Visit Canning Town Places

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

  

Canning Town Places Overview: History, Culture & Facts about Canning Town

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Canning Town history

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Prior to 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 for the first Viceroy of India, Charles John Canning, who suppressed the Indian Mutiny 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. The opening of the Royal Victoria Dock in 1855 accelerated the development of the area creating employment and a need to house dock workers and their families. New settlements around the dock developed, starting with Hallsville, Canning Town and Woolwich, and later the areas now known as Custom House, Silvertown and West Silvertown. The new settlements lacked water supply and had no sewage system, leading to the spread of cholera and smallpox. The casual nature of employment at the docks meant poverty and squalid living conditions for many residents, and in 1857 Henry Morley wrote about the area: “Canning Town is the child of the Victoria Docks. The condition of this place and of its neighbour prevents the steadier class of mechanics from residing in it. They go from their work to Stratford or to Plaistow. Many select such a dwelling place because they are already debased below the point of enmity to filth; poorer labourers live there, because they cannot afford to go farther, and there become debased. The Dock Company is surely, to a very great extent, answerable for the condition of the town they are creating. Not a few of the houses in it are built by poor and ignorant men who have saved a few hundred pounds, and are deluded by the prospect of a fatally cheap building investment.” 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. Thorne and others worked and gave speeches at Canning Town Public Hall which had been built in 1894 as the population grew in the southern part of the borough. From the late 19th century, a large African mariner community was established in Canning Town as a result of new shipping links to the Caribbean and West Africa. In 1917 50 tons of TNT exploded at the Brunner Mond & Co ammunition work in Silvertown, causing the largest explosion in London’s history and damaging more than 70,000 buildings and killing 73 people. (see Silvertown explosion) In the 1930s the County Borough of West Ham commenced slum clearances. New houses, clinics, nurseries and a lido were opened. Silvertown ByPass and Britain’s first flyover, the Silvertown Way, were built along with other new approach roads to the docks. Canning Town was heavily hit by the bombings in World War II and Canning Town Council’s plan to rebuild the area focused on a reduction of the population, transferring industry and the building of new housing such as the Keir Hardie Estate, which included schools and welfare services. In the early hours of 10 September 1940, a bomb hit South Hallsville School where up to 600 local refugees were accommodated. At least 200, mainly children, were killed or injured. Many bodies were never recovered. 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. Post-war housing schemes followed the urban planning principles of the garden city movement. As demand for housing grew the first high rise buildings were built in Canning Town in 1961. In 1968 part of Ronan Point, a 22-storey tower block in Newham, collapsed and most of the tall tower blocks built in the area in the early 1960s were eventually demolished or reduced in size.

Canning Town culture & places

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, Modern Romance, Sham 69, Lindisfarne, The Cockney Rejects, Iron Maiden, Remus Down Boulevard and many other notable acts. Thames Ironworks F.C. was the works team of the nearby Ironworks.

You can visit Canning Town places with Walkfo Canning Town to hear history at Canning Town’s places whilst walking around using the free digital tour app. Walkfo Canning Town has 422 places to visit in our interactive Canning Town 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 Canning Town, 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 Canning Town places, with a AI tour guide to help you get the best from a visit to Canning Town & the surrounding areas.

“Curated content for millions of locations across the UK, with 422 audio facts unique to Canning Town places in an interactive Canning Town map you can explore.”

Walkfo: Visit Canning Town Places Map
422 tourist, history, culture & geography spots

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

  

Best Canning Town places to visit

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

Gilbert’s Pit Gilbert’s Pit is a geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Charlton . It was notified in 1985 and was formerly known as Charlton Sand Pit . It adjoins Maryon Park and is close to Maryon Wilson Park .

North Woolwich North Woolwich is located on the northern bank of the River Thames, across the river from Woolwich. It is connected to Woolwich by the Woolwich Ferry and Woolwich foot tunnel. Despite lying on the north, Essex side of the Thames, the area is within the historic county of Kent. It was part of the parish of Woolwich in the Blackheath hundred.

Old Woolwich Old Woolwich or Woolwich Central Riverside is an area along the Thames in Woolwich, South East London . It is the oldest inhabited part of Woolwich going back to an Anglo-Saxon riverside settlement . Most of the area was cleared in the 20th and early 21st centuries to make way for large-scale developments .

Mycenae House Mycenae House is a community centre housed in a former convent building adjacent to the Georgian villa, Woodlands House, in Greenwich, London .

Bathway Quarter Most buildings in the Bathway Quarter are Grade II* Grade II or locally listed . The area as a whole is designated a conservation area by Greenwich Council . Several were designed by local architect Henry Hudson Church .

Beckton Beckton is within the London Borough of Newham and is 8 miles (12.9 km) east of Charing Cross. Historically part of Essex, Beckton was unpopulated marshland adjacent to the River Thames until the development of major industrial infrastructure in the 19th century. Housing was created in Beckton for workers of the gas and sewage works.

Upton Park, London Upton Park is an area of the East London borough of Newham, centred on Green Street which is the boundary between West Ham and East Ham. West Ham United Football Club formerly played at the Boleyn Ground, commonly known as Upton Park.

St Francis of Assisi Church, Stratford St Francis of Assisi Church is a Roman Catholic parish church in Stratford, London. It was founded from a mission that started in 1770. The Franciscan Order of Friars Minor arrived in 1873 and built a friary next door to the church in 1876.

Visit Canning Town plaques