A district of London, England, on the north bank of the Thames, which surrounds it on three sides. It falls within the metropolitan borough of Poplar. It is occupied by docks, riverside works and poor houses. The origin of the name is not known. The suggestion that it is corrupted from the Isle of Docks falls to the ground on the question of chronology; another, that there were royal kennels here, is improbable, though they were situated at Deptford in the 17th century. (See POPLAR.)