A timber beam slips off a truck carrying a heavy load, attracting a large crowd of on-lookers at the corner of Cotton Street and East India Dock Road, Poplar. On the left, a horse-drawn cart laden with heavy sacks moves around the stricken lorry while beyond, two lorries head south down Cotton Street, one carrying wooden barrels, the other a similar load of timber beams. Behind the crowd on the right is the Eagle Tavern public house at 182 East India Dock Road. Advertisements for Taylor Walker's prize beers are visible. Two young men stand with bicycles in the lower right corner. The tramlines along East India Dock road can be seen set into the cobble stones. An ornate street lamp in Cotton Street is also visible. The pub and the early nineteenth-century two-storey tenements with basements on Cotton Street no longer exist. The pub was damaged by bombing during World War II and was demolished. The site is now a public grassed area with trees. Cotton Street has been comprehensively redeveloped and modern flats now occupy the site of the old terraced housing.
