In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Ratcliffe like this:
RATCLIFF, a hamlet, a chapelry, and a sub-district, in Stepney and Limehouse parishes, Stepney district, Middlesex. The hamlet lies on the river Thames, opposite the Pool, and on the Blackwall railway, 2¼ miles E by S of St. Paul's, London; was anciently called Red-clyve or Redcliff; took that name from a quondam cliffybank of the Thames; was a mere village, inhabited chiefly by seafaring men, in the time of Camden; suffered devastation by fire in 1794; is now a compactsuburb of the metropolis; has a main street, formerly called Ratcliff Highway, and formerly planted on each side with elm-trees; contains Albert-square, York-square, and Regent's canal basin; and has a post-office‡ under London E, a church, several dissenting chapels, a literary institution, several public schools, and a workhouse. ...
The church was built in 1838, at a cost of £4,000; is in the early English style; and contains 1,022 sittings. The literary institution was established in 1839, and belongs to a body of shareholders. The hamlet comprises 78 acres of land and 11 of water in Stepney, and 35 acres of land and 8 of water in Limehouse. Real property, £52, 578; of which £1,084 are in the railway . Pop. in 1851, 15, 212; in 1861, 16, 874. Houses, 2, 246. The chapelry is less extensive than the hamlet, and was constituted in 1839. Pop. in 1861, of the Stepney portion, 6, 518; of the Limehouse portion, 1, 927. Houses, 881, and 191. The living is a p. curacy in the diocese of London. Value, £300.* Patron, the Bishop of London. The sub-district is conterminate with the hamlet.
The location is where the name "Ratcliff" appears on the modern 1:25,000 map.
Ratcliffe through time
Ratcliffe is now part of Tower Hamlets district. Click here for graphs and data of how Tower Hamlets has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Ratcliffe itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Ratcliffe, in Tower Hamlets and Middlesex | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/1796
Date accessed: 26th April 2024
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