Isle of Dogs
| Isle of Dogs | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| Coordinates | 51 ° 29 ′ N , 0 ° 1 ′ W | ||
| OS National Grid | TQ375785 | ||
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| Residents | 27,500 (as of 2007) | ||
| administration | |||
| Post town | LONDON | ||
| ZIP code section | E14 | ||
| prefix | 020 | ||
| Part of the country | England | ||
| region | Greater London | ||
| London Borough | Tower Hamlets | ||
| British Parliament | Poplar and Limehouse | ||
Isle of Dogs (German dog island ) is a peninsula in the East End of the British capital London . It is surrounded on three sides by the Thames (west, south, east), the course of which in this area is shaped like a horseshoe. The Isle of Dogs is part of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and forms part of the Docklands .
Districts
The peninsula consists of three different districts: Millwall is on the west side of the Isle of Dogs and Cubitt Town on the east side . Blackwall forms the northeastern part .
Once the Isle of Dogs had the highest concentration of public housing buildings . For this reason, working-class families who could not afford any other apartment once lived in the area. Since the early 1990s, however, the peninsula has been increasingly dominated by extensive business districts. The best known example of this is Canary Wharf . The One Canada Square building is the second tallest skyscraper in Great Britain at 244 meters.
Upscale houses are being built on the riverside in particular. The sharp social contrast and the sharp rise in real estate prices in the wake of the building boom led to tensions between the new, affluent residents and the long-established population, which feels increasingly marginalized and fears for their traditional identity.
history
The origin of the name is uncertain. The name Isle of Dogs first appeared on a map in 1588. It has been speculated on several occasions that King Henry VIII , who resided in the Palace of Placentia on the opposite side of the river, had his dog kennels built here . Another theory assumes that the name is a linguistic falsification of "Isle of Docks", referring to the many moorings around the peninsula.
The peninsula was once sparsely populated alluvial land and formed the southeasternmost part of Middlesex County . In the 13th century it was drained and opened up for agriculture. A catastrophic dike breach in 1488 resulted in the peninsula being completely flooded and falling back to its original state. It was not until the 17th century that Dutch hydraulic engineers succeeded in reclaiming the area.
After the opening of the West India Docks on the northern tip in 1802, the Isle of Dogs became increasingly densely populated. The East India Docks followed in 1806, the Millwall Dock in 1868. In 1909, the Port of London Authority united the three separately operated dock groups in one hand. The docks stretched from east to west over the entire width of the peninsula, which was effectively an island.
The Isle of Dogs was served by two railway lines, the London and Blackwall Railway opened in 1840 in a west-east direction and the Millwall Extension Railway opened in 1871 in a north-south direction (see map). In 1895 the Greenwich pedestrian tunnel was opened under the Thames. With the increasing importance of the docks, more and more dock workers and their families took up residence on the peninsula. In 1901 over 21,000 people lived here, who were largely dependent on the port economy. In 1926, passenger traffic was discontinued on both railway lines; from then on, the routes were used exclusively for freight traffic.
During the Second World War , the docks were one of the main targets of the German Air Force and were bombed by them on a large scale. Numerous local residents were killed and numerous warehouses were razed to the ground. After the war and reconstruction, the docks experienced a brief period of boom. But with the introduction of container ships , which could not be handled here due to the outdated technology and lack of space, the docks soon became superfluous. Dock after dock ceased operations during the 1970s - West India Dock and Millwall Dock, the last two in 1980. The area was largely left to decay.
The economic decline led to mass unemployment among the former dock workers with corresponding social problems. During the 1970s, the British governments presented various plans to regenerate the Isle of Dogs. Finally, the London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) was formed in 1981 . One of the most important measures was the creation of a 21.95 km² special zone where companies were exempt from property tax. This zone included the West India Docks, Millwall Docks and East India Docks.
Under the leadership of the LDDC, large areas of Docklands were converted into residential and commercial zones in the 1980s and 1990s. The centerpiece of the transformation process was without a doubt Canary Wharf , where the three tallest buildings in Great Britain were erected and the international financial industry settled. The Isle of Dogs received excellent transport links with the Docklands Light Railway and the Jubilee Line .
traffic
The Isle of Dogs is accessed by a branch of the Docklands Light Railway , a driverless light rail . The route mostly runs on viaducts roughly in the middle of the peninsula. At the southern tip there is a tunnel that leads under the Thames to Greenwich . The stations (north to south) are West India Quay , Canary Wharf , Heron Quays , South Quay , Crossharbour , Mudchute, and Island Gardens . The Jubilee Line of the London Underground runs in a west-east direction with Canary Wharf station .
Isle of Dogs in the movie
The Isle of Dogs, especially the area around Canary Wharf, has been used as a backdrop in numerous successful film productions. The best known is probably the opening sequence in the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough with the fast-paced motorboat chase through the docks. The area was featured in numerous British films as early as the 1960s and 1970s when the port was still operating.
Smaller selection of films with scenes on the Isle of Dogs:
- 28 Days Later (2002)
- 28 Weeks Later (2007)
- Alfie (2004)
- Basic Instinct 2 (2006)
- Batman Begins (2005)
- The Eternal Gardener (2005)
- The Bourne Conspiracy (2004)
- The Hour of the Patriots (1992)
- The World Is Not Enough (1999)
- Johnny English (2003)
- Spiceworld (1997)
- Indeed ... love (2003)
- Primeval - Return of the Primeval Monsters (2007)
Individual evidence
- ↑ London Borough of Tower Hamlets (ed.): Isle of Dogs Area Action Plan - Adopted for the purpose of development control - Improving the quality of life for everyone living and working in the Borough . Newham Language Shop, London October 2007, p. 14 .
