Until the building of the East India Dock Road in 1806, the only roads running north from Poplar High Street were Bow Lane, Robin Hood Lane and North Street. East India Dock Road’s arrival at the beginning of the nineteenth century started development planning.

The land to the north of Pennyfields as far as East India Dock Road was owned by Mary Burch. In 1812, Castor Street was laid out and a number of leases were granted there to carpenters, a bricklayer and a builder. Henceforth a number of small houses were erected in Castor Street and Sandpit Road (later this was renamed West Street and again in 1875 renamed Birchfield Street).

Mary Burch offered short leases of 31 years - these were too short to encourage a high standard of building. Some nearby occupiers complained of filth ’of every kind’ in Castor Street.

By 1832, Joel Langley and his family had acquired the land from Miss Burch. From about 1855 Joseph and George Mills established a cooperage in Castor Street and from around 1886 Lancaster & Bawn, iron tank manufacturers, took over premises on the south side of the street.

While Chinese laundries first began to appear in Britain in Liverpool at the turn of the 20th century, one of the first in London was that run by Hop Lee in Castor Street. The Chinese moved into laundries as they were often denied other business opportunities. They were often successful at it because they offered a cheaper and better quality service than existing laundries.

Some of the properties in Castor Street, Morant Street and Oriental Street were cleared following bomb damage in the Second World War. Other houses remained until acquired in the 1960s for the Saltwell Street housing scheme.