Have to mention, that the Canary in Canary Wharf comes from the Canary Islands (where the ships came from) and that name is from canaria which is the Latin for dog! So it hasn’t really changed name, just language!
Funny thing about the Canary Islands - there aren't any canaries there. The same thing can be said of the Virgin Isles. . . . . . . . There aren't any canaries there, either! #sorrynotsorry
Glad someone else mentioned this. The canary birds were named after the islands, which were named after the dogs (as in canine). Canines are also what the pointy fang-like teeth in your mouth are called.
As a resident of the Isle of Dogs, I think the hunting dog’s explanation is persuasive as the north bank of the Thames was forested and kings hunted deer there.
Just not in the bog you now live in, but up Epping way. why keep the Mutts in said Elbonian swamp when they are needed miles and miles away waay past Leytonstone... ;-)
Dogwood grows at the damp edges of woodland, and if the swampy land on the isle bordered the forested banks of the river, maybe there was a profusion of dogwoods growing there, leading to the name.
Doggers also gave their name to part of the North Sea, Dogger Bank, whose shallows provide excellent fishing grounds. It's now known that, up until about 6500 years ago, the bank was a flat piece of ground which researchers named Doggerland. When it existed, one could walk from England to Holland on dry land; and the Thames and the Rhine shared a massive river delta that drained into the English Channel.
Dogfish (or polymug, or cartilage shark or another name that was mentioned on winter watch yesterday ) or Huss was a cheap fish often consumed by poor Londoners
Another explanation I've heard or seen somewhere is that due to its position jutting into a large bend in the river, a lot of rubbish floating down from the City, about a mile upstream, would accumulate on the banks of the 'isle'. This would occasionally include human bodies, but much more commonly dead dogs. Do you suppose that when a medieval or Tudor Londoner's dog died they would bury it in their back garden (if they had one)? I think not. They would toss it into the Thames or one of its tributaries. The River Fleet was notorious for this: there is a famous passage in a poem by Pope, '...to where Fleet-Ditch with disemboguing streams / rolls the large tribute of dead dogs to Thames....' I don't know any explicit reference for this explanation of the name, but it seems as good as any, and better than some.
This brings to mind a van I saw for the company "Daily Fish". The sign writing on the van was very cheap. In fact it wasn't sign writing atall, it was just stick on letters. Anyway on this particular van the letter "F" had peeled off so the word read "Daily ish" which isn't a good look as it,all be inadvertently, suggests the fish might not be that fresh. Oh how we laughed.......no ?
Hi Jago, dogs is commonly used in naval terminology. Dogs are the latches thar close hatches and doors on ships. There are other uses as well but they are escaping me at the moment. Maybe there are multiple reasons why the name was established and stuck around. It's not always possible to reach a consensus on the origin of things when history is lost.
@@nemo6686 First dog, and the Last Dog. These are used to split watches in the 1 in 4 rotation system so sailors don't always have the same watches. We use it in the Canadian Navy.
One theory is that the land was so marshy very few people lived there. When ships sailed round the island all the sailors could hear was dogs barking and therefore it became known as the Isle of Dogs.
Makes sense . Dogs were feral not long ago and would talk to each other . I simply see it as a place where there were lots of dogs and therefore noteworthy for this when sailing .
So Canary wharf is named for the wharf that took fruit imports from the Canary islands. The canary islands are named after the dogs that lived there, the islands of the dogs. And now Canary wharf is on the Isle of Dogs. I'm now as dizzy as a dog chasing its tail.
And why is a Canary called a Canary? It looks nothing like a dog, unless there is a yellow dog with wings and feathers that has thus far escaped my attention!
I lived on the Isle of Dogs in the 80s before Canary Wharf arrived and was lead to believe by older locals that the name came from the fact that the Royals came over through the Tunnel on foot to walk their dogs away from prying eyes , and according to folklore they walked on the Mud Shute before it became an open farm. It was a fab place to live 10 stories above the Thames. Good Memories.
Mr Hazzard it is a real joy to see your videos, the way you navigate through various places with your banter really does crack me up 😀 thank you for taking the time to do these videos and stay safe, David 👍👍
and then there was Doggerland, an area now under the North Sea between England and The Netherlands. The area of sea is, I believe, called the Dogger Bank.
@@whyyoulidl "dogger, fisher, german bight..." I can't even guess how many decades it's been since i heard the shipping forecast, but I grew up with it - probably from birth
In April-time 2018, my wife Jackie & I with sister 👧🏼 Alexandra went to see the movie 🎦 “Isle of Dogs 🐩” on our annual trip to London. This movie 🎦 is set in Japan 🇯🇵 and it follows a boy's odyssey in search of his lost dog 🐕. Until today, I never 👎 actually knew there were such a place in London. This was my favourite 🤩 trip to London for my wife and I. In 2017, loooooooong story short, my mental health was shrouded in a thick dark cloud ☁️ and that trip to the big city 🏙️ made that said dark cloud disappear 🫥. That trip saw us going to St. Paul’s Cathedral and then onto the London Transport Museum. It was so liberating and refreshing for me. Due to a kitchen refurb, my sister 👧🏼 Alexandra & her husband Matt were living in a temporary penthouse-like place (address escaped me) and even to this day, I still have fond memories of that long weekend. As per usual, keep up 🆙 da good work, Sir Jago Hazzard. Keep ‘em videos rolling on. Can’t wait 😛 to hear 👂 da next “Tale From The Tube 🚇” vid.
@@whyyoulidl though this wasn’t the first trip to London. I’ve had many-a trip to London between 2011 & 2019. Of course, for obvious reasons we never 👎 went down there 👇 in 2020. In 2021, my sister Alexandra got a new job that sees her going between London & Cambridge. Well, I guess, that’s life.
When I lived in London, I remember somebody randomly explaining that "Dog" was another word for a sandbank. So the island was a collection of sandbanks. I haven't got anything to back that up, but it seemed plausible.
Fully appreciate and admire your dogged determination with making such excellent videos Jago. having lived there I always thought there was something fishy going on with the name of the area.
Dog can also mean some sort of mechanical device or support. Frequently a tooth like appearance. Which possibly leads one to suppose there might have been racks for trying fishing nets and from afar, may have resembled a small spikey forest. Just a thought. Also, Dogger bank is just offshore to the east and maybe a good area for fishing cod. John Fry has already mentioned the Canary Island / latin connection so which came first - the connection to the Canary isles to name Canary Wharf or somebody being clever with a latin Isle of Dogs reference? (I suppose if it had been a low level marshy area it could have been called Houndslow...or maybe not)
Many docks were named after the place that those docks traded with East India, West India, Russia etc. In the case of the Isle of Dogs, the trade was with the Canary Islands, which are not named after small birds but dogs. First recorded by the first century Roman historian Pliny the Elder as Canariae Insulae, meaning "Islands of the Dogs" .
That old map you show at the beginning has 'tally ho' written on it, which makes me think that at whatever time the map was made, hunting dogs was believed to be origin. Your mention of dogging reminded me of a clip on TH-cam from a British comedy where a guy has to explain to the lady he carpools with that when she uses the term to mean 'walking your dog' wasn't correct. Funny stuff as she comes to realize the truth.
Pedant's Corner: I was always told it was where Henry VIII used to exercise his hunting dogs rather than kennel them. I guess he was a bit nimbyish about hurtling canines?
There is a place North of Dulwich called Dog Kennel Hill and local legend has it that it was the location of Henry VIII's kennels. Seems a long way to take them for their exercise though.
Apparently, Wes Anderson was inspired to make 'Isle of Dogs' after he noticed road signs to the area while he was making 'Fantastic Mr Fox' at the nearby 3 Mills Studios.
Good vid.. note though that to those who live there, Canary Wharf is just north of the Isle of Dogs - the main dock from blue bridge roughly bisects the top of the penninsular; anything below that is on the island, anything above (north) of that is not. So South Quay DLR is on the isle of dogs, but the next stop Heron Quays, is not.
Wikipedia page for the Canarie Islands ' The name Islas Canarias is likely derived from the Latin name Canariae Insulae, meaning "Islands of the Dogs" ' Hence a direct connection with Canary Wharfe.
Jago, Jago, Jago, am always looking forward to your lighthearted, entertaining, informative videos. Never underestimate Jago folks, this chap will always find out something interesting or informative, or both I should say, about London, that you never knew or imagined, despite you living in London, maybe even near or somewhere nearby you've been or pass or go on a daily basis. Bravo Jago! 😊👍👏
I understood it was the base for dog boats which were small provisioning boats that supplied the crew while ships were in port. They were also called bum boats so the place could have been called the Isle of Bums.
There was once a photo of a sign that I think was at the Isle of Dogs end of the Greenwich foot tunnel that read "Welcome to the Isle of Dogs" and in good old British humour style someone had written "Your Welcome to it".
My family are originally from the Isle of Dogs. If you want to know why it’s called that, you need look no further than the occupants of various bus stops and DLR platforms on a Friday night… :)
My issue with the notion that it was a king who kept their dogs there, falls appart when you understand the contemporary difference between dogs and hounds. Canines that were owned by peasants were called dogs. They were bread to do a job. Canines that were owned by nobility were called hounds, and they were bread for entertainment. Fun facts, at various times, hounds had a higher social status than peasants.
A dogger or dogman is also someone who does dogging and rigging which includes balancing, securing and rigging up loads to be lifted by a crane and instructing the crane operator. Also blocking/lashing loads such as to the deck of a ship. I've heard the tie down points referred to as dogs but that might be a local thing. You are required to have a certificate of proficiency in dogging.
I thought dogman was an Aussie term. Banksman is the UK term as far as I know... What any of this has to do with the IoD I have no idea but well done Jago for creating the scene for the best set of comments I've seen for a while!
@@bernardsmith1329 it could well be. I've heard banksman too. Like many things attributed to be unique terminology of the antipodes it's usually derived from something used only in a specific region in the UK or that was once widely used but has fallen out of widespread use.
Used to live on the Dogs. Went to college there before the DLR opened, having no idea I’d end up moving there a few years later. Narrowly missed the bomb. Walked past it 20 minutes before it went off.
Thanks Jago, interesting as ever. Another potential origin of "dogger" as related to Dogger Bank in the North Sea: The name Dogger Bank was first recorded in the mid-17th century. It is probably derived from the word "dogger" used for a two-masted boat of the type that trawled for fish in the area in medieval times. The area has similar names in Dutch, German, and Danish. It's also a term in geology, as in 'Doggerland'. It is also an alternative name given to the Middle Jurassic Epoch (161-176 my).
This origins story would be off-topic -- except you do show Southend Pier at 2:30. So: Within the northern central part of the town of Southend-on-Sea is the neighborhood of Prittlewell. Originally, Prittlewell was the main settlement. When it grew southwards, the new portion was know as the South End (of Prittlewell). Eventually the South End became Southend and it greatly expanded to swallow up Prittlewell and other nearby villages such as Leigh-on-Sea, to the west.
Prittlewell, the name I believe originating from the well of the Prittle Brook as it ran at the bottom of the hill where St Mary's church sits atop. I remember as a child there was a hand jacked water pump on the opposite side of the road close to the entrance to Priory Park.
Don’t forget that “dogger” is a shipping forecast zone on Radio 4… My gran was born in Rotherhithe and talked about the destruction of Canary Wharf during the blitz, when it was a lumber yard. 😢
Yet another nice video! Any chance on making a video about some of those inventive, and strangely beautiful opening bridges to be found in the Canary Wharf vicinity, please?
The way English place names have evolved / been corrupted over the years is a fascinating subject and of course you can put forward wild theories as it is difficult to dispute. As ever, excellent work, Jago.
The security office windows in the kennels for the patrolling Group 4 guys cannot have curtains fitted at 1 Canada Square. There are only Blinds for the Guard Dogs.
So as someone else said, the Canary part of Canary Wharf refers to the fact the area once had trade with the Canary Islands as vegetables and fruits from there were unloaded. The name of the islands comes from the name the Romans gave to the islands, Canariae Insulae. Meaning "Islands of the Dogs". This is because when Europeans first got to the islands, they were met with lots of large dogs! So contrary to popular belief, canaries are named after the islands, not the other way around! As someone of Canarian descent (my great grandma is from there), this fact is something I love to correct people on.
I visited the Isle of Dogs one evening in the early '80s. It was just docklands then, but a lot of business had already moved out. I went to a party at a house that was being renovated, not far from the Magnet and Dewdrop Pub, which stood like a lone beacon in the area. That house is probably worth a lot now.
I'm old enough to have been at sea long before containers were thought of and back to the days when we used derricks to load and discharge. When the hook was down the hatch in the hold, it was out of sight of the two winchmen. The Dogger used to stand at the hatch, look down and give the winchmen hand signals as to what to do in order to have the hook in the right place. Hence an island where there was a lot of cargo being worked would need a lot of doggers. as already pointed out, dogs are used to secure openings. Most commonly a metal handle that rotated but we also used to use metal bars and wedges to dog the hatches. Dogger Bank gets its name from the two masted Dutch fishing boats..
"Dog Leg" often refers to a river or road which has a long curve and then takes a sharp turn in the opposite direction. I can see the Isle of dogs being the central place of a couple of dog legs in a river.
Thank you for this one. I always find myself thinking, it might have to do with the name at some point being misheard or so. Like with Ducks instead of Dogs. But I wonder, might it also actually have been the Isle of Docks, not Dogs. But I'm not too sure on the historic timings: I guess, Docks hadn't appeared there in the 16th Century, or had they?
I was wondering that, but it looks (from the maps in particular) as if the names is ancient and the docks came a lot later, when shipping was struggling to fit into London and facing high wharf charges.
I salute this channel for another educational and entertaining piece. As a South Londoner, our version of the source of it’s name had a more humorous and less flattering interpretation.
I incline towards the idea that sailing ships coming up the Thames had to make short tacks or dog legs back and forth across the river to get around the bend.
Very apt that the Isle of Dogs is home to Canary Wharf because the Canary Islands take their name from the Latin name "Canariae Insulae", which means "Isle of Dogs". OK, it means "Islands of the Dogs", but it's close enough.
It's not the only one. The Black Isle in Scotland is similarly misnomered. And that one contains a place called Jemimaville, which sounds like it ought to be in Wyoming.
The hunting with dogs explanation seems logical to me as the prey are surrounded on three sides by water making hunting and management of a herd of deer, for example, much easier. Another benefit of keeping the dogs away from the palace in Greenwich is better peace and quiet. Thanks for the video.
Speaking of fish, has anyone ever suggested a derivation from the Dutch-originated fishing boat called a dogger, which gave its name to a large sandbank in the North Sea called Dogger Bank, which in turn eventually gave its name to a now-vanished island called Doggerland? Maybe a lot of doggers once docked there. (Speaking of which, has anyone also ever suggested a corruption of "Isle of Docks"?) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogger_(boat) Incidentally, the etymological origin of the word "dog" is still one of the greatest mysteries of the English language.
It's no coincidence that the Isle of Dogs is halfway between Hounsditch and Barking. Thereby hangs a tail... Paws for a moment to consider the possibilities.
The Mudchute wasn't named from the spoil generated by digging the docks (where did all that stuff go?), but from the material (mud) which accumulated in them and was dredged out of the docks to maintain navigability.
I don't know what happened to the spoil from the Millwall Docks original construction, but the mud from subsequent dredging was deposited just to the east. This created the large flat-topped hill now occupied by Mudchute Park and City Farm.
An alternative to the dog story is that the Isle of Dogs is a corruption of Isle of Docks. The Docklands section is nearby. Canary Wharf (Canary Dock) is also nearby. Latin for Isle (Island) of Dogs is Insula Canum.
Not sure but I think it's got something to do with being made into an island by man-made canals (all canals are man-made, Simon) at the top of the peninsula turning it into an artificial island. I'm sure someone who knows better than me on the subject could give us some more examples of created islands.
Well you convinced me that the Royal hunting dogs story is codswallop. What monarch is going to kennel their hunting dogs in a swamp ? Also a pack of hunting hounds on a Tudor ferry sounds like a lot of fun.
I’m going with the suggestion of fish! We have a Dogger Bank off the East Yorkshire coast which was shallow and easy to catch fish but there are a few wrecks now.
Peter Trudgill in The New European #326 gives another explanation. (I received my copy a few days after you posted your video - coincidence?) There were small boats called barks, which were commonly used round the London docks. The name Isle of Dogs was originally given to a small island across from the Royal Docks at Deptford. This was where ships were berthed. So an island with a lot of barks could quite possibly end up being called the Isle of Dogs
My favorite theory is that it was called the Isle of Docks, due to the large number of docks on the island. With a thick cockney accent "Dock" sounds like "Dog". So the island where there are docks becomes the island of docks becomes the Island of Dogs. The lack of literacy at the time meant that communications were normally oral and a mispronunciation in the local authority records could mean that it was never rectified and today we have the island of the dogs (ironically you try finding an apartment there that allows pets!)
A missed opportunity to start this video with a CinemaSins-style animated cavalcade of tweets all saying "Please tell us the derivation of 'Isle of Dogs'".
From the little available information about the Isle dogs the only reference to the area was Stepney marsh and an old Saxon map showing a small farm and not a dog in sight halfway up the peninsular it was separated from the main land by a low marsh that would fill at high tide making it navigable and the Stepney marsh a virtual island, the name stepney is a short version of a longer unpronounceable saxon name of a person, all very interesting but sadly no dogs certainly made me barking mad.
an old work mate of mine used to live "on the isle" as they called it, and this in the 80's. They use to say is was named after the Iles du Canard, so we have that corruption to either Canary Islands OR the latin for dogs Canaria ? Lost in the mists of time, but that what makes the great city so fascinating
As a scion of a hunting county (sorry, of THE hunting county) born and bred, we refer to hunting dogs only as "hounds", I'm sure that Londoners (where there is no hunting territory within many, many miles) would have followed suit. I think the fishing connection is far more plausible. That provokes the question: If hunting is out of the question in Middlesex, why is Houndsditch so called?
[fiction] In the national census of 1173 it was found that a disproportionate number of residents near Millwall were named Douglas. This fact was discussed at a table in the, now long since removed, public drinking house named The Dog and Bone. This phrase in the conversation, "this is veritably the island of Douglas" was misheard by the barman, (one Henry Forest) as "the isle of dogs". (Probably, not in small part due to the name of the pub.) Despite being corrected the publican often repeated that fable to promote the importance of the pub that he tenanted. Over the years it just became accepted truth.
Hi, Very good, as you say could have come from anywhere, ( what about down the road called Black Wall ,?? Get your mind round that!!) All the best Brian 😃
Have to mention, that the Canary in Canary Wharf comes from the Canary Islands (where the ships came from) and that name is from canaria which is the Latin for dog! So it hasn’t really changed name, just language!
I’m inclined to agree, although more videos on dogging would of course be welcome
Funny thing about the Canary Islands - there aren't any canaries there. The same thing can be said of the Virgin Isles.
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There aren't any canaries there, either!
#sorrynotsorry
Glad someone else mentioned this. The canary birds were named after the islands, which were named after the dogs (as in canine).
Canines are also what the pointy fang-like teeth in your mouth are called.
Interesting lead! It ties the whole thing together in a nice bow. Thanks for sharing.
@@bordershader 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
As a resident of the Isle of Dogs, I think the hunting dog’s explanation is persuasive as the north bank of the Thames was forested and kings hunted deer there.
Just not in the bog you now live in, but up Epping way. why keep the Mutts in said Elbonian swamp when they are needed miles and miles away waay past Leytonstone... ;-)
Dogwood grows at the damp edges of woodland, and if the swampy land on the isle bordered the forested banks of the river, maybe there was a profusion of dogwoods growing there, leading to the name.
Doggers also gave their name to part of the North Sea, Dogger Bank, whose shallows provide excellent fishing grounds. It's now known that, up until about 6500 years ago, the bank was a flat piece of ground which researchers named Doggerland. When it existed, one could walk from England to Holland on dry land; and the Thames and the Rhine shared a massive river delta that drained into the English Channel.
Dogfish (or polymug, or cartilage shark or another name that was mentioned on winter watch yesterday ) or Huss was a cheap fish often consumed by poor Londoners
This is what I assumed the name derived from.
The YT bots at it again - up popped a vid on The Lost World of Doggerland!
The interesting thing about Doggerland is that it was absolutely swarming with Pampas Grass.
I was wondering about the dogger bank, cheers. Learn multiple things every day in the comments of a jago video 😂
Another explanation I've heard or seen somewhere is that due to its position jutting into a large bend in the river, a lot of rubbish floating down from the City, about a mile upstream, would accumulate on the banks of the 'isle'. This would occasionally include human bodies, but much more commonly dead dogs. Do you suppose that when a medieval or Tudor Londoner's dog died they would bury it in their back garden (if they had one)? I think not. They would toss it into the Thames or one of its tributaries. The River Fleet was notorious for this: there is a famous passage in a poem by Pope, '...to where Fleet-Ditch with disemboguing streams / rolls the large tribute of dead dogs to Thames....' I don't know any explicit reference for this explanation of the name, but it seems as good as any, and better than some.
they normally put it in Hounsditch, which was sort of just outside the roman wall of London
@@highpath4776 I suppose Barking was too far? 🤔
@@aprilsmith1166 better than upton park
@@highpath4776 So we get 2 plausible placename derivations today for the price of 1 :)
The Holy river in India, the Ganges, is also well known for human corpses.
Not even for one moment did I ever think I would hear a reference to dogging in one of your videos, nearly spat my beer out laughing!
Likewise it lead to me learning a new bit of slang. It's not one that has made it across the Atlantic.
I hadn't realised that the w is pronounced and had always assumed that Marshwall has the first name Geoff.
Fenline Scouser
You're good !!
D'you mean like that cheerful chappy with a penchant for sliding along the floor on London underground platforms?
I used to live in an area of Cambridgeshire called the Isle of eels, now called the Isle of Ely.
This brings to mind a van I saw for the company "Daily Fish".
The sign writing on the van was very cheap. In fact it wasn't sign writing atall, it was just stick on letters.
Anyway on this particular van the letter "F" had peeled off so the word read "Daily ish" which isn't a good look as it,all be inadvertently, suggests the fish might not be that fresh.
Oh how we laughed.......no ?
@@simonwinter8839 Nosmo King.
@@hb1338 Anywhere on the Underground.
I presume that was low eels in the fens, rather than high eels.
More dogging stories, please
It's called dogging because of the type of women that turn up and I've just been cancelled !!
Whilst on the subject can
we have more Dyke stories.
Well that escalated quickly
@@PabloBD Can we have more escalator stories please.
More dogging videos, please.
Hi Jago, dogs is commonly used in naval terminology. Dogs are the latches thar close hatches and doors on ships. There are other uses as well but they are escaping me at the moment. Maybe there are multiple reasons why the name was established and stuck around. It's not always possible to reach a consensus on the origin of things when history is lost.
Fred Dibnah uses the term "dog" for a single hammered in bracket to suspend a ladder or gin wheel from.
@@nemo6686 Ah yes! Thank you both! I had forgotten about those. And I did so many of those watches in my 6 years at sea to booth!
@@nemo6686 First dog, and the Last Dog. These are used to split watches in the 1 in 4 rotation system so sailors don't always have the same watches. We use it in the Canadian Navy.
I'm glad you said it, I felt like it was the obvious answer; then again, what do I know?
@@nemo6686 We used to call them the dogs combined, or the first and last dogs when we stood 1 in 4 which was rare in the late 90's.
Fab vid as ever. “You are the dogger to my fish” is easily my favourite outro you e ever done.
"Anyway, here's Marshwall". -- Jago Gallagher
This was a very cool video on a London placename. :)
The Rough Guide to the Isle Of Dogs, avalible in the Library next to the Lonely Planet Guide to Uranus
One theory is that the land was so marshy very few people lived there. When ships sailed round the island all the sailors could hear was dogs barking and therefore it became known as the Isle of Dogs.
That sounds very plausible, could easily imagine it being home to a feral pack & another reason to avoid it.
Makes sense . Dogs were feral not long ago and would talk to each other . I simply see it as a place where there were lots of dogs and therefore noteworthy for this when sailing .
So Canary wharf is named for the wharf that took fruit imports from the Canary islands. The canary islands are named after the dogs that lived there, the islands of the dogs. And now Canary wharf is on the Isle of Dogs. I'm now as dizzy as a dog chasing its tail.
And why is a Canary called a Canary? It looks nothing like a dog, unless there is a yellow dog with wings and feathers that has thus far escaped my attention!
@@2760ade Canary birds were bought back from the Canary islands by the Spanish and acquired the name.
@@94Angelwing Oh, I didn't know that! Makes sense.😀
@@2760ade In Spanish they are the Isla Canarias - in fact Canaries are named after the islands not the other way round!
The Canary islands are named for the Latin for dogs, Canaris. There might be a link there.
I lived on the Isle of Dogs in the 80s before Canary Wharf arrived and was lead to believe by older locals that the name came from the fact that the Royals came over through the Tunnel on foot to walk their dogs away from prying eyes , and according to folklore they walked on the Mud Shute before it became an open farm. It was a fab place to live 10 stories above the Thames. Good Memories.
It's a Prison
My grandmother lived there (Alpha grove) and when she did she never called it the Isle of Dogs,she called it the Island like most other islanders
Mr Hazzard it is a real joy to see your videos, the way you navigate through various places with your banter really does crack me up 😀 thank you for taking the time to do these videos and stay safe, David 👍👍
and then there was Doggerland, an area now under the North Sea between England and The Netherlands. The area of sea is, I believe, called the Dogger Bank.
....and an infamous announcement on the nightly shipping forecast 👍🏿
@@whyyoulidl "dogger, fisher, german bight..." I can't even guess how many decades it's been since i heard the shipping forecast, but I grew up with it - probably from birth
In April-time 2018, my wife Jackie & I with sister 👧🏼 Alexandra went to see the movie 🎦 “Isle of Dogs 🐩” on our annual trip to London. This movie 🎦 is set in Japan 🇯🇵 and it follows a boy's odyssey in search of his lost dog 🐕. Until today, I never 👎 actually knew there were such a place in London. This was my favourite 🤩 trip to London for my wife and I. In 2017, loooooooong story short, my mental health was shrouded in a thick dark cloud ☁️ and that trip to the big city 🏙️ made that said dark cloud disappear 🫥. That trip saw us going to St. Paul’s Cathedral and then onto the London Transport Museum. It was so liberating and refreshing for me. Due to a kitchen refurb, my sister 👧🏼 Alexandra & her husband Matt were living in a temporary penthouse-like place (address escaped me) and even to this day, I still have fond memories of that long weekend. As per usual, keep up 🆙 da good work, Sir Jago Hazzard. Keep ‘em videos rolling on. Can’t wait 😛 to hear 👂 da next “Tale From The Tube 🚇” vid.
@@soundshifterx my sister Alexandra lives there and she likes 👍 it.
Thx for sharing that; glad your trip to London blew away the heady clouds and left some nice memories 🤗
@@whyyoulidl though this wasn’t the first trip to London. I’ve had many-a trip to London between 2011 & 2019. Of course, for obvious reasons we never 👎 went down there 👇 in 2020. In 2021, my sister Alexandra got a new job that sees her going between London & Cambridge. Well, I guess, that’s life.
When I lived in London, I remember somebody randomly explaining that "Dog" was another word for a sandbank. So the island was a collection of sandbanks. I haven't got anything to back that up, but it seemed plausible.
... prob where the role of a Banksman got it's name; there's a comment somewhere here about what a Dogger's workload entailed.
I think this is probably the most likely explanation for the name. Ships would be docked on the dogs and at low tide be accessible.
Fully appreciate and admire your dogged determination with making such excellent videos Jago. having lived there I always thought there was something fishy going on with the name of the area.
Dog can also mean some sort of mechanical device or support. Frequently a tooth like appearance. Which possibly leads one to suppose there might have been racks for trying fishing nets and from afar, may have resembled a small spikey forest. Just a thought. Also, Dogger bank is just offshore to the east and maybe a good area for fishing cod.
John Fry has already mentioned the Canary Island / latin connection so which came first - the connection to the Canary isles to name Canary Wharf or somebody being clever with a latin Isle of Dogs reference?
(I suppose if it had been a low level marshy area it could have been called Houndslow...or maybe not)
I was born an bred in Greenwich, I was always told it was because, the Canary Islands - Canaris being Roman for Dog.
Isle of canaries, but the wharf is named for the islands that are named for canine dogs.
I'm learning so much from your videos
Many docks were named after the place that those docks traded with East India, West India, Russia etc. In the case of the Isle of Dogs, the trade was with the Canary Islands, which are not named after small birds but dogs. First recorded by the first century Roman historian Pliny the Elder as Canariae Insulae, meaning "Islands of the Dogs" .
This did give me PAWS for thought (sorry )
Please stop BARKING these jokes, they're HOUNDING me!
@@heidirabenau511 no worries mate ill TAIL them off
Marsh Wall runs across the island to the north of Millwall dock.
I get giddy every time Jago is in my ends.
That old map you show at the beginning has 'tally ho' written on it, which makes me think that at whatever time the map was made, hunting dogs was believed to be origin.
Your mention of dogging reminded me of a clip on TH-cam from a British comedy where a guy has to explain to the lady he carpools with that when she uses the term to mean 'walking your dog' wasn't correct. Funny stuff as she comes to realize the truth.
Unfortunately, it's "Folly Ho." (that is, Folly House). Built by one Thomas Davers in the 1740's, converted into a pub, and demolished in 1875.
This has to be the most wholesome video that talks about doggers
Never knew about this island! Thanks for explaining Jago!
Pedant's Corner: I was always told it was where Henry VIII used to exercise his hunting dogs rather than kennel them. I guess he was a bit nimbyish about hurtling canines?
What do the pedantic consume midmorning ?
Irrelevances !!
There is a place North of Dulwich called Dog Kennel Hill and local legend has it that it was the location of Henry VIII's kennels. Seems a long way to take them for their exercise though.
@@robertb7918 methinks old Henry VIII needed to take a bit of exercise 😆
Apparently, Wes Anderson was inspired to make 'Isle of Dogs' after he noticed road signs to the area while he was making 'Fantastic Mr Fox' at the nearby 3 Mills Studios.
Good vid.. note though that to those who live there, Canary Wharf is just north of the Isle of Dogs - the main dock from blue bridge roughly bisects the top of the penninsular; anything below that is on the island, anything above (north) of that is not. So South Quay DLR is on the isle of dogs, but the next stop Heron Quays, is not.
Wikipedia page for the Canarie Islands ' The name Islas Canarias is likely derived from the Latin name Canariae Insulae, meaning "Islands of the Dogs" ' Hence a direct connection with Canary Wharfe.
Was that Aunty Mary's Canary?
I had to paws this video as my phone rang. However, I didn’t take the call, as there was no collar ID 🐶
Jago, Jago, Jago, am always looking forward to your lighthearted, entertaining, informative videos. Never underestimate Jago folks, this chap will always find out something interesting or informative, or both I should say, about London, that you never knew or imagined, despite you living in London, maybe even near or somewhere nearby you've been or pass or go on a daily basis. Bravo Jago! 😊👍👏
I understood it was the base for dog boats which were small provisioning boats that supplied the crew while ships were in port. They were also called bum boats so the place could have been called the Isle of Bums.
The fish connection feels right to me. But we should rename it Dogger's Island just for laughs. Ok its not an island.
What you said about the fish though f-eels right 😆
There was once a photo of a sign that I think was at the Isle of Dogs end of the Greenwich foot tunnel that read "Welcome to the Isle of Dogs" and in good old British humour style someone had written
"Your Welcome to it".
@@David_Crayford
No ,"your".Were, sorry we're talking what was actually written here.
You say you've been hounded! Take no notice, they're barking mad! Just flea from them!
My family are originally from the Isle of Dogs. If you want to know why it’s called that, you need look no further than the occupants of various bus stops and DLR platforms on a Friday night… :)
This is disrespectful to dogs.
@@demonmonsterdave it’s a fair cop… :)
London is also blessed with the canine friendly appellations of Barking, Houndsditch and perhaps even Hounslow.
My issue with the notion that it was a king who kept their dogs there, falls appart when you understand the contemporary difference between dogs and hounds. Canines that were owned by peasants were called dogs. They were bread to do a job.
Canines that were owned by nobility were called hounds, and they were bread for entertainment.
Fun facts, at various times, hounds had a higher social status than peasants.
last line, still do
A dogger or dogman is also someone who does dogging and rigging which includes balancing, securing and rigging up loads to be lifted by a crane and instructing the crane operator. Also blocking/lashing loads such as to the deck of a ship. I've heard the tie down points referred to as dogs but that might be a local thing. You are required to have a certificate of proficiency in dogging.
I thought dogman was an Aussie term. Banksman is the UK term as far as I know... What any of this has to do with the IoD I have no idea but well done Jago for creating the scene for the best set of comments I've seen for a while!
@@bernardsmith1329 it could well be. I've heard banksman too. Like many things attributed to be unique terminology of the antipodes it's usually derived from something used only in a specific region in the UK or that was once widely used but has fallen out of widespread use.
@@mrfreddyfudpucker2185 I like your work - keep it up.
Used to live on the Dogs. Went to college there before the DLR opened, having no idea I’d end up moving there a few years later.
Narrowly missed the bomb. Walked past it 20 minutes before it went off.
It blew my auditor's office and all the accounting documents out of the window and away into the street. As I told the inland revenue
@@highpath4776 The Isle of Dogs ate it.
Thanks Jago, interesting as ever. Another potential origin of "dogger" as related to Dogger Bank in the North Sea: The name Dogger Bank was first recorded in the mid-17th century. It is probably derived from the word "dogger" used for a two-masted boat of the type that trawled for fish in the area in medieval times. The area has similar names in Dutch, German, and Danish. It's also a term in geology, as in 'Doggerland'. It is also an alternative name given to the Middle Jurassic Epoch (161-176 my).
This origins story would be off-topic -- except you do show Southend Pier at 2:30. So:
Within the northern central part of the town of Southend-on-Sea is the neighborhood of Prittlewell. Originally, Prittlewell was the main settlement. When it grew southwards, the new portion was know as the South End (of Prittlewell). Eventually the South End became Southend and it greatly expanded to swallow up Prittlewell and other nearby villages such as Leigh-on-Sea, to the west.
Prittlewell, the name I believe originating from the well of the Prittle Brook as it ran at the bottom of the hill where St Mary's church sits atop. I remember as a child there was a hand jacked water pump on the opposite side of the road close to the entrance to Priory Park.
Don’t forget that “dogger” is a shipping forecast zone on Radio 4…
My gran was born in Rotherhithe and talked about the destruction of Canary Wharf during the blitz, when it was a lumber yard. 😢
3:05 i like this photo. Nice composition. Those old cranes are fantastic !:-)
I can't see the shot of Tower Bridge without thinking of the pictures from when Cranes lined the banks on each side.
And then there's the Fascinating Aïda song on dogging.
Time traveller from the future named it The Isle of Dogs since it resembled The Isle of Dogs.
Yet another nice video!
Any chance on making a video about some of those inventive, and strangely beautiful opening bridges to be found in the Canary Wharf vicinity, please?
The way English place names have evolved / been corrupted over the years is a fascinating subject and of course you can put forward wild theories as it is difficult to dispute. As ever, excellent work, Jago.
My favourite is "Saint Olav Street" -> "Tooley Street" in just 400 years...
@@stefansoder6903 The Latin verb "to carry" conjugates fero, ferre, tuli, latum.
Who but Jago could create a video about the origin of a name, that doesn’t actually gives the answer, but is still a great watch.
The security office windows in the kennels for the patrolling Group 4 guys cannot have curtains fitted at 1 Canada Square. There are only Blinds for the Guard Dogs.
The dogs have some uncommon carpentry skills. At a word of command one makes a bolt for the door.
@@PMA65537 Wooden bolts ?
Ludicrous number of shots out the outside of the building I’m supposed to be working in. But an actually watching Jago videos
So as someone else said, the Canary part of Canary Wharf refers to the fact the area once had trade with the Canary Islands as vegetables and fruits from there were unloaded. The name of the islands comes from the name the Romans gave to the islands, Canariae Insulae. Meaning "Islands of the Dogs". This is because when Europeans first got to the islands, they were met with lots of large dogs! So contrary to popular belief, canaries are named after the islands, not the other way around! As someone of Canarian descent (my great grandma is from there), this fact is something I love to correct people on.
I visited the Isle of Dogs one evening in the early '80s. It was just docklands then, but a lot of business had already moved out. I went to a party at a house that was being renovated, not far from the Magnet and Dewdrop Pub, which stood like a lone beacon in the area. That house is probably worth a lot now.
I'd go as far to say that house is probably the dogs bow-lochs
House prices on the Isle of Dogs are generally quite low; it is the glitzy flats in the high rise towers that command the silly inflated prices.
I think he bought the house for next to nothing and renovated it himself, so maybe still a good investment for him.
I'm old enough to have been at sea long before containers were thought of and back to the days when we used derricks to load and discharge. When the hook was down the hatch in the hold, it was out of sight of the two winchmen. The Dogger used to stand at the hatch, look down and give the winchmen hand signals as to what to do in order to have the hook in the right place.
Hence an island where there was a lot of cargo being worked would need a lot of doggers.
as already pointed out, dogs are used to secure openings. Most commonly a metal handle that rotated but we also used to use metal bars and wedges to dog the hatches.
Dogger Bank gets its name from the two masted Dutch fishing boats..
"Dog Leg" often refers to a river or road which has a long curve and then takes a sharp turn in the opposite direction. I can see the Isle of dogs being the central place of a couple of dog legs in a river.
Thank you for this one. I always find myself thinking, it might have to do with the name at some point being misheard or so. Like with Ducks instead of Dogs. But I wonder, might it also actually have been the Isle of Docks, not Dogs. But I'm not too sure on the historic timings: I guess, Docks hadn't appeared there in the 16th Century, or had they?
I was wondering that, but it looks (from the maps in particular) as if the names is ancient and the docks came a lot later, when shipping was struggling to fit into London and facing high wharf charges.
Ah Isle of Dogs. What a place. What a film also.
I salute this channel for another educational and entertaining piece. As a South Londoner, our version of the source of it’s name had a more humorous and less flattering interpretation.
I incline towards the idea that sailing ships coming up the Thames had to make short tacks or dog legs back and forth across the river to get around the bend.
Very apt that the Isle of Dogs is home to Canary Wharf because the Canary Islands take their name from the Latin name "Canariae Insulae", which means "Isle of Dogs".
OK, it means "Islands of the Dogs", but it's close enough.
Doesn't that make it meta?
Great video Jago
And which tricky fiend called a peninsula an Isle? This might be the bigger mystery.
It's not the only one. The Black Isle in Scotland is similarly misnomered. And that one contains a place called Jemimaville, which sounds like it ought to be in Wyoming.
The hunting with dogs explanation seems logical to me as the prey are surrounded on three sides by water making hunting and management of a herd of deer, for example, much easier. Another benefit of keeping the dogs away from the palace in Greenwich is better peace and quiet. Thanks for the video.
Speaking of fish, has anyone ever suggested a derivation from the Dutch-originated fishing boat called a dogger, which gave its name to a large sandbank in the North Sea called Dogger Bank, which in turn eventually gave its name to a now-vanished island called Doggerland? Maybe a lot of doggers once docked there. (Speaking of which, has anyone also ever suggested a corruption of "Isle of Docks"?)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogger_(boat)
Incidentally, the etymological origin of the word "dog" is still one of the greatest mysteries of the English language.
I've looked into this but boats working Dogger Bank would not be moored all the way up the Thames but would use East Anglia ports instead.
It's no coincidence that the Isle of Dogs is halfway between Hounsditch and Barking. Thereby hangs a tail... Paws for a moment to consider the possibilities.
use to go to West India docks and Millwall docks with my dad in the truck as a kid, in the mid/late 1960s never new it was the isle of dogs through
Canary wharf is an interesting place to go for walkies I've found.
I'm glad you did not resort to doggerel to explain.
The Mudchute wasn't named from the spoil generated by digging the docks (where did all that stuff go?),
but from the material (mud) which accumulated in them and was dredged out of the docks to maintain navigability.
I don't know what happened to the spoil from the Millwall Docks original construction, but the mud from subsequent dredging was deposited just to the east. This created the large flat-topped hill now occupied by Mudchute Park and City Farm.
@@Matthew-ut6ed In the middle of the 'largest hill on the island' is an old WW2 AA emplacement. The area is full of history!
In Seine one day, Barking the next, you must be dog tired with all the excitement.
Another day with Geoff Marshall and Jago Hazard publishing a video on the same day. I'm truly spoiled.
If you'd been to a local club on Ladies Night, you'd understand the name.
An alternative to the dog story is that the Isle of Dogs is a corruption of Isle of Docks. The Docklands section is nearby. Canary Wharf (Canary Dock) is also nearby. Latin for Isle (Island) of Dogs is Insula Canum.
Next, please do a video on why it's the "isle" of dogs and not the "peninsula" of dogs!
londoners cannot pronounce that , they struggle with isle
the dogs danglers does not feel right
Not sure but I think it's got something to do with being made into an island by man-made canals
(all canals are man-made, Simon)
at the top of the peninsula turning it into an artificial island.
I'm sure someone who knows better than me on the subject could give us some more examples of created islands.
@@simonwinter8839 Turkey is doing something in istanbul, see vid on it on YT, generally it would indeed be cuts for canals. drainage, or irrigation
@@simonwinter8839 Love Island?
Well you convinced me that the Royal hunting dogs story is codswallop. What monarch is going to kennel their hunting dogs in a swamp ? Also a pack of hunting hounds on a Tudor ferry sounds like a lot of fun.
Despite my name - I do not come from the Isle of Dogs
I’m going with the suggestion of fish! We have a Dogger Bank off the East Yorkshire coast which was shallow and easy to catch fish but there are a few wrecks now.
Peter Trudgill in The New European #326 gives another explanation. (I received my copy a few days after you posted your video - coincidence?)
There were small boats called barks, which were commonly used round the London docks.
The name Isle of Dogs was originally given to a small island across from the Royal Docks at Deptford. This was where ships were berthed. So an island with a lot of barks could quite possibly end up being called the Isle of Dogs
Sit tight for another enthralling tale.
Doggerland was named after the Dogger Bank, which in turn was named after 17th-century Dutch fishing boats called doggers. According to Wiki.
100% RESPECT: For working in “hounding” despite the lack of real life examples.
0:58 Henry didn’t want to hear his hounds barking
My favorite theory is that it was called the Isle of Docks, due to the large number of docks on the island. With a thick cockney accent "Dock" sounds like "Dog". So the island where there are docks becomes the island of docks becomes the Island of Dogs. The lack of literacy at the time meant that communications were normally oral and a mispronunciation in the local authority records could mean that it was never rectified and today we have the island of the dogs (ironically you try finding an apartment there that allows pets!)
The explanations are all so plausible. They must all be right.
A missed opportunity to start this video with a CinemaSins-style animated cavalcade of tweets all saying "Please tell us the derivation of 'Isle of Dogs'".
Did anyone else instantly think of Peter Kay's Car Share? lol
From the little available information about the Isle dogs the only reference to the area was Stepney marsh and an old Saxon map showing a small farm and not a dog in sight halfway up the peninsular it was separated from the main land by a low marsh that would fill at high tide making it navigable and the Stepney marsh a virtual island, the name stepney is a short version of a longer unpronounceable saxon name of a person, all very interesting but sadly no dogs certainly made me barking mad.
an old work mate of mine used to live "on the isle" as they called it, and this in the 80's. They use to say is was named after the Iles du Canard, so we have that corruption to either Canary Islands OR the latin for dogs Canaria ? Lost in the mists of time, but that what makes the great city so fascinating
I would propose an alternate theory relating it to the Dog Star, but it wouldn't be Sirius.
Dogstar - The band fronted by Keanu Reeves. No joke, I'm Sirius 😃
As a scion of a hunting county (sorry, of THE hunting county) born and bred, we refer to hunting dogs only as "hounds", I'm sure that Londoners (where there is no hunting territory within many, many miles) would have followed suit. I think the fishing connection is far more plausible. That provokes the question: If hunting is out of the question in Middlesex, why is Houndsditch so called?
[fiction] In the national census of 1173 it was found that a disproportionate number of residents near Millwall were named Douglas. This fact was discussed at a table in the, now long since removed, public drinking house named The Dog and Bone. This phrase in the conversation, "this is veritably the island of Douglas" was misheard by the barman, (one Henry Forest) as "the isle of dogs". (Probably, not in small part due to the name of the pub.) Despite being corrected the publican often repeated that fable to promote the importance of the pub that he tenanted. Over the years it just became accepted truth.
Hi, Very good, as you say could have come from anywhere, ( what about down the road called Black Wall ,?? Get your mind round that!!) All the best Brian 😃