St George in the East, historically known as Wapping-Stepney, was an ancient parish, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The place name is no longer widely used. Ancient parish areas were historically the same for both civil and ecclesiastical (church) functions, and while St George in the East is no longer a civil parish there is still a smaller continuing ecclesiastical parish. The church, crypts and second floor outreach mission are open and holds regular services, as well as community organising and social justice campaigns.

History

The parish was largely rural at the time of its creation, the main settlement a Hamlet (administrative sub-division of Stepney) and former farm estate known as Wapping-Stepney, or

Wapping Wapping () is a district in East London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Wapping's position, on the north bank of the River Thames, has given it a strong maritime character, which it retains through its riverside public houses and steps, ...

. The parish church of

St George in the East St George-in-the-East is an Anglican Church dedicated to Saint George and one of six Hawksmoor churches in London, England. It was built from 1714 to 1729, with funding from the 1711 Act of Parliament. Its name has been used for two forms of p ...

was completed in 1729 by the Commission for Building Fifty New Churches. To distinguish it from other parishes in and near London with the same name, an addition was made which denoted it as "in the East" as a suffix which reflected it was then an eastern suburb of London. Stepney Met

In 1800, work on constructing the

London Docks London Docklands is the riverfront and former docks in London. It is located in inner east and southeast London, in the boroughs of Southwark, Tower Hamlets, Lewisham, Newham, and Greenwich. The docks were formerly part of the Port ...

had begun, with parts of Wapping demolished. In 1820 St. George in the East was at the height of its prosperity with wealthy merchants and traders living and building in the parish. The London Docks caused a large influx of unskilled labour and brought poverty with the population growing dense and causing outbreaks of cholera in 1849, 1855, and in 1866. In the 1930s, Sir

Oswald Mosley Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet (16 November 1896 – 3 December 1980) was a British politician during the 1920s and 1930s who rose to fame when, having become disillusioned with mainstream politics, he turned to fascism. He was a member ...

British Union of Fascists organized a march east down

Cable Street Cable Street is a road in the East End of London, England, with several historic landmarks nearby. It was made famous by the Battle of Cable Street in 1936. Location Cable Street starts near the edge of London's financial district, the City ...

Stepney Stepney is a district in the East End of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The district is no longer officially defined, and is usually used to refer to a relatively small area. However, for much of its history the place name appli ...

with 3,000 supporters in October 1936, which was blocked by protesters’ barricades at the junction of Cable Street and Christian Street and was known after as the

Battle of Cable Street The Battle of Cable Street was a series of clashes that took place at several locations in the inner East End, most notably Cable Street, on Sunday 4 October 1936. It was a clash between the Metropolitan Police, sent to protect a march by mem ...

, a mural painted on the side of the former St George's vestry hall shows this event. After the devastating bomb damage during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, St George in the East was redeveloped into an almost entirely residential area, which included high-rise flats in

tower block A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall building, as opposed to a low-rise building and is defined differently in terms of height depending on the jurisdicti ...

style built in the 1970s.

Geography

Much of the former northern boundary of the parish was with

Mile End Old Town Mile End is a district of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in the East End of London, England, east-northeast of Charing Cross. Situated on the London-to-Colchester road, it was one of the earliest suburbs of London. It became part of the m ...

ran alongside

Commercial Road Commercial Road is a street in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in the East End of London. It is long, running from Gardiner's Corner (previously the site of Gardiners department store, and now Aldgate East Underground station), throug ...

. In the west the boundary with

Whitechapel Whitechapel is a district in East London and the future administrative centre of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is a part of the East End of London, east of Charing Cross. Part of the historic county of Middlesex, the area formed ...

fell just short of Back Church Lane. The parish of

bordered it to the south, with Wapping forming a

buffer Buffer may refer to: Science * Buffer gas, an inert or nonflammable gas * Buffer solution, a solution used to prevent changes in pH * Buffering agent, the weak acid or base in a buffer solution * Lysis buffer, in cell biology * Metal ion buffer * ...

in the west and south, beyond which are for example St Botolph Without Aldgate, colloquially Aldgate in the tube system. The parish of

Shadwell Shadwell is a district of East London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets , east of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the Thames between Wapping (to the west) and Ratcliff (to the east). This riverside location has mea ...

was to the east, and the parishes of Wapping and Shadwell almost met in the south, giving the old form of St George in the East a central frontage to the

Tideway The Tideway is a part of the River Thames in England which is subject to tides. This stretch of water is downstream from Teddington Lock. The Tideway comprises the upper Thames Estuary including the Pool of London. Tidal activity Depending on ...

of .

Shadwell and St George's East railway station Shadwell was a railway station in the parish of St. George in the East, London, that was opened by the Commercial Railway (later the London and Blackwall Railway). It was situated 50 yards to the east of the current Shadwell DLR station on th ...

on the London and Blackwall was within the parish of St George, as was a large part of the

, which have since been filled in. There is an architectural Conservation Area covering the area around the

Parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

and Town Hall.

Governance

St George in the East, in early decades especially also referred to as St George Middlesex; had for centuries been part of

in the

Tower division The Tower Division was a liberty in the ancient county of Middlesex, England. It was also known as the Tower Hamlets, and took its name from the military obligations owed to the Constable of the Tower of London. The term ‘Hamlets’ probably ...

of the

Ossulstone Ossulstone is an obsolete subdivision (hundred) covering 26.4% of – and the most metropolitan part – of the historic county of Middlesex, England.British History Online Hundreds of Middlesex/ref> It surrounded but did not include the ...

hundred of

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...

. It was split off as a separate combined secular and ecclesiastical parish as all were in 1729 and had a population of 47,157 by 1881. Aside from co-government with

London County Council London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today kno ...

from its 1889 inception, local government was through the Vestry of the Parish of St George from 1855 to 1900. Following the

Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 The ''Poor Law Amendment Act 1834'' (PLAA) known widely as the New Poor Law, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed by the Whig government of Earl Grey. It completely replaced earlier legislation based on the ''Poor Relie ...

, it was constituted a Poor Law unit for rate collection and administration (including distributions) from 1836. The parish vestry became a local authority in the Metropolis in 1855, nominating one member to the co-governing

Metropolitan Board of Works The Metropolitan Board of Works (MBW) was the principal instrument of local government in a wide area of Middlesex, Surrey, and Kent, defined by the Metropolis Management Act 1855, from December 1855 until the establishment of the London Cou ...

. Under the

Metropolis Management Act 1855 The Metropolis Management Act 1855 (18 & 19 Vict. c.120) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that created the Metropolitan Board of Works, a London-wide body to co-ordinate the construction of the city's infrastructure. The Act al ...

any parish that exceeded 2,000

ratepayers Rates are a type of property tax system in the United Kingdom, and in places with systems deriving from the British one, the proceeds of which are used to fund local government. Some other countries have taxes with a more or less comparable role ...

was to be divided into wards; as such the incorporated vestry of St George in the East was divided into two wards (electing

vestrymen A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

): No. 1 or North (18) and No. 2 or South (18). St George's Town Hall, E1 - geograph

The board of works was replaced by the directly elected London County Council in 1889 and its area of responsibly became the

County of London The County of London was a county of England from 1889 to 1965, corresponding to the area known today as Inner London. It was created as part of the general introduction of elected county government in England, by way of the Local Government A ...

. St George in the East became part of the

Metropolitan Borough of Stepney The Metropolitan Borough of Stepney was a Metropolitan borough in the County of London created in 1900. In 1965 it became part of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Formation and boundaries The borough was formed from thirteen civil parishes ...

in 1900 and was abolished as a civil parish in 1927. The vestry hall was on Cable Street and today has non-governmental use. Stepney Borough took over the defunct civil parish in 1927, then under the new model of government, Tower Hamlets Borough Council was assigned its functions in 1965. Although the area is no longer a civil parish, there remains a smaller ecclesiastical (church) parish. ;Relevant Members of Parliament It was part of the

two-member (MP) constituency and then that of soon similarly under-represented

Tower Hamlets The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is a London borough covering much of the traditional East End. It was formed in 1965 from the merger of the former metropolitan boroughs of Stepney, Poplar, and Bethnal Green. 'Tower Hamlets' was originally ...

from 1832 to 1885. A St George seat spanned 1885 to 1918, under the

Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 The Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 (48 & 49 Vict., c. 23) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was a piece of electoral reform legislation that redistributed the seats in the House of Commons, introducing the concept of equal ...

during which time overcrowding fell. Larger Whitechapel and St Georges, covered the next years to 1950. It was locally replaced with seat

, amended in 1950 to become

Stepney and Poplar Stepney and Poplar was a parliamentary constituency in London, which returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative b ...

, amended in 1983 to become locally

Bethnal Green and Stepney Bethnal Green and Stepney was a parliamentary constituency in east London, which returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1983 until it was abolished for the 1997 general elect ...

then falling almost all in Poplar and Limehouse.

Notable residents

Lottie Collins Lottie Collins (16 August 1865 – 1 May 1910) was an English singer and dancer, most famous for introducing the song " Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay!" in England. Early life She was born Charlotte Louisa Collins in the East End of London in 1865. He ...

, musical hall singer * Ted "Kid" Lewis, former World Welterweight boxing champion

References

{{Metropolitan Board of Works Areas of London History of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets Parishes governed by vestries (Metropolis) Former civil parishes in London Shadwell