(2005)
ISBN: 0300107013
The buildings of East London reflect a chequered history of economic change, social need, urban renewal, and conservation. Along the Thames relics of a powerful industrial and maritime past at Wapping,
Limehouse and the Isle of Dogs remain among the glossy new offices and smart riverside flats of the former Docklands. In the fast changing historic East End, where the City edges ever closer, Hawksmoor’s
monumental Baroque churches still tower over their surroundings, among Georgian houses of prosperous silkweavers are juxtaposed with philanthropic institutions which catered for the Victorian poor of
Spitalfields, Whitechapel and Bethnal Green. The contribution of successive generations of immigrants are reflected in the variety of places of worship and cultural centres, from chapels to synagogues and mosques
while a century of social housing has produced innovative planning and architecture, now itself of historic interest. Further out, in London-over-the-border, medieval churches and merchants’ country mansions lie
embedded among the suburban streets of Walthamstow and Woodford, and proud civic buildings of the busy towns of Barking, Stratford, Ilford and Romford. On the outer fringes there are still fragments of the
ancient Forest of Essex, and traditional rural buildings among the marshes and farmland of the Essex countryside.
