Barking is a district in east London, joined administratively with neighbouring Dagenham to form the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. It is hard to imagine now, but Barking was once a 15th-century fishing port on the River Roding. The remnants of that past are visible in the ruins of Barking Abbey, a medieval monastery that was one of the most important in England until its dissolution by Henry VIII.
Today Barking is a working-class, ethnically diverse area well connected to central London by the District and Hammersmith & City lines. The town centre has been regenerated in recent years, and the Barking Riverside development is transforming the Thames waterfront. It is not a tourist destination, but it has its own character — and it is Captain Cook's parish, the explorer having married Elizabeth Batts at St. Margaret's Church here in 1762.