St John of Wapping
Wapping (/ˈwɒpɪŋ/) is an area in the borough of Tower Hamlets in London, England. It is in East London and part of the East End. Wapping is on the north bank of the River Thames, and was at one time a district with a strong maritime character.
The area was historically composed of two parishes, St George in the East, and the much smaller St John's. Urbanisation of the shoreline began in earnest after the draining of Wapping marsh, and the consolidation of the river wall in the late 16th century. Many of the original buildings were demolished during the construction of the London Docks and Wapping was further seriously damaged during the Blitz. As the Port of London declined after the Second World War, the area became run down, with the great warehouses left empty. Some were demolished, but others such as Tobacco Dock survive. The area underwent further change during the 1980s when warehouses started to be converted into luxury flats.
Rupert Murdoch moved his News International printing and publishing works into Wapping in 1986, resulting in a trade union dispute that became known as the "Battle of Wapping".
History
Formerly, it was believed that the name Wapping recorded an Anglo-Saxon settlement linked to a personal name Waeppa ("the settlement of Waeppa's people").[2] More recent scholarship discounts that theory: much of the area was marshland, where early settlement was unlikely, and no such personal name has ever been found. It is now thought that the name may derive from wapol, a marsh.
Wapping was historically part of the Manor and Parish of Stepney. By the 17th century, it formed two autonomous Hamlets, a Hamlet in this context refers to an autonomous area of a parish rather than a small village. The northern Hamlet was known as Wapping-Stepney, as it was the part of Wapping within Stepney, the riverside part was known as Wapping-Whitechapel as it was the part within the parish of Whitechapel, a parish which was previously also a part of the parish of Stepney.
These Hamlets later became independent parishes, with Wapping-Stepney becoming known as St-George-in-the-East (in 1729) and Wapping-Whitechapel known as St John of Wapping (in 1694). The latter occupied a very narrow strip along nearly all of Wapping's riverside.
The Wapping parishes were part of the historic (or ancient) county of Middlesex, but military and most (or all) civil county functions were managed more locally, by the Tower Division (also known as the Tower Hamlets).
The role of the Tower Division ended when Wapping became part of the new County of London in 1889. The County of London was replaced by Greater London in 1965.
Geography
Wapping was made up of two parishes: St-George-in-the-East and St John of Wapping.
The combined area of the two parishes bordered the Thames to the south and Commercial Road - known as White Horse Lane, until road improvements and slight re-alignment in 1802 - the northern boundary with Mile End. Sir Thomas More Street (originally Nightingale Lane) and the brook beside it formed part of the western boundary with East Smithfield and Back Church Lane formed the western boundary with Whitechapel.
Wapping shared boundaries with Ratcliff (Handinge Street, now partially replaced by Bishop Challoner School) and Shadwell to the east. A line a short distance west of Garnet Street (originally New Gravel Lane) formed the eastern boundary with Shadwell. The boundaries became ward boundaries after Wapping and its neighbours became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Stepney in 1899, though the Shadwell boundary was adjusted to run along Garnet Street.