Sailortown

In 1852 the reverend Thomas Beames wrote of the area around the docks:

“Go there by day and every fourth man you meet is a sailor… Public houses abound in these localities… fitted up with everything which can draw sailors together… in a third class of house were professional thieves … they were evidently preying upon the drunken sailors whose ill luck had led them to places where they were little acquainted.”

The Sailortown gallery is the Museum’s second full size reconstruction. Stepping through the doors the visitor is transported back 150 years to the dark, winding streets of Wapping in the 1840s and 1850s. The gallery attempts to recreate the contemporary description of the area: “both foul and picturesque” – the area was a maze of streets, lanes and alleys catering to the men ashore from vessels from all over the world.

Those brave enough to enter Sailortown will find themselves confronted with the wild animal emporium, alehouse, sailors’ lodging house, chandlery and more, all of which surrounded the docks 150 years ago.