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	up to 1918 The area’s history goes back to the mid 19th century when the marsh was claimed for dirty industry and poor housing. Capitalists and jerrybuilders wanted to expand and escape the bylaws developing for London. The area across the new lea Bridge came to what came to be called “London Without”. Brunell built hugeiron ships at the new Thames Iron Works where football team nicknamed the “the hammers” first emerged (with two payers transferred form the St. Luke's team). Frederick Engels marvelled at what he called the most advanced capitalism of its time. The Docks were dug in the 1870s and the expansion continued. The first communities to spring out of the marsh were Hallsville and Canning Town. From the start they were some of the worst living conditions ever built to scar the land. Dickens’s brother, a prominent social commentator of the time, described appaling conditions (see links). Despite paying the rates the local people did not benefit from drainage. They suffered stagnant open sewers and damp sub-standard housing. Mortality was much higher in these quarters.
	There were different responses to this misery. 1. Missions came to the area from the range of Christian bodies. The Church of England went out of its way to care for the local people and create support systems for the improvement of their lives. St. Luke’s was built in 1870 and it is no coincidence that the inscription above the main door says “Come unto me all ye that labour and I will find you rest”. 2. Some 30 years later when Kier Hardy founded, in Canning Town, the Labour Representation Committee to fight independently for the fights and conditions of the working people in Parliament. The First World War saw thousands enlist for the services and too many did not come back. It is a testament to the poverty of the area that the memorial erected could not afford to inscribe their names on it – perhaps there were too many?

		1940 to date History took another brutal turn for Canning Town in September 1940 when the docks were the focus for the worst aerial bombardment Britain saw. Civilian casualties were highest and the worst single incident was the Hallsville School tragedy where many mothers and children died waiting for their evacuation bus which had mistakenly gone to Camden Town rather than Canning Town. The bombing had destroyed swathes of poor housing and despite the national housing shortage it was decided that the remainder should be demolished. The policy to build a better future was put into effect in 1948 with the building of the Keir Hardie estate which consists of solid houses and blocks that remain perfectly serviceable today. The rest of the redevelopment was postponed until the 1960s when the A13 cut through the community and when the industrial building boom was at it height. Some of London’s worst post war housing was built including Ronan Point and its eight “sister blocks”. The explosion in Ronan Point (see link) in 1968 spelt the end of post war high rise building by councils. The blocks were a growing social problem until their decanting and demolition by 1990.
	Canning Town had always been a notoriously poor area. A huge army of largely immigrant labour was attracted to the docks and factories. This whole world came crashing down with the closure of the docks in the mid 1970’s and the relocation of industry out of London. The life blood ebbed from the area. Institutions abandoned the area including the Church of England - St. Luke's was abandoned in 1986. Canning Town became a deep pocket of deprivation and what is now called under-achievement. In 1973 one of the first sites the Home office chiose for its community developmet programme was Canning Town - there have been many initiatives since

	How the CH&CTCRP grew out of all this When the tall blocks were to be demolished in 1990 local tenants groups combined to form the TWA group (after Taylor Woodrow Anglia who built the blocks) to insist that the land vacated by the blocks be put to social use. An award winning "planning for real" exercise was undertaken and many novel ideas developed. Prince Charles’ vision of the urban village was taken up - it was felt that what this dormitory area lacked was a range of social and commercial facilities. However, at the time the property market hit rock bottom and there was no margin for planning gain and so the land made available was crammed with more housing. The tenants fought on with their ideas and were given 2 years money to attempt those objectives which had eluded them. With this money the tenants had established the Custom House and Canning Town Community Renewal Project by 1994. The aim then was to focus on area's of derelictionwith a plan to convert unwanted sites into socially useful spaces. Given the short time available the group drew up 4 specific objectives and agreed to work on nothing else. 1. Real training relevant to local people and that idea gave rise to Pitstop the Motor training project which was built with a borrowed structure on the site of some vandalised garages. After 10 years Pitstop still continues to serve.	RONAN POINT PHOTO
	2. A urban wasteland became the site of the group's summer garden schemes (5 years running) to keep children off the street and involved in nature. This site remains in an upgraded form. 3. One of the demolished blocks had left a burnt out community centre next to it. The idea developed that this should be rebuilt as a modern child care centre. By 2002 the CH&CTCRP had raised the required funds, built a modern facility (THE ABRAHAM NURSERY) and tenanted it with a charitable nursery provider (Bow Childcare). 4. The largest derelict asset in the area was the old St. Luke’s Church. The group decided to try and acquire this much loved building and use it as a site for all the social facilities that were needed in the area. After a long campaign St. Luke's was obtained for £1 by order of Her majesty's Privy Council. The Charity was able to harvest capital funds targeted for poor areas and redevelop the building. The first tenants moved in by 1998. In general the group has stuck to these objectives over several years and has made a success of each venture from the drawing board to the management of the new assets once built. By sticking to its guns the CH&CTCRP has become a reasonably successful social developer that is now self sustainable. However escalation of property prices made exponential by the opening of the Canning Town jubilee Line underground station has spelt the end of forgotten land and buildings that are available for such ventures.