Shadwell

Coordinates: 51°30′26″N 0°02′48″W / 51.5071°N 0.0466°W / 51.5071; -0.0466
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about the area of London. For other uses, see Shadwell (disambiguation).

Shadwell
Shadwell Basin Bridge
Shadwell is located in Greater London
Shadwell
Shadwell
Location within Greater London
Population15,110 (2011 Census. Ward)[1]
OS grid referenceTQ355805
London borough
Ceremonial countyGreater London
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townLONDON
Postcode districtE1, E1W
Dialling code020
PoliceMetropolitan
FireLondon
AmbulanceLondon
UK Parliament
London Assembly
List of places
UK
England
London
51°30′26″N 0°02′48″W / 51.5071°N 0.0466°W / 51.5071; -0.0466

Shadwell is an area in London, England and is located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is in East London and part of the East End. Shadwell is on the north bank of the River Thames between Wapping (to the west) and Ratcliff and Limehouse (to the east) and is 3 miles (4.8 km) east of Charing Cross. This riverside location has meant the area's history and character have been shaped by the maritime trades.

Historically a hamlet of the Manor and Ancient Parish of Stepney,[2][3] it became a parish in its own right in 1670. the area of the Hamlet and Parish included areas south of Cable Street including Shadwell Basin and the King Edward Memorial Park.

History

Etymology

In the 13th century, the area was a low lying marsh

St Chad filled a nearby well,[6] a false etymology changed the name into Chadwelle.[7]
This changed further into Shadwell.

Roman period

The daughter-parishes of Stepney that would evolve into the modern London Borough of Tower Hamlets
The Shadwell ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Stepney, 1916. The ward occupied the same area as the former Hamlet and Parish of Shadwell.

In 1975, archaeologists discovered evidence of a port complex between

signal tower in Shadwell.[9] A Roman cemetery containing two coffins was also discovered in Shadwell in around 1615.[10]
: 443 

Administrative history

The area was part of the

Tower Division (also known as the Tower Hamlets)
.

The role of the Tower Division ended when Shadwell became part of the new County of London in 1889. The County of London was replaced by Greater London in 1965.

16th and 17th centuries

Shadwell's eastern waterfront had been drained in the

Act of Parliament.[4][8] This had been caused by an increase in London's maritime activities in the 16th century.[11]
: 41 

The riverside areas of East London experienced rapid, low quality development, that reached Shadwell in the late 16th century. Writing in 1598, John Stow describes the poverty of the riverside development that took place then, with its:

continual street or filthy strait passage with alleys of small tenements or cottages built…almost to Ratcliffe

— John Stow, Survey of London, 1598, [12]

John Stow also recalls

tenements.[13] Away from the river the area remained largely undeveloped. In 1650, Shadwell had 703 buildings. Of the houses, 195 were single-storey houses, 473 were two-storey houses, and 33 were three-storey houses, although many were subdivided.[14]: 92  The population of Shadwell in 1650 was around 3,500.[15]: 130  In the 1660s, a hearth tax was introduced, although around 50% of residents in Shadwell were deemed too poor to pay the tax.[15]
: 132 

In 1669,

Ratcliff Highway and Wapping Wall.[14]: 91  In 1674, Shadwell had a population of around 8,000.[13] The prosperity in this period has been linked to the road connections into London, which were maintained by wealthy taxpayers from Middlesex, Essex, Kent and Surrey.[11]
: 332–333 

18th and 19th centuries

A database of UK newspaper adverts,[17] seeking the capture and return of enslaved runaways, known today as Freedom Seekers [18] has identified sisters living and working in Shadwell in the mid 1700s.

Jane Gray and her younger sister, Maria, were born in Antigua in 1739 and 1742.[19] They were the enslaved domestic servants of Captain James Barrett and his family. In 1758, when they were 19 and 16 years old, parish records confirm that the Barrett family lived in Musick House Court, just opposite St Paul's Church, Shadwell.[20]

It is not clear how they entered Captain Barrett's service but the surname, Gray, suggests a connection with the Gray family and their plantations in Antigua. John Gray Senior, owned Turnbulls and Gray's Belfast [21] amongst other property on the island, and he may have named the sisters after two of his daughters, who were also called Jane and Maria.[22]

The sisters arranged their own baptisms, on different days, in July 1758. Not at St Pauls, in the parish they lived, but at St Margaret's, Westminster.[23] It is possible that they intended to establish themselves in a different parish, and did not want the Barretts to know. Four months later, the sisters ran away.[24]

By the mid-eighteenth century, Shadwell Spa was established, producing sulphurous waters, in Sun Tavern fields. As well as being used for medicinal purposes, salts were extracted from the waters and used by local calicoprinters to fix their dyes.

Ratcliffe Highway were destroyed by a fire which "consumed more houses than any one conflagration has done since the Great Fire of London", and also destroyed many boats, and around £40,000 of sugar.[10]
: 443–445 

Shadwell Waterworks was sold in 1801 to the London Dock Company; the waterworks were the first ones in London to use a

almshouses built using money from James Cook.[35] Watney Market developed into a busy shopping area around this time.[36]

In the 19th century, Shadwell was home to a large community of foreign

Greek seamen, who also intermarried and cohabited with locals.[37][38] In 1805, lascars caused disturbances in the streets of Shadwell which ended with 15 people being hospitalised, and 19 people being arrested.[39]

During Victorian times, Shadwell and the

East End were not seen as pleasant places. The growth of Shadwell's port led to an increase in the number of prostitutes in the area, and the area was known as the centre of the capital's opium smoking,[40] and in 1861, Shadwell paid a poor rate of 3 s. 9d.[41] An 1889 book The Bitter Cry of Outcast London described Ratcliffe, Shadwell and Bermondsey as a "revolting spectacle", a "dark vision", and a "ghastly reality",[42]: 62–63  whilst Charles Dickens' unfinished novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood involves a journey to an opium den in Shadwell, which includes the line "Eastward and still eastward through the stale streets he takes his way, until he reaches his destination: a miserable court, specially miserable amongst many such."[42]
: 55 

In 1885, Shadwell Fish Market was opened as an alternative to

King George V, and was Shadwell's first park.[43][44]: 429  From 1868 to 1932, Shadwell was home to the East London Hospital for Children (later the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children), before it moved to Wapping, and was later closed down in 1963.[44]
: 672 

20th century

In 1906, the

Corporation of London agreed to contribute £500 to the widening of Shadwell High Street to 40 feet (12 m).[45]
In 1916, seven women were killed in a sack factory fire; around 50 women were in the building at the time, and the rest escaped. The five-storey warehouse was almost completely destroyed.[46][47][48] In 1934, a 10 lb (4.5 kg) bomb was found four feet below the surface of Shadwell High Street; the bomb was believed to be from the German World War I air raids on the area.[49][50]

In 1936 residents of Shadwell were heavily involved in the Battle of Cable Street which took place nearby, when Oswald Mosley's fascists attempted to march through the East End, in order to intimidate the area's large Jewish population. The police ordered Mosley to abandon his march when 250,000 or more protestors blocked his way, and police attempts to clear a way for him were unsuccessful.[51][52] Workers in Shadwell continued to oppose the British Union of Fascists, and in 1937, Shadwell dockers threatened an unofficial strike after local casual dock labourer Cecil Anthony Hiron was nominated as a BUF candidate in the Stepney Council elections in November; Hiron later withdrew his nomination.[53]

In 1969, the Shadwell Docks, along with the other London docks, closed and were purchased by

Tower Hamlets Council.[30]: 122  During the 1970s, the docks became derelict,[30]: 122 [54] before being bought by the London Docklands Development Corporation, who built 169 houses and flats by the basin in 1987.[30]
: 122 

The Watney Market area was demolished and rebuilt during the 1970s and 1980s.[55]

In 1987,

Bank station from 1991.[56]

Parish church

Main article: St Paul's Church, Shadwell
St Paul's Church can be clearly seen from the Thames

Waterloo church'. Captain James Cook was an active parishioner and John Wesley preached in the church from time to time. Isham Randolph of Dungeness, one of Thomas Jefferson's grandfathers and son of William Randolph
, was married in St. Paul's church.

Electoral wards

The northern part of Shadwell, along with large parts of neighbouring areas, is included in the Shadwell electoral ward. Since boundary changes in 2018, the ward no longer includes any of riverside Shadwell.[57]

Southern Shadwell is included in the St Katharine's and Wapping electoral ward.[58]

Demographics

According to the

2011 census, 15,110 people lived in Shadwell.[59]

Residents of

Bangladeshi origin accounted for 52% of Shadwell's population in the 2011 census, with White British people comprising 20% of the ward.[60] The next largest ethnic group was Other White at 9%. 52.9% of people were born in the United Kingdom, with the next highest being 20.8% of people being born in Bangladesh
.

The most common religion in Shadwell is

Muslim, the next highest being 20.6% who identified as Christian.[60]

Notable current and former residents

East-facing view across the Shadwell Basin (2023)

Education

For details of education in Shadwell, see
List of schools in Tower Hamlets
.

Specifically local schools include Blue Gate Fields and Bigland Green Primary school; and Bishop Challoner Catholic School. Also, Mulberry School For Girls

Transport

Railway

Shadwell railway station is located just north of Cable Street, the area's historic northern boundary with the St. George in the East area of Wapping. It is situated on the London Overground's East London line and is in Travelcard Zone 2.[64] There are regular direct services to Dalston Junction, Highbury & Islington, West Croydon, Crystal Palace, New Cross and Clapham Junction.[65]

Bank and Lewisham
.

Buses

D3 and night bus N15; these connect Shadwell with East and Central London.[66]

THCH Hop Festival

Part of the Shadwell Basin housing built in the 1980s; an example of postmodern architecture, it is now Grade II listed

In 2006 local Housing Association, Tower Hamlets Community Housing (THCH) built a new block of flats in Shadwell, adjacent to the existing flats at the corner of Cable Street and Devonport Street, called Thirza House. It was opened by Mildred Gordon, a former Shadwell resident and MP for the area from 1987 to 1997. As part of the new development THCH built a hop garden.

Since 2007, THCH have held a Hop Festival every September in the hop garden to commemorate the tradition of generations of East Enders temporarily migrating to Kent's hop gardens to harvest the hops. THCH have produced souvenir booklets containing historical photos of East Enders harvesting hops which are available from Tower Hamlets Community Housing.[67] In 2009 the Shadwell hops were harvested by the local residents and Brodies Brewery in Leyton used them to create a new beer called "Old Hopper's Brew". The beer sold out within a month.[68]

In popular culture

Wilfred Owen's poem "Shadwell Stair", previously alleged to be mysterious, was a straightforward elegy to homosexual soliciting in an area of the London docks once renowned for it, according to Jonathan Cutbill.[69][70]

The 1967 film To Sir, with Love was shot in Shadwell.[71]

Shadwell, and in particular the fictional

BBC films football hooligan film I. D. and its 2016 sequel ID2: Shadwell Army
.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Shadwell & St. George's East railway station had opened in 1840, and Shadwell railway station in 1876.

References

  1. ^ "Tower Hamlets Ward population 2011". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
  2. ISBN 0-901050-67-9
    .
  3. ^ Joel Gascoyne's maps of Stepney in 1703 show the Hamlets of the parish occupying the same boundaries as when they subsequently became independent parishes
  4. ^ a b c d Shadwell The Copartnership Herald, Vol. II, no. 23 (Christmas 1932-January 1933)accessed: 26 August 2008
  5. ^ Deeds: A.2501 - A.2600, A Descriptive Catalogue of Ancient Deeds: Volume 2 (1894), pp. 87-99 (Middlesex A2589, c. 1218) accessed: 26 August 2008
  6. ^ Book 5, Ch. 3: Parishes east of the Tower, A New History of London: Including Westminster and Southwark (1773), pp. 769-772 accessed: 26 August 2008
  7. ^ "Shadwell | British History Online". British-history.ac.uk. Retrieved 7 July 2022.
  8. ^
    ISBN 9780750956291
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  9. ISBN 9780192853691
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  10. ^ a b Hughson, David (1805). London; Being an Accurate History and Description of the British Metropolis and Its Neighbourhood: To Thirty Miles Extent, from an Actual Perambulation, Volume 4. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
  11. ^
    ISBN 9781139510455
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  12. ^ John Stow, Survey of London, 1598
  13. ^
    ISBN 9780521431415
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  14. ^
    ISBN 9780674538399
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  15. ^
    ISBN 9780521773461
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  16. ^
    ISBN 9780520227958
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  17. ^ "Runaway Slaves in Britain :: Database". runaways.gla.ac.uk. Retrieved 26 March 2024.
  18. ^ "Interview and excerpt: Simon P. Newman, Freedom Seekers: Escaping from Slavery in Restoration London | Folger Shakespeare Library". www.folger.edu. 22 March 2022. Retrieved 26 March 2024.
  19. doi:10.5040/9798400614057.0085
    .
  20. ^ "Caller, Maxwell Marshall, (born 9 Feb. 1951), Chair, Local Government Boundary Commission for England, 2010–15 (Chair, Boundary Committee for England, 2007–10); Intervention Commissioner, London Borough of Tower Hamlets, 2014–17", Who's Who, Oxford University Press, 1 December 2007, retrieved 26 March 2024
  21. ^ "Gray's Belfast/ Lambert Hall – Antigua Sugar Mills". Retrieved 26 March 2024.
  22. ^ "Summary of Individual | Legacies of British Slavery". www.ucl.ac.uk. Retrieved 26 March 2024.
  23. doi:10.5040/9798400614057.0085
    .
  24. ^ "Runaways :: Management - Display Record". runaways.gla.ac.uk. Retrieved 26 March 2024.
  25. ^ Shadwell, The Environs of London: volume 3: County of Middlesex (1795), pp. 383-390 accessed: 26 August 2008
  26. ISBN 9781859846384
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  27. ISBN 9781108028080
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  28. ^ Brayley, Edward Norris; Brewer, James Norris; Nightingale, Joseph (1810). London and Middlesex, or, An historical, commercial, & descriptive survey of the metropolis of Great-Britain. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
  29. ISBN 9780198713418
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  30. ^
    ISBN 9781291901283
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  31. ^
    ISBN 9780091943738
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  32. ^ "London Dock" (PDF). Berkeley Group. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
  33. ^ "Steam Communication". Northern Whig. 27 July 1868. Retrieved 15 February 2016 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  34. ^ "Untitled". North Devon Journal. 28 September 1865. Retrieved 15 February 2016 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  35. ^ Lewis, Samuel (1848). A Topographical Dictionary of England. pp. 51–56. Retrieved 30 May 2016 – via British History Online.
  36. ^ Sainsbury's Archive http://sainsburys.lgfl.org.uk/1881.htm
  37. ISBN 81-7824-154-4
  38. doi:10.1017/S0020859006002604
  39. ISBN 9780521699747
    . Retrieved 21 January 2016.
  40. ISBN 9780141026244
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  41. ^ Grady, Standish Grove (1862). The diminution of the poor rate by improved legislation. pp. 80–81. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
  42. ^
    ISBN 978-9042024540
    . Retrieved 22 January 2016.
  43. ^ "Scheme to Construct a Riverside Garden". London Daily News. 31 July 1911. Retrieved 15 February 2016 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  44. ^
    ISBN 9781405049252
    . Retrieved 21 January 2016.
  45. ^ "Rehousing at Shadwell". London Daily News. 17 November 1906. Retrieved 15 February 2016 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  46. ^ "Seven Lives Lost". Exeter and Plymouth Gazette. 20 December 1916. Retrieved 15 February 2016 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  47. ^ "A London Fire: Seven Lives Lost". Western Times. 20 December 1916. Retrieved 15 February 2016 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  48. ^ "Seven Women Burnt To Death". Western Daily Press. 20 December 1916. Retrieved 15 February 2016 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  49. ^ "Untitled". Hull Daily Mail. 4 May 1934. Retrieved 15 February 2016 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  50. ^ "Untitled". Grantham Journal. 12 May 1934. Retrieved 15 February 2016 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  51. ISBN 9780750962162
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  52. ^ "Lorry Overturned". Sheffield Independent. 5 October 1936. Retrieved 15 February 2016 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  53. ISBN 9781136299711
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  54. ISBN 9781483103709
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  55. ^ East London History http://eastlondonhistory.com/2010/11/18/watney-market/
  56. ISBN 9780761803287
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  57. ^ Ward profile https://www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/Documents/Borough_statistics/Ward_profiles/Shadwell-FINAL-10062014.pdf
  58. ^ Ward profile https://www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/Documents/Borough_statistics/Ward_profiles/St-Katharines-and-Wapping-FINAL-10062014.pdf
  59. ^ Good Stuff IT Services. "Shadwell - UK Census Data 2011". Ukcensusdata.com. Retrieved 9 December 2019.
  60. ^ a b "Shadwell Ward Profile" (PDF). Towerhamlets.gov.uk. Retrieved 7 July 2021.
  61. ISBN 9781472513724
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  62. ISBN 1899468676
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  63. ^ Jah Wobble, Memoirs of a Geezer, p. 161-2.
  64. ISBN 978-0-86093-602-2
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  65. ^ "London Overground Timetables". May 2023. Retrieved 4 June 2023.
  66. ^ "Stops in Shadwell, London". Bus Times. 2023. Retrieved 4 June 2023.
  67. ^ Tower Hamlets Community Housing's newsletter "Update" - published October 2009
  68. ^ Mark Gould (22 September 2010). "East Londoners raise a glass to local brew | Society". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 December 2019.
  69. ^ Cutbill, Jonathan (16 January 1987). "The Truth Untold". The New Statesman.
  70. ^ Featherstone, Simon (1995). War Poetry: An Introductory Reader. Routledge. p. 126.
  71. ^ "To Sir, With Love". The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations. Movie-Locations.com. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
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