Wapping is on the north bank of the River Thames between St Katharine Docks to the west, and Shadwell to the east.

Urbanisation of the shoreline began in earnest after the draining of Wapping marsh, and the consolidation of the river wall in the late 16th century.

As the London Docklands declined after the Second World War, the area became run down, with the great warehouses left empty.

[2] More recent scholarship discounts that theory: much of the area was marshland, where early settlement was unlikely, and no such personal name has ever been found.

The draining of Wapping Marsh, and the consolidation of a river wall along which houses were built, were finally achieved by 1600 after previous attempts had failed.

John Stow, the 16th-century historian, described it as a "continual street, or a filthy strait passage, with alleys of small tenements or cottages, built, inhabited by sailors' victuallers".

It was inhabited by sailors, mastmakers, boatbuilders, blockmakers, instrument-makers, victuallers and representatives of all the other trades that supported the seafarer.

Wapping was also the site of 'Execution Dock', where pirates and other water-borne criminals faced execution by hanging from a gibbet constructed close to the low water mark.

[10] The area's strong maritime associations changed radically in the 19th century when the London Docks were built to the north and west of the High Street.

Wapping's population plummeted by nearly 60% during that century, with many houses destroyed by the construction of the docks and giant warehouses along the riverfront.

Squeezed between the high walls of the docks and warehouses, the riverside area became isolated from the rest of London, although some relief was provided by Brunel's Thames Tunnel to Rotherhithe.

The church was established to support a community of French speaking seafarers originating in Jersey and Guernsey who had been joined by Huguenot refugees from France.

[19] Starting in the 16th century, and accelerating later, parts of Wapping attracted large number of German migrants, with many of these people, and their descendants working in the sugar industry.

The London Docks were largely filled in and redeveloped with a variety of commercial, light industrial and residential properties.

The plant was nicknamed "Fortress Wapping" when the sacked print workers effectively besieged it, mounting round-the-clock pickets and blockades in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to thwart the move.

The church was hit by a bomb during the Blitz and the original interior was destroyed by the fire, but the walls and distinctive pepper-pot towers remained intact.

In 1964, a modern church interior was constructed inside the existing walls for the active congregation and a new flat built under each corner tower.

Behind the church lies St George's Gardens, the original cemetery, which was passed to Stepney Council to maintain as a public park in mid-Victorian times.

In 1990, it was converted into a shopping centre at a development cost of £47 million with the intention to create the "Covent Garden of the East End"; the scheme was unsuccessful though and went into administration.

By Pelican Stairs is the Prospect of Whitby, formerly the Devil's Tavern,[29] which has a much-disputed claim to be the oldest Thames-side public house still in existence.

[11][12] The East London line closed as an Underground route on 22 December 2007; it was rebranded and reopened on 27 April 2010 when it became part of the Overground system.

Thames River Services operate a sightseeing boat route between Westminster and Greenwich, which call at Wapping.