COMMUNICATIONS
ROADS.
Roman and pre-Roman roads are
still largely conjectural. (fn. 44) An Iron-Age route
linking the Trinobantes' capital at Colchester
with a Thames crossing is thought to have run
through Stepney and been rebuilt by the Romans. It forded the Lea and continued west of
Stepney along the line of Old Street. (fn. 45) Despite
the discovery of a section of Roman road,
unaligned, at the junction of Green Street
(renamed Roman Road) and Cambridge Road
in 1938, (fn. 46) the most likely route to Old Street
is that of Hackney Road, the parish boundary
and therefore probably ancient. (fn. 47)
The ford is assumed to have lain at Old Ford
opposite Iceland wharf, where Roman tiling was
found in 1905. (fn. 48) It is also assumed to have been
the crossing-point for the road to Colchester
from London by way of Aldgate, (fn. 49) since a
three-track highway, built soon after the
Claudian invasion, has been uncovered a few
hundred yards to the west. The south track
may have remained in use until soon after 400
A.D. (fn. 50) Extrapolation in a straight line suggests
that it was the Aldgate-Colchester road, (fn. 51)
although it would have run only a few hundred
yards south of the road at Green Street. (fn. 52)
There is little evidence from 1703 for the
route, (fn. 53) nor as to when or why it was changed
to its later line, to cross the Lea at Stratford Bow.
In 1302 it was found that the bridges at Bow had
been built at the instruction (between 1100 and
1118) of Maud, wife of Henry I, to replace a
dangerous ford which the jurors assumed to have
been at Old Ford, a name recorded in 1230. (fn. 54)
The road itself was not mentioned; it may have
been realigned when the bridges were built,
although if it still ran to Old Ford the bridges
would probably have been built there. Excavations near Old Ford have found no evidence for
the use of that road after the early 5th century. (fn. 55)
The modern road forms part of the northern
boundary of Bromley parish, created from a
manor in existence by 1066, and so is likely to
have been in use by then. Its straightness between Aldgate and the junction with the
Romford road in West Ham indicates a Roman
origin. The name Stratford given to the settlements on both the Middlesex and Essex sides
(Stratford Langthorn), in conjunction with the
name Old Ford, suggests the existence of two
fords and of a metalled road in use with a ford
well before the bridge. (fn. 56)
STEPNEY COMMUNICATION
Further signs of the antiquity of the modern
Colchester road, with stretches known as
Aldgate High Street, Whitechapel High Street,
Whitechapel Road, Mile End Road, and Bow
Road, date from the Middle Ages. Like the
Cambridge road from Mile End to Hackney, and
the road from Mile End to Stepney church, the
Colchester road ran between wide bands of
manorial waste that possibly stretched from
Aldgate bars into the hamlet of Stratford Bow.
Free and copyhold messuages along the edge of
the waste where it adjoined the cultivated fields
suggest that the road pre-dated the fields. The
antiquity of the part nearest Aldgate was
confirmed by Roman metalling found below
Aldgate High Street, (fn. 57) and the medieval name
for Whitechapel High Street was Algatestrete. (fn. 58)
Other main routes are also uncertain before
the 13th century. London's wall of 200 A.D. may
have had a gate, St. Peter's gate, to a road along
the gravel ridge to a signal station on the south
side of Ratcliff Highway at the junction with
Gravel (later Old Gravel, then Wapping) Lane.
Romano-British burials took place farther east
near the junction of Ratcliff Highway and Love
Lane, whence the road may have continued as
far as Ratcliff Cross to a likely landing-place. (fn. 59)
A Roman road running south-east, across the
site of the Minoresses' convent, was aligned on
Hart Street in the City and thus probably older
than the wall; its destination is not known (fn. 60) but
may have been the signal station.
From c. 1200 the evidence for south-western
Stepney is firmer. Slightly north of the Tower
a postern gate was made in the wall, from which
two roads ran eastward. That called Hachestreet
by 1250 (fn. 61) had become Heggestreet or Hoggestreet in the 14th century, Hog Lane by 1542, (fn. 62)
and Rosemary Lane by 1637. (fn. 63) It reached White
Horse Street, Ratcliff, probably by the 13th
century and certainly by c. 1577. (fn. 64) The part
through Wapping was known as Cable Street by
1703, (fn. 65) and that nearest to Ratcliff as Brook
Street by 1652. (fn. 66)
South-east of the postern was the settlement
of East Smithfield, where a road ran parallel to
Hachestreet. Called the 'vicum de Shadwell' in
1272 (fn. 67) or Shadwell Street, later Ratcliff Highway, it lay almost on the southern edge of the
firm gravel, and from its name and nearby
remains was probably of Roman origin. It existed by the early 13th century and probably in
the 11th, as it gave access to Shadwell and
Wapping mills, (fn. 68) and in 1362 was referred to as
the highway between the Redclyf and the Tower
of London. (fn. 69) Wapping mill was probably
reached by the road running south from Ratcliff
Highway and later known as Wapping Lane.
Since the holder of the mill paid a service to the
bishop of London c. 1270 for a way from
Wapping to Stepney, it was not an ancient right
of way. (fn. 70)
Other main routes led off the Colchester road.
The later Cambridge Heath Road left it a mile
from Aldgate pump and ran northward to Hackney; Bethnal green and Cambridge Heath were
parts of the waste along its length. (fn. 71) The junction
became known as Mile End and later marked the
eastern extremity of Whitechapel parish.
A little to the east of Mile End a road branched
off towards the parish church. In 1725 an ancient
highway called Mile End Green leading from the
hamlet of Ratcliff to the City, (fn. 72) it was later renamed
Stepney Green. It continued through Ratcliff
linking Stepney church, White Horse Street, and
Butcher Row to Ratcliff Cross and the river, and
probably was at least as old as the church. Late
14th-century settlements along it were called
Churchstreet (west of the churchyard), Spilmanstreet, Clevestreet, and Redclyff. (fn. 73) Brokestreet,
near the church but unlocated, may have been
the lane on the east side of the churchyard, or
the road beside a stream north of the church
(later Ben Jonson Road) leading towards
Rogueswell common. (fn. 74) By 1577 the road south
of the churchyard was called White Horse or
White Hart Street, after the White Hart near
the junction with Rose Lane. (fn. 75)
Opposite the White Hart a road ran northwest to join Whitechapel Road by the church
there. In the 18th century it was known as White
Horse Lane, (fn. 76) having been known in 1459 as the
path or road from the church of St. Mary
Matfelon to Ratcliff. (fn. 77) Three roads ran eastward
from Ratcliff to Limehouse, Poplar, and Blackwall by the late 16th century. The most
northerly, Salmon's Lane in 1652, was a public
highway to Ballscross in 1454 and the road from
Stepney church to Limehouse in 1577. (fn. 78) Another, Rose Lane in 1703, was the highway from
the White Hart to Poplar in 1484 and the Back
Lane from Limehouse to White Horse Street in
1652. (fn. 79) Both Salmon and Rose lanes, referred to
as routes to Blackwall in 1615, (fn. 80) joined a lane
from Ballscross to Limehouse, known in the
14th century as Forby Street or Forby Lane and
in 1652 as Three Colt Street or Forbes Street. (fn. 81)
The southernmost route ran eastward from Ratcliff Cross to Limehouse, and may have been the
highway between Ratcliff and Limehouse mentioned in 1440. (fn. 82) It was lined with waste which
was let for building by Lord Wentworth in the
late 16th century, that on the south side being
valuable for riverside wharves. In 1652 it was
called Limehouse Street, and in the 1740s the
Narrow Street, later the Narrow Way. (fn. 83)
From Limehouse the route to Blackwall lay
along Poplar High Street, another area of medieval settlement. (fn. 84) Roads ran from the street
northward to Bow bridge and Bromley, and
southward to a ferry at the southern end of the
Isle of Dogs. These routes were probably that
of Edward I from Pomfret manor in the Isle of
Dogs to Stratford Bow, and of James I from his
favourite palace at Theobalds (Herts.) to Greenwich. (fn. 85) In 1652 the road to the ferry was known
as Chapel Lane. (fn. 86)
The medieval road pattern changed little until
the 19th century. Mile End Road, as an important highway to Essex, required much mending:
John Hadley, a prominent local landowner, left
£10 towards repairs in 1409. (fn. 87) The parish was
reported as neglectful of its highways in 1637. (fn. 88)
In 1696 it was stated that the road had been
improved 30 years earlier under pressure from
the Lieutenant of the Tower, by timbers covered
with earth and gravel with a higher row of large
gravel packed into the middle to throw water off
into the ditches on each side. (fn. 89) Despite building
on the waste, the Colchester road and its two
offshoots retained wide carriageways and open
ground either side, which still gave them a
distinctive character in 1994.
The London-Harwich road was turnpiked
between Whitechapel and Shenfield (Essex) under Acts of 1722 and 1737, with each hamlet
contributing proportionately. (fn. 90) The only turnpike gate in Stepney until the 1820s, Mile End
Gate, allegedly was erected in 1714, (fn. 91) but presumably was built in connexion with tolls for
mending the road under the Acts. It stood just
west of the junction with Cambridge Road and
was long survived by its name, in 1994 that of a
bus terminal. In 1809 a parliamentary committee
reported that the whole road should be paved in
the centre but that any unbuilt verges should be
left for driven animals. (fn. 92)
Roads were improved for access to the East
and West India docks in the 19th century. White
Horse Lane became Commercial Road East,
authorized in 1802, which continued eastward to
join East India Dock Road by 1825. (fn. 93) Minor
improvements to main routes throughout the
parish were made by the M.B.W. after 1855. (fn. 94)
More significant was the East Cross route, a
motorway completed in 1979 linking Hackney Wick with the Blackwall tunnel, (fn. 95) which
absorbed parts of several local roads in Stratford Bow and Bromley and created a barrier
down the middle of both parishes. In the
1980s roads to and within the Isle of Dogs were
altered to improve access and allow new building
around the docks. (fn. 96)
Transport from Blackwall to the City was
heavy in 1825, with 29 short-stage coaches
making 72 return journeys a day, including
coaches run by the West India Docks Co. to
carry passengers and samples of goods. Bow
and Bromley was the terminus for two coaches
making five return journeys a day. (fn. 97) In 1838-9
licensed services again reflected the importance
of the docks. From Blackwall four short-stage
coaches and one omnibus ran to the City, 23
omnibuses ran to Piccadilly, 10 to Sloane
Street, and five to Edgware Road. There were
also nine short-stage coaches running from the
East or West India docks to the City. Other
services ran along the Mile End Road: seven
omnibuses ran from Bow to Oxford Street and
Hyde Park Corner. From Mile End Gate, 27
omnibuses ran to Chelsea, 10 to Bond Street
and Oxford Street, 8 to Notting Hill, 2 to
Hammersmith and 1 to Fulham. From
Whitechapel church three omnibuses ran to
Hammersmith Gate, and one to Chelsea. Four
operators each ran a short-stage coach from
south of the Thames (Brixton Hill, Herne
Hill, Sydenham) to Bow church. The
parish was also served by vehicles starting in
Romford or in Hackney. (fn. 98)
The North Metropolitan Tramways Co.
opened a service along Mile End Road between
Whitechapel church and Bow church in 1870,
offering cheap early-morning fares for workmen.
The line carried over a million passengers in the
first six months and was extended into Essex and
westward to Aldgate High Street in 1871. The
company opened a line from the East India
docks to Aldgate in 1872, and one from South
Hackney along Burdett Road to Limehouse in
1879, with a spur to West India docks in 1885.
In addition to early-morning fares, it introduced
all-day 1d. fares in 1891 on special trams from
Aldgate to Poplar and Stratford. (fn. 99)
WATER TRANSPORT AND TUNNELS.
The ferry from the southern end of the Isle of
Dogs to Greenwich, a perquisite of the lord of
the manor of Pomfret, was included in the sale
of that manor in 1302. (fn. 1) After division of the
manor the ferry apparently passed with the third
belonging to the Heryng family and later to
Thomas Appleton, who leased the ferry for 7
years in 1422 to Thomas Woodward of East
Greenwich and his wife Emmote for 6s. 8d. a
year, the lessees to maintain it and its wharf, to
take sufficient care of men and women crossing,
and also to allow the lessor and his household
and horses to cross free of charge. It was leased
again for 7 years from 1430 to Robert Cheseman
of Eltham (Kent) and John Lalleford of East
Greenwich, for 26s. 8d a year. (fn. 2) It was still part
of that third of Pomfret in 1444, (fn. 3) but it was
almost certainly the ferry belonging to the manorial demesne of Stepney in the 17th century,
possibly acquired in the late 15th century when
the area was flooded and Pomfret may have
escheated to the lord of Stepney manor. (fn. 4) As
Potters ferry in 1652 it ran from the south end
of Chapel Lane to East Greenwich and was
valued at £21 a year net, although in 1642 it had
been valued at only £11. It was leased in 1626
for 31 years at 20s. a year to Nowell Warner,
who was not to take more than 2d. for a horse
and man or 1d. for a person alone, and was to
convey the lord's carriages freely to any landing
place in Greenwich; the lessee also had to repair
the nearby banks and wall. (fn. 5)
A ferry at Blackwall in the mid 16th century (fn. 6)
may have carried passengers to and from ships.
Boats were hired in the 16th century for travel
between Stepney and London, or between Ratcliff and Greenwich, and warrants from the
Privy Council in the 1540s include boathire from
London to Blackwall. (fn. 7)
In the late 16th century the City Corporation
unsuccessfully sought an Act to build canals to
link the Lea near Hackney with the City, or
Bromley with Limehouse. (fn. 8) In 1770 the Limehouse cut was built from the Lea to the Thames
at Limehouse dock, allowing goods traffic on the
Lea to bypass the long meanders near its mouth,
where it was known as Bow creek, and the Isle
of Dogs. The Regent's canal, opened in 1820,
ran roughly north-south through the middle of
Stepney to the Limehouse basin or Regent's
canal dock, which was substantially increased in
size c. 1852 and again in the 1870s. In 1905 the
canal carried over a million tons of goods including nearly a quarter of a million tons of sea-borne
coal, for canalside gasworks, and timber; longdistance traffic to the Midlands having declined,
most of the traffic was local. A direct link with
the Lea navigation was provided in 1830 by the
Hertford Union canal, built by Sir George
Duckett, but tolls prevented it from taking traffic
from Bow creek and Thames-side wharves and
it was unused by 1848. (fn. 9)
Tunnelling began with the Thames tunnel,
designed by Marc Brunel, whose young son
Isambard was resident engineer. Intended for
wheeled traffic, it was built with difficulty between Wapping and Rotherhithe from 1825 to
1843, and finally opened only for pedestrians. (fn. 10)
It was bought by the East London Railway in
1865 and became a railway tunnel, which still
carried the East London line in 1994. (fn. 11) The
Blackwall tunnel was opened in 1897 and the
Rotherhithe tunnel in 1908, both for road traffic,
and the Greenwich tunnel, for pedestrians, in
1902. (fn. 12) An additional tunnel at Blackwall was
opened in 1967 (fn. 13) and thereafter generally used
for the southbound traffic.
RAILWAYS.
Railways through the western
half of the parish, which had been largely built
over, ran on viaducts. The railways had little
effect on growth there, apart from increasing the
number of warehouses and depots, but probably
stimulated residential building farther east.
The London & Blackwall Cable Railway
opened its line between Stepney and the City,
from Blackwall to a temporary station in the
Minories in 1840 and to a new terminus at
Fenchurch Street in 1841. (fn. 14) The service was
intended to tempt travellers away from the river,
as it nearly halved the distance by water from
London to Blackwall, where they caught the
steamboats for Gravesend, but most users of the
railway lived or worked around Blackwall or
intermediate stations, Cannon Street Road,
Shadwell, Stepney, Limehouse, West India
Docks, and Poplar. The trains were hauled by
cables with a service every 15 minutes, but the
operating system was such that a passenger
boarding a train at an intermediate station could
leave it only at a terminus. After eight years the
service was improved by the introduction of
steam locomotives.
A branch line was opened in 1849 from the
Blackwall line near Stepney station to a station
at Bow operated jointly with the Eastern Counties Railway (Great Eastern Railway from 1862),
and from 1866 the railway was leased and operated by the G.E.R. Intermediate stations were
opened at Burdett Road in 1871 and Leman
Street in 1877. The Bow branch's freight trains
to the docks from the east needed to reverse on
the Blackwall line until the construction of a spur
between Salmon's Lane and Limehouse junctions. The North Greenwich branch line from
Millwall junction to the south end of the Isle of
Dogs was added in 1871. Six goods depots were
built along the line near the City by four railway
companies and the Port of London Authority.
In 1850 the East & West India Docks &
Birmingham Junction Railway (later the North
London Railway) linked its line with the Eastern
Counties and the London & Blackwall via Bow,
using Fenchurch Street as its City terminus until
it opened Broad Street in 1865. The final section
of the N.L.R. between Bow and Poplar was
opened in 1852, but a passenger service began
only in 1866 when the N.L.R. opened Poplar
station in East India Dock Road. (fn. 15)
The Eastern Counties ran trains to Romford
from a temporary terminus at Mile End in Cambridge Road (Devonshire Street) in 1839. (fn. 16) Its
permanent terminus was opened in 1840 at
Shoreditch, renamed Bishopsgate in 1847, and the
line was extended to Colchester in 1843. Stations
were opened at Mile End (near the temporary
terminus) in 1843 and Coborn Road (Bow) in 1865.
The G.E.R. opened a line through Hackney
to Enfield and Chingford in 1872, later extended
to Cambridge, which branched off the Romford
line at Bethnal Green junction; Mile End station
was replaced in 1872 by Bethnal Green station
which served both lines; a station was opened at
Cambridge Heath on the Enfield line, and at
Globe Road on the Romford line in 1884.
Bishopsgate (low level) station on the new line
was built for passengers and the old terminus
reserved for goods. A new pasenger terminus
was opened at Liverpool Street in 1874.
The East London Railway Co. was formed in
1865 to purchase the Thames tunnel, (fn. 17) and a
railway was opened through it in 1869 between
Wapping & Shadwell station by the Thames at
Wapping Lane and the Brighton and the South
Eastern lines at New Cross (Surr.). (fn. 18) Despite
difficulties in tunnelling through the gravel under the London docks, an extension northward
to Liverpool Street station linking the East
London railway with the G.E.R.'s main line was
opened in 1876, with new stations at Shoreditch
(in Pedley Street on the Bethnal Green/Mile
End New Town boundary), Whitechapel (opposite the London Hospital), Shadwell (where it
crossed the Blackwall railway), and the renamed
Wapping station. From 1884 the line was linked
with the Metropolitan & District line, with
regular services from Whitechapel to New
Cross. The East London was acquired by the
Southern in 1925, but working arrangements
remained the same.
In the 20th century competition from improved roads and Underground lines led to a
contraction of inner suburban passenger services. The G.E.R. found it more profitable to use
its lines in Stepney for freight and traffic from
the outer suburbs and closed three inner suburban stations in 1916: Bishopsgate (low level),
Globe Road, and Coborn Road. Coborn Road
was reopened in 1919 but closed finally in 1946,
as were the platforms on the Romford line at
Bethnal Green. Passenger services into
Fenchurch Street on the Blackwall line east of
Limehouse and on the North Greenwich branch
ended in 1926. Burdett Road, Shadwell, and
Leman Street closed in 1941. The G.E.R.'s lines
were electrified between 1949 and 1960, and the
area continued to be served by Bethnal Green
and Cambridge Heath stations on the Liverpool
Street to Cambridge line, and Limehouse on the
Fenchurch Street to Southend line. (fn. 19) The East
London Railway was acquired by the new London Transport Executive in 1948. In 1994
Shoreditch station was open only for peak hours,
but the other stations continued to connect the
area with Rotherhithe, Surrey Docks (renamed
Surrey Quays and serving a large shopping
centre from the 1980s), and New Cross.
In 1878 the scheme by the Metropolitan and
the Metropolitan District Railway companies to
complete the Circle line included connections from
north and south of Aldgate station to run eastward
and join the East London line south of
Whitechapel station. The joint company opened
stations in 1884 at Aldgate East on Whitechapel
High Street just inside Whitechapel parish, and
St. Mary's or Whitechapel (St. Mary's) in
Whitechapel Road opposite St. Mary Street. The
District also built its own terminus in 1884 beside
the East London's Whitechapel station, called
Whitechapel (Mile End).
The District Railway and the London, Tilbury
& Southend (L.T.S.) Railway built an Underground line from the District's station at
Whitechapel to the L.T.S.'s line at Campbell Road
junction (Bow), opened in 1902 with stations at
Stepney Green (in Mile End Road at Globe Road),
Mile End (in Mile End Road near Burdett Road),
and Bow Road. The new line was intended to
relieve the L.T.S.'s service into Fenchurch Street
and carried heavy traffic, mostly from Essex rather
than Bow and Stepney. (fn. 20) Whitechapel (Mile End)
was renamed Whitechapel in 1901 and reconstructed in 1902. In 1938 Aldgate East was rebuilt
east of its original site and St. Mary's was closed. (fn. 21)
The Underground Railway's Central line
from Liverpool Street to Stratford (Essex) was
opened by the London Passenger Transport
Board in 1946, with stations at Bethnal Green
and Mile End (connected with the existing
District line station). (fn. 22)
The Docklands Light Railway was constructed in the 1980s by the London Docklands
Development Corporation to serve new offices
on the Isle of Dogs, largely using the embanking,
viaducts, and stations of the former Blackwall
railway. Its City terminus was initially at
Fenchurch Street, later at Tower Gateway close
to Tower Hill, but an extension to Bank Underground station was opened in 1991. The line
from the City to the Isle of Dogs had stations at
Shadwell connecting with the East London line,
Limehouse (formerly Stepney East) connecting
with the Fenchurch Street to Southend line, and
Westferry, and an extension northward to Stratford (Essex), using the former N.L.R. line, had
stations at Poplar, All Saints, Devons Road, and
Bow Church connecting with the District line.
Five other intermediate stations on the line in
the Isle of Dogs ending at Island Gardens were
common to both lines. (fn. 23) An extension east to the
Royal Victoria Docks (London City airport) and
Beckton (Essex), with stations at Poplar, Blackwall, and East India, was built in 1994, despite
doubts about the future of the line following a
decline in use. Rail links for the Isle of Dogs
were to be increased with an extension of the
Jubilee line through south London approved in
1994.