Place:Beckton, Essex, England

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Beckton is a suburban district in East London, England, within the London Borough of Newham and is located east of Charing Cross. Historically part of Essex, Beckton was unpopulated marshland adjacent to the River Thames until the development of major industrial infrastructure in the 19th century to support the growing metropolis of London. Housing was created in Beckton for workers of the gas and sewage works. Between 1981 and 1995 it was within the London Docklands Development Corporation area, which caused the population to increase as new homes were built and the Docklands Light Railway was constructed.

Local government

Beckton was located primarily in the parish of East Ham. It stretched into the ancient parish of Woolwich, which included land on the north bank of the Thames and the parish of Barking that included land to the west of the Roding. The parish boundary was also a county boundary, with Barking and East Ham in Essex and North Woolwich in Kent. In 1889 Woolwich became part of the County of London. In 1914 East Ham became a county borough, essentially a county in its own right, but ceremonially within Essex. In 1965 the London Borough of Newham was created and all three sections of Beckton became part of the new borough in Greater London.

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