Plaque: Captain Cook - The Highway
Captain James Cook, "The ablest and most renowned navigator this or any country hath produced" lived in a house a few yards from this spot, 126, Upper Shadwell, 1763 - 1765.
Stepney Historical Trust
Site: Captain Cook - The Highway (1 memorial)
E1, The Highway, 326, Free Trade Wharf
We thank our colleague Alan Patient for braving The horrible Highway to bring these pictures back to us (although, miraculously, he seems to have found a day with little traffic.)
The plaque gives Cook's address as 126 Upper Shadwell. Horward's 1799 map gives house numbers, and 126 Upper Shadwell was on the north side of what is now The Highway, 10 houses to the west of what is now Brodlove Lane.
126 Shadwell was Cook's first married home after he wed Elizabeth Batts in 1762. In 1763 they moved to the Mile End Road house.
