133 East India Dock Road

Image: © Natasha Ceridwen de Chroustchoff Taken: 26 Jun 2008

This is the only survivor of the buildings erected in the road for the philanthropic George Green as a home primarily for the seamen of his merchant ships. He paid for it all and probably used carpenters and labourers from his own ship yard. Work began in summer 1839 and was probably completed late in 1841. In 1856 the building acquired a further use, as the home of the Poplar and Blackwall School of Trade and Navigation under the Science and Art Department. This forerunner of the LCC's School of Marine Engineering and Navigation in the High Street provided day lessons in navigation for masters and mates in the merchant navy, and a 'trade school' to give technical instruction to workmen in the evenings. Later it was taken over by the Board of Trade and subsequent government offices before being converted into flats in the 1980s. From: 'East India Dock Road, North side: Nos 1-301 (and Nos 2-50)', Survey of London: volumes 43 and 44: Poplar, Blackwall and Isle of Dogs (1994), pp. 127-147. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=46479. Date accessed: 30 June 2008. The domed piers that stand on the pavement outside are original and one can be seen in an old photograph of the Seamen's Rest next door, here http://www.portcities.org.uk/london/server/show/conMediaFile.5334/The-Queen-Victoria-Seamens-Rest.html

Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0