Cubitt Town
| Cubitt Town | |
| Middlesex | |
|---|---|
 Manchester Road. | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ385795 |
| Location: | 51°29’51"N, 0°0’22"W |
| Data | |
| Post town: | London |
| Postcode: | E14 |
| Dialling code: | 020 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Tower Hamlets |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Poplar and Limehouse |
Cubitt Town is a distinctive urban village in the south-easternmost of Middlesex, on the eastern side of the Isle of Dogs. It was redeveloped as part of the Port of London in the 1840s and 1850s by William Cubitt, Lord Mayor of London (1860–1862), after whom it is named.
Cubitt Town is on the east of the Isle, facing Greenwich across the River Thames. To the west is Millwall, to the east and south is Greenwich, to the north-west Canary Wharf, and to the north — across the Blue Bridge — is Blackwall.
History
The town is named after William Cubitt, Lord Mayor of London (1860–1862), who was responsible for the development of the housing and amenities of the area in the 1840s and 1850s, mainly to house the growing population of workers in the local docks, shipbuilding yards and factories.[1] As it grew, Cubitt also created many local businesses employing manual labourers as well as the streets of housing to accommodate them.
Shipbuilding
The area was home shipbuilders including Westwood, Baillie, Samuda Brothers, J & W Dudgeon and Yarrow Shipbuilders. HMS Prince Albert, the first British warship designed to carry her main armament in gun turrets, was launched here.
Other industries
The businesses included those involved in cement, pottery and brick production. Asphalt production was another growth industry, coinciding with the growth, development, and industrialisation of areas throughout the British Isles. In Cubitt Town, the Pyrimont Wharf was developed in 1861 by the Asphalte de Seyssel Company of Thames Embankment (later known as the Seyssel Asphalte Company or Seyssel Pyrimont Asphalte Company), with asphalt production taken over in the 1870s by Claridge's Patent Asphalte Company.[1][2]
Housing
The area is a mix of old east London working-class communities transplanted into 1960s and 1970s high-rise estates and the middle-class workers in the Canary Wharf complex attracted by relatively low prices for riverside living, plus less recent Bangladeshi and East Asian immigrant populations.
About the village
Mudchute, an urban farm is in Cubitt Town, extending over 32 acres.
Access across the River Thames is by the Greenwich Foot Tunnel and the National Cycle Route 1 to the west (which also uses the Greenwich Foot Tunnel).
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Cubitt Town: Riverside area, from Newcastle Drawdock to Cubitt Town Pier | British History Online". https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vols43-4/pp528-532.
- ↑ Plymouth Wharf Residents Association. History of Plymouth and Pyrimont Wharf areas. http://plymouthwharf.com/History.html. Retrieved 15 December 2009.