Place Name
Part of the Aberfeldy Village Estate, the land of which had been bought for £192 an acre in 1813 by Hugh McIntosh, a Scottish civil engineering contractor, from East India Docks. At first much of the property remained untouched. According to the Survey of London: Poplar, Blackwall and Isle of Dogs: “Apart from the eight houses of Lea Place built in the 1820s, it was some 50 years before the McIntoshes exploited their land in building. Farming, market-gardening and the fattening of cattle were presumably at least as remunerative as building, until Canning Town across the Lea increased the demand for workers’ houses here.” It was under David McIntosh that the land began to be developed with builder John Abbott. Some of the street names on the estate have a Scottish theme after the McIntosh’s homeland, in this case Ettrick a small village in the Scottish Borders area. The origins of the name itself, which pre-date Celtic or Anglian languages, have long been forgotten. Nearby are Culloden Street and Dee Street.
