Editing Wapping (section)

===Origins===
[[File:Stepney Civil Parish Map 1870.png|thumb|229x229px|Wapping was made up of two parishes: [[St George in the East (parish)|St-George-in-the-East]] and St John of Wapping.|left]]

Formerly, it was believed that the name ''Wapping'' recorded an Anglo-Saxon settlement linked to a personal name ''Waeppa'' ("the settlement of Waeppa's people").<ref>Waeppa's People – a History of Wapping by Madge Darby – {{ISBN|0-947699-10-4}}</ref> More recent scholarship discounts that theory: much of the area was marshland, where early settlement was unlikely, and no such personal name has ever been found.  It is now thought that the name may derive from ''wapol'', a marsh.<ref>"Stepney: Settlement and Building to c.1700." in ''A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 11, Stepney, Bethnal Green'', ed. T F T Baker (London: Victoria County History, 1998), 13–19.  ''British History Online'', accessed 1 May 2017, {{cite web |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol11/pp13-19 |title=Stepney: Settlement and Building to c.1700 &#124; British History Online |access-date=2017-11-24 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201032752/http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol11/pp13-19 |archive-date=1 December 2017 }}.</ref>

Wapping was historically part of the [[Stepney#Manor and Ancient Parish|Manor and Parish of Stepney]]. By the 17th century, it formed two autonomous Hamlets, a Hamlet in this context refers to an autonomous area of a parish rather than a small village. The northern Hamlet was known as ''Wapping-Stepney'', as it was the part of Wapping within Stepney, the riverside part was known as ''Wapping-Whitechapel'' as it was the part within the parish of [[Whitechapel]], a parish which was previously also a part of the parish of Stepney.

These Hamlets later became independent parishes, with ''Wapping-Stepney'' becoming known as [[St George in the East (parish)|St-George-in-the-East]] (in 1729) and ''Wapping-Whitechapel'' known as St John of Wapping (in 1694). The latter occupied a very narrow strip along nearly all of Wapping's riverside.<ref>'Stepney: Early Stepney', in A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 11, Stepney, Bethnal Green, ed. T F T Baker (London, 1998), pp. 1–7. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol11/pp1-7 [accessed 9 September 2022].</ref>

The Wapping parishes were part of the [[Historic counties of England|historic (or ancient) county]] of [[Middlesex]], but military and most (or all) civil county functions were managed more locally, by the [[Tower division|Tower Division (also known as the Tower Hamlets)]].

The role of the ''Tower Division'' ended when Wapping became part of the new [[County of London]] in 1889. The County of London was replaced by Greater London in 1965.