Isle of Dogs

The Isle of Dogs is a peninsula in east London. Isle is a misnomer, as it is located in a horseshoe-shaped bend in the River Thames and is surrounded on only three sides by water. Greenwich faces the Isle across the Thames to the south.

From the 19th Century, many docks were built on the Isle. The location is ideal as access from and to the Thames is straightforward and the City of London is only a few miles upstream. The area was heavily bombed during World War II and later in the 20th century the docks became obsolete when containerised ports were developed. The last dock closed in 1980, by which time the area was severely dilapidated. In the 1980s the Isle of Dogs was declared an enterprise zone and huge investments were made in housing and commercial developments, including Canary Wharf.