Blackwall, London
- This entry concerns the area of London known as Blackwall. For the type of merchant sailing ship first built there and named after it, see Blackwall Frigate
Coordinates: 51°30′23″N 0°00′12″W / 51.5063°N 0.0034°W
| Blackwall | |
 Blackwall
Blackwall shown within Greater London |
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| OS grid reference | TQ385805 |
|---|---|
| London borough | Tower Hamlets |
| Ceremonial county | Greater London |
| Region | London |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | LONDON |
| Postcode district | E14 |
| Dialling code | 020 |
| Police | Metropolitan |
| Fire | London |
| Ambulance | London |
| EU Parliament | London |
| UK Parliament | Poplar and Limehouse |
| London Assembly | City and East |
| List of places: UK • England • London | |
Blackwall is an area of the East End of London, situated in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets on the north bank of the River Thames.
The district around Blackwall Stairs was known as Blackwall by at least the 14th century.[1] This presumably derives from the colour of the river wall, constructed in the Middle Ages. The area lay in a sheltered loop of the river next to Poplar's East Marsh, where the East India Docks were constructed at the beginning of the 19th century
Contrary to expectations, the River Thames landmark named Blackwall Point is not located in Blackwall district but on the northern tip of Greenwich Peninsula, which is south of the Thames. It is so named after the Blackwall Reach of the Thames.
Today Blackwall is perhaps most well-known for having given its name to the Blackwall Tunnel, which passes south under the adjacent River Thames to north Greenwich. Blackwall is also the location of a fictitious fire-station featured in the London Weekend Television series London's Burning.
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[edit] Historic port
Blackwall was a significant ocean-going port in past centuries and was connected with important voyages. On 7 June 1576, financed by the Muscovy Company, Martin Frobisher set sail from Blackwall, seeking the North West Passage.[3] Walter Raleigh had a house at Blackwall, and in the early years of the 17th century the port was the main departure point of the English colonization of North America and the West Indies launched by the London Company.
Blackwell was also a home of Horatio Nelson.
[edit] Industry
For over four hundred years, until 1987, Blackwall was a centre of shipbuilding and repairing. This activity included Blackwall Yard (two of whose former dry docks can still be seen around the present-day Reuters building), the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company at Leamouth, part of whose works lay in Blackwall, and the Orchard House Yard. Little industry remains in Blackwall today. One of the last survivors, the Pura Foods edible oil works, lying in a loop of Bow Creek at Orchard Place, closed down in 2006. This site had once been occupied by the Thames Plate Glass Works. For many years the sugar firm Fowler's, maker of a well known brand of treacle, was located in Blackwall.
[edit] Railways
The former London and Blackwall Railway ran from Minories to Blackwall by way of Stepney, a distance of three and half miles. This was authorised in 1836 as "The Commercial Railway", running close to Commercial Road in the East End of London. Much of the current Docklands Light Railway track around Limehouse and Blackwall is on the London and Blackwall Railway's old viaducts.
[edit] Education
[edit] Notes
- ^ Old Blackwall, Survey of London: volumes 43 and 44: Poplar, Blackwall and Isle of Dogs (1994), pp. 548-552 accessed: 05 November 2007
- ^ Photograph taken c. 1890, now in the National Maritime Museum, ID: H0657
- ^ The Nunavut Voyages of Martin Frobisher at web site of the Canadian Museum of Civilization, accessed 5 August 2011
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