A history in the media

Wapping has been used as the setting for a number of works of fiction, including The Long Good Friday; the Doctor Who episode "The Talons of Weng-Chiang"; the Ruby In The Smoke novel in the Sally Lockhart series by Phillip Pullman; the BBC sitcom Till Death Us Do Part, in which the central character, Alf Garnett, shares his name with Garnet Street in Wapping; and the brothel in The Threepenny Opera, in which Mack the Knife is betrayed by Jenny Diver. The Darlings of Wapping Wharf Launderette is a compilation album by East End group the Small Faces.

Fictional residents also include Bernard Cornwell's Richard Sharpe, an officer in the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars; and Dr. Lemuel Gulliver, the title character of Johnathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels who, in the novel, lived in Wapping before going to sea.

In the best-selling PlayStation 2 game Stuntman the first 'film' the player takes part in is entitled 'Toothless in Wapping.'