Virginia Quay Settlers Monument

Last updated March 23, 2023

The Virginia Quay Settlers Monument is a public monument in Tower Hamlets, London, to the first settlers of the Colony of Virginia who departed from here in 1606.^[1]^[2] The monument has its origins in a plaque erected on the Brunswick Dock master's house in 1928. The house was badly damaged by bombing during the Second World War and in 1951 the plaque was incorporated into a monument erected during development of the site into the Brunswick Wharf Power Station. The monument was designed by Harold Brown and consisted of rough-hewn granite blocks from the walls of the West India Docks surmounted by a bronze sculpture of a mermaid. The mermaid was later stolen. The monument was refurbished by Barratt Homes during redevelopment in 1999. A polished granite plinth was added and the mermaid replaced by a mariner's astrolabe sculpted by Wendy Taylor. The monument is currently located on the riverside facing the Millennium Dome.

Background

Viriginia Quay was originally known as Blackwall, a small and isolated settlement in marshy surroundings. A causeway led to the Blackwall Stairs, a slipway and staircase providing access to the river. It was used as a departure point for several explorers including Martin Frobisher for his second expedition to the north-west passage and associated with shipbuilding in the area.^[3] The site was the location for the departure of the expedition that founded the Colony of Virginia in the modern-day United States.^[4] The expedition's three vessels, the Susan Constant , Discovery and the Godspeed left from this point on 19 December 1606. The expedition went on to found Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas.^[5]

First plaque

Blackwall became the site of the Brunswick (East India Export) Dock in 1806.^[5] In 1928 a bronze plaque was erected on the dock master's house (Brunswick House, located around 100 yards (91 m) west of the current location of the monument) by an organisation named by Historic England as both the Society for the Protection of West Virginia Artefacts and the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities.^[4] The plaque recorded the departure from this site of "105 adventurers". It names the captains of the ships (Christopher Newport, Bartholomew Gosnold and John Ratcliffe) and mentions the founding of Jamestown in April 1607 by Captain John Smith, Edward Maria Wingfield and Robert Hunt. It also noted that Jamestown was the site, on 30 July 1619, of the first democratic assembly held in America (the House of Burgesses).^[4]

Monument

Brunswick House was damaged by German bombing during the Second World War and was later demolished. The plaque was saved and in 1951 added to a monument which was donated by the Port of London Authority.^[4] During this time the East India Export Dock was being backfilled to provide land for the Brunswick Wharf Power Station. The monument was designed by Harold Brown and consisted of a pile of rough granite blocks "hewn from the old quay wall of the historic West India Docks". It was topped by a bronze statue of a mermaid sat in a shell. The granite was meant to represent the resilience of the first settlers and the mermaid represented the "call of the sea".^[6] The monument was unveiled by the United States ambassador to Britain Walter Sherman Gifford. The mermaid was later stolen; it was recovered from auction around 2007 but not reinstated.^[4]

Renovation

The power station was demolished in 1988–89 and the site was later developed by Barratt Homes.^[3] In 1999 Barratt resited the monument onto a paved terrace on the riverbank, opposite the Millennium Dome.^[5]^[4] The missing mermaid was replaced by a bronze sculpture of a mariner's astrolabe, a navigation instrument the expedition would have used, designed by Wendy Taylor.^[4] Barratt also added a polished granite plinth with an inscription noting the work done and the relocation of the monument.^[4] The renovated monument was unveiled by the US ambassador to Britain Philip Lader in a ceremony supported by the Jamestowne Society and featuring a marchpast by pike and musket re-enactors.^[5]^[4] The site originally had three flagpoles which were used to fly two flags of the United States and the Union Flag; it now has four flagpoles which fly one of each of the flags plus the flag of England and the flag of Virginia.^[5]

Barratt themed their development around the association with Virginia. The streets were named after Jamestown, Newport and the Pilgrims. Later housing developments by the Ballymore Group at nearby New Providence Wharf also use Virginia-themed names.^[5]

The monument was granted statutory protection as a grade II listed building by Historic England on 9 March 2017. The organisation considers that as well as its own significance the monument has value in association with the statue of Pocahontas further downriver at Gravesend, Kent, (Pocahontas has been closely associated with Smith). Other nearby listed structures are also mentioned in the listing, including the Blackwall Engineering Dry Dock and the Blackwall Pier and entrance lock (belonging to the former East India Dock basin).^[4]

Related Research Articles

The Jamestown settlement in the Colony of Virginia was the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. It was located on the northeast bank of the James River, about 2.5 mi (4 km) southwest of the center of modern Williamsburg. It was established by the Virginia Company of London as "James Fort" on May 4, 1607 O.S., and was considered permanent after a brief abandonment in 1610. It followed several failed attempts, including the Lost Colony of Roanoke, established in 1585 on Roanoke Island, later part of North Carolina. Jamestown served as the colonial capital from 1616 until 1699. Despite the dispatch of more settlers and supplies, including the 1608 arrival of eight Polish and German colonists and the first two European women, more than 80 percent of the colonists died in 1609–10, mostly from starvation and disease. In mid-1610, the survivors abandoned Jamestown, though they returned after meeting a resupply convoy in the James River.

The Isle of Dogs is a large peninsula bounded on three sides by a large meander in the River Thames in East London, England, which includes the Cubitt Town, Millwall and Canary Wharf districts. The area was historically part of the Manor, Hamlet, Parish and, for a time, the wider borough of Poplar. The name had no official status until the 1987 creation of the Isle of Dogs Neighbourhood by Tower Hamlets London Borough Council. It has been known locally as simply "the Island" since the 19th century.

Poplar is a district in East London, England, now part of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Five miles (8 km) east of Charing Cross, it is part of the East End.

Canary Wharf is an area of London, England, located near the Isle of Dogs in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Canary Wharf is defined by the Greater London Authority as being part of London's central business district, alongside Central London. With the City of London, it constitutes one of the main financial centres in the United Kingdom and the world, containing many high-rise buildings including the third-tallest in the UK, One Canada Square, which opened on 26 August 1991.

Westferry is a station on the Docklands Light Railway (DLR), at the junction of Limehouse Causeway and Westferry Road in Limehouse in London Docklands, England. The station is located in Travelcard Zone 2. To the west is Limehouse station, whilst to the east the DLR splits, with one branch going to Poplar station and the other to West India Quay station.

Blackwall is an area of Poplar, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, East London. The neighbourhood includes Leamouth and the Coldharbour conservation area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greenwich Peninsula</span> Human settlement in England

The Greenwich Peninsula is an area of Greenwich in South East London, England. It is bounded on three sides by a loop of the Thames, between the Isle of Dogs to the west and Silvertown to the east. To the south is the rest of Greenwich, to the south-east is Charlton.

Originally called the Commercial Railway, the London and Blackwall Railway (L&BR) in east London, England, ran from Minories to Blackwall via Stepney, with a branch line to the Isle of Dogs, connecting central London to many of London's docks. It was operational from 1840 until 1926 and 1968, closing after the decline of inner London's docks. Much of its infrastructure was reused as part of the Docklands Light Railway. The L&BR was leased by the Great Eastern Railway in 1866, but remained independent until absorbed into the London and North Eastern Railway at the 1923 Grouping. Another branch was opened in 1871, the Millwall Extension Railway.

Poplar is a Docklands Light Railway (DLR) station in Poplar in London, England. Poplar is a cross-platform interchange station for three of the six lines on the DLR making it one of the busiest stations on the network in terms of services. It is also nearby the Canary Wharf Station on Crossrail's Elizabeth Line.

South Quay is a Docklands Light Railway (DLR) station on the Isle of Dogs, East London, England. The station is between Crossharbour and Heron Quays stations and is in Travelcard Zone 2. South Quay is in Millwall and is located on the southern shore of the South Dock of the West India Docks; the current station platforms sit astride the channel connecting Millwall Dock to the West India Docks.

Millwall Dock is a dock at Millwall, London, England, located south of Canary Wharf on the Isle of Dogs.

The East India Docks were a group of docks in Blackwall, east London, north-east of the Isle of Dogs. Today only the entrance basin and listed perimeter wall remain visible.

Historic Jamestown is the cultural heritage site that was the location of the 1607 James Fort and the later 17th-century town of Jamestown in America. It is located on Jamestown Island, on the James River at Jamestown, Virginia and operated as a partnership between Preservation Virginia and the U.S. National Park Service as part of Colonial National Historical Park.

Blackwall was a railway station in Blackwall, London, that served as the eastern terminus of the Commercial Railway. It was located on the south side of the East India Docks, near the shore of the River Thames, 3 miles 43 chains (5.7 km) down-line from the western terminus at Fenchurch Street.

Blackwall Yard is a small body of water that used to be a shipyard on the River Thames in Blackwall, engaged in ship building and later ship repairs for over 350 years. The yard closed in 1987.

Brunswick Wharf Power Station was a coal- and oil-fired power station on the River Thames at Blackwall in London. The station was planned from 1939 by Poplar Borough Council but construction only started in 1947 after the Second World War. It was decommissioned in 1984, and the site was redeveloped.

Jamestown Harbour is a low-density luxury housing development of 73 homes in Poplar in East London, situated between Poplar Dock and Blackwall Marina, and to the north of Wood Wharf. It is spread across three cul-de-sacs: Landons Close, Bridge House Quay, and Lancaster Drive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coldharbour, Tower Hamlets</span>

Coldharbour is a street and wider conservation area in Blackwall, lying on the north bank of the River Thames, east of Canary Wharf. The area is said to be "[t]he sole remaining fragment of the old hamlet of Blackwall" and "one of the last examples of the narrow streets which once characterised the river's perimeter".

Wendy Ann Taylor is an English artist and sculptor, specialising in permanent, site-specific commissions. According to her website, she 'was one of the first artists of her generation to “take art out of the galleries and onto the streets”'. Her work typically consists of large sculptures which are displayed to appear carefully balanced.

References

↑ Winn, Christopher (2010). I Never Knew That about the River Thames. Ebury Press. pp. 222–223. ISBN 978-0-09-193357-9.
↑ America's 400th Anniversary: The Quadricentennial Commemoration of the Founding of Jamestown 1607–2007: Final Report of the Jamestown 400th Commemoration Commission. Jamestown 400th Commemoration Commission. 2009. p. 76. ISBN 978-0-16-082096-0.
1 2 Survey of London volumes 43 and 44: Poplar, Blackwall and Isle of Dogs. London: London County Council. 1994. pp. 548–552.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Virginia Quay Settlers Monument, Non Civil Parish – 1442213". Historic England. Retrieved 26 January 2023.
1 2 3 4 5 6 Wemyss, Georgie (3 March 2016). The Invisible Empire: White Discourse, Tolerance and Belonging. Routledge. pp. 55–57. ISBN 978-1-317-02701-0.
↑ Survey of London volumes 43 and 44: Poplar, Blackwall and Isle of Dogs. London: London County Council. 1994. pp. 593–600.

External links

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Coordinates: 51°30′28.5″N0°0′1.3″E / 51.507917°N 0.000361°E / 51.507917; 0.000361

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[1] Winn, Christopher (2010). I Never Knew That about the River Thames. Ebury Press. pp. 222–223. ISBN 978-0-09-193357-9.

[2] America's 400th Anniversary: The Quadricentennial Commemoration of the Founding of Jamestown 1607–2007: Final Report of the Jamestown 400th Commemoration Commission. Jamestown 400th Commemoration Commission. 2009. p. 76. ISBN 978-0-16-082096-0.

[survey-3] 1 2 Survey of London volumes 43 and 44: Poplar, Blackwall and Isle of Dogs. London: London County Council. 1994. pp. 548–552.

[he-4] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Virginia Quay Settlers Monument, Non Civil Parish – 1442213". Historic England. Retrieved 26 January 2023.

[wemyss-5] 1 2 3 4 5 6 Wemyss, Georgie (3 March 2016). The Invisible Empire: White Discourse, Tolerance and Belonging. Routledge. pp. 55–57. ISBN 978-1-317-02701-0.

[survey2-6] Survey of London volumes 43 and 44: Poplar, Blackwall and Isle of Dogs. London: London County Council. 1994. pp. 593–600.

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