| Stepney Areas |
Poplar Most of the area of the original parish is in the Isle of Dogs, once known as Stepney Marsh. Poplar takes its name from the poplar trees which were planted to provide a windbreak and were particularly suitable trees for growing in the rich, damp soil. In about 1660 the East India Company (which had fast clippers built for the tea trade at the Blackwall Yard) built a small wet dock at Poplar. Samuel Pepys recorded in his diary after a visit to the dock in 1665 that a submerged forest had been discovered. The hamlet of Poplar which covered the waterfront from Limehouse to Blackwall still only had about 800 families in 1711 and it continued to be a small hamlet right up until the building of the East and West India Docks. Near to the chapel built by the East India Company in 1654 were almshouses for elderly company servants. It was proposed that the hamlet became a parish and the chapel parochial. John James was asked to survey the building. The chapel, he reported, was in a very poor state. The church Commissioners decided then to include the hamlet in the new parish of Limehouse but not only did the inhabitants object but also the East India Company who were prepared to go to Parliament if necessary. It was not until 1817 that the the area became a parish.
Link to Pubs in Poplar Link to An Account of the
Hamlet of Poplar, in Middlesex |
