I have a large collection of maps (mostly online) showing the Whitechapel area from the 1600s to the present day. Not all the copyright holders  have given me permission to show them. However here are a selection from people I do have permission to use. They illustate the area through the various times, starting with 1889 before the Buildings were built and ending with the present day. Most maps show exactly the same area and so once you have identified Blackwall Buildings on one you can easily find it on another. However a couple of special ones are to a larger "zoomed in" scale.

I'd be very interested in illustrating any more maps which I can find showing the area - particularly if they specifically name Blackwall Buildings. If you have such a map and can let me have a copy (including copyright release) I'd be very interested in putting it on this site. I'm sure the readers would be interested too.

Let's start with exactly where are Blackwall Buildings. They were in Thomas Street (later Fulbourne Street) in Whitechapel. Here's an extract from the 1916 25" ordnance survey map of the area.

top   Charles Booth produced a set of maps - The Descriptive Maps of London Poverty. These are perhaps the most distinctive product of Charles Booth's Inquiry into Life and Labour in London An early example of social cartography, each street is coloured to indicate the income and social class of its inhabitants. It is interesting to note that Thomas Street (which I have highlit in yellow to help you find it), is itself lined with "pink: Fairly comfortable. Good ordinary earnings" - "Regular standard earnings, 22s to 30s per week for regular work, fairly comfortable. As a rule the wives do not work, but the children do: the boys commonly following the father, the girls taking local trades or going out to service." However the next street immediately East (Queen Anne Street) is dark blue - class B. This he describes as follows: "Casual earnings, very poor. (below 18s a week for a moderate family) The labourers do not get as much as three days work a week, but it is doubtful if many could or would work full time for long together if they had the opportunity. Class B is not one in which men are born and live and die so much as a deposit of those who from mental, moral and physical reasons are incapable of better work". So the road is fairly well off, but in a very mixed area. Map reproduced courtesy of David Wayne Thomas, University of Notre Dame

top   Next the 1895 Reynolds map of London courtesy of www.victorianlondon.org

top   1899 Pocket map of London courtesy of www.victorianlondon.org

top   1909 map of London courtesy of www.photoeurasia.com

top   1911 map of London courtesy of www.photoeurasia.com

top   1952 map courtesy of Harry Mernick www.eastlondonhistory.org.uk

top   Just for interest here is the view today. This is from Google Earth and is reproduced with their permission. Note Thomas Street is now Castlemaine Street on the North-South part, Fulbourne Street on the end nearest Whitechapel Road and Lomas Street on the East-West part; Baker's Row (and New Charles Street) are now Vallance Road; White's Row and Buck's Row are Durward Street and Queen Ann Street has become the Northern End of Court Street. Blackwall Buildings was in the corner near Trahorn Close. The large green with the circular path in it was originally a "Friends Burial Ground" and later a recreation ground. You can see this behind the railings in some of the photos I've used to illustrate this research. Kearley and Tonge's was just North of where it says "Durward Street" and South of the Recreation Ground and ran from Vallance Road past Castlemaine Street and Cross Street to the North-South railway line. The Pavilion Theatre was on the West corner of Vallance Road and Whitechapel Road.

top   As a footnote, Castlemaine Street and its neighbours is featuring in the news again. There is a proposal to put the new Crossrail right through the middle of the recreation ground. And they intend to dig a "hole" to access the tunnel immediately in the area. So had Blackwall Buildings still been there it would have had a new neighbour. The pink outline is the new tunnel and the yellow is the old blocks from Blackwall Buildings. If you want have a look how small they are for 156 flats compared with today's buildings.

Please

Guy

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