Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for RATCLIFF

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.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a hamlet, a chapelry, and a sub-district"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Ratcliffe CP/Hmlt       Stepney RegD/PLU       Middlesex AncC
Place names: RATCLIFF     |     REDCLIFF     |     RED CLYVE
Place: Ratcliffe

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