CHAPTER V - Pennyfields, Ming Street and West India Dock Road
Until the setting out of the Commercial Road in 1802,
access to Poplar and Blackwall from Limehouse and
Whitechapel was through the narrow streets of Limehouse itself, and from there along Limehouse Causeway
and Pennyfields into the High Street. Following the
completion of the Commercial Road, which abutted the
western ends of Pennyfields and the byway which became
King Street, the approach to Poplar High Street from
the west was much improved (fig. 30). That section of
the Commercial Road from its junction with the East
India Dock Road to the West India Docks was not
referred to as the West India Dock Road until 1828, and
the name was not widely used until the later 1830s. (ref. 1)
Pennyfields
It is perhaps more for its social than its architectural
history that Pennyfields merits recording. Sited at the
western end of Poplar High Street, Pennyfields, with its
low-class housing and shops, formed a 'buffer' between
the shabby respectability of the High Street and the
exotic Oriental underworld of Limehouse Causeway to
the west. During the closing decades of the nineteenth
century and the early years of the twentieth, Pennyfields
was a strange mixture of both societies. By the inter-war
years the street had become the centre of the Chinese
East End. All the buildings associated with the street's
colourful past have been demolished, however, replaced
by public housing during the 1960s (see page 92). (ref. 2)
The origins of Pennyfields are obscure, hidden in the
landholding complexities of the manor of Stepney. Some
properties were held by manorial tenure well into the
twentieth century. (ref. 3) A little development appears to have
taken place prior to 1650, but a map of c1573 seems to
suggest that Pennyfields was an undeveloped way joining
the two built-up streets of Limehouse Causeway and
Poplar High Street (Plate 145a). (ref. 4) In 1652 Abraham
Chambers, a City goldsmith, purchased property in the
manor of Stepney which included six cottages and land
adjoining, containing 16 acres 'commonly called Penny
Field'. (ref. 5) By 1669 his son, also Abraham, was admitted to
the same property, which by that date consisted of '43
tenements and 27 cottages in or near Pennyfield in Poplar
and 16 acres of ground called Pennyfield'. (ref. 6) The dramatic
increase in the number of properties suggests the building
of the street during the 1650s and 1660s. Some cottages
were built with three rooms placed one above another. (ref. 7)
Although different in character, the density of building
was similar to the Pennyfields that existed in 1868, when
there were 77 properties. The 16-acre 'Penny Field'
survived at least until the 1770s, when one William Hitch
held a house and 16 acres. (ref. 8)
Throughout the nineteenth century the inhabitants of
Pennyfields appear to have been less prosperous than
those living in Poplar High Street. In 1851 over a half
of the houses in Pennyfields were in dual occupation,
and some properties, mainly lodging houses, had a great
many more resident families. Nos 14 and 15 both housed
six families at that date. Although the social status of the
inhabitants had always been low, the 1851 census indicates
that Pennyfields had seen better times. In that year 21
households still retained a domestic servant, but by 1881
there were only six households that could afford to do
so. (ref. 9) As the century progressed, the professional residents
declined in number. Mid-century middle-class residents
included William Henry, a surgeon who had studied
under Robert Lister, at No. 2, a dentist at No. 57, two
chemists and druggists at a Medical Hall at No. 1 and
the proprietors of two small boarding schools at Nos 24
and 41. (ref. 10)
Amid the small two-storey brick houses of nineteenthcentury Pennyfields were a few architectural reminders
of a more prosperous past. Several substantial early to
mid-eighteenth-century properties survived into the
1960s (Plate 17a, 17b). No. 41 was of two storeys plus
attics, of plum-coloured brick, with red-brick dressings.
Facing the street was a later brick parapet, behind which
was a hipped gable. At one end was an attractive small
stone-dressed porch, thought to have been built in the
late eighteenth century. (ref. 11) During the nineteenth century
No. 41 was a boarding school and later a lodging house. (ref. 12)
In the 1930s and 1940s it had become a rag-and-bone
merchant's store, but retained a 'charming interior' on
its upper floors. (ref. 13) The house was demolished in 1968.
No. 38 was a flat-fronted two-storey house, built in a
style suggestive of the early eighteenth century (Plate
17a). Also constructed of plum-coloured bricks, its most
attractive feature was a wooden doorcase with an open
pediment. In 1851 the property was the substantial home
of a ship-joiner; by 1881 it had been subdivided and
housed two families. The house was demolished in 1963. (ref. 14)
Between 1851 and 1881 the character of the street
changed very little. It remained in essence a mix of
shabby residential and retail properties, with some light
manufacturing (Plate 17c) From 1833 to 1869 there was
a brass foundry at No. 44, and in 1881 a tent manufacturer
at No. 55, a leather currier at No. 37, and at No. 76
Jacheus Poulson and his son, writers, painters and
gilders. (ref. 15) General shops mingled with the residential
properties, many of the shop-fronts having been created
between 1840 and 1860. (ref. 16) A small group of shops
extended from No. 52 to No. 68 (even) by 1881.
In 1851 several Irish inhabitants were recorded, many
being labourers and dock workers. By 1881 the number
of Irish in Pennyfields had increased to 37, out of a total
population of 622, and they had been joined by 23 people
of German and Scandinavian birth. The Germans were
mainly employed in the tailoring, shoemaking and bakery
trades. A Scandinavian Reading Room existed at No. 33
from the turn of the century until 1930. (ref. 17) The street was
beginning to take on a cosmopolitan flavour, even before
the arrival of the Chinese.
By 1888 the street was of a very mixed character. The
north side contained at least five households defined by
Charles Booth as middle-class; the Commercial Tavern at
No. 1. the Rose and Crown at No. 17, and in three small
shops at Nos 33–37 (Plate 16a). The south side was poorer
and contained the homes of several destitute labourers, a
few well-frequented brothels, and a lodging-house at No.
62, where 20 children lived. At No. 70 was a cat's meat
shop (a butcher's selling horseflesh, one of several in the
street). The street was described as miserable and poor. (ref. 18)
Ten years later little had changed, apart from a rise in the
number of lodgings for foreign seamen on the south side.
Architecturally it was a 'row of irregularly built houses and
small shops, rooms let out above'. (ref. 19)
Figure 30:
Fig. 30. Pennyfields, King Street and West India Dock Road area. Plan based on the Ordnance Survey of 1895
One of the poorest areas was a small blind courtyard
named Silver Lion Court, which lay to the rear of the
public house of the same name at No. 65. The Silver
Lion had existed on the site from at least 1750. The
court was built around 1800 and consisted of 14 backto-back, two-storey brick houses with frontages of 13ft
(Plate 18a). (ref. 20) In 1862 the Medical Officer of Health
reported to the Poplar Board of Guardians that '113
persons live in filth and squalor on a space of 105ft by
30ft'. (ref. 21) By the 1880s the court was almost entirely populated by the Irish and had already been closed once by the
sanitary authorities. In 1882 a local resident complained of
the 'low and filthy class of people occupying the houses
therein'. (ref. 22) Silver Lion Court was one of several areas
condemned by the Borough Medical Officer of Health in
1919 (When it contained 12 houses inhabited by 45
people). (ref. 23) In 1933 Silver Lion Court was officially
declared a Clearance Area (ref. 24) and in the following year the
Borough Medical Officer stated that none of the seven
houses was fit for human habitation. Approached via a
narrow court, the houses were described as 'dark, damp,
worn-out, and dilapidated'. (ref. 25) All of them had been cleared
by 1937. (ref. 26)
From the 1890s the Chinese community in the East
End grew in size and spread eastwards, from the original
settlement in Limehouse Causeway, into Pennyfields.
The area provided for the Lascar, Chinese and Japanese
sailors working the Oriental routes into the Port of
London. The main attractions for these men were the
opium dens, hidden behind shops in Limehouse and
Poplar, and also the availability of prostitutes, Chinese
grocers, restaurants and seamen's lodging-houses. Hostility from British sailors and the inability of many
Chinese to speak English fostered a distinct racial segregation and concentrated more and more Chinese into
Pennyfields. Gradually the drab shops of Pennyfields were
transformed into Chinese emporia and their colourful
interiors became an exotic contrast to the grey streets of
Poplar: 'The Chinese shops are the quaintest places
imaginable. Their walls decorated with red and orange
papers, covered with Chinese writing indicating the
"chop" or style of the firm, or some such announcement.
There is also sure to be a map of China and a hanging
Chinese Almanac.' (ref. 27)
The heady smells of burning opium, joss-sticks and
tobacco smoked through the hubble-bubble, produced an
atmosphere much sought after by the literary and artistic
coterie of fin-de-siècle London. Pennyfields became a
'sight' for West End society. From the 1890s until the
1920s, parties regularly went east at night, expecting to
find the unusual and morally degenerate in Pennyfields.
Instead they found a commonplace street (Plate 16b).
The Pennyfields of legend was always more exciting than
that of reality. But it was different from the rest of Poplar:
'In the darkness of Pennyfields dark faced men are
passing. Over the restaurants and shops are Chinese
names.' (ref. 28)
By 1918 the number of Chinese living in Pennyfields
totalled 182; all were men, nine of them had English
wives. (ref. 29) At its maximum size during the 1930s, Chinatown (which included Limehouse Causeway) consisted
of 5,000 persons, many of whom were sailors. A few
Chinese remained in Pennyfields until the demolition of
the street after 1960. (ref. 30) As early as the 1920s, many of
the houses occupied by the Chinese were described
as 'very old and in many cases extremely dilapidated
externally'. Internally most were clean, uncrowded,
vermin-free and less susceptible to infectious disease than
their English neighbours. (ref. 31)
In September 1933 Poplar Borough Council declared
just four houses in Pennyfields a clearance area (Nos 71–
77, odd). According to the Borough's Medical Officer,
Nos 71–75 also had small shops with dark rooms. He
considered that the houses were badly arranged and that
they were dark at the back owing to their confined yards;
behind No. 77, a three-storey building, was a roofed-in
space. The timber in all the properties was tending to
decay, making the floors uneven. The Deputy Borough
Surveyor said that the houses were structurally very old,
were worn out, dilapidated and damp, and there were
signs of settlement. The rear walls were bulging, but
when asked if the condition was dangerous, he replied
laconically, 'not so they would fall down; they prop each
other up'. (ref. 32) All of the houses concerned had been cleared
away by 1937. (ref. 33)
There was some bomb damage to properties in Pennyfields during the Second World War. But by that date
much of the street had already fallen into decay and
many houses were in a very poor condition. During the
1950s and 1960s both sides of the street were compulsorily
purchased by the LCC, with the exception of the Rose
and Crown public house on the north side, which was
rebuilt in the 1950s and still stands. All the other
properties were demolished during the 1960s, to allow
the building of the Birchfield Estate. (ref. 34)