Canning Town is a district of the London Borough of Newham, East London, England, north of the Royal Victoria Dock. Its urbanisation was largely due to the creation of the dock. The area was part of the ancient parish and County Borough of West Ham. It forms part of the London E16 postcode district.

The area is undergoing significant regeneration , with the building of up to 10,000 new homes.

History

Bridges facilitate development

Before the 19th century, the district was largely marshland, and accessible only by boat, or a toll bridge. In 1809, an Act of Parliament was passed for the construction of the Barking Road between the East India Docks and Barking. A five-span iron bridge was constructed in 1810 to carry the road across the River Lea at Bow Creek. This bridge was damaged by a collision with a collier in March 1887 and replaced by the London County Council (LCC) in 1896. This bridge was in turn replaced in 1934, at a site to the north and today's concrete flyover begun in smaller form in the 1960s, but successively modified to incorporate new road layouts for the upgraded A13 road and a feeder to the Limehouse Link tunnel, avoiding the Blackwall Tunnel. The abutments of the old iron bridge have now been utilised for the Jubilee footbridge, linking the area to Leamouth, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, on the western bank of the Lea.

The area is thought to be named after the first Viceroy of India, Charles John Canning, who suppressed the Indian Rebellion of 1857 about the time the district expanded. The population increased rapidly after the North London Line was built from Stratford to North Woolwich, in 1846. This was built to carry coal and goods from the docks; and when the passenger station was first built it was known as Barking Road. Speculative builders constructed houses for the workers attracted by the new chemical industries established in the lower reaches of the River Lea, and for the nearby Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company and Tate & Lyle refinery.

thumb|left|Map c.1872, showing Victoria Docks, now [[Royal Victoria Dock, Bow Creek and the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company]]

thumb|left|Map 1908, showing Canning Town to the north of [[Royal Victoria Dock and Silvertown to the south of the dock]]

thumb|The first workers' homes built in Canning Town around 1850

thumb|Bidder Street in 1891, one of the oldest parts of Canning Town. The area is now an industrial area

thumb|Canning Town welcomes Gandhi, 1931

Royal Victoria Dock opens

The opening of the Royal Victoria Dock in 1855 accelerated the development of the area The casual nature of employment at the docks meant poverty and squalid living conditions for many residents,

The industries around the dock were often unhealthy and dangerous. As trade unions and political activists fought for better living conditions and the dock area became the centre of numerous movements with Will Thorne, James Keir Hardie and other later becoming leading figures in the Labour Party. Prior to the Windrush era, Canning Town had London's largest black population of any area in London. The area around Crown Street (formerly located just north of the Royal Victoria Dock, but destroyed in the Blitz) was known as Draughtboard Alley due its ethnic mix.

Notable black people from Canning Town include footballers Fred Corbett, who played for Thames Ironworks F.C. and its successor team West Ham United; and Jack Leslie, who was called up to play for England, but then dropped without explanation, possibly due to racial prejudice.

The second black West Ham player, was another Canning Town man, John Charles. John Charles became the first black person to represent England at any level when he appeared for the Under 18s, scoring a goal in a 3-1 win over Israel.

John Charles younger brother Clive Charles also played for West Ham. In 1972 West Ham were the first top-flight team to field three Black players. Clive Charles and teammates Clyde Best and Ade Coker featured in a 3-1 home win over Tottenham Hotspur. Clive Charles would go on to manage the United States football team.

A further example of the area's long-standing multi-cultural nature is Indian-born doctor Chuni Lal Katial, who practised in Canning Town for several years from around 1929. Katial was an acquaintance of Mahatma Gandhi and invited him to meet Charlie Chaplin, one of the most famous actors in the world, at his surgery in Beckton Road. Gandhi was staying at Kingsley Hall, in nearby Bromley-by-Bow, for the three-month duration of his talks with the UK government on the future of India. Katial, a noted health pioneer, later moved to the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury, in north London, where he became Britain's first south Asian Mayor.

Silvertown explosion

In 1917 50 tons of TNT exploded at the Brunner Mond & Co ammunition work in nearby Silvertown, causing the Silvertown explosion, the largest explosion in London's history and damaging more than 70,000 buildings and killing 73 people.

The slum clearances and the devastation of World War II, destroying 85% of the housing stock, led to the preponderance of council estates that characterise the area today.

19th century

The 1890 Housing Act made the local council responsible for providing decent accommodation, and in the 1890s some of the first council houses were built in Bethell Avenue. However, many of the terraced houses built during the late 19th century were little more than slums and cleared by the council in the 1930s. The council replaced the terraces with the first high-rise blocks.

21st Century

According to Newham London Borough Council, Canning Town and Custom House are among the five per cent most deprived areas in the UK. Residents suffer from poor health, low education and poverty. 17 per cent of the working age population have a limiting long-term illness, 17.5 per cent claim income support and 49.7 per cent of 16- to 74-year-olds have no formal qualifications.

Regeneration project

thumb|Canning Town in 2024: a mixture of industrial and housing estates, and an increasing number of modern highrises around [[Canning Town Station]]

The consultation and governance mechanism of the currently ongoing regeneration project is underpinning by a partnership between councillors, residents, local businesses and other "partners".

Politics and local government

The area falls within the West Ham and Beckton constituency. The local Member of Parliament is James Asser from Labour. Canning Town North and Canning Town South wards are in the London Borough of Newham.

In May 2002, Canning Town South was the only ward in the Borough to return a non-Labour councillor. In 2006, residents elected three Christian Peoples Alliance candidates, one of whom was Alan Craig. In 2010, Labour gained all three seats and have held them with significant majorities since.

Culture

Thames Ironworks F.C., the works team of the nearby Ironworks, went on to become West Ham United F.C. after turning professional.

The Bridge House, a public house named for the 1887 Iron Bridge, was at 23 Barking Road – now demolished. The venue operated during the 1970s and 1980s and was host to The Police, Depeche Mode, Jeff Beck, Billy Bragg, Alexis Korner, Modern Romance, Sham 69, Lindisfarne, The Cockney Rejects, Iron Maiden, Remus Down Boulevard and many other notable acts. A venue bearing the name The Bridge House 2 was opened in Bidder Street in more recent years.

Administrative History

The area was part of the ancient parish of West Ham, in the hundred of Becontree in Essex. It became part of the new County Borough of West Ham in 1900 (The parish and the County Borough had near identical boundaries).

Then in 1965 the area became part of the new London Borough of Newham in Greater London.

Education

Transport

London Buses route 5, 69, 115, 147, 241, 300, 309, 323, 330, 474 and night routes N15, N550 and N551 all serve Canning Town at the bus station,

Route D3 starts/ends at Leamouth and route 276 runs on Barking Road, and 325 route at Canning Town Recreation Ground and Custom House, and route 473 and school route 678 start at Prince Regent bus station.

References

  • Canning Town: A deprived residential area with plans for regeneration
  • Canning Town regeneration
  • Canning Town Docks & Pubs History
  • History of Canning Town
  • Ham: Domestic buildings', A History of the County of Essex: Volume 6 (1973)