Find Dragons' Gate

Whilst it suffered badly during the Blitz, as late as the 1940s, when your author's grandfather sailed from the area, Limehouse was known as London's first and oldest Chinatown, owing to the numbers of Chinese settlers who had arrived by ships to the area and decided to stay.


In the late 1990s, a sculpture of a dragon by Peter Dunn was placed on the corner of Mandarin Street and East India Dock Road to mark this association. Called Dragon's Gate, it was created with the help of a Docklands community co-operative the Art of Change, before it was divided up in 2002, and featured banners designed by members of Limehouse Youth Club.

For more on the history of Chinatown Limehouse see http://www.chinatownology.com/chinatown_limehouse.html