The Isle of Dogs
The post war history of the Isle of Dogs is one of massive change. The heavy bombing of the Docks and related industries was followed within twenty years by the decline and closure of the Docks, and by the loss of a whole way of life for the people who lived on the Island. The government regeneration initiative, operated through the London Docklands Development Corporation, resulted in substantial and ongoing inward migration, with rapid building and transport development. The population grew by twenty percent between 1981 and 1991, and is expected to have risen a further sixty percent by 2011, ten times the rate forecast for inner London as a whole.
MilIwall falls within the five percent of most deprived wards in the country. Within the ward there are housing estates where the degree of deprivation is particularly high. Deprivation is reflected in low incomes, high unemployment, poor health, poor and overcrowded housing. There are signs of improvement, but some of these are the result of inward migration, not of actual changes in the circumstances of the people already living there.
Today the Island can be considered as having three populations, as a result of the massive changes of the past twenty years. There are two new populations. The first is formed from the substantial influx of professional middle class people buying or renting new homes in the private sector, and working in Docklands or the City. The second new population, as a result of changes in social housing policy and availability, is a smaller but significant influx of some of London's most deprived people, many of whom are from ethnic minorities. These two new populations have joined a community of mostly white and low skilled people who have felt, and continue to feel, alienated by the changes. This contributed to the election of a British National Party candidate for the ward in 1994, and to continuing tensions around class and cultural differences.
The Church
There has been a Roman Catholic place of worship on the Isle of Dogs since 1846. The origins of that early church are obscure, but there can be little doubt that it was established to cater for the growing industrial population of the Island, which by 1851 reached five thousand, originating from all parts of the British Isles. It was called St Edward's and stood in Moiety Street, towards the northern end of West Ferry Road. It is referred to as a "school chapel" in the history books, and was served first from Wade Street Chapel and after 1856 from St Mary & St Joseph, Poplar.
By the 1870's St Edward's had become too small and dilapidated to serve its congregation. Cardinal Manning described the old church as having had "a broken roof, unglazed windows and cracked walls". Now, as he gave his address at the opening ceremony of the first new St Edmund's in August 1875, the Cardinal found himself in "a magnificent building", a new brick building with a semi-circular high apse, uniquely decorated with painted murals depicting scenes from the lives of saints. The new church could accommodate two hundred and fifty people, and had come into being through what Cardinal Manning described as "the individual exertions of an energetic, zealous and self-denying priest". This was Father Biemans, the first rector, one of a number of Dutch and Flemish priests who worked in the East End in that period.
The first St Edmund's served the Island's Roman Catholic community into the twentieth century, through two World Wars and changing economic fortunes. The church, its caring workers, its youth activities, are all deeply rooted in Island traditions, as a host of anecdotal evidence bears witness.

The Isle of Dogs developed during Victorian times, and many of the buildings had foundations below the level of high tide. St Edmund's was no exception. By Christmas 1994 the parishioners had to accept that the faults caused by subsidence could no longer be corrected. A second "new St Edmund's" was required.