The West and East India Docks would be built in 1802 for unloading cargo from both companies: spices from India (East India Company); and the occasional enslaved person, as well as goods like rum, sugar, and cotton from the British West Indies (Encyclopedia Britannica). These were the two companies that expanded the British Empire's reach. The Poplar Docks would've connected to the West India Docks to serve as a reservoir. Then it was converted into a timber pond (1844) and into a railway dock (1850-1851) to move coal around and export other goods (British History Online).

As mentioned above, the East India Company in particular served as the hand of the British Empire, not only getting in on the spice trade in India, but then partaking in the Transatlantic Slave Trade, in which they transported people from Africa to India and Indonesia, as well as to the Caribbean and the Southern United States (Alabama, Florida, Georgia) along the Middle Passage (Encyclopedia Britannica). India in particular would find itself completely kneecapped by the colonization of the British. India was effectively entirely conquered by the 1820s and supplying the Empire with raw materials like cotton, silk, saltpeter for gunpowder (Encyclopedia Britannica).

During this time, there would be an influx of immigrants from overseas who were poor. They would follow typical immigration patterns seen around the world - Irish, Eastern European, then Chinese, Indian, etc. - and work in occupations like bricklaying, factory work, unloading docks, servitude, etc. Around the 1880s would be an influx of Chinese, Japanese, and Lascar (from Somaliland, Indian Subcontinent, Arab World, Southeast Asia) immigrants, who would land in the Pennyfields section of Poplar and expand out as more and more people of that heritage worked on British ships. They would also build opium dens or brothels (British History Online).

Daniell, William. An Elevated View of the New Docks & Warehouses now constructing on the Isle of Dogs near Limehouse for the reception & accommodation of Shipping in the West India Trade. 1802. The British Museum, https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_G-13-17. Accessed 20 Apr. 2025. 

Editors, Encyclopedia Britannica. “East India Company.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 23 Jan. 2020, https://web.archive.org/web/20200910045538mp_/https://www.britannica.com/topic/East-India-Company. Accessed 20 Apr. 2025. 

Editors, Encyclopedia Britannica. "India - Colonialism, Mughal Empire, Trade | Britannica." Encyclopedia Britannica, upd. 24 Apr. 2025, https://www.britannica.com/place/India/The-British-1600-1740. Accessed 24 Apr. 2025. 

"Pennyfields". Survey of London: Volumes 43 and 44, Poplar, Blackwall and Isle of Dogs. Ed. Hermione Hobhouse (London, 1994), British History Online. Web. 24 April 2025. https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vols43-4/pp111-113. Accessed 24 Apr. 2025. 

"Poplar Dock: Historical development". Survey of London: Volumes 43 and 44, Poplar, Blackwall and Isle of Dogs. Ed. Hermione Hobhouse (London, 1994), British History Online. Web. 21 April 2025. https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vols43-4/pp336-341. Accessed 23 Apr. 2025.