Albert Road is a spinal route running parallel to this stretch of the Thames, which served the substantial commercial and residential development built around the Royal Docks during the late nineteenth century. Parts of the road were either in North Woolwich, Kent, or East Ham, Essex, originally having sequences of street numbering in two directions, but all is now within the London Borough of Newham. This view shows Frederick Cottage, believed to have been at the eastern end of Albert Road in a small group of buildings including the local Police station with offset frontage to accommodate the crescent shape of the road. They were on the north side of road between today's Station Street, since separated from Albert Road, and Milk Street. The plaque in the brickwork above the ground floor bay window shows it was built in 1892 and it appears from the double entrance doors that it was divided into two dwellings, the 1901 census showing number 16 to be the home of a coal weigher's family, and 16A a hydraulic worker's family, both with male boarders working presumably at the docks. The cottage has ornate features including a corniced frontage, part-leaded windows, and decorative iron railings to the front boundary wall.
