Editing Isle of Dogs (section)

===Origins===
The Isle of Dogs is situated some distance downriver from the [[City of London]].  It was originally marsh, being several feet below water at high tide.  In the Middle Ages it was made available for human habitation by a process known in the Thames estuary as [[Embanking of the tidal Thames#Inning|inning]].  The reclaimed land was below high water, protected by earthen banks.<ref>{{cite book|editor-last=Hobhouse|editor-first=Hermione|chapter=The Isle of Dogs: Introduction|title=Survey of London: Volumes 43 and 44, Poplar, Blackwall and Isle of Dogs|year=1994|location=London|publisher=British History Online|url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vols43-4/pp375-387}}</ref>  These banks if not properly kept up were liable to be breached.  This happened in 1448, drowning the land for 40 years.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Croot|first=Patricia|year=1997|title=Settlement, Tenure and Land Use in Medieval Stepney: Evidence of a Field Survey c. 1400|journal=The London Journal|volume=22|issue=1|pages=1–15|doi=10.1179/ldn.1997.22.1.1}}</ref>

In 1660, the river started to break through the neck of the peninsula, initiating [[meander cutoff]]. This was arrested by human intervention, but it left a 5-acre lake called [[Poplar Gut]].  It appears on [[John Rocque]]'s 1746 ''Map of London and ten miles around'', in the extract reproduced in this article.
{{main|Embanking of the tidal Thames#The great breach, or Poplar Gut}}

One road led across the Marshes to an ancient ferry, at Ferry Road. There was rich grazing on the marsh, and cattle were slaughtered in fields known as the ''Killing Fields'', south of Poplar High Street.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}

The western side of the island was known as ''Marsh Wall'', and the district became known as ''Millwall'' with the building of the docks, and from the number of [[windmill]]s constructed along the top of the flood defence.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}