East of London riverside hamlets prior to the 19th century

There was a great increase in shipbuilding on the banks of the Thames in the second half of the 16^th century. The effect was an increase in the local population, which is reflected in the building of three new chapels, all as part of the Puritan movement. St. John’s, Wapping was founded in 1617 by the rector of St. Mary Metfelon at Whitechapel as a chapel of ease to that church. It became a parish church in its own right in 1694 and rebuilt in 1756.

The East India Company had a significant presence in Blackwall and Poplar, which increased the population there. In 1650 a plan was put forward for the vast parish of Stepney to be divided into smaller parishes. It did not proceed but one result was the establishment of a new chapel at Poplar. The East India Company had  already given land and stone as far back as 1642 and in 1652 donated £200 towards the building of the chapel. The elegant building consisted of materials imported from the Far East and with wooden columns made from the masts of East Indiamen. It was completed in 1654 and became known as the East India Company’s chapel. The original building was destroyed in a storm in 1703 and rebuilt. Extensive repairs were necessary in 1774. It was eventually consecrated as the Church of St. Matthias in the 1860s. Adjacent to the chapel were alms-houses for seamen and others who had become disabled or infirm while in the service of the East India Company. They were rebuilt in or around 1802 but made way in the 1860s for council offices and a recreation ground.

When the community of Shadwell grew in size as a result of the developments of Thomas Neale he built the chapel of St. Paul’s in 1656. In 1670 the parish of St. Paul’s was created, separating it from that of St. Dunstan’s, the first separation from the parish of Stepney to take place since the creation of Whitechapel parish more than 300 years earlier.

There was a growing number of non-conformists in East London during the early 17^th century. The Strict Baptists were founded at Wapping in 1633 by John Spilsbury. Quakers established a meeting house in Ratcliff in about 1666, the year of the Great Fire of London. There was such a demand for timber for rebuilding the City following the Great Fire that a community of Danish and Norwegian importers established themselves at Wellclose Square to the north of St. Katharine’s. They built their own church in 1696, designed by their compatriot (and colleague of Sir Christopher Wren) Caius Gabriel Cibber. It remained a Scandinavian church for more than a century and was converted into a British seamen’s mission in the 19^th century. (Christian Street, running north from Cable Street is named after King Christian V of Denmark for whom Cibber was the sculptor). Swedes had formed into a congregation at Ratcliff in 1710 and they established their own church in Prince’s Square, to the north of Wapping, in 1729. (The location is still commemorated as Swedenborg Gardens, between Cable Street and the Highway, after Emanuel Swedenborg, whose tomb was in the church). As the easterly hamlets grew in size, these small 17^th century churches were joined in the early 18^th century by Nicholas Hawksmoor’s much larger and magnificent St. Anne’s at Limehouse and St.George’s in the parish of St.George-in-the-East.

Wapping Old Stairs was a busy place that led down to the river. Watermen congregated to ferry passengers across or along the river or to waiting ships. It was there that seamen often landed after a voyage or set out on their next voyage.

Sailors arriving during the summer and autumn on long-distance voyages over-wintered in the riverside hamlets as they waited for their next passage. They led a hard life, away at sea for long periods in often dangerous conditions, and on low pay. Back on land they were often at risk of being pressed into the Royal Navy. There were times when naval sailors were discharged unpaid, creating great hardship and leading to some taking to crime to survive. At several points during the 17^th century London’s seamen rioted. They boosted the local economy until their money was depleted, often squandered on alcohol and women. Wapping, in particular, was noted for its many alehouses, of which The Prospect of Whitby and The Town of Ramsgate still remain. It was normal for a certain number of crew members to die on the long voyage out to the Far East and they would be replaced by Asian seamen for the return journey. These men, known as ‘lascars’ became a common sight around East London as they waited for work on a ship sailing back to their homeland.

The East India Company and Hudson’s Bay Company both had warehouses at Ratcliff, between Broad Street and the river. The Shipwrights’ Company had their hall in Butchers Row, and the coopers had their headquarters and a charity school, founded in 1536, in the village. The riverside part of Ratcliff, a total of 55 acres, was destroyed in July 1794 when a pitch kettle at Cloves’ barge-builders overturned. A fire spread through wooden shacks to barges on the river and then to the East India warehouse used for storing highly flammable saltpetre (potassium nitrate). According to a contemporary account, wind drove the flames through the narrow streets destroying 630 buildings and leaving 2,700 people homeless. It is said to have been London’s most devastating fire between the Great Fire and the Blitz.

Many Irish arrived during the 18^th century. By 1780 Edmund Burke estimated there were between 4,000 and 5,000 in London, most of whom settled in East London. Many lived at Wapping and worked in the toughest of jobs, as ballast-heavers, coal-heavers, and lumpers.

Coal was the life-blood of London, used for heating, cooking and to power factories. Shipped around the coast from Newcastle, much of it was unloaded downriver of the City. The collier boats were unloaded manually by coal-heavers, one of the hardest and dirtiest of jobs and often undertaken by Irish immigrants. The heavers gained work through contractors, often pub-owners. It was claimed that contractors and collier-owners colluded to keep pay rates low, so the Coal Act of 1758 required a City alderman to administer wages. The scheme was unsuccessful and contractors continued to hire Irishmen at low rates. It led to riots by heavers in 1768, following which some of them were hanged at Ratcliff Highway. Further riots at Shadwell Dock at Wapping caused a number of deaths and the deployment of troops.