Ratcliff
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Ratcliff or Ratcliffe is a former hamlet which now is a section of the contemporary city of London, England, and is located in Stepney near the River Thames.
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[edit] History
Ratcliffe in earlier times was also known as "sailor town". Located on the edge of Narrow Street on the Wapping waterfront it was made up of lodging houses, bars, brothels, music halls and opium dens. This overcrowded and squalid district acquired an unsavory reputation with a large transient population. In 1794 approximately half of the hamlet was destroyed in a fire but, even so, it continued as a notorious slum well into the nineteenth century. The hamlet was divided between the parishes of Limehouse and Stepney until 1866, when it was constituted a separate civil parish (as Ratcliffe). From 1855 it was administered by Limehouse District Board of Works, and in 1900 became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Stepney.[1]
The hamlet of Ratcliff covered 111 acres and had a Census population of: [2]
- 1801: 5,666
- 1811: 6,998
- 1821: 6,973
- 1831: 9,741
- 1841: 11,874
- 1851: 15,212
- 1861: 16,874
- 1871: 16,131
- 1881: 16,107
- 1891: 14,928
- 1901: 14,810
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ F A Youngs, Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol.I, London, 1979
- ^ Statistical Abstract for London, 1901 (Vol. IV).
