Gates ready to slam shut in Limehouse as time rings out for Five Bells Alley

Public consultations are planned which could slam gates across a notorious alley in London’s East End being used by drunks and rubbish dumpers.

Families living near Five Bells Alley, in the heart of the old China Town district of Limehouse and a haunt of seamen in past decades, want gates erected either end to stop today’s yobs lurking in the passageway.

Tower Hamlets council is thinking of blocking it off to “prevent crime and anti-social behaviour”, under its new policing powers.

Five Bells Alley between the 5B Urban Bar pub and the Limehouse Church Institute in Three Colt Street is plagued by urinating, waste dumping and attempted theft of copper wiring, the Town Hall says.

Police had complaints which led to preliminary consultations in October and November when 92 per cent of responses from residents and businesses in the area said they witnessed anti-social activity in the forbidding cut-through passageway.

Full consultations on the proposed public order to close off the alley once and for all are now planned in the summer.