| AdminHistory | John Soanes and Co., as manufacturers of rope, line and twine, were one of many similar companies doing business in the Stepney area throughout the 19th century and servicing the marine and heavy industries. The rope merchant Samuel Soanes (d.1845), with whom John went into co-partnership at one point, is buried in Tower Hamlets Cemetery. He owned part of the land on which the cemetery was built. The company acquired two addresses - 18 Broad Street, Ratcliff, and 218, Bow Common Lane. The company is listed in several editions of the Post Office Directory (POD). It occupied premises in Broad Street, Ratcliffe in 1843; 1873 and 1875. In 1889, it is absent from the Directory.
218 Bow Common Lane, is a detached Regency-style villa, which was originally built as a country residence. It is now a locally listed building known as The Ropery and predates other properties in what became the Ropery Street Conservation Area, most of which date from around the 1870s. Early directory entries list John Soanes as a rope and twine maker, based at this address. The 1881 Census records the household as being occupied by Susan Soanes, described as a rope manufacturer. Nowadays, the building faces on to the Ropery Street Conservation Area, declared by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets Council in 1987. Until the late 19th century, the area now covered by the Conservation Area, was open farm land. This locality developed as rope works as other industries were established along Bow Common Lane, leading to Bow Common.
Sources of information:
Ropery Street Conservation Area (2007): Appendix D : Conservation Area Appraisal & Management Guidelines (LBTH).
Grace's Guide To British Industrial History. |