Crombie’s Row was north of the Commercial Road, in Mile End Old Town, between present-day Sidney Street and Jubilee Street. Jacobs was baptised at Christchurch, Watney Street, which was just across the Commercial Road in Shadwell. Those places have been demolished, but can be located in Stanford, Edward (1872). Stanford's Library Map of London and Its Suburbs (Map). London: Stanford. Retrieved 13 April 2023. and Edward Weller's map of 1868. Jacobs himself accurately gave his birthplace as "Middlesex, Mile End E" in the 1911 census, and it is so recorded in the England and Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837–1915 (General Register Office. England and Wales Civil Registration Indexes. London, England).
The "Wapping" version, though stated in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, is unsupported, and may derive from his childhood play in the docks of east London.
