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Water mills were known in Roman times and were normally operated by the flow of a river. Both the House and the Clock Mill were able to take advantage of the tidal flow up the Thames Estuary and Bow Creek. The tide also dammed back the flow of the Lea down its several channels and impounded over 50 acres of water between the Mills and the tidal limit at Lea Bridge. At the peak of the tide, a sluice was closed and the water allowed to flow back at a controlled rate to operate the mill wheels.
In 1938, this enabled the mills to be operated for 7 to 8 hours in every tide (though working hours would have been shorter in the medieval period - probably only 3 or 4 hours per tide). The House and Clock Mills and the Distillery were worked as a joint operation. Grain arrived by barge or cart, and was delivered to the ground floor of the Mill. Sacks were then lifted to the top floor internally, by the sack hoist, and grain was stored in compartments on the third floor. It was then supplied by gravity, through wood or canvas chutes, to the preparation machinery on the second floor, or direct to the millstones on the first floor. The ground grain or flour fell from the stones into sacks on the ground floor. Some may have been returned to the second floor, again by the sack hoist, for bolting or separation of flour and bran; or for loading from two doors on the first floor into carts on the street below.
The milled grain was then transported for delivery; transported to storage; or sent direct to the distillery, for distillation. After 1820, it was illegal for alcohol to be produced and then rectified into gin on the same premises. There was a large bonded warehouse on the land between the river and the navigation below the Mill, where the alcohol was stored. It was then transported elsewhere, e.g. to Clerkenwell, to be rectified into gin.
