SHADWELL, a parish in the Tower division of the
hundred of OSSULSTONE, county of MIDDLESEX, 1 mile
(E. by S.) from London, containing 9557 inhabitants.
This parish is situated on the northern bank of the river
Thames, and comprises several streets, which are lighted
with gas, and supplied with water from the East (London
water-works. It is within the jurisdiction of the
New Police, the Thames Police Office, and a court of
requests held in Whitechapel. There are some roperies
in the parish. The living is a discharged rectory, in the
archdeaconry of Middlesex, and diocese of London,
and in the patronage of the Bishop of London. The
church, dedicated to St. Paul, is a handsome modern
edifice, the old structure having, within the last few
years, been taken down, and the present building erected
upon its site, but within the original foundations.
There are places of worship for Independents and Prir
mitive and Wesleyan Methodists. A parochial school,
in which forty-five boys, and thirty-five girls are instructed,
is supported by subscription. The British
Union school, instituted in 1816, in Shakspeare's walk,
affords instruction to four hundred and sixty boys,
and one hundred and eighty girls; it is conducted on
the Lancasterian plan, and is supported by voluntary
contributions. The Protestant dissenters' original charity
school was founded in 1712, and is situated in
Shakspeare's walk: since its institution, one thousand
five hundred and ninety-two boys have been received
and one thousand five hundred and twenty-two apprenticed;
at present there are seventy boys, who are
educated and clothed by subscription. A chapel is attached
to the institution. Thirty-one almshouses for the
widows of poor seamen, founded and endowed in 1713,
by Captain James Cooke and Alice his wife, are situated
in this parish.