Visit Shadwell Places

Welcome to Visit Shadwell Places
The Walkfo guide to things to do & explore in Shadwell

  

Shadwell Places Overview: History, Culture & Facts about Shadwell

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Shadwell history

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Etymology

In the 13th century, the area was a low lying marsh known as Scadflet, from the Anglo-Saxon fleot, meaning a shallow creek or bay. Because a spring by a church dedicated to St Chad filled a nearby well, a false etymology changed the name into Chadwelle. This changed further into Shadwell and Shadwell.

Origins

In 1975, archaeologists discovered evidence of a port complex between Ratcliff and Shadwell, that was used throughout Roman occupation of Britain. The port seems to have initially been used for seagoing ships into the City of London. A water level drop meant that the port was used primarily for the public bath house.

16th and 17th centuries

Shadwell was an almost uninhabited hamlet in Stepney in the sixteenth century. In 1650, Shadwell had 703 buildings, 195 were single-storey houses, 473 were two-storeys houses, and 33 were three-storied houses. The prosperity in this period has been linked to the road connections into London, maintained by wealthy taxpayers.

18th and 19th centuries

By the mid-eighteenth century, Shadwell Spa was established, producing sulphurous waters, in Sun Tavern fields. As well as being used for medicinal purposes, salts were extracted from the waters and used by local calicoprinters to fix their dyes. By the mid-eighteenth century, many houses in Shadwell had been rebuilt. “Seamen, watermen and lightermen, coalheavers and shopkeepers, and ropemakers, coopers, carpenters and smiths, lived in small lathe and plaster or weatherboard houses, two storeys and a garret high, with one room on each floor”; the average rent was £2-7. In 1768, London coal workers who were protesting for higher wages began shooting at the landlord of the Roundabout Tavern in Shadwell; as a result, seven of them were hanged in the Sun Tavern fields. Their execution was witnessed by around 50,000 spectators, the largest crowd at a hanging since the hanging of Laurence Shirley, 4th Earl Ferrers in 1760. in 1794, many houses on the Ratcliffe Highway were destroyed by a fire which “consumed more houses than any one conflagration has done since the Great Fire of London”, and also destroyed many boats, and around £40,000 of sugar. Shadwell Waterworks was sold in 1801 to the London Dock Company; the waterworks were the first ones in London to use a Watt steam engine in 1788. The waterworks were later sold to the East London Waterwork Company for £300,000 in 1808, after an Act of Parliament allowed the company to obtain a compulsory purchase order. The modern area is dominated by the enclosed former dock, Shadwell Basin, whose construction destroyed much of the earlier settlement – by this time degenerated into slums. The basin once formed the eastern entrance to the then London Docks, with a channel leading west to St Katharine Docks. It is actually two dock basins – the south basin was constructed in 1828-32 and the north basin in 1854–8. A new entrance to Shadwell dock was opened in 1832, giving Shadwell access to the River Thames. Between 1854 and 1858, a 45 feet wide new entrance to the docks was constructed to allow larger ships into the dock. Shadwell Basin was one of three locked basins connecting the docks to the River Thames, and is the only one of the three still in existence today. In 1865, HMS Amazon docked at Shadwell Basin in order to pick up around 800 Mormons who were emigrating to America, and in 1869, the Blue Jacket clipper, then the fastest clipper in the world, began her journey to Canterbury, New Zealand in Shadwell Basin. In 1865 during excavation for the creations of some docks at Shadwell, four nearby houses were flooded. In 1844, Shadwell was recorded as having had a population of 10,060, and having ten almshouses built using money from James Cook. Watney Market developed into a busy shopping area around this time. In the 19th century, Shadwell was home to a large community of foreign South Asian lascar seamen, brought over from British India by the East India Company. There were also Anglo-Indians, from intermarriage and cohabitation between lascar seamen and local girls. There were also smaller communities of Chinese and Greek seamen, who also intermarried and cohabited with locals. In 1805, lascars caused disturbances in the streets of Shadwell which ended with 15 people being hospitalised, and 19 people being arrested. During Victorian times, Shadwell and the East End were not seen as pleasant places. The growth of Shadwell’s port led to an increase in the number of prostitutes in the area, and the area was known as the centre of the capital’s opium smoking, and in 1861, Shadwell paid a poor rate of 3 s. 9d. An 1889 book The Bitter Cry of Outcast London described Ratcliffe, Shadwell and Bermondsey as a “revolting spectacle”, a “dark vision”, and a “ghastly reality”, whilst Charles Dickens’ unfinished novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood involves a journey to an opium den in Shadwell, which includes the line “Eastward and still eastward through the stale streets he takes his way, until he reaches his destination: a miserable court, specially miserable amongst many such.” In 1885, Shadwell Fish Market was opened as an alternative to Billingsgate Fish Market. Although Shadwell had the advantage of three times the river frontage of Billingsgate and access via train, the fish market was ultimately unsuccessful. In 1901, it was sold to the City of London Corporation, and was eventually closed in 1914. The site later became King Edward Memorial Park in 1922, when it was opened by King George V, and was Shadwell’s first park. From 1868 to 1932, Shadwell was home to the East London Hospital for Children (later the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children), before it moved to Wapping, and was later closed down in 1963.

20th century

In 1906, the Corporation of London agreed to contribute £500 to widening Shadwell High Street to 40 feet (12 m) In 1916, seven women were killed in a sack factory fire; around 50 women were in the building at the time, and the rest escaped. In 1936, residents of Shadwell were involved in the Battle of Cable Street, in which Oswald Mosley’s attempted fascist march from Tower Hill to Aldgate via Shadwell was stopped by 250,000 protestors blocking their path by overturning a lorry. In 1969, the Shadwell Docks, along with the other London docks, closed and were purchased by Tower Hamlets Council.

Shadwell landmarks

St George in the East on Cannon Street Road is one of six Hawksmoor churches in London, built from 1714 to 1729, with funding from the Commission for Building Fifty New Churches. The church was hit by a bomb during the Blitz the original interior was destroyed by the fire, but the walls and distinctive “pepper-pot” towers remained intact.

You can visit Shadwell places with Walkfo Shadwell to hear history at Shadwell’s places whilst walking around using the free digital tour app. Walkfo Shadwell has 1275 places to visit in our interactive Shadwell map, with amazing history, culture & travel facts you can explore the same way you would at a museum or art gallery with information audio headset. With Walkfo, you can travel by foot, bike or bus throughout Shadwell, being in the moment, without digital distraction or limits to a specific walking route. Our historic audio walks, National Trust interactive audio experiences, digital tour guides for English Heritage locations are available at Shadwell places, with a AI tour guide to help you get the best from a visit to Shadwell & the surrounding areas.

“Curated content for millions of locations across the UK, with 1275 audio facts unique to Shadwell places in an interactive Shadwell map you can explore.”

Walkfo: Visit Shadwell Places Map
1275 tourist, history, culture & geography spots

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Shadwell historic spots	Shadwell tourist destinations	Shadwell plaques	Shadwell geographic features
Walkfo Shadwell tourism map key: places to see & visit like National Trust sites, Blue Plaques, English Heritage locations & top tourist destinations in Shadwell

  

Best Shadwell places to visit

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Shadwell has places to explore by foot, bike or bus. Below are a selection of the varied Shadwell’s destinations you can visit with additional content available at the Walkfo Shadwell’s information audio spots:

Mandela Way T-34 Tank The Mandela Way T-34 Tank, nicknamed Stompie, is a decommissioned Soviet-built tank . It is now permanently located on the corner of Mandela Way and Page’s Walk in Bermondsey, London .

Miloco Studios Miloco Studios are a group of recording studios based in London, England . Miloco studios are based in the city of London and London .

Bermondsey Square Bermondsey Square is on Tower Bridge Road in south London . It was the site of the 11th century Bermondsey Abbey . The earliest medieval remains found are a Norman church from around 1080 .

Burgess Park Burgess Park is a public park situated in Walworth the London Borough of Southwark . At 56 hectares (140 acres), it is one of the largest parks in South London .

St John Horsleydown St John Horsleydown was built for the Commission for Building Fifty New Churches to the designs of Nicholas Hawksmoor and John James in 1726–1733 . It was noted for its distinctive spire in the form of a tapering column .

Southwark Park Southwark Park is located in Rotherhithe, in central South East London . It first opened in 1869 by the Metropolitan Board of Works as one of its first parks . It takes its name from being in what was the old Parliamentary constituency of Southwark .

Potters Fields Park Potters Fields Park is a small public park situated in the London Borough of Southwark . The park is located south-west of Tower Bridge and south-east of City Hall, London .

King’s Stairs Gardens King’s Stairs Gardens is a riverside park in Bermondsey, London . It is bordered to the north by the River Thames and to the south by Jamaica Road (A200)

More London More London is a development on the south bank of the River Thames, immediately south-west of Tower Bridge . It is owned by the Kuwaiti sovereign wealth fund, which owns More London . The development is part of an area known as London Bridge City .

John Smith House (Southwark) John Smith House is the former Labour Party headquarters in south London . The party first occupied the building in 1980, vacating its former headquarters at Transport House .

Visit Shadwell plaques