Walkers Route from East India DLR Station to Trinity Buoy Wharf (Orchard Place, Leamouth)

If you go to the East India Station on the Docklands Light Railway, you can go down to ground level by lift or stairs (ignore the bridge as this goes in the opposite direction), nearer to the River Thames side, and on the edge of ASPEN WAY (a dual-carriageway).

Turn sharp RIGHT out of the station precinct where, if you look carefully, you will see a signpost for cyclists (see Tower Hamlets Cyclists Map). Keep right, past the Virginia Wharf construction site and then past the East India Dock Basin. This is a Nature Reserve, but access has been shut off by the building programme.

Continue on this path, passing on your left a sign "Lower Lea Crossing". DO NOT attempt to cross the road, as the flow of fast traffic is incessant! Going slightly downhill (still on the right-hand path) you will pass a derelict warehouse, which has a very faded notice "Orchard Place" on the wall. A little further on you will find a kind of open triangle surrounded by industrial buildings.

This is the site of the original Orchard House, later Orchard House Tavern, after which this peninsula was named. In front of you , to the right, is a road sign "ORCHARD PLACE". Follow this round to the left (at right angles to the Triangle), and at the very end of the road is the TRINITY BUOY WHARF.

One needs to ring in advance, but the Phone Number is: 0207 - 247 6590 or 0207 - 515 7153 (The latter is both phone and fax).

This Wharf has a really marvellous position (in good weather!) from which to view the River Thames, commanding as it does a view of the actual confluence of the Rivers Lea and Thames. It is immediately opposite the Millennium Dome on the Greenwich Peninsula.

NOTE: As you go down the Orchard Place (Road) you will see on the right a narrow lane between two industrial buildings. This formerly led to Orchard Stairs, which once gave directly onto the River Thames. However, there is no access now to the Thames at this point.

If you return to the Triangle, and turn right at the derelict warehouse, you will see a notice "River Lea Walkway". Here is a river-path to Canning Town (for details see full description for the whole area).

NOTE: The best view of the whole area and the new developments is from the elevated platform of the East India DLR Station platform.

Eileen Weston
2nd December 1998

Guide to Family History Researchers

East Poplar/Leamouth Area/Bow Creek

This "remote" area, opposite the Millennium Dome on the other side of the River Thames, was once lived in by considerable numbers of people. Flooded in 1928, they were compulsorily re-housed in 1935, but in view of the lack of research into this district, which I have named "Bow Creek - No Man's Land", I have compiled

f)     a pedestrian guide to the area - there are very few pedestrian crossings in an area bisected by fast-moving motorways;

g)     a guide to the numerous bridges crossing the meandering Bow Creek - 6 in all, 2 of which are disused and one not yet in use (presumably as a bridge to the Jubilee Line at Canning Town). There is also a plan to build a footbridge joining Trinity Wharf to the Essex bank of the Creek for pedestrians and cyclists.

Suffice it to say that on the two "peninsulas" formed by Bow Creek nearest the Thames - now known as Orchard Place - there were no less than five public houses, a school, provisions shops, a mission and a coffee-house, and numerous and varied industrial premises and wharves. The Trinity Buoy Wharf was at the end of the southernmost peninsula, at its confluence with the Thames, as were several ship-building and engineering concerns, and various residential terraces and streets.

When the East India Docks were built in the early 1800's, East Poplar as it was then known was almost entirely cut off from Poplar itself. The only road which connected Poplar to the peninsula ran up between high dock-yard walls to join East India Road/East India Dock Road/Barking Road as it has been variously known.

This road was known as ORCHARD STREET (Orchard Road in 1881), as it led to the Orchard House peninsulas. The northern peninsula also boasted the name of Good Luck Hope, and later became the site of the famous Thames Plate Glass Works, staffed by many "immigrants" from the North-East of England. This is immediately opposite (across the Creek) the new Canning Town Station, already open for Silver Link (formerly North London Line) and for the Docklands Light Railway.

In STANFORD's map of 1862, Orchard Street was known as Dock Wall Road - it later became LEAMOUTH ROAD (c. 1914). This road still exists, leading up from Orchard Wharf Petrol Station. It is doubled in width and has the old dockwall running up the middle.

This road leads up from the roundabout at Lower Lea Crossing (near Virginia Wharf), past the Orchard Wharf Petrol Station, and halfway up pedestrians have a crossing which takes them through an archway in the wall and continues on the other side to join what is now East India Dock Road. At the top was the old "IRONBRIDGE TAVERN", now called the "Inner London Hotel".

Names of streets (old residential) - Orchard Street (lower part) now called Orchard Place, and at one time TRINITY Street.

There was an "Orchard House Tavern" in Orchard House Place, which apparently became later a Coffee House.

Also, there was an Ann's Place, and going on to the next (northern) peninsula (where the Pura Refinery now stands on the site of the old Thames Plate Glass Works) there was Leamouth Place, Duke Street, West Street and Salters Buildings. West Street later became Boat Street. The old glassworks site was outside the Orchard House Estate, and was known, at least as early as 1703, as GOOD LUCK HOPE. At various times there have been streets named Essex Street/Place, Glasshouse Place/Road, Rose Cottages, Wrights Cottages - on Censuses one needs to follow the Enumerator's footsteps to determine their exact location.

Another public house, at the junction of Orchard Road/Orchard Place/Trinity Road was the "Trinity Arms", and there was also the "Prince Albert", the "Crown" the "Orchard House" and the "Steam Packet". In the 1870's a Board School (the first formal one) was built near the Plate Glass Works on the corner of Duke Street, on the east side of the Good Luck Hope peninsula on the side of Bow Creek.

The present-day Leamouth Road passes at the back of the Petrol Station by an old (restored) gateway. This was the former entrance to the East India Company Pepper Warehouse, later used by the Eastern Counties Railway Wharf and Warehouses. It was served by a single track (goods) railway bridge from Canning Town. This bridge is still standing, but derelict.

A dwelling house called "East India House" stood here. Up on the East India Dock Road/Barking Road were the POPLAR HOSPITAL, Mackintoshes Farm, the Ironbridge Tavern and the Ironbridge Toll House. Gradually over the years houses were built along this road out to the Ironbridge, and a church, All Hallows, was built next door to the "Ironbridge Tavern". The original church for the parish of Poplar was All Saints.

The original Blackwall Station and "Brunswick Hotel" stood on a promenade in front of the Virginia Wharf, on the Thames side to the west of the Orchard House peninsula and south of South Quay of the East India Docks. Here was also the Blackwall Station Railway Tavern, and on the other side East India Dockwall Road (rather confusingly), but a small section of this road still exists near Naval Row and "The Steamship" public house.

Leading down from POPLAR Railway Station was Brunswick Street (now called Blackwall Way), which led to the Isle of Dogs.

The whole area had many shipyards and allied trades, and a glance at the Censuses will show that many of the management had houses "on the premises". Famous names of shipbuilders were Green's, Wigram's, John Stewart's, Samuda's, and the Thames Iron Works (the latter building HMS "Warrior", preserved at Portsmouth.

Other street names were Bedford Street, Leicester Place, Regent Street, Norfolk Street, Russell Street and Russell Place, Preston New Road, Blackwall, Coldharbour, Langhey Place, and New Road which joined Preston's Road to Manchester Road. Going north again were Robin Hood Lane, Naval Row and Poplar High Street.

You are advised to carefully consult old maps of the area at Tower Hamlets Local History Library (Bancroft Road, near Queen Mary's College) to find whether "your" road has survived and what it is called now eg Russell Street is now called Yabsley Street. Many street names changed between Census dates, and it is wise to look at maps each side of a Census date if possible and then look under both alternatives. Some streets changed once and then reverted back to an original name.

Much of the area was heavily bombed during the last war and much has since been cleared or redeveloped.

A lot of construction work is currently going on, and great changes are taking place. There is a Travelodge in Coriander Avenue, near the junction of Leamouth Road and East India Dock Road. It has a café/bar open to the public, and toilet facilities.

For New Zealand researchers, the "Brunswick Hotel" at Blackwall was at one stage used to "process" emigrants to N.Z. throughout the 1870's to about 1900. Also many Australian emigrants are said to have sailed from Blackwall. The old "Brunswick Hotel", built originally in 1833/34 and later becoming famous for its "Blackwall Whitebait Suppers", was demolished in 1930, although the wharf remains. At one stage over 1,000 emigrants per month were processed through this depot. The location of records appertaining to the passage of those emigrants to the Antipodes through the Brunswick is at the moment problematic, if indeed any at all have survived.

Orchard Wharf Petrol Station is one of the very few watering holes for miles. You go into the shop and pay at the counter for tea or coffee. There was a good selection of sandwiches on sale in refrigerated cupboards. In the summer it would be nice to use the very good promenade along the Creek edge (going up to Canning Town via the Road Bridge), with its seats, rubbish bins etc. Incidentally, but of no less equal importance, the only really local toilet facilities are in the aforesaid Petrol Station. One can see heron, black-backed and herring gulls etc as one strolls along this strange waterway.

A little further on, the river is crossed by no fewer than FOUR bridges - all very close together:

a)     A disused single-track railway bridge which has an electricity pylon nearby. This bridge was built in 1848 to carry a single-track goods line across the Lea from Canning Town to a marshalling yard near the East India Dock Pepper Warehouses. It was not connected with the nearby Blackwall Railway (Virginia and Brunswick Wharves area).

b)     The next one is a new bridge, with distinctive blue-painted "tubes" on either side. I have worked out that it occupies the original position of the OLD IRON BRIDGE, built in 1810, but rebuilt in the same location and widened in 1893 by the newly formed London County Council.

This bridge was connected to the East India Dock Road (this section was known at one time as BARKING ROAD), where the old "Ironbridge Tavern" was situated. This Tavern is now called the "Inner London Hotel", on the same site but no longer a public house. The Barking Road then curved around on the east side of the Creek, to join the present day "Bridge Hotel" (on the other side of Canning Town Bridge).

The new bridge is presumably a footbridge to lead to the new Canning Town Station - but not yet in use. I have just learned that the Jubilee Line is due to be open on Sundays from February 28^th as far as the DOME (North Greenwich Station).

c)     The next bridge is also derelict. It was built in 1870 to carry gas and water mains across the Creek between Canning Town and Poplar. Whether or not these trunk mains are still "live" is not known. This bridge was formerly to the north of the first Iron Bridge 1800 - 1893. It is now south of the re-aligned Canning Town Bridge, opened in 1934.

d)     Next comes the new Canning Town Bridge, built 1933/34 on a new alignment to obviate the steep and very awkward approaches to a bridge site which had been built in the days of the stagecoach. It joined Middlesex and Essex and had a Toll-gate (which can be seen on the 1862 Stanford's Map), and the nearest building to it for many years was the Iron Bridge Tavern.

At low tide one can get a much better view of the different styles of bridge building. I only wish I could take a boat-trip up the Creek, but the only boat I have seen was a Police Launch, parked near the Orchard Wharf Petrol Station.

The River Police formerly had a waterside police station at Coldharbour/Blackwall, but now they only have the one at Wapping, which contains a most interesting small museum.

After the end of the riverside path turn right along the Canning Town Bridge, which will then take you to Rathbone Market (shops and catering) and to the New Canning Town Station. This station is already in operation for Docklands Light Railway and Silverlink (old North London Railway).

From here one can go by DLR to BECKTON, where there is an Asda supermarket with a restaurant, post office and various shops. Children love riding on the DLR - it has no driver, and you can sit in the front seats (if lucky) pretending to drive!

On the Rathbone market side No. 15 and 15B buses go back to Poplar etc - No. 15 goes to Paddington; No. 15B goes to Poplar and Aldgate Underground station.

An Alternative Walk

Crossing over you will see an archway. This is the former gateway of the East India Company Pepper Warehouses, later the railway yard served by the now ruined railway bridge from Canning Town.

Go to the left of the Archway - there is a notice "Cycle Path". This leads around to the path that connects with the River Lea Walk and Canning Town Bridge.

If you had gone through the Archway, you would have come out on the River Path, or by turning right could enter the Orchard Wharf Petrol Station shop.

If coming up from the Virginia Wharf crossing, you have to cross at the pedestrian crossing at Leamouth Road in order to get to the garage/shop.

Although almost opposite Virginia Wharf at the roundabout, you would "take your life in your hands" attempting to cross here!

Another Walk

Immediately to the left of the bus-stop, or to the right of East India DLR lift, you will see a noticeboard, in front of the modern buildings which include Tower Hamlets Town Hall. Go through a small gate in the wall, which brings you out to the remains of the East India Dock Wall Road (confusingly!), turn right, and on your left you will see the Steamship Inn in Navy Row. This pub serves meals (on weekdays). Almost opposite there is a tree-lined walk (at right angles) following the Old Dock Wall (which leads up to the entrance to the Blackwall Tunnel.

Go to the end (of the walk, NOT the Tunnel!), and on the left is a set of stairs that leads via a subway to the southbound Blackwall Tunnel bus-stop (No. 108), which bus-route goes via the Dome and Greenwich/Blackheath to LEWISHAM.

If you ignore this, you come to the top of the road and a pedestrian crossing across the East India Dock Road - turn left into POPLAR (All Saints DLR station). There are many bus services here. You CAN cross the road here (the only crossing for a long way) and catch the 15 or 15B bus to Canning Town etc.

Down on the opposite side of the entrance to the Blackwall Tunnel is the 108 bus-stop (towards Stratford) - near here is Robin Hood Way. You can walk down to Blackwall DLR/crossing Poplar High Street, which joins on to Naval Row, where you are back to the Steamship P.H. Blackwall DLR (also a bus terminus) has lifts to take you up to the high platform.

To find your way to the Isle of Dogs (West India Docks etc) is not easy, but by going down under the station through an extraordinarily large area (large enough to hold a political rally!) you come out to the Dock Wall of West India Dock. Across the road is the "Brunswick Arms", which does meals, and to the left is a pedestrian crossing to a MacDonald's on an island site.

At the side of the "Brunswick Arms" P.H. is Blackwall Way, which leads down past the derelict area where once existed great shipyards and the important terminus of the Blackwall Railway and the site of the old "Brunswick Hotel". The New Zealand government had an emigration office in the hotel, and thousands of emigrants sailed from here to New Zealand and Australia from what is now to be the Virginia Wharf Waterfront.

Going down Blackwall Way to Yabsley Street (formerly Russell Street) near the former Blackwall Stairs, the road turns right and joins Preston's Road leading down by the side of Poplar Dock and Blackwall Basin to the entrance to the West India Docks.

A short distance down Preston's Road on the left is a short road leading to "The Gun" public house which has a riverside verandah.

Access to the river in minimal in this district. I hope when all the building is finished we shall be able to get some river views again!

I have found this a fascinating "No Man's Land". I met very few people, and yet endless cars and heavy lorries pass this way at high speed.

The Lea (Bow Creek) Riverside paths give good views of many birds, and hopefully the new Footbridge will give access to some of the "cut-off" bends in the river.

The Cycling Map published free at Tower Hamlets Libraries will be of most use. After all, where a bike can go usually a pedestrian can go too. A local bus map would also be helpful.

This is NOT an area for wet and windy days, but in good weather very interesting.

This guide has been written for descendants of the many people who must have lived in this area, and also for those coming to live in the new constructions.

In researching a local resident, one William Chicken of Sunderland, who was landlord of the "Ironbridge Tavern" in 1855/58 and had various businesses in "No Man's Land", it has been necessary for me to find out just where access could be obtained on foot. The Orchard House area (now called Orchard Place) was once home to an isolated community - washed out by the floods of 1928, they were all re-housed in 1936. This area is now all industrialised, but it once had five public houses, a school, a church mission, as well as the Trinity Buoy Wharf (now an Arts Centre). The only lighthouse in London is still there, with a fabulous view of the river and the Millennium Dome.

It is also possible to walk from East India DLR station to Blackwall and the west side of the Isle of Dogs. Go down in the lift (ignoring the bridge), turn left and follow the cycle path bordering on Aspen Way - near an outlet for the Tunnel (matching the one covered up by the Dome opposite) - so these are presumably part of the new Jubilee Line.

Turn left down a side road. This passes near Blackwall DLR station, but once again one has to take a circuitous route. You will see a MacDonald's, and there is a pedestrian crossing over to Dockwall and then round to the left across to the island site of MacDonald's. By turning left at the "Brunswick Arms" (meals) you will see Blackwall Way, and access from the east to the Isle of Dogs, West India and Millwall Docks and Canary Wharf.

I saw a notice near Blackwall station saying "Canary Wharf 3/4 mile via Footbridge", but have not yet explored this route.

Accommodation:

Near Leamouth Road Crossing is Coriander Avenue where there is a "Travelodge", backing on to the East India Dock Road. This has a Café-Bar open to the public. It is accessible on foot from East India DLR station (via Footbridge and lift), and also the 277 bus terminus (Mon - Sat; not Sundays).

It is also accessible by the pedestrian crossing halfway up Leamouth Road. I saw a caravan tea-bar, serving the workmen in this area. Much building work is going on locally, and obviously the whole area is rapidly changing.

Eileen Weston
Feb 1999

Pedestrian Guide to "No Man's Land" - Bow Creek

Researching one William Chicken, who was the Landlord of the "Ironbridge Tavern" at least from 1855 to 1858 and who also had a boiler-making works in Russell Street (near Blackwall, now Yabsley Street), I found that in his will he leaves to his sister goods etc at "Orchard House". Now, although there had been an Orchard House, later a tavern, I was to find that in the Rating Books for All Saints, Poplar, "Orchard House" occupied two pages - it was then an area rather than just one property. This area is now served by "Orchard Place" - roads which serve the two lowest peninsulas, served by the very convoluted Bow Creek.

Until the end of 1935 this area was inhabited, although from ca. 1803 when the East India Dock Basin was built, they had lost their direct route to Poplar, and had to make a detour (quite a considerable one) up what is now Leamouth Road, and was formerly called Orchard Street. This area is known as "Leamouth", which is precisely what Bow Creek is - Mouth of the RIVER LEA.

I soon found that pedestrian access was extremely difficult as fast-moving traffic on two "motorways" makes it impossible to cross willy-nilly. To help other family history researchers, and to aid people trying to see the Nature Reserves, and indeed to reach the stretch of little-used river-side promenade, I felt I should write a pedestrian guide.

The Thames river-front has been "cut off" by the VIRGINIA WHARF development - the extensive works going on there can be seen from East India DLR station which is elevated and gives a good view.

It is a strange "forgotten" area. The two peninsulas formed by the two loops of the Creek where it joins the Thames were formerly known as "Orchard House" and "Good Luck Hope", the latter being the northern of them. Very few people are seen here on foot, but up to 1928 when river floods forced people to be rescued by boat there was a population served by five public houses, a Board School, etc. They were compulsorily re-housed in 1935, but industrial undertakings now occupy the two peninsulas - notably the PURA Oil Refinery, and until recently the Trinity Buoy Wharf (established ca. 1800 and continuously occupied until 1966 by the Trinity House Corporation). The area is much safer now from threat of flooding, due to the presence of the Thames Barrier farther downstream. The 1928 floods allegedly inundated the properties in Orchard Place to a depth of 9 feet.

The only place to get an overall view of this area, which, as former marshland, is very flat, is from the raised platform of the East India Dock Railway Station. After five or six visits I have finally found pedestrian access to this and Blackwall DLR station. The only way to see the FOUR BRIDGES is by walking over Canning Town Bridge (the A13) from the Essex bank of the Lea, and turning left near an electricity pylon to a very well-made promenade on the site of the old Railway Yard. At low tide it is possible to see something of the close proximity of these bridges.

I have worked out that when the 1893 Bridge was built (enlarged to 55 feet in width) it was widened on the northern side of the old IRONBRIDGE site. At those times the Gas Bridge was to the north of it.

By tracing various large-scale maps and superimposing them, I have discovered that the new JUBILEE Footbridge is exactly on the northern side of the 1893 Bridge and is probably utilising the same supports. Once it is open to the public (I gather a sub-judice law case is holding up work) it will give a good view of the derelict bridges on either side. These latter bridges (ie Gas and Railway single-track bridge) really should be demolished, but I suppose they have been just abandoned for financial reasons.

My search for a "Cement Works", once connected with William Chicken, on the south-eastern Orchard House Peninsula led me to visit an Open Day at the Trinity Buoy Wharf, at the very junction of the River Lea (Bow Creek) and the Thames. Needless to say, the number of people arriving there was very small as it was so difficult to find a way in, at least on foot.I succeeded, and later, in the Orchard Wharf Petrol Filling Station whilst having a cup of tea (the only source of food and drink and toilet facilities for miles!), I met several frustrated drivers trying to find the Wharf and the Nature Reserve (the old East India Dock Basin). They had spent a lot of time circling round in their cars, and only met me after 5pm. As I was carrying an 1861 map, and knew the Wharf was somewhere opposite the Dome, I had managed to find it by a roundabout route on foot.

I have since found a frequent bus service (No. 277, except Sundays) leaves from MILE END Station via Canary Wharf to CLOVE CRESCENT. This is within walking distance of this area, via Saffron Avenue and the pedestrian crossings at Leamouth Road (near the Petrol Station) and opposite Virginia Wharf.

Tower Hamlets Local History Library holds very large-scale maps of this area, but the middle of the twisting course of the River Lea is their boundary, and all on the other (Essex) side of the Lea is covered by the NEWHAM Local History Library.

It appears to me that this "forgotten" area, soon to be redeveloped as housing, will be of interest to new residents as well as descendants of East Poplar people who were living in this isolated spot from around 1800 up to 1928 with only minimal contact with Poplar and Blackwall (possibly by boat which would have been much easier).

Some maps show what is now Orchard Place (to the south) as Trinity Road, because it leads to Trinity Buoy Wharf.

Frequent bus services to Canning Town pass to the north, and you can cross the road at the Inner London Hotel (formerly the Ironbridge Tavern) - Nos. 15 & 15B etc. Also from Canning Town is the No. 40 bus to Blackwall DLR station.

Records of the Board School which used to serve the local population of the two Orchard House peninsulas may be still available at the London Metropolitan Archives, Northumberland Avenue (formerly the Greater London Record Office), which is only a short walk from the Family Records Centre at Middleton House. It is possible though that such records may have perished in the floods.

Eileen Weston
20^th March 1999

Bridges over NO MAN'S LAND (Bow Creek)

My researches into one William CHICKEN, a Tynesider who was in this area from at least 1845 until his death (from Apoplexy!) on Christmas Eve, 1866 in a Poplar High Street pub called the "Captain Man of War", has led me to a fascinating enquiry into this strange little-known area around the confluence of Bow Creek and the Thames. Chicken was also the landlord of the "Ironbridge Tavern", near the Barking end of East India Dock Road, from 1855 to 1858 (possibly earlier). In his Will, Chicken gives himself an address of "Orchard House, Blackwall", though whether this refers to the area or to the actual house address is unknown, and an occupation of "Cement Manufacturer". However his Death Certificate describes him as a "Manure Manufacturer"!

There are no less than FOUR bridges in a very small area crossing the Creek from Middlesex to Essex. The County boundary was (and still is) the boundary between the boroughs of Tower Hamlets and Newham, and runs directly up the centre of this convoluted waterway. There are also two other, modern, bridges slightly to the south - Lower Lea Crossing and the Docklands Light Railway bridges.

It is not surprising that so little is generally known about this area between the Creek and the site of the old East India Docks since pedestrian access is so difficult. (I am writing a short guide for walkers to overcome this difficulty). Two busy "motorways" cross here but pedestrian access appears to have been almost entirely overlooked in the planner's minds.

An Act of June 1809 empowering the road trustees to extend the East India Dock Road to Barking also authorised them to build a bridge over this waterway (the River Lea - known as Bow Creek in these lower reaches), and in 1810 an elegant iron bridge was constructed, hence its subsequent name. John Rennie (1761 - 1821), a very early member of the Smeatonian Society which was subsequently to become the Institution of Civil Engineers, was Surveyor to the East India Dock Company at that time, and he produced a design for a single 100 feet span iron bridge. However the actual bridge erected in 1810 was to a quite different design by John Walker, Surveyor to the road trustees.

Walker's design, with five iron arches spanning about 150 feet was unusual, and seems to have been Walker's first bridge, and the first road bridge employing cast-iron columns for its supports. The width of the bridge was about 28 feet, the same as in Rennie's design. The approach to the bridge was very difficult, since the East India Dock Road was at quite a sharp skew to the Creek at this point, and also had to rise steeply at each side to give the height required for navigation up the Creek. This led to very awkward and angular approaches to the bridge to give it a square (and hence the shortest) span over the waterway.

East India Dock Road had terminated at the Dock entrance at Brunswick Road, and the section eastwards from Poplar Hospital is shown on old maps as Barking Road. The latter name now applies only on the east side of the Canning Town Road Bridge, the modern successor to the Ironbridge. The same maps show that this was a country road across Bromley Marsh, the only habitations on its northern side between the Hospital and the bridge being a few small cottages, Macintosh's Farm, the "Ironbridge Tavern", some more cottages at Lea Place, and the bridge Toll House. The "Ironbridge Tavern" had been built about 1852, and was much extended in 1883. The southern side of Barking Road was of course bounded by the walls of the East India Docks.

The tolled Ironbridge continued in use up to 1871 when the road trust lapsed, and subsequently an agitation sprang up for the improvement of the bridge and approaches which were deemed inadequate for the traffic it was now expected to carry. Although it had been designed for the ordinary traffic of a suburban turnpike-road, it came to serve as a vital communication link between the Royal Docks and London, carrying an increasing volume (and weight) of traffic arising from these downstream dockyards. Due to the Ironbridge's light construction, it had been found necessary to limit loads on the bridge to 15 tons.

Perhaps because the bridge crossed a river which formed the boundary between two local authorities and two counties, nothing was done to improve the situation at the Ironbridge until the formation of the London County Council. Soon after its formation, a joint effort between the LCC and the Corporation of West Ham led to the replacement of the bridge in 1893/96 to a design by the LCC's Chief Engineer, Alexander Binnie. It was of steel construction (then a relatively new material for these purposes), a single span of 150 feet, and a width of 55 feet.

Minutes of the LCC show that a £1,000 deposit was paid by a tramway company for rights to use the bridge and that this money was to help fund the new crossing. Construction was carried out by the Thames Ironworks & Shipbuilding Company at a cost of some £54,000, but it was on the same site as the previous Ironbridge, with the same awkward and angular approaches, and despite its increased width congestion continued to occur from the still-growing volume of traffic and the thousands of workers who poured across it every day to their jobs in the East India Docks and surrounding factories.

In 1930-32 the bridge was once again replaced, this time on a new alignment to the north which eased the approach bends and gradients and as part of a general widening scheme of the East India Dock Road. In this widening and re-alignment the more-recently constructed properties east of the "Ironbridge Tavern" were demolished, and the Tavern and All Hallows Church lost their forecourts. At the same time a larger scheme to improve access to the Royal Docks in Canning Town was carried out along Silvertown Way, and the new bridge over the Creek formed an important part of those links. The new bridge, still in use today, was 70 feet wide and built in reinforced concrete to a design by Rendel, Palmer & Tritton.

The "Ironbridge Tavern" was rebuilt in 1934/35, with no fewer than six bars and an off-licence at the rear. This pub, run by Queenie Watts and her husband, became the setting for the famous 60's TV musical show, "The Star and Garters", but was again rebuilt, this time in 1990, and is now the "Inner London Hotel" - actually an immigrant's hostel.

In 1870 a small bridge had been built to the north of the original site of the Ironbridge to carry gas and water mains across the Creek. These were presumably to fuel the growing demands from the expansion of Canning Town and the Royal Docks, or perhaps to bring much needed supplies of those commodities into London itself. This bridge is still standing, although now it is to the south of the modern road bridge across the Creek, and is one of the four bridges still extant in this corner of "No Man's Land".

In 1848 the Railway Bridge was built over the waterway. This was not for passenger traffic but was first shown as a "tramway" carrying a single-track goods line across the Creek from a Goods & Coal Depot of the Great Eastern Railway (originally Eastern Counties Railway) at Canning Town to a marshalling yard and wharf on the Middlesex side of the Creek leased to the Railway Company by the East India Company at the eastern side of the East India Import Dock.

The larger scale maps show this firstly as a "Drawbridge", then later as a "Swingbridge". The meaning of the former term is not too clear, but the later maps show that the bridge pivoted around a central pier or caisson in the centre of the Creek, obviously intending it to swing clear for the passage of boats up the river. It appears that this railway bridge was still in use at least until 1933, when an aerial photograph taken at the time of the opening of the new road bridge shows all four bridges still in place. The old Ironbridge was subsequently demolished, except for its abutments, but the now-abandoned railway bridge still stands, a forlorn grass-grown relic of the Victorian age, although all signs of the swingbridge mechanism in the centre of the river appear to have gone.

The railway marshalling yard on the west bank of Bow Creek was on the site of the old Pepper Warehouse of the East India Company, and the old very ornamental gateway to the Warehouse has been retained. This has now been restored (and moved 12 feet) in Leamouth Road, and marks one of the few pedestrian crossings in the area. Apparently the site was used by British Rail up to 1968 as a coal depot, although whether the single-track line over the river was still in use then is not yet known.

Between the Gas Bridge and the 1933 Canning Town Road Bridge is a very narrow space. This puzzled me for sometime, until I realised that when the new bridge was built in 1933 they had realigned the road and bridge so that it now crosses the Creek to the north of the Gas Bridge rather than, as originally, to the south of it. This can be clearly seen in the 1933 aerial photo which shows the new 1933 bridge being used during its construction for passage of traffic one-way east-bound, and the old 1893 Ironbridge being used as the other one-way crossing for west-bound traffic.

The "Bridge Hotel", on the east bank of the river, was there before the 1933 bridge was completed, and still stands albeit very close to the flow of traffic. From its 1930's style it looks as if it had been recently re-built, but the actual date is not known.

Finally comes the brand-new JUBILEE Footbridge, with its tubular steel structure painted bright blue. It is sandwiched between the Gas Bridge and the old single-track Railway Bridge, and is not yet in use. It appears to be about 16 feet wide, and there is a covered walkway on the other side (also not yet opened to pedestrians). This footbridge is on the site of the original Ironbridge, and utilises some of the original foundations (abutments) of that structure.

Recently (Nov 1998) I saw two workmen working on what appears to be a pathway to Canning Town Station. This will be quite a long walk, but not as far as the walk round the Creek via Canning Town Road Bridge. There is a walkway alongside the Bow Creek which covers the area formerly occupied by the Railway, and it passes near Orchard Wharf Petrol Station, which has a shop for tea, coffee and snacks, and toilet facilities (the only sign of civilisation for miles!).

I have recently discovered there is a Travelodge in Coriander Avenue, which has a café/bar open to the public. This is accessible from East India DLR Station, and is also near the East India Dock Road (not far from the crossing opposite the end of Leamouth Road). This Travelodge is almost opposite the site of the old Ironbridge Tavern (now Inner London Hotel), but the entrance is from Coriander Avenue.

Thus we have the four bridges over Bow Creek within a space of less than 200 yards, carrying the speeding (or perambulating) traveller across a forgotten corner of East London. And not very far away, to the south, two more - the Lower Lea Crossing and the DLR bridges, both very modern constructions. It is hardly surprising that there is very little left of the original infrastructure of this area - few roads, commemorated only by the occasional original street name, and no residential properties at this time. For the researcher into the family and social, or the industrial, history of "No Man's Land" the only recourse is to old prewar maps and directories. Tracing ancestors on Censuses is fraught with difficulties, due to the frequent and confusing alterations of street and place names.