Silvertown is  a small industrialised district located on the north bank of the Thames in the borough of Newham. The first factories to open in the area were India Rubber, Gutta Percha and Telegraph Cable Company opened by Samuel Winkworth Silver in 1852 from whom the district received its name. A number of manure and chemical works and petroleum storage depots were set up by the 1860s and in 1864 the area became an ecclesiastical parish of its own, centred on St Marks Church.

The Royal Victoria Dock and Pontoon Dock were opened in 1855, subsequently the Royal Albert Dock opened in 1880 and the King George V Dock in 1921. The Royal Victoria could take the new iron steam ships and raise ships into the Pontoon Dock. Sugar refineries were established by Henry Tate in 1877 and Abram Lyle in 1881 who merged in 1921 to create Tate and Lyle. The docks were the first to be connected to a railway system and by the 1930s many factories and industries had been established and Silvertown was known as the ‘warehouse of the empire’ as it imported raw materials from around the world and exported a large variety of manufactured goods, becoming the largest manufacturing site in the south of England, renowned for chemicals, engineering and food, besides Tate and Lyle, notable factories included Millennium Mills, a large flour mill of the southern side of the Royal Victoria Dock.