Isle of Dogs
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- For the play see The Isle of Dogs (play)
Template:Infobox London place The Isle of Dogs is a peninsula in the East End of London. It is surrounded on three sides (East, South and West) by the River Thames, which follows a horseshoe-shaped arc to the south of the peninsula. It is part of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and part of the London Docklands.
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Districts
The area includes Millwall, Cubitt Town, and Blackwall. The south of the isle, opposite Greenwich, was once known as North Greenwich.
It was the site of the highest concentration of council housing in England, but is now best known as the location of the prestigious Canary Wharf office complex. 1 Canada Square, also known as the Canary Wharf Tower, is the tallest habitable building in Britain, at 244 m (800 feet) high. The peninsula is an area of social extremes, comprising some of the most prosperous and most deprived areas of the country; Blackwall is the 81st poorest ward in England, out of over 8,000.
History
Image:London from above MLD 051002 003.jpg The Isle of Dogs is situated some distance downriver from the original City of London. The origin of its name is unclear. It is first mentioned on a map from 1588, and it has been speculated that Henry VIII, whose Palace of Placentia stood in Greenwich on the other side of the river, had his hunting dogs kennelled there. Another theory is that the name is a corruption of "Isle of docks" referring to the many jetties around the peninsula.
The peninsula was originally a sparsely populated marshland before its drainage and planting in the 13th century. A catastrophic breach in the riverside embankment occurred in 1488, resulting in the peninsula returning to its original marshy condition. This was not reversed until Dutch engineers successfully re-drained it in the 17th century.
The urbanisation of the Isle of Dogs took place in the 19th century following the construction of the West India Docks, which opened in 1802. This heralded the peninsula's most successful period, when it became an important center for trade. The East India Docks were subsequently opened in 1806, followed by Millwall Dock in 1868. The three dock systems were unified in 1909 when the Port of London Authority took control of the docks. With the docks stretching across the peninsula from East to West with locks at each end, the Isle of Dogs could now almost be described as a genuine island.
A large population of dockyard workers settled on the peninsula as the docks grew in importance. By 1901, 21,000 people lived there, largely dependent on the river trade on the isle as well as in Greenwich and Deptford across the river to the south and west. The Isle of Dogs was connected to the rest of London by the London and Blackwall Railway, opened in 1840 and progressively extended thereafter. Transport to Greenwich was improved by the construction of the Greenwich foot tunnel (opened in 1902), and the local community gained the Island Gardens park in 1895.
During the Second World War the docks were a key target for the Luftwaffe and were heavily bombed. A significant number of local civilians were killed in the bombing and extensive destruction was caused on the ground, with many warehouses being totally destroyed and much of the dockyard system being put out of action for an extended period.
After the war, the docks underwent a brief resurgence and were even upgraded in 1967. However, with the advent of containerisation, which the docks could not handle, they became obsolete soon afterwards. The docks closed progressively during the 1970s, with the last – the West India and Millwall docks – closing down in 1980. This left the area in a severely dilapidated state, with large areas being derelict and abandoned.
The Isle of Dogs' economic problems led to mass unemployment among the former dockyard workers and caused serious social deprivation. The local community highlighted its problems on 3 March 1970 by declaring the Isle of Dogs to be an "independent republic", with its own elected president. Labour and Conservative governments proposed various action plans during the 1970s but it was not until 1981 that the London Docklands Development Corporation was established to redevelop the area. The Isle of Dogs became part of an enterprise zone, which covered 1.95 km² of land and encompassed the West India, Millwall and East India Docks. New housing was built, as was new office space and new transport infrastructure. This included the Docklands Light Railway and later the Jubilee Line extension, which eventually brought access to the London Underground to the peninsula for the first time, and a contender for the Station with the Funniest Name to London's transport map in the shape of Mudchute.
Since its construction in 1987-1991, the area has been dominated by the expanding Canary Wharf development (see separate entry for details) with to date over 14 million square feet (437,000 m²) of office and retail space having been created; 78,000 now work in Canary Wharf alone.
It has however been argued by some that the redevelopment has not benefited the indigenous population as much as it might, with accusations of a "land grab" of riverside sites for private apartment blocks during the period of relaxation of planning conditions under the LDDC. Some tensions remain between the close-knit island community and professionals who have more recently moved to the area. This is brought on by large numbers of immigrants and ethnic minorities who dwell in the large areas of elderly social housing which are scattered amongst many new and very expensive neighbourhoods. This results in fast cars and wealth being seen alongside gangs of unemployed youths leading to the inevitable crime problems.
Transport
Nearest places:
London Underground and DLR stations:
- Canary Wharf tube station
- Canary Wharf DLR station
- Crossharbour DLR station
- Heron Quays DLR station
- Island Gardens DLR station
- Mudchute DLR station
- South Quay DLR station
- West India Quay DLR station
In the Media
The Isle of Dogs has provided stunning locations for some of the biggest blockbusters such as the action-packed opening scenes of James Bond movie The World Is Not Enough, and more recently Batman Begins, The Constant Gardener and Love Actually. However, back in the 1960's and 1970's it was used in many British movies while still a working port.
Most famously, the Isle of Dogs is often mistakenly claimed to be have been used as a location for Stanley Kubrick's Vietnam War movie Full Metal Jacket. In fact, Kubrick used the disused gasworks at Beckton, some way further east, as the location for battle scenes set in the Vietnamese city of Huế; this was due to Kubrick's unwillingness to leave Britain. The same gasworks can be seen in the opening scenes of the James Bond film For Your Eyes Only when Bond drops wheelchair-bound Blofeld down a disused chimney.
The 1980 gangster film The Long Good Friday, starring Bob Hoskins, was partly set in the Isle of Dogs and its plot revolved around the redevelopment of the area. Many of the local landmarks are in the film including St George in the East Church - Harold's mum goes to a service there and his Rolls Royce is blown up in the church yard. Canary Wharf / West India Docks is the venue for Harold's proposed marina development. You can see the location of One Canada Square clearly as his yacht tours the site.
A decade later, the completed but then almost-empty Canary Wharf was a location for the 1992 blockbuster Patriot Games starring Harrison Ford and Sean Bean. Sean Bean's character, an IRA terrorist, escapes from the police on Heron Quays having been sentenced to prison, and starts a bloody trail of revenge.
In 2002 Canary Wharf was used in the Bollywood Movie Bollywood Queen, which centered around a cross-cultural relationship in the East End of London.
In 2003's 28 Days Later, Jim (Cillian Murphy) and his fellow survivors run through the vast, deserted Canary Wharf underground station, and also visit Billingsgate Market.
In spoof spy comedy Johnny English (2003), starring Rowan Atkinson, One Canada Square was used as the office HQ of the French villain Sauvage, played by John Malkovich.
The tower appeared briefly in the film The Bourne Supremacy (2004) as the location of the CIA's London listening and monitoring station.
It has also appeared in many recent TV adverts and in the TV show "The Apprentice". During the 1990's the tower was home to the controversial TV station Live!TV, famous for the News Bunny.
Jude Law was in the foyer of 20 Canada Square to film the New Year's Eve party scene for the remake of "Alfie" (2004).
The 2004 film Layer Cake features Canary Wharf as a regular backdrop. 1 West India Quay is the location where Michael Gambon's character dangles Daniel Craig over the edge of a tall building. It was still under construction at the time.
In 2005 Canary Wharf and surrounding areas in the Isle of Dogs were used as part of the backdrop to the film Batman Begins. The Plateau restaurant was the venue for Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) to make a display of himself - he allowed his two female companions to climb into a fish tank. On the way out of the building he meets love interest Rachel (Katie Holmes). Canada Square was dressed as a New York street for the occasion, with NYPD police cars, fire hydrants and New York Times boxes placed on the sidewalks. Incidentally ExCeL Exhibition Centre nearby was used as the testing venue for the Tumbler Batmobile in the movie.
Reuters Plaza was the location for a key scene in the award winning The Constant Gardener (2005), when Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes) meets up with his murdered wife's brother - one of the few people he can trust. The clocks in the plaza are an art installation by Konstantin Grcic, and are featured in the BBC News 24 and BBC London news titles.
Canary Wharf's stunning Jubilee Line station doubled as a secret spy lair for Agent Cody Banks II Destination London (2004) starring Frankie Muniz. Colin Firth also filmed a scene for the British blockbuster Love Actually (2003), struggling down the station's escalators laden with Christmas shopping.
Heron Quay was the location for the opening scenes of Basic Instinct 2 (2006). Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone) dispatches her boyfriend Kevin Franks (played by ex footballer Stan Collymore) by driving their £180,000 Dutch Spyker supercar into the dock in a spectacular stunt which took three days to film - writing off two of the cars.
Millwall Inner Dock was the scene of the amazing boat chase at the start of James Bond film The World Is Not Enough (1999) where Bond (Pierce Brosnan) in his jet-boat chases the Cigar Girl (Maria Grazia Cucinotta) in her Sunseeker. At the end of the dock is Glengall Bridge, which Bond has to dive under as it closes.
The route of the boat chase is an odd one - it starts at Vauxhall Cross, the HQ of the real MI6, and within a minute reaches Tower Bridge (in reality this would take at least 5 minutes even for a jet boat). Then they turn south into St Saviour's Wharf / Java Wharf, which is a dead end. This gets them to Millwall Inner dock on the Isle of Dogs - actually another dead end. This is where a lot of the action takes place - Bond performs a corkscrew role in mid air. This is also where the closing bridge stunt takes place, and the Sunseeker smashes through a police boat. The gas bottle explosion which destroys the Wyvenhoe boat was filmed in Royal Victoria Dock, standing in for the North Dock at Canary Wharf. Then Bond appears to be back in the River Thames, west of Canary Wharf pier. His on-board computer is offering him two alternative routes using either North or South docks through the Isle of Dogs.
In fact, Bond's route takes him past Billingsgate Market in the wrong direction, through Wapping (a mile upstream), up onto a road (Wapping Lane), then through an imaginary Billingsgate and a restaurant (filmed at the Historic Dockyard in Chatham). Having smashed his way through the restaurant, he appears to pop out through a tent at Leamouth (filmed at Trinity Buoy Wharf) and back into the Thames, East of the Isle of Dogs in time to catch the Cigar Girl and force her boat aground at the Dome.
Finally Guy Ritchie filmed scenes from Revolver (2005) on the Island.