London's Docklands: A History of the Lost Quarter, Fiona Rule (Ian Allen Publishing, Hersham, Surrey, first published 2009, this impression 2012, £8.99, 336pp., paperback ISBN 978 0 7110 3716 8

Two or three generations ago the London docks employed over 100,000 men and the area was dominated by the Port of London which stretched along the Thames from the City to Tilbury.  The waterside industry had existed from Roman times but this way of life came to an end in the late 20^th century.  There remains the larger docks held to be too expensive to develop.

Fiona Rule is the author of several well respected studies of London and this volume vividly records the rise and fall of the docklands.  She deploys with considerable skill the evidence left by the people who worked there from Census records to personal interviews, from archaeological records to newspaper articles, diaries and histories.  She is much to be commended for recording before it is too late the history of the eastern end of London.  It is a tour de force with a select bibliography, a competent index and attractive illustrations including a map of the Thames showing the enclosed docks.