St Anne’s, Limehouse

There isn’t much to Limehouse, although it became the centre of London’s Chinese community – its first Chinatown – after some 300 sailors settled here in 1890. It gets a mention in Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), when the protagonist passes by this way in search of opium. The most notable attraction here is St Anne’s, Limehouse. This was Nicholas Hawksmoor’s earliest church (1725) and still boasts the highest church clock in the city. In fact, the 60m-high tower is still a ‘Trinity House mark’ for identifying shipping lanes on the Thames (thus it flies the Royal Navy’s white ensign).