“...The only places which I have ever seen which could “hold a candle” to the low sailor resorts of Liverpool, are in the East of London, say about Ratcliffe* Highway.”
[Thirty Years at Sea: The Story of a Sailor's Life, Shippen, 1879]

The Highway, London
“The Highway, part of which was formerly known as the Ratcliffe Highway, is a road in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, in the East End of London. The route dates back to Roman times. In the 19th century it had a reputation for vice and crime and was the location of the Ratcliff Highway murders. Prior to a renaming programme of 1937, different parts of the route had different names depending on what district they were in.”

...The name “Ratcliffe” literally means “red cliff”, referring to the red sandstone cliffs which descended from the plateau on which the road was situated down to the Wapping Marshes to the south.”


*If looking for song titles, mind the colonial spellings: Radcliffe, Rathcliffe and who knows how many others.