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The former BBs - 53 Hampton Road
Regular contributor, Peter Williams, examines the story of the former BBs, 53 Hampton Road, as part of his irregular series of articles on unusual houses in Forest Gate, and wonders why the once-famous...
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23 Hampton Road – one-time host to a factory and a synagogue
Regular contributor, Peter Williams, examines some of the fascinating history of 23 Hampton Road, on the Woodgrange estate, as part of his irregular series examining the backgrounds of some of Forest...
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Woodgrange estate – WW2 bomb damage
World War 2 reshaped the Woodgrange estate like no other period in its 150 year history. Records of bomb damage in London indicate that the area was hit on ten separate nights during the Blitz...
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150th anniversary of Woodgrange estate
This July marks the 50th anniversary of Forest Gate's Woodgrange estate being granted Conservation Area status by the council, later ratified by the government. The designation was deliberately timed...
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Some E7 late Victorian letterheads
Frequent contributors, Peter Williams and Mark Gorman share some interesting Forest Gate discoveries from their recent work within Newham Archives. In the Newham council archives, there are extensive...
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Strange Claremont Road deaths (2) - suicides
This is the second of three articles we are publishing on unusual deaths and their inquests of residents of Claremont Road, based on a rigorous interrogation of the British Library Newspaper Library's...
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Tom Duncombe's story - a local Spanish Civil War International Brigade volunteer
Following our piece on West Ham-based members of the International Brigade, volunteers who fought for the Republicans against the fascist military usurpers, we have uncovered a more detailed biography...
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Book review: On Romford Road by Andrew Sanger
On Romford Road is Andrew Sanger's fifth novel and a family saga and revenge drama about two East London families whose feud carries from the 1900s to the 1990s.Book coverReview by Sandra Walker,...
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A Wanstead Flats WW2 mystery solved
Frequent contributor, Peter Williams, takes us on a detective hunt to discover the origins of a piece of WW2 debris he discovered on Wanstead Flats, in 2018, with colleague Mark Gorman.During WW2,...
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Strange Claremont Road deaths (1) - children
Our interrogation of the sophisticated search engine of the British Newspaper Library, referred to here and here has uncovered details of a number of strange deaths and the inquests following them of...
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The off-licence at 16 Barwick Road
Regular contributor Peter Williams continues his history of unusual and interesting buildings in Forest Gate. Here he examines the history of an off-licence called Capel Arms, 16 Barwick Rd, which was...
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Educational enterprise on Claremont Road in late Victorian London
The first houses in the under-construction Woodgrange estate, on Claremont Road, were occupied in the late 1870s/ early 1880s. They were large and offered more than simply residential possibilities.The...
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The International Brigades Memorial at the Old Spotted Dog Ground
Clapton Community Football Club stalwart and local activist, Kevin Blowe, writes about a significant anniversary and memorial unveiling of the Spanish International Brigades at Clapton's ground on...
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What the papers say about Claremont Road: (1) adverts for servants
We’ve dived deep into the British Library’s newspaper archive (available on subscription direct and via Find My Past) to find out what British newspapers have had to say about the Woodgrange estate’s...
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Western end of Capel Road
The chance receipt of a couple of photos dating from the 1930s of activity at the western end of Capel Road set regular contributor Peter Williams and his colleague and collaborator Mark Gorman in...
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Forest Gate Freedom Walk
Peter Ashan began a series of Freedom Walks in east London in 2007, during the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade. These walks aim to reveal the hidden history of the contribution of...
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The Busby family – Forest Gate missionaries to China
Following on from articles Jane Skelding has written for this blog on the Canning Town Women’s Settlement (CTWS) story (E7 Now & Then: The Canning Town Women's Settlement: its workers and the women...
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Albert Court, 89 Dames Rd, a history and research journey
Local historian, housing expert, and frequent contributor Peter Williams provides a fascinating account of this unusual building set back from the highway on Dames Road. In it, he references several...
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Amanda lands in Forest Gate
Local resident and author, Robert Nurden, tells the story of how his Chestnut Avenue House will soon be seen by millions on BBC1. I never thought when I bought my unremarkable terraced house in...
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The industrialisation of local agriculture - Jew’s Farm and Wilson’s Farm in...
The origin of these farms is obscure. Jews Farm seemingly lay at the end of what had been called Harrow Lane (named after a local pub) and on John Rocque’s map of the London area in 1746 was Siblemeed...
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