An industrial settlement hemmed in by the King George V Dock and the Thames. There is speculation that this could have been the original Woolwich, later lending its name to the settlement across the river. Wool from Essex sheep may have been landed or traded here by the Saxons. North Woolwich was mentioned in Domesday Book of 1086 and for centuries was a detached portion of the county of Kent, and part of Woolwich parish. It consisted of virtually uninhabited marshland, used only as water meadows, until the arrival of the railway in 1847 and the introduction of a steam ferry service to the Royal Arsenal on the opposite bank of the river. Two years later its early growth halted when Woolwich itself gained a railway connection, although the establishment of a pleasure park in 1853 generated some day-tripper traffic. Created by the entrepreneur William Holland, the North Woolwich Gardens boasted the largest dance stage in London. East Ham council took the park into public ownership as the Royal Victoria Gardens in 1890. The building of the Royal Docks, culminating in the completion of the King George V in 1921, brought factories and workers’ housing to North Woolwich. Like other out-of-the-way places there was the usual emphasis on noxious industries. A new station opened in 1979 and the old building is now a railway museum.