Wapping () 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 Origins and toponymy 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").Waeppa's People – a History of Wapping by Madge Darby – 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."Stepney: Settlement and Building to c.1700." in A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 11, Stepney, Bethnal Green, ed. T F T Baker (London: Victoria County History, 1998), 13–19. British History Online, accessed 1 May 2017, .
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.'Stepney: Early Stepney', in A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 11, Stepney, Bethnal Green, ed. T F T Baker (London, 1998), pp. 1–7. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol11/pp1-7 [accessed 9 September 2022].
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. On 1 April 1921 the civil parish was abolished and merged with Limehouse. At the 1911 census (one of the last before the abolition of the parish), Wapping had a population of 1884. The County of London was replaced by Greater London in 1965.
Geography
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.'Stepney: Communications', in A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 11, Stepney, Bethnal Green, ed. T F T Baker (London, 1998), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol11/pp7-13 [accessed 9 May 2025]. 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.
Riverside development
The draining of Wapping Marsh, and the consolidation of a river wall along which houses were built, were finally achieved by 1600 after previous attempts had failed. (See Embanking of the tidal Thames). The settlement developed along that river wall, hemmed in by the river to the south and the now-drained Wapping Marsh to the north This gave it a peculiarly narrow and constricted shape, consisting of little more than the axis of Wapping High Street and some north–south side streets. John Stow, the 16th-century historian, described it as a "continual street, or a filthy strait passage, with alleys of small tenements or cottages, built, inhabited by sailors' victuallers".'The Thames Tunnel, Ratcliff Highway and Wapping', Old and New London: Volume 2 (1878), pp. 128–37 accessed: 29 March 2007 A chapel to St. John the Baptist was built in 1617, and it was here that Thomas Rainsborough was buried. Wapping was constituted as a parish in 1694.
Wapping's proximity to the river gave it a strong maritime character for centuries, well into the 20th century. It was inhabited by sailors, mastmakers, boatbuilders, blockmakers, instrument-makers, victuallers and representatives of all the other trades that supported the seafarer. Wapping was also the site of 'Execution Dock', where pirates and other water-borne criminals faced execution by hanging from a gibbet constructed close to the low water mark. Their bodies would be left dangling until they had been submerged three times by the tide.
The Bell Inn, by the execution dock, was run by Samuel Batts, whose daughter, Elizabeth, married James Cook at St Margaret's Church, Barking, Essex on 21 December 1762, after the Royal Navy captain had stayed at the Inn.Famous 18th century people of Barking and Dagenham Info Sheet #22, LB Barking & Dagenham The couple initially settled in Shadwell, attending St Paul's church, but later moved to Mile End. Although they had six children together, much of their married life was spent apart, with Cook absent on his voyages and, after his murder in 1779 at Kealakekua Bay, she survived until 1835.
Said to be England's first, the Marine Police Force was formed in 1798 by magistrate Patrick Colquhoun and a Master Mariner, John Harriott, to tackle theft and looting from ships anchored in the Pool of London and the lower reaches of the river. Its base was (and remains) in Wapping High Street and it is now known as the Marine Support Unit.History of the Marine Support Unit (Met) accessed 24 January 2007 The Thames Police Museum, dedicated to the history of the Marine Police Force, is currently housed within the headquarters of the Marine Support Unit, and is open to the public by appointment.Thames Police Museum Retrieved 1 June 2010
In 1811, the Ratcliff Highway murders took place nearby at The Highway and Wapping Lane.Stepney Murders: The Ratcliffe Highway Murders accessed 21 January 2007
London Docks The area's strong maritime associations changed radically in the 19th century when the London Docks were built to the north and west of the High Street. Wapping's population plummeted by nearly 60% during that century, with many houses destroyed by the construction of the docks and giant warehouses along the riverfront. Squeezed between the high walls of the docks and warehouses, the riverside area became isolated from the rest of London, although some relief was provided by Brunel's Thames Tunnel to Rotherhithe. The opening of Wapping tube station on the East London line in 1869 provided a direct rail link to the rest of London.
Migration Wapping's position by the Thames has meant it has long attracted people from around the world. In the 15th century, the population of the area included a number of foreigners, in particular seamen from the Low Countries.Waeppa's People – a History of Wapping by Madge Darby, p28 –
There was a sizeable Irish presence in Wapping from the 16th century onward.My East End, A History of cockney London. Gilda o'Neill p54-55 It is probably under their influence a stretch of Cable Street, and the area around it, become called Knock Fergus.Waeppa's People – a History of Wapping by Madge Darby, p54 – The Irish name of Knock Fergus (sometimes spelled Knock Vargis) is first known to be recorded in 1597The Place Names of Middlesex – English Place name Society – Vol 18 – Gover Maw and Stenton – Cambridge University Press – p157 – 1942 and continued to be recorded in Stepney parish rolls in the 1600's.Overview and map of the place name Knock Fergus https://www.theundergroundmap.com/article.html?id=65458 Knock Fergus (the hill of Fergus) is an old name for Carrickfergus in County Antrim. In the 20th century Irish migration to Wapping slowed and by the middle of the century the local Irish community had been assimilated.East London Papers, Volume 6, Number 2, The Irish in East London, December 1963, John A Jackson.
In 1702, a French-speaking church established at Milk Alley, next to St Johns Church, close to the shore in western Wapping. The church was established to support a community of French speaking seafarers originating in Jersey and Guernsey who had been joined by Huguenot refugees from France. There seems to have been a good relationship with the rest of the population as it received financial support from the Rector of St Johns, when it was in financial difficulty, and its long term future was settled by an intervention from Queen Anne who provided it with an allowance.Waeppa's People – a History of Wapping by Madge Darby, p50 –
Starting in the 16th century, and accelerating later, parts of Wapping attracted large number of German migrants, with many of these people, and their descendants working in the sugar industry. The area north of The Highway (formerly St George's Highway) and west of Cannon Street became known – together with neighbouring parts of Whitechapel – as Little Germany.East London Record – No 13 – 1990 https://www.mernick.org.uk/elhs/Record/ELHS%20RECORD%2013%20(1990).pdf
There appears to have been a considerable black presence in late 18th century Wapping, on account of the many black and mulatto (mixed race) people, often seamen, being baptised at the two parish churches of St John's and in particular St George in the East.Waeppa's People – a History of Wapping by Madge Darby, p52-3 – There appears to also have been a sizeable black population in the areas to the west, the parish of St Botolph without Aldgate (both the Portsoken and East Smithfield areas of the parish, and possibly also in St Katharine's Precinct, a densely populated little district that was swept away to build St Katharine Docks.
Modern times
Wapping was devastated by German bombing in the Second World WarMy Mum's War: Life in the East End – BBC WW2 People's War accessed 1 April 2007 and by the post-war closure of the docks. It remained a run-down and derelict area into the 1980s, when the area was transferred to the management of the London Docklands Development Corporation, a government quango with the task of redeveloping the Docklands. The London Docks were largely filled in and redeveloped with a variety of commercial, light industrial and residential properties.
St John's Church, Wapping (1756) was located on what is now Scandrett Street. Only the tower and shell survived wartime bombing, and have now been converted to housing.
Wapping dispute