Poplar, London
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Poplar is an area of the East End of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.
During the development of the Isle of Dogs the street signs pointed to the new development (by the LDDC), and Poplar was lost for a decade or more. St Matthias Old Church is located on Poplar High Street, opposite Tower Hamlets College. It is next to Poplar Town Hall - which has mosaic detail - and Poplar Bowls Club, which is part of Poplar Recreation Ground. A now disused sports centre, ironically called The Workhouse stands on the site of Poplar Workhouse, where local politician Will Crooks spent some of his earliest years (a nearby council housing estate is named after him).
The Metropolitan Borough of Poplar was the location, in 1921, of the Poplar Rates Rebellion, led by George Lansbury. As part of the 1951 Festival of Britain, a new council housing estate was built to the north of the East India Dock Road and named the Lansbury Estate after George Lansbury. This estate includes Chrisp Street Market, which was greatly commended by Lewis Mumford. The same era also saw the construction of the Robin Hood Gardens housing complex (overlooking the northern portal of the Blackwall Tunnel) - designed by architects Peter and Alison Smithson - and the similarly Modernist Balfron Tower, Carradale House and Glenkerry House (to the north) - designed by Ernő Goldfinger. Other notable buildings in Poplar include Poplar Baths, finally closed in 1988, which local campaigners hope to get redeveloped.
Poplar and the London Docks
Poplar also contains a Seaman's Mission which relates to the areas long-standing connection to the Docks which for so many years gave the area employment, the current mission stands on the north side of East India Dock Road however the original mission stood on Hale Street, the building having fallen out of favour as a Mission, became the local headquarters of the Gas Board (testament to which is the Gas fired streetlights to the rear of the property), it then became a Working men's club before it was finally converted into executive apartments.
Nearest places:
Local Docklands Light Railway (DLR) stations are:- All Saints
- Blackwall
- East India
- Poplar (near the head office of the DLR)
- West India Quay
- Westferry
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