Wapping

Map

The overlays that highlight 17th century London features are approximate and derived from Wenceslaus Hollar’s maps:

Open location in Google Maps: 51.507432, -0.063352

7 Annotations

First Reading

Pedro  •  Link

Wapping.

At this time there was a tavern in Wapping called the Six Stars, from which a Captain Jacob Johnson wrote to Coventry to assist in obtaining redress for losses. He had been captain of the Dutch ship The Golden Lyone, taken by Holmes.

Second Reading

Bill  •  Link

Wapping, a hamlet of St. Mary, Whitechapel, on the Middlesex side of the River Thames, a little below The Tower, "and chiefly inhabited by seafaring men and tradesmen dealing in commodities for the supply of shipping and shipmen." It was originally a great wash, watered by the Thames, and was first recovered in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Stow calls it "Wapping in the Wose" (really Wapping in the Ooze), signifying as much, says Strype, "as in the wash or in the drain." The usual place of execution for pirates was at "Wapping in the Wose."
---London, Past and Present. H.B. Wheatley, 1891.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Capt. John Taylor was one of the foremost shipbuilders of his day. He built the London in 1657 and her successor the Loyal London 1666. Like many shipbuilders he was unversed in theory of naval architecture. He served as Master-Shipwright at Chatham under the Commonwealth until he was replaced in 1660 at the instigation of the Duchess of Albemarle by Phineas Pett. He then resumed business as a private shipbuilder and timber merchant with a yard at Wapping. So apparently he lived at or near the yard.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

[In the 18th Century) when a sailor returned after a voyage he’d be on the ran tan ashore just as fast as he could. The main area was Wapping, roughly from where the Tower of London is until the river bends. It was a maze of tiny streets and alleys, with names like Cat’s Hole, Shovel Alley, the Rookery, Dark Entry and so on. A wider road called Ratcliffe Highway ran through it, lined with shops, taverns, ship’s chandlers, doss houses and so on. It still exists, now called simply ‘The Highway.’ Every shop had a sailor’s lodgings above it and every kind of sharp practice was used to part the sailor from his hard-earned silver.

For more about London, 50 years after the Diary -- see http://englishhistoryauthors.blog…

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References

Chart showing the number of references in each month of the diary’s entries.

1661

1663

1664

  • Jan
  • Feb
  • Apr

1665

  • Aug

1666

1667