Millwall
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the football team, see Millwall F.C..
Millwall is an area in London, on the western side of the Isle of Dogs, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.
It is just south of the developments at West India Docks including Canary Wharf. Its name comes from the presence of a large number of windmills on the river wall in the nineteenth century. Corn was brought along the River Thames to be ground into flour here, before being delivered to bakers who kneaded the dough.
Nearby places are Cubitt Town, West India Docks, Greenwich, and Poplar. The district is served by the Docklands Light Railway stations South Quay, Crossharbour and London Arena, Mudchute and Island Gardens.
Millwall is arguably most famous for its football club, Millwall F.C., founded in 1885 as "Millwall Rovers" and nicknamed "The Dockers", (changed to "The Lions" in 1900) which moved south of the river to New Cross in 1910, after occupying no fewer than four separate grounds in the 25 years since its formation as a football club. They now play in Bermondsey.
Like other parts of the Isle of Dogs, substantial redevelopment has been more or less ongoing since the 1980s, resulting in modern industrial and commercial buildings and hastily constructed contemporary housing beginning to dominate the remaining early 20th century "two up, two down" homes that once housed the dock workers and supporting communities of this area.
[edit] Politics
Millwall gained some notoriety when, in a council by-election in 1994, Derek Beackon won the British National Party's first council seat there. After a major anti-fascist campaign, the BNP lost the seat at the following full council election.
In September 2004, Tower Hamlets Respect fought its second council election in the borough - standing local activist Paul McGarr. In this previously solid Labour seat, Labour were pushed into third place, and the local Conservative party took its first ever seat on Tower Hamlets council. The Conservative vote had benefited from the large number of new riverside apartments aimed at much more wealthy homeowners. In the 2006 local elections, the Conservatives took all three seats, defeating former MP Alan Amos.
