'Poplar' takes its name from the black poplar trees that once flourished here.
Then part of Stepney, the place was first recorded in either 1327 or 1350. The black poplar is a very rare, exceptionally large tree that grows well in wet ground, which the Thames and the Lea once brought to much of the area. In 1986 the naturalist Oliver Rackham still found a single one struggling for life nearby.