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East India DLR station

Docklands Light Railway station

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 12, 2026
Entity authorityQ168557 ↗
Source-derived summary

East India is a station on Docklands Light Railway (DLR) in Blackwall, east London. It takes its name from the nearby former East India Docks of the Port of London, where ships trading with the Indian subcontinent used to dock.

It is on the Beckton and Woolwich Arsenal branches of the DLR, and is in London fare zone 2 and 3. It opened, with the Beckton Branch, on 28 March 1994.

The historic Greenwich Prime Meridian crosses the DLR at the eastern end of the platforms, which is marked by an illuminated blue line underneath the tracks at street level. The modern IERS Reference Meridian used by GPS crosses the tracks approximately 117 metres further east between Neutron Tower and Switch House, but is unmarked.

History

East India station was originally to be named Brunswick Wharf and this name was shown on the 1994 'all projections' map. 'Brunswick' is now a code destination used to indicate that a train in the depot has been cleaned. In February 2001 an episode of the ITV series The Bill featured DLR trains with 'Brunswick' as a dummy destination for filming purposes.

Services

The typical off-peak service in trains per hour from East India is:

6 tph to Tower Gateway

6 tph to Bank

6 tph to Beckton

6 tph to Woolwich Arsenal

Additional services call at the station during the peak hours, increasing the service to up to 16 tph in each direction.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “East India DLR station” as docklands Light Railway station. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around East, India and station.

Editorial reviewA strong orientation record where physical form, institutional use and historical geography need to be read together. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1994, 2001—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1994-03-28. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with East, India and station providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “East India DLR station”, the useful work is to connect “docklands Light Railway station” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q168557. Authority coordinates are 51.509, -0.002. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1994 and 2001.

Critical limits

Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “East India DLR station”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow East India DLR station primary sources, East India DLR station archive and East research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “East India DLR station”?
  2. What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
  3. Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “East India DLR station” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.