A heavily residential locale in south Newham, this area sits adjacent to Canning Town in the west. The housing is a mixture of Victorian and 20th century terraces and post-war semis. King George V Park is a pleasant recreation ground with a farm on its eastern side where kids can enjoy the rarity of city cows, horses, ferrets and goats, with an attached café that sells produce. Meanwhile, Canning Town Recreation Ground features macadam tennis courts which operate on a pay and play policy. Cumberland School is the local secondary school just north of the area rated ‘good’ by Ofsted, and Scott Wilkie and Rosetta are two ‘good’ rated primary schools.

In many ways, Custom House and its surrounding residential neighbourhoods have been significant in the history of Britain and its Empire. In the 13th century, the docks at Custom House were called Wool Quay when wool was England’s major export. The following saw a customs building constructed on the river bank, giving the area its name. Taxes on imported goods thus constituted a large proportion of the Exchequer’s income throughout the early renaissance and then through the empire’s heyday as a military and trading power. Thus, the records and documents passed through Custom House chart Britain’s economic history through boom and bust. Paradoxically, and despite being a gateway for the country’s wealth, the quality of life within the area has had a dire narrative. The industrial revolution brought poverty and slums to the local population, most of whom worked on the docks. After the clearing of the slums, following the world wars, the council erected numerous tower blocks among which was Ronan Point – a 21-storey flat which partially collapsed only two months after its opening.

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Henry Tate was an entrepreneur who set up a sugar refining factory just south of the neighbourhood in 1878. Tate was born in Lancashire to a minister and after working as an apprentice to his brother, established a sizable business network in Liverpool by the age of 36. Specialising in cane refinery, Tate made the move down south to expand his venture. He was known locally as a warm-hearted man with a great sense of social responsibility. Employment in his refinery was a privilege–workers flocked from Europe, bearing the label ‘Tate’ in order to be directed to his factory. A bar and dance hall, named the Tate Institute, was established in the neighbourhood to entertain the labourers living locally. Though Abraham Lyle’s factory next door was competition for Tate at the time, a few decades after his death, the businesses merged to form Tate and Lyle. Throughout his life, the sugar magnate was a devoted philanthropist and art lover – he established the Tate Britain gallery in 1897 on the site of the old Millbank Prison.

Though currently the area is made up of only residential space, at one point during the 20th century there stood a stadium for what was once Great Britain’s largest racing track. West Ham Stadium was built in 1928 and was used for speedway and greyhound racing. The stadium stood here for half a century and in 1972 was sold for £475,000 for property redevelopment. Its legacy is slim, save for the handful of roads in the area named after former speedway champions such as Atkinson Road, Croombs Road and Young Road.

One notably lacking feature of this locale is the absence of amenities, besides a couple of fish and chips places and an off-licence. Those with a need for a weekly pub trip will be better off looking slightly north, nearer to Canning Town or Plaistow. The proximity to London City Airport and the noise that comes with it may also be an off-putting factor for some.

However, any want of local services is merely temporary, with a £111million injection committed to the area to build roughly five thousand new homes and improve public facilities over a five-year period. These developments are now well underway, with work happening on mostly council-managed sites, which are prevalent in much of this locale. The opening of the Elizabeth Line at Custom House station earlier this year is likely to have attracted yet more development as the heart of London is now less than a 15 minute train ride away. More controversially the Silvertown Tunnel is a road tunnel under construction between the Greenwich Peninsula and west Silvertown. Local groups and climate activists oppose the scheme, arguing that an increase in road capacity will worsen air pollution while doing nothing to alleviate traffic in the long term.