Moving to Wapping
My adventure began in 1990 with a move to Wapping in East London. It would not have been the same if I had moved anywhere else in London. Walking the streets built in Roman times was awe-inspiring. The Docklands still had remnants of churches bombed during WWII, and public restrooms constructed during the Victorian period. As I walked through those cobbled streets, I would imagine life in Wapping during Victorian times or dodging doodle bugs during WWII.
One night the sounds of firetrucks were very close. Everyone rushed to see what fire might take from this unique area. Sadly, it was a church built hundreds of years ago and served as the burial site for Bubonic Plague victims. The church was barely standing after WWII, bombed by the Germans. I could only imagine the extensive history of that church. That ruined church stayed for several years reminding everyone in Wapping of its past. The wedding of the TV show Friends was filmed in the church but soon after the Developers came in, tearing it down to replace it with expensive flats.
The many beautiful cobbled streets through Wapping provided for a song of tires thumping down the streets. I think of it as the heartbeat of Wapping. These streets remained dark even during daylight. The three and four-story converted warehouses either side made for a tunnel, not allowing light in. Sunlight did not enter those streets no matter the time of day.
As I walked down Wapping Lane or Wapping High Street, I could weave in and out of the Chemist, the Newsagent, the Green Grocer, and the Butcher. All were on one side of the street while the other had the Off License selling alcohol, the Betting Shop and, our favorite, The White Swan and Cuckoo Pub. Many Sundays were spent at the pub where the best beer and bowls of Cockles and Mussels sat on every table. A beautiful Sunday Lunch consisted of Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding. The cooks never disappointed. Life was pure there, and no one needed to go off those two lanes for any of their needs.
The Doctor’s Surgery was just up the High Street, near Turner’s Old Star Pub. Cockney’s would hang around the front of the Doctor’s Surgery for the latest gossip. Locations were always described in relation to a pub. There were many pubs in 
Wapping and many of them notorious. Turner’s Old Star was where Joseph Mallord William Turner would visit his mistress and paint in the attic during the late 1700s and early 1800s. 
There was the Prospect of Whitby, the oldest river pub. There was the Towne of Ramsgate Pub where dastardly deeds were done. There was a post on Execution Dock where men were tied for three rise and falls of tides. Their limp, dead body was removed serving as a reminder to those who contemplated criminal activity. There was a second post where severed heads were placed after someone was Hung Drawn and Quartered. At night in the dim light, there were Jack the Ripper Tours creeping through Wapping.
It sounds like it could have been a dire area, but the opposite was the case. The Cockneys of Wapping were a proud group. They had lived through the London Blitz, leaving their streets in ruins. They heard doodlebugs overhead day and night. They understood “tough times.” I even envisioned walking through the bomb craters with Queen Elizabeth, the wife of King George, who paid a visit during the war. She just wanted to see how the Dockers were faring. It must have been a magical day for the Cockneys.
I heard many stories of The Krays, a gangster set of brothers who both took and gave. They were dangerous gangsters, but when it came to taking care of children in hospitals, there was no shortage of cash. They must have considered it as a redistribution of wealth. There were so many characters living on the streets of Wapping. There was Frank the Hat, who was impeccably dressed and always wore a hat. He had been a Lightweight Boxer in his past, so as he spoke with you, he would bob and weave as if to dodge a possible punch. There was a Rag and Bones Man who wandered the streets looking for junk to sell to the unsuspecting man on the street. While in the pub one Sunday, he noticed my prosthesis as he ran outside and rushed back in with an oil can. He thought he had found a buyer, but I told him it was all ok and thanked him. There was a man behind the bar called Jim. He didn’t speak much, but one day he told us of his past life. Jim was sent to Pentonville Prison in London in the 1980s. He explained that he was in for armed robbery. Right before his release, a pedophile was sent into the general population. Jim could not tolerate that behavior, so he threw the pedophile from the top row of cells onto the floor. He didn’t stand a chance. As Jim explained, “It wuz wurf da extra years I got!” The Publican was large, with red hair and an accent difficult to understand, from Scotland. Karl had some great parties we attended at New Year or Hogmanay. It was by invitation only, and the pub was packed. There were bagpipers, haggis, scotch, and all the trimmings.
As the developers came in, Wapping became more and more trendy. We moved from our townhome of four floors on a man-made canal to a beautiful flat on the Thames. The building had been a Rubber and Tea Warehouse built in 1851, bombed during WWII, and continued as a working warehouse until the 60s when the docks were closed. We were perfectly positioned being on the turning basin of the Thames. All ships were turned around by massive tugs in the basin before being pulled up the river to dock near Tower Bridge. We were on the ground level and watched as many ships passed, including the Queen’s Yacht, the HMY Britannia, on its last voyage before retiring to Edinburgh in 1997. It was amazing on New Year’s Eve of 1999 when we invited friends to a black-tie dinner celebrating the new Millennium. We stood on the balcony, waving as the queen passed in her yacht. There were cheers for miles and miles. Poppers were going off all night, and at midnight there were fireworks from the East End of London to Trafalgar Square. The following day we were going to Hampton Court to play Real or Tudor Tennis, and the streets were lined entirely with empty champagne bottles.
Our flat was stunning with a living and dining room, thirty feet by thirty feet and massive double dock doors onto a sixty-foot balcony. Across the river was the Mayflower Pub, where the pilgrims left to go to America. We would sometimes visit on Thanksgiving for a little irony. It was a beautiful place that I sometimes miss, but Wapping is not the same.
London has become so much larger with more office buildings and people. There was a toll enacted after we left, so going anywhere would have been very expensive. No matter where we went, we had to go through the toll area since we were so close to The City. We had a BMW Convertible so going through the Tower Bridge was breathtaking every trip. At night it became even more spectacular. We watched the filming of many movies during the night on Tower Bridge.
It was the end of January 2000 that we planned our move. John turned 60 on the 19th. I thought this the perfect time for a massive party, so I rented the restaurant in our building. They, too, had a beautiful balcony. Our friends came from The Netherlands, Wales, Scotland, France, and Belgium. It was the best send-off I could imagine. We had met friends early on with whom we had spent every Christmas Eve for ten years; two couples who will always remain friends. A couple moved into New Crane Wharf before we moved and have now moved near us in Florida. These are our “forever friends” and we value their friendships more than is imaginable.
We were leaving London and our dear friends heading for the Sunshine State of Florida.