Tales Of Londons Docklands

A fascinating history of life as a London docker.

An anthology of true stories, drawn from Henry Bradford's personal experience as a Registered Docker in the Port of London - when traffic through the docks was at its peak.

An anthology of true stories, drawn from Henry Bradford's personal experience as a Registered Docker in the Port of London - when traffic through the docks was at its peak.

A fascinating history of life as a London docker.

Tales of London's Docklands is an anthology of true stories, drawn from Henry Bradford's personal experiences as a Registered Docker in the Port of London when traffic through the docks was at its peak. Life as a docker was not for the faint-hearted; men were killed and injured every day, and the work was physically extremely arduous. Despite this, there was a spirit of camaraderie, and close teamwork was essential in the ship and quay gangs. Now that the DOcklands regeneration is virtually completed and the landscape has been transforend, it is important that memories of day-to-day life in the past are preserved. Henry Bradford's vivid anecdotes bring this lost world to life. Tales of London's Docklands will appeal to anyone whose relatives worked as dockers, to social historians, and to anyone with an interest in the history of London's East End, Tilbury Docks and wharves along the banks to the River Thames.

Do you remember the docks? In its heyday, the Port of London was the biggest in the world. It was a sprawling network of quays, wharves, canals and basins, providing employment for over 100,000 people. From the dockworker to the prostitute, the Romans to the Republic of the Isle of Dogs, London's docklands have always been a key part of the city. But it wasn't to last. They might have recovered from the devastating bombing raids of the Second World War – but it was the advent of the container ships, too big to fit down the Thames, that would sound the final death knell. Over 150,000 men lost their jobs, whole industries disappeared, and the docks gradually turned to wasteland. In London's Docklands: A History of the Lost Quarter, best-selling historian Fiona Rule ensures that, though the docklands may be all but gone, they will not be forgotten.

From archaeological finds through to diaries, newspaper articles, census returns and personal interviews, the lost docks of London are rediscovered through fascinating tales of Medieval mercers, river pirates, shipbuilders, merchant adventurers, mud larks, Dockers, socialist agitators, brothel keepers and opium eaters... to name but a few.

Finalist for the 2022 Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Myth and Fantasy Studies From the time of Charles Dickens, the imaginative power of the city of London has frequently inspired writers to their most creative flights of fantasy. Charting a new history of London fantasy writing from the Victorian era to the 21st century, Fairy Tales of London explores a powerful tradition of urban fantasy distinct from the rural tales of writers such as J.R.R. Tolkien. Hadas Elber-Aviram traces this urban tradition from Dickens, through the scientific romances of H.G. Wells, the anti-fantasies of George Orwell and Mervyn Peake to contemporary science fiction and fantasy writers such as Michael Moorcock, Neil Gaiman and China Miéville.

Amid the bustling streets of Spitalfields, East London, there is a piece of real estate with a bloody history. This was once Dorset Street: the haunt of thieves, murderers and prostitutes; the sanctuary of persecuted people; the last resort for those who couldn't afford anything else – and the setting for Jack the Ripper's murderous spree. So notorious was this street in the 1890s that policemen would only patrol this area in pairs for their own safety. This book chronicles the rise and fall of this remarkable street; from its promising beginnings at the centre of the seventeenth-century silk weaving industry, through its gradual descent into iniquity, vice and violence; and finally its demise at the hands of the demolition crew. Meet the colourful characters who called Dorset Street home.