A comment in an email from my brother Terry in the States led to an unknown fact that in the not so distant past there was a hamlet on the banks of the River Thames called Ratcliff. Terry had seen the 1967 film "To Sir, With Love" with Sydney Poitier and had noted some of the street names shown which were in London's now developed docks in the East End and was steered to several blogs about the "Lost Hamlet of Ratcliff". Now I think this is quite interesting story... Until the hamlet's demise at the hands of planners, developers and the Luftwaffe, "for three hundred and fifty years it linked the thriving mercantile capital to imperial ports and global trade routes around the world". "During the 19th century, Ratcliff built a new reputation as the home of everything Victorian London loved to hate. There was no shortage of writers, particularly during the eighteen-fifties and sixties, who could barely contain their glee at the exotic excitements so conveniently close to home." "War-time destruction led to major redevelopment, resulting in new-build council estates and roads on a scale unsuited to a residential area. However, although Ratcliff was no longer commercially significant and had become physically fragmented, its reputation lingered past World War II. Ian Nairn, writing in 1966, reflected a familiar image of Ratcliff – “ ‘Cable St, the whore’s retreat’: a shameful blot on the moral landscape of London: an outworn slum area …all that is left of lurid Dockland. Its crime is not that it contains vice but that it is unashamed and exuberant about it.”" The above quotes are from Tom Bolton's 2015 article on Spitalfields.com, "The Lost Hamlet of Ratcliff" <link to the Tom Bolton article here> Apparently, there was also the forgotten Great Fire - "said to be the biggest conflagration that London saw between 1666 and the Blitz" at Ratcliff which burned for 4 days from July 23rd 1794. <Click here to see Greg Roberts' Ratcliff Fire blog> My favourite article, however, is by Godfrey Dykes. This one is full of great bitter commentary. The growth of the population is remarkable: 17th century - 3,500 1801 - 5,000 1861 - 17,000 This of course, coincided with Ratcliff's entering it's most notorious period - "Broad Street, now the east end of The Highway, became a terrible slum. Ratcliff became renowned for drunkenness, vice, opium dens and poverty. The authorities demanded that something be done." "Like Chinatown, in neighbouring Limehouse, Ratcliff was planned out of existence. The building of the Commercial Road, and of the London and Blackwall Railway demanded massive demolition; the digging of the Rotherhithe Tunnel did the rest." "As the 20th century rolled on, the laying out of the King Edward VII Memorial Park, the damage wreaked by the Luftwaffe’s bombs, and the ongoing programme of slum clearance just about finished off Ratcliff for good. As its warehouses fell into decline, they were not allowed to stand, like those in neighbouring Wapping and Limehouse, but were cleared in the name of improvement. Today, of course, those derelict warehouses have been renovated into smart new homes, while the majority of Ratcliff lies buried beneath the roads, railways and tunnel diggings of the riverside." The above quotes are from Godfrey Dykes article, the full text of which can be seen at this link: <http://godfreydykes.info/The%20lost%20village%20of%20Ratcliff.htm > There are a selection of images of the area on this blog page: <https://ratcliffhighway.wordpress.com/> I leave you with the last couple of sentences from the Godfrey Dykes article:
"As the 20th century rolled on, the laying out of the King Edward VII Memorial Park, the damage wreaked by the Luftwaffe’s bombs, and the ongoing programme of slum clearance just about finished off Ratcliff for good. As its warehouses fell into decline, they were not allowed to stand, like those in neighbouring Wapping and Limehouse, but were cleared in the name of improvement. Today, of course, those derelict warehouses have been renovated into smart new homes, while the majority of Ratcliff lies buried beneath the roads, railways and tunnel diggings of the riverside. The only reminder is Free Trade Wharf, which you approach from The Highway – once the Ratcliff Highway – via a huge gateway, bearing lions and the coat of arms of the East India Company. When you pass through the gate, originally built for the bustling area in 1796, you can reflect that you are walking on what was once one of the most infamous quarters of London – but now disappeared and almost forgotten."
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