History
Historically North Woolwich consisted of two nearby tracts of land, totalling 412 acres (1.7 km2), situated on the north bank of the River Thames. The western detached part was surrounded on three sides by the parish of East Ham and the eastern portion bordered East Ham to the west and Barking Town to the north.
The now disused North Woolwich railway station, which was closed in preparation for future transport developments which will use sections of the line, is situated adjacent to the ferry terminal. An extension of the Docklands Light Railway to the area opened in December 2005. Until 2009, this terminated at King George V; a further extension south of the river, to Woolwich Arsenal, opened in 2009. This situation means that North Woolwich now sports two old station buildings. The closed North London Line station is adjacent to an earlier station which closed in 1979; this has housed the Old Station Museum since 1984, which is devoted to the history of the Great Eastern and London and North Eastern railways.
Administratively, North Woolwich was part of Kent at least since the Norman Conquest when one of William the Conqueror's lords, Hamon, was granted land on both sides of the Thames at this spot, probably to enable him to enjoy the taxes from cross-river traffic. It lay in the parish of Woolwich and later the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich, but was absorbed into the London Borough of Newham in 1965 when Woolwich south of the Thames became part of the London Borough of Greenwich. It is unique in Outer London in being part of the County of London before 1965. The population peaked just before the First World War, and reduced substantially in the Second World War when it was heavily bombed.
The area was formerly the site of industries including the cable works of W T Henley (later AEI) and the Western Electric Co (later STC) on the river to the west of the ferry, and a large Harland & Wolff ship repairing shop at Gallions Point to the south of the King George V Dock entrance lock (not to be confused with their works at the western end of the dock).
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“Every generation rewrites the past. In easy times history is more or less of an ornamental art, but in times of danger we are driven to the written record by a pressing need to find answers to the riddles of today.... In times of change and danger when there is a quicksand of fear under men’s reasoning, a sense of continuity with generations gone before can stretch like a lifeline across the scary present and get us past that idiot delusion of the exceptional Now that blocks good thinking.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
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—Ellen Glasgow (1874–1945)
“The history of the genesis or the old mythology repeats itself in the experience of every child. He too is a demon or god thrown into a particular chaos, where he strives ever to lead things from disorder into order.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)