The dockland parish of All Saints', Poplar, encompasses the ancient hamlet of Poplar itself, the old shipbuilding centre of Blackwall, and the former industrial districts of Millwall and Cubitt Town. Poplar's story is one of development and redevelopment on both the grand and the comparatively small scale, driven in the nineteenth century by mercantile interests and manufacturing, and after the Second World War by de-industrialization and the obsolescence of the Thames-side docks. The East and West India and Millwall Docks system is discussed in detail, together with the riverside wharves and works, and the massive regeneration, still in progress, which followed the creation of the Isle of Dogs Enterprise Zone in 1982. Among important individual buildings described is the seventeenth-century church of St Matthias, a rarity from the Interregnum, built for the East India Company. A major subject is public housing, which includes the famous Lansbury Estate, built in association with the 1951 Festival of Britain.
Survey of London. Originally published by London County Council, London, 1994.
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