Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company was a shipyard and iron works located at the mouth of Bow Creek where it meets the River Thames in East London. Founded in 1837, it produced 144 warships and numerous other vessels for navies around the world before closing in 1912.
HMS Warrior was launched by the Thames Ironworks in 1860 as the world's first all-iron warship. When completed in October 1861, she was the largest, fastest, most heavily armed, and most heavily armoured warship in the world.
Thames Ironworks F.C. was founded in 1895 as a football club for the yard's workers and was wound up in June 1900. West Ham United was formed a month later as its successor. West Ham's crossed-hammers badge represents the riveting hammers used in the shipbuilding trade, and the club's supporters call the team "The Irons" in direct reference to Thames Ironworks.
The company originated in 1837 as the Ditchburn and Mare Shipbuilding Company, founded by shipwright Thomas J. Ditchburn and engineer and naval architect Charles John Mare. After Ditchburn retired in 1847, Peter Rolt restructured the business into the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding and Engineering Company Ltd. in 1857.
The Thames Ironworks built warships for Denmark, Greece, Portugal, Russia, Spain, the Ottoman Empire, Prussia, Romania, and Japan. Among the notable deliveries were the SMS König Wilhelm for Prussia in 1868 and two battleships, IJN Fuji and Shikishima, that formed part of Japan's battle line in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905.
The Thames Ironworks closed in 1912 after failing to secure new Admiralty contracts, despite a petition to Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty. Its last major warship was HMS Thunderer, a 22,500-ton vessel launched in 1911 that went on to fight at the Battle of Jutland.