Shadwell Basin

Shadwell Basin was part of the London Docks, a group of docks built by the London Dock Company at Wapping, London, and part of the wider docks of the Port of London.

Today Shadwell Basin is the most significant body of water surviving from the historical London Docks. It is situated on the north side of the river Thames east (downstream) of the Tower of London and Tower Bridge and west (upstream) of Limehouse.

Unlike the rest of the London Docks which has been landfilled, Shadwell Basin, the most easterly part of the complex, has been retained. It is now a maritime square of 2.8 hectares used for recreational purposes (including sailing, canoeing and fishing) and is surrounded on three sides by a waterside housing development designed by British architects MacCormac, Jamieson, Prichard and Wright.

The residential buildings are four and five storeys with façades of alternating open arches and enclosed structure, echoing the scale of traditional 19th century dockside warehouses, with a colonnade at quayside.

Shadwell Basin is a popular public route for cyclists, joggers and pedestrians with a walkway alongside the water as part of the linked open spaces and canals between the river and Hermitage Basin near St Katharine Docks to the west. Having been part of London's first enclosed dock, Shadwell Basin is now part of the open access to the river and leisure amenities approach characterized by developments since the mid-1980s throughout much of Docklands.