Paul's Popular Poplar Perambulation - Part Two - Sunday 30th March

Luck was once again with us on the second leg of the tour round the borough Poplar and the sun shone as we made our way back to Limehouse to resume our journey thought part of the East End. Close by Westferry Station on the DLR is the Dragon's Gate, a nice piece of modern artwork, located at the corner of Mandarin Street and reflecting the area's Chinese connection as do many of the immediate street names.

Proceeding up the West India Dock Road we were reminded of the area's nautical past by a number of the buildings still clinging on gamely in an area of much change in recent years. A sail-makers and chandlers building , four storeys high to accommodate the sail making, bears testament to an old art. Built in 1860, the building may not have had a long working life, as steam ships were already taking over from sail. At the junction of West India and East India Docks Road stand the old Eastern Hotel - or so you would think! The shell of the building remains, surrounded by hoardings painted with an image of the building as it was - very much a 'ghost' of the past . The area is also dominated by what were once seamen's hostels, the Sailor's Palace, headquarters of the British and Foreign Sailor's Society and the Sailor's Mission, the latter now having been restored and like many of the large warehouses in the docks, converted into luxury flats. There are also two surviving operational gas lamps outside the Star of India public house, though the 200 year old funeral parlour next door has sadly disappeared.

After a brief encounter with one of the locals in need of an audience, we went down the steps onto the towpath of the Limehouse Cut (built to allow shipping between the Thames and the Lea to avoid having to go around the Isle of Dogs) and popped up to street level in Newell Street , a nice row of houses in front of St Anne's Church. Designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor, St Anne's became the parish church of Limehouse on completion in 1729 and was named after Queen Anne. Because of its location, the church became a Trinity House 'seamark', a place put on navigational charts to guide ships pilots, and is one of the very few buildings allowed to fly the White Ensign - a red cross on a white background with the Union Jack in the upper corner. The ball on the spire of the church is designed to replicate the one at Greenwich and the clock is synchronised with Greenwich as it is in a direct line of sight. There is also a mysterious pyramid in the churchyard, possible designed to have been placed on the roof of the church at the opposite end to the tower. Many stories have been suggested of why Hawksmoor chose a pyramid shape, from devil worship to the masons, but no one really knows!

As we discovered at the end of the last walk, the DLR now occupies the line of the old London and Blackwall Railway, and by a small shop that is now the only remains of Limehouse Station it was a good time to learn about the fact that the original line was powered by a cable, attached to the carriages and with winders at both ends, Blackwall and the Minories respectively, known as the 'four penny rope'.

At the point where we reached Narrow Street it was possible to see how the docks and the warehouses dominated the area in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Even though the Thames was barely a stone's throw away, access was severely limited by the warehouses and docking areas. A row of Georgian terrace houses on Narrow Street is a rare survivor in London, particularly considering that the other side of the street was heavily damaged during the Second World War, so much so that only one building - a public house - was left standing. This is now known as "The House They Left Behind"!

After a quick lunch stop in the Ropemaker's Field park (another remnant of the area's nautical past) we made our way to Limehouse Basin, still populated with boats of many shapes and sizes, and from which stems the Regent's Canal. The canal was another useful link, this time to take goods through Camden and thence to the Paddington Arm of the Grand Union Canal and on to Brentford, saving considerable time and money in freight shipping. We met a group of people here using canoes to clear litter from the canal, and thought that we might try to establish a link with them, perhaps to help out sometime. They were the Lower Regents Coalition and for more informatin click here.

We followed the canal up past Salmon's Lane lock, then up to Ben Johnson Road, where we left the canal to cross into Mile End Park. Here still stands the Ragged School, opened by Dr Barnado in 1877 to give the poor children of the area a basic education. The building is now a museum and is open on some weekday and weekend afternoons.

Mile End Park was originally planned as a green space to link Limehouse with Victoria Park in Hackney during Queen Victoria's reign. Most of the plans were abandoned, but the part with the 'broad road with tree lined avenues' did come to pass after a fashion. Burdett Road - named after another Victorian philanthropist, Angela Burdett Coutts - does indeed run all the way up to Hackney. It took until 1996 for the rest of the plan to catch up; the industrial land that had been heavily bombed during WWII was cleared, and the the park - including a green bridge crossing the Mile End Road - finally made it to link with Victoria Park.

We didn't follow that route though, but went sideways, to stay in Poplar. After all it is still a Poplar perambulation! That manoeuvre led us to Bow Common Lane which, as the name suggests, was once common land for farming and some small industries such as rope making. The original Victorian houses there, although small, are nowadays considered highly desirable and are now priced way beyond the working class families who once lived there. A dog-leg led us into Tower Hamlets Cemetery, one of the 'Magnificent Seven' cemeteries in London (the others being Highgate, Kensal Green, Brompton, Abney Park, Nunhead and West Norwood). It is a lovely space and a pleasant walking place for the locals and, although less that 100 yards or so from the Mile End Road, is remarkably quiet! That distance is marked by the back of the St Clements Hospital - formerly a workhouse, then a psychiatric hospital, and soon to become - like many of the more attractive large buildings in the area - housing. In this case, though, the Trust which is developing the site wants to make the housing affordable.

Leaving the cemetery we continued along a lane called Hamlets Way and, crossing to Wellington Way, we passed the Wellington Buildings which were built to house people displaced by the construction of the railway. Our route now took us over the District and Metropolitan Underground line and then under another railway arch past some nicely designed new houses, including a converted electricity substation. We turned into Campbell Road, with its mix of terraced and more widely spaced but all very nice houses, and ultimately reached the Bow Road.

Well it had to happen - not only because you have to touch Bow Road at some point but because a short distance to the right of Campbell Road stands Bow Church DLR station where we started our journey at the beginning of the month. We are very much better informed about some of the local urban history now - who knew that Poplar could be so Popular?!

Leader and Group: Paul Ferris, with Amina, Duncan, Fozi, Fred, Jill V., Lynne, Sue U.   Distance 3 miles

Sue Ullersperger, April 2014