Named after a mud chute: mud dredged from Millwall Dock was dumped here.
The docks, built in the 1860s, had to be dredged regularly to stop them silting up. A novel pneumatic device, designed by the dock engineer Frederic Eliot Duckham, pumped the liquefied mud through a pipe over East Ferry Road. Official documents first spelt the name 'Mud Shoot'. The mud stank terribly, and Poplar Borough Council complained that it caused disease.