly steep, and a maximum of six visitors may be inside at once. No source states an admission price, so none is given here.
History
Trinity House began using the wharf in 1803 as a depot for the buoys that marked the Thames and as a berth for repairing lightships. The lighthouse was never a working navigation light: it held optical apparatus from the 1867 Paris Exposition and served to test lighting systems for Trinity House's lights around England and Wales. Michael Faraday carried out experiments on the site. The lighthouse now houses Longplayer, a self-extending musical composition intended to run for a thousand years. Container City 1 was built here in 2001 from shipping containers, taking five months with a four-day installation, and Container City 2 followed in 2002 with 22 more studios in a ziggurat. Nearby, the East India Dock boundary wall is Grade II, NHLE 1240379, and Blackwall Pier and the entrance lock to the former East India Dock Basin is Grade II, NHLE 1260086.
Visit
64 Orchard Place, Poplar, London E14 0JW