The Isle of Dogs is a large peninsula caused by a large meander of the River Thames in London. It is situated downstream from the City of London, the historic centre of the London. It is the site of the former West India and Millwall Docks and of Canary Wharf.
Toponymy[]
The name Isle of Dogges occurs in the Thamesis Descriptio of 1588, and is next applied to the Isle of Dogs Farm shown on a map of 1683. At the same time, it was variously known as Isle of Dogs or the Blackwell Levels.[1]
History[]
Until 1800, the Isle of Dogs, known by its original name of Stebunheath or Stepney Marsh, which was pastureland,[2] and was part of the Stepney parish.[3]
From time to time, the river broke through this bank and flooded parts of the Stepney Marsh, with one such occasion causing a permanent inland lake called The Breach, or Poplar Gut. Stepney Marsh was a isolated place inhabited only by millers, graziers, ferrymen, fishermen, cowherds and their families.[4]
The West India Docks were opened in 1802 and by the 1860s, the population had risen from a few hundred in 1800 to over 14,000. By the end of the 19th century, the Isle of Dogs population had risen to over 21,000 and the entire foreshore was ringed with factories and workshops.[5] By 1855, it was incorporated within the parish of Poplar under the aegis of the Poplar Board of Works.[6]
In the 20th century, the Isle of Dogs was part of the Metropolitan Borough of Poplar and had a settled working-class community lived on the Isle of Dogs and was somewhat isolated from the rest of London, having their own traditions and customs.[7]
It was in 1987 that the Isle of Dogs Neighbourhood Zone was created and the name became official.[8]
On 19 May 2021, a meeting of Tower Hamlets Council agreed to formally adopt the Isle of Dogs Neighbourhood Plan which will be adopted as a part of the development plan and used to help decide planning applications. A referendum on the plan took place on 6 May 2021 and the result was an 86% vote in favour of the neighbourhood plan, with a turnout of 38%.[9]
Transport[]
London Buses routes 135, 277, D6, D7, D8, N277 and N550 all run on the Isle of Dogs.
More information on the Wikipedia page [10]
For the brief secession of the Isle of Dogs in 1970 see [11] and [12]