Editing Wapping (section)

==Landmarks==
[[File:Wapping old stairs 1.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Wapping Old Stairs]]

Perhaps Wapping's greatest attraction is the Thames foreshore itself and the venerable public houses that face onto it. A number of the '[[watermen's stairs]]', such as Wapping Old Stairs and Pelican Stairs (by the Prospect of Whitby), give public access to a [[littoral]] zone (for the Thames is tidal at this point) littered with flotsam, jetsam and fragments of old dock installations. The area is popular with amateur archaeologists and treasure hunters. This activity is known as [[mudlark]]ing; the term for a shore scavenger in the 18th and 19th centuries was a mudlark.

''St George in the East'', on Cannon Street Road, is one of six [[Hawksmoor]] churches in London, built from 1714 to 1729, with funding from the [[Commission for Building Fifty New Churches]]. The church was hit by a bomb during [[the Blitz]] and the original interior was destroyed by the fire, but the walls and distinctive ''pepper-pot'' towers remained intact.  In 1964, a modern church interior was constructed inside the existing walls for the active congregation and a new flat built under each corner tower. Behind the church lies St George's Gardens, the original cemetery, which was passed to Stepney Council to maintain as a public park in mid-Victorian times. At the outbreak of the Second World War, the [[crypt]] of the church was used as a [[Air-raid shelter|public air raid shelter]] and was fully occupied when the aforementioned bomb struck; there were no casualties and everyone was evacuated safely, thanks to the [[Air Raid Warden|air raid wardens]] and [[fire brigade]].

[[St John's Church, Wapping]], the oldest church in Wapping, built in 1756 by Joel Johnson, was also hit by a bomb during [[WWII]]. The distinctive lead-topped tower remains and the former churchyard is a public park. Adjoining the church is St John's Old School, founded c.1695 for the new parish and rebuilt together with the church in 1756.

[[File:Wapping gibbet 1.jpg|thumb|right|Though [[Execution Dock]] is long gone, this gibbet is still maintained on the Thames foreshore by the Prospect of Whitby public house]]

The ''[[Execution Dock]]'' was located on the [[Thames]]. It was used by the [[Admiralty (United Kingdom)|Admiralty]] for over 400 years (as late as 1830) to hang [[pirates]] that had been convicted and sentenced to death by the [[Admiralty court]]. The Admiralty only had jurisdiction over crimes on the sea, so the dock was located within their jurisdiction by being located far enough offshore as to be beyond the low-tide mark. It was used to kill the notorious [[Captain Kidd]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.shadwatch.co.uk/wapping_history_01.htm|title=Wapping History|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090315000501/http://www.shadwatch.co.uk/wapping_history_01.htm|archive-date=15 March 2009}}</ref> Many prisoners would be executed together as a public event in front of a crowd of onlookers after being paraded from the [[Marshalsea Prison]] across [[London Bridge]] and past the [[Tower of London]] to the dock.

[[File:PirateWapping.JPG|thumb|Wax figure of a pirate hanged at [[Execution Dock]]. [[Madame Tussauds]], London]]

[[Tobacco Dock]] is a [[Listed building|Grade I listed]] warehouse, adjacent to The Highway. It was constructed in approximately 1811 and served primarily as a store for imported tobacco. In 1990, it was converted into a shopping centre at a development cost of £47 million with the intention to create the "[[Covent Garden]] of the East End"; the scheme was unsuccessful though and went into administration. Since the mid-1990s, the building has been almost entirely unoccupied; it is now occasionally used for filming, and for large corporate and commercial events.

Three venerable [[public house]]s are located near the Stairs. By Pelican Stairs is the ''[[Prospect of Whitby]]'', formerly the Devil's Tavern,<ref>{{cite book|last=Lincoln|first=Margarete|title=Trading in War: London's Maritime World in the Age of Cook and Nelson|year=2018|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=9780300235388|page=16}}</ref> which has a much-disputed claim to be the oldest Thames-side public house still in existence.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.timeout.com/london/bars-pubs/prospect-of-whitby|title=Prospect of Whitby|work=Time Out London|date=25 March 2015 |url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150727071146/http://www.timeout.com/london/bars-pubs/prospect-of-whitby|archive-date=27 July 2015}}</ref> Be that as it may, there has been an inn on the site since the reign of [[Henry VIII]] and it is certainly one of the most famous public houses in London. It is named after a then-famous collier that used to dock regularly at Wapping. A replica of the old Execution Dock gibbet is maintained on the adjacent foreshore, although the actual site of Execution Dock was nearer to the ''[[Town of Ramsgate]]''. This also is on the site of a 16th-century inn and is located next to Wapping Old Stairs to the west of the ''Prospect''; by Wapping Pier Head – the former local headquarters of the [[HM Customs and Excise|Customs and Excise]].

Situated halfway between the two is the ''[[Captain Kidd (pub)|Captain Kidd]]'', named after the [[Scotland|Scottish]] privateer [[William Kidd]]. He was hanged on the Wapping foreshore in 1701 after being found guilty of murder and piracy.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historytoday.com/richard-cavendish/execution-captain-kidd|title=Execution of Captain Kidd|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180515192928/https://www.historytoday.com/richard-cavendish/execution-captain-kidd|archive-date=15 May 2018}}</ref> Although the pub occupies a 17th-century building, it was only established in the 1980s.