Abstract

Urban Growth and Social Structure in Nineteenth-Century Poplar* FRAN<;OIS BEDARIDA o the casual observer Poplar appears hardly distinguishable from the rest of the East End: just a district among others, bounded by the Thames and the Lea, intersected by docks, canals and railways; drab and monotonous little dwellings, inhabited almost entirely by working-class people; everywhere the same rows T of houses, laid out over low-lying ground - mainly alluvial deposits and marshy in places. The development of the area, which goes back for the most part to the middle of the nineteenth century, has taken place at the same time and in the same wave of expansion as the other districts of East London. Poplar has not even a definite natural boundary on its north and west sides, where it merges unawares with south Hackney, Old Ford, Mile End and Limehouse. But if one explores beneath the surface, Poplar's peculiarity stands out quite clearly. First, being surrounded and intersected by various waterways, the district has con- centrated on port and riverside industries. Secondly, over this vast area covering three and a half square miles, extending about four miles from north to south and nearly one mile wide from east