Docklands Buildings by Jim Page Roberts
James Page-Roberts has made something of a cottage industry from books about the Docklands he lived and worked in during the years after the war.
And with his latest work ‘Docklands Buildings Old and New’, which he flags up as ‘a personal, anecdotal and historical guide’ the author doesn’t disappoint.
Roberts takes the reader on a guided tour through the streets and passages of the East End, pointing out sites as he goes. Noticing the tiny details of a building here or an old wall or lamppost there, he reveals its hidden history.
The author claims that “to love buildings is to love history and to love life. Whether travelling a few paces or around the world, not a second will be boring and not a moment wasted”.
And Roberts certainly squeezes the most from his Docklands walks, training the reader’s eye as he goes. As has often been written, the history of Docklands is the history of London, for it was here where the waves of immigrants over the centuries set their first foot on English soil, and where, for two millennia, the traded goods that made London rich arrived and left the country.
The history of the docks is, of course, inextricably linked with the historical riches of the City of London – where trade in the goods that landed in the East End was conducted.
Logically enough then, we start with a walk from the Old Billingsgate Fish Market in Lower Thames Street to Shadwell, via the Monument, the Tower and St Katharine’s Dock and into the East End.
The author pauses to point out the ornate decoration on the fine houses of Wapping Pierhead – the decorative drainpipes and bootscrapers.
Up Brewhouse Lane to Tower Buildings is a fine example of the workingmen’s dwellings which sprung up all over the capital in the middle of the last century.
But Roberts isn’t just concerned with the old. His next route takes us from Shadwell via St George in the East, past Francis & C Walters funeral parlour in Commercial Road, and then onto the ultra-modern Canary Wharf development.
Ancient and modern, all are examined in the same intricate detail. The excellent photographs will keep you on the right track as well as helping you get the most from your walk. This is a book you will use time and time again.
There is a series of eight walks, including the Tidal Mills at Bow, two trips round the Isle of Dogs and a hop across the river to Rotherhithe and Greenwich – two areas which share in the rich history of London’s docks. Along with all the walks there are tips on buses, tubes and DLR stations to help you return from B to A.
And as all this walking is likely to be thirsty work, readers may be grateful to know that some of the East End’s best and most historically intriguing pubs are included.
An extensive bibliography and index helps you glean the most from the book, whether your passion is West India Quay, James Whistler or whitebait!
For those of us who want to learn more about the history and buildings of the most varied and history-packed corner of Britain, this book will be a valuable guide.
But a warning, once you start looking a little more closely, you may get a shock when you realise just how much you’ve been missing!
Docklands Buildings Old and New is available from Mudlark Press (ISBN 0953051722) priced £5.95.