E7 Now & Then

So, the ground floor of one of Forest Gate's most recognisable buildings has finally closed as a drinking/eating establishment. The Princess Alice, and its supping and catering heirs, is no more, as the space is now occupied by the latest national chain-store addition to Woodgrange Road area - Superdrug.

From Alice to Superdrug

Below is the briefest of histories and a photographic trip down memory lane, to mark its passing.

One of the earliest surviving photos,
in first decade of 20th century

It is commonly thought that the pub was named after the Thames pleasure boat of the same name that crashed in the river and sunk, with the loss of 650 lives. In fact the ship went down in 1878, over a decade after the pub was opened.

Undated, but first decade of 20th century

The pub began business as Forest Gate opened up as a residential area, following the appearance in the district of the early railways. Careful research by Pubshistory.com has traced all the landlords, and those living on the premises, from when it opened in 1868 until the outbreak of World War 11.

1907

Advert - 1907

The first landlord was Charles Bansback, who had been the landlord of the Seven Stars in Brick Lane prior to moving to Forest Gate. He remained until 1874 and was succeeded by a rapid turnover of governors, until 1917, when Percy Thomas Cole took the reins. He held the job for almost the whole inter-war period. We have no details of post WW2 landlords.

Above and below, two
inter-war photos of the pub

The major event in the pub's 140 year history was the bombing it suffered on 19 April 1941. As the photo below indicates it was totally destroyed.

Surprisingly, only one man, out walking his dog, was killed by the blast.

Princess Alice as a bomb site, after April 1941

The Alice was rebuilt after World War 11, with some vaguely Art Deco features, and an overall appearance not dissimilar to that of the bow of an ocean-going liner - perhaps a mistaken reference to the ill-fated Princess Alice pleasure boat, referred to above.

Vaguely art deco, with ship's bow
references in post-war design

The pub had its ups and downs in the post-war era, but, offering nothing special by way of attraction, it almost inevitably fell to the fierce competition from the Wetherspoon's Hudson Bay, barely a hundred yards away, when it opened. The Alice finally closed, as a pub in 2007.

In its most recent former glory
- before closure as a pub

Since that time it's had a number of make-overs and name changes as bars, buffet restaurants and banqueting suites, without ever really seeming busy.

It finally gave up the catering ghost, at least on the ground floor, when its latest transformation saw it established as a Superdrug store. Banqueting has been banished to the upstairs.

One of its recent manifestations,
as a ground floor buffet restaurants

Not forgotten?

Well Princess Alice remains the official name of the bus stop outside the premises, and it doesn't seem to be a changing to "Superdrug, Forest Gate" any time soon.

Should it do so, it would be interesting to see whether it began to carry a rather different selection of curious passengers.

Who was the Princess Alice after whom it was named?

There have been a number of Princess Alices attached to the British royal family, over the centuries. The one whom the pub was named after, however, was Princess Alice of the United Kingdom (1843 - 1878), the third child and second daughter of Queen Victoria. She was the first of Victoria's children to have died.

Princess Alice in 1861 - seven years
before achieving fame in Forest Gate

She married Prince Louis of Hesse and was the mother of the last Tsaritsa of Russia (Alexandra). She was also to become the grandmother of Lord Louis Mountbatten, great-great grandmother to Prince Phillip and g x 3 grandmother to Charles etc.

Alice in 1875 - eight
years after the opening
of the eponymous pub

Of more significance, perhaps, she was a prolific patron of women's causes - an uncharacteristically progressive position for a member of a mid nineteenth century European royal family to take. She shared an interest in nursing, particularly the work of Florence Nightingale and of field hospitals in European wars (inevitably fought in the names of members of her family).

With her husband and children at
about pub opening time - 1867

By co-incidence, May Orchard, nanny to her children, is buried locally in Manor Park cemetery. See here for details.

In our recent feature on what may become Forest Gate's first £2m house (here) we noted that it was "listed", by English Heritage and gave the grounds for its status.

There are, in fact ten "listed" buildings in Forest Gate. We feature the other nine in a two-part series, of which this is the first.

The borough of Newham boasts 116 such buildings, many associated with the former Docks, Tide Mill in Stratford, Abbey Mills pumping station, churches or cemeteries. Three have Grade 1 listing (All Saints, Strafford, Tide Mill, itself, and St Mary's the Virgin, East Ham). The other 113 are Grade 11 listed.

"Listing", in lay terms, means that the conservation body English Heritage recognises that the building has features of architectural interest which are worthy of preservation. These are highlighted in the citation for listing and are included, in each case, in this article.

Local authorities have a responsibility to ensure that, as far as possible, these features are preserved and will not, under normal circumstances, give planning permission to attempts to disrupt them.

For their owners this can be a double edged sword: kudos of owning a listed building, but often real difficulty in changing its design or appearance which can cause difficulties if looking to sell - presumable an issue for the owners of ex-pubs the Spotted Dog and Earl of Essex - see next episode.

The text below is (slightly) edited from the English Heritage website and can, in places, be very architecturally technical. But even a lay reader can get the drift of what is being appreciated by those responsible for the listings, from their citations.

89 Dames Road - listed 1981

House probably circa 1840. Two storeys, four bays wide with asymmetrically placed entrance, all under hipped and slated roof set back from road frontage. Of stock brick, double fronted with additional bay to north.

89 Dames Road

Segmental headed ground floor sashes set in recessed semicircular stucco arched surround tied together at window head level by a profiled stucco string. First floor segmental headed sash windows lie below closed overhanging roof eaves.

Main entrance accentuated by entablature supported by Doric columns. Interior not seen.

Now residential flats.

Church of St Antony and Monastery, St Antony's Road - listed 1984

Church and Monastery 1884 (foundation stone) finished in 1891. Architects Pugin & Pugin (Of Houses of Parliament fame). Early English and Geometrical Gothic Church. Yellow stock brick with ashlar dressings. Slated roofs.

Austere. 7-bay nave with tall clerestory. Lean-to aisle roofs, double to (liturgical) south, to incorporate confessionals. Gabled chapel to south. South-eastern apsed chapel. Rose window over High Altar. 6 light traceried window to west end above gabled entrance. Cuspless three-light clerestory windows. Lancets to confessionals.

Church and monastery of St Antony

Monastery 2-storeyed with transverse gable to left and smaller gables to centre and right. Similar materials to church, but blue, chamfered engineering bricks to window openings. Lower windows paired lancets with leaded lights.

Beneath gables three light tracery windows, pointed head to left, the others with stepped, square, heads. Walls buttressed. Building linked to church. Gabled entrance, porch to left, with Mother & Child statue in canopied niche above.

Duke of Fife public house, Stafford/Katherine Roads - listed 1984

Public house circa 1895. Frederick W Ashton. A richly ornamented corner public house. 2 storeys with slated mansard and attic storey. Yellow stock brick with painted stone or stucco dressings. Jacobean motifs. Balancing elevations to Katherine Road front and to Stafford Road flank with 2-storey wing on flank.

Front has two segmental arches to ground floor, two 3-light windows to first floor, and balustraded with buttresses gabled dormers above. Ornamental panels above and below first floor windows with panelled pilasters between. Octagonal corner turret, (dome now missing) with linked female caryatids to drum.

Duke of Fife, ex-pub, now
restaurant and banqueting hall

Arched entrances between ground floor, windows and to corner, with carytid-ornament above. Chimney stacks have pilaster ornament, and those on south side are gabled and buttressed like attic window. Similar gabled window to slated wing. Later single-storey wing at back. Interior not seen.

Now Asian restaurant.

Emmanuel Church, Vale Road - listed 1984

Church 1852. Sir George Gilbert Scott. Decorated Gothic style. Kentish ragstone. Tiled roof to eaves. No clerestory.

Emmanuel church, 1907

Perpendicular north aisle of 1890, the same height and width as original nave. Short tiled broach spire over chancel arch. Lady Chapel to south side balances organ chamber to north. Lean-to south aisle. South porch. Aisles are buttressed. Low turretted north transept. Vigourously foliated columns to 6-bay nave arcading.

Former Congregational church (now Azhar Academy), Romford Road - listed 1984

Former Congregational Church of 1880 by T Lewis Banks with church hall of 1883. Later known as United Reformed Church. Converted in 2002-3 to a school, the Azhar Academy Girl's School.

Materials: Knapped flint with red stone and red brick dressings, tiled roof.

Exterior: Early English Gothic style. Externally the former church is largely as constructed, having an nave with lean-to aisles, south-eastern vestry and 3-stage buttressed and pinnacled tower with short spire to the south-west; the former church hall abuts the church's east end.

Former Congregational church,
now Azhar Academy

The tower has triple arcading to top stage with a gabled centre panel of louvres and blind arcading below. To Romford Road, the west end has two gabled, porched entrances with arcades between on the ground floor above which are three lancets with brick mullions flanked by trefoil arches and single lancets; the uppermost portion of the gable has triple lancets, flanked by blind single lancets, and a decorative cross set into panel of red stone at the apex, the pinnacle of which is missing.

To the right of the entrance is a projecting vestry, which resembles a short tower at the lower levels with arcading to ground floor and buttresses to corners, triple mullioned windows to first floor, and parapet above. It is surmounted by a steeply pitched, curved-hipped, tiled structure, almost semi-circular, with continuous timber mullioned glazing with leaded lights. Twin gabled transepts project to either side of the nave with round-arched, stepped lancet windows, moulded brick mullions and stone pilasters.

The two-storey, gabled former church hall to the rear of the building has gabled porches facing west. The lancet windows to the west and north have all been infilled with breezeblocks. The single bay joining the former church to the hall has been converted into a stair and heightened with glazed clerestory and a modern roof.

A two-storey former clergy house with gables to north and south abuts the rear of the hall to the east. It is of flint with brick quoins, chimney stacks and window dressings, and the gable to the north is rendered. The window to ground floor has been blocked which is adjacent to a small brick porch with pitched roof.

Interior: None of the original fixtures and fittings remain. Classrooms and offices have been inserted into the former nave, arranged across two mezzanines, fronted with glass to the central hall areas. The upper floors are reached by a stair and lift in the tower and the stair at the rear between the school and old hall.

The nave arcading - large sandstone pillars - and aisle and clerestory window mouldings remain exposed and the contrast between modern and historic materials means the old arrangement is roughly readable, assisted by the use of glass partitions. The windows have red brick and red stone arched dressings with red stone pilasters and moulded motifs, some have stained glass in the upper sections.

At first floor the timber wall posts, hammer beams and arched braces on stone corbels are visible in the modern classrooms. A floor inserted at the impost level of the roof vault has created a large prayer hall in the roof space where the impressive original hammer-beam roof is visible.

A second prayer hall is accommodated in the former church hall to the rear; a suspended ceiling has been inserted here but window openings and wall posts to the roof structure are visible. The former clergy house is used for utilities.

History: The building was constructed in 1883 to designs by T Lewis Banks for the Congregational Church. The foundation stone was laid by Henry Wright Esq JP, and the builder was Charles Sharpe. It abutted a church hall, built by the same congregation and architect, dating from 1880 which survives to the rear of the former church.

The building became known as the United Reformed Church in the second half of the C20 and in 2002, having become redundant as a church, was granted listed building consent for conversion to a school. The Azhar Academy Girl's School opened in 2003.

Reasons for designation: The former Congregational Church is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* it is a landmark on Romford Road, in particular its impressive tower with pinnacled buttresses and short spire;
* good composition and detailing in the Early English style;
* the use of materials is good, including knapped flint, sandstone and red brick dressings (the former untypical in this area);
* an interesting ensemble of buildings, as was common in non-conformist churches, including a slightly earlier church hall of 1880 and a clergy house.

Carnegie Library, Plashet Grove (in Plashet Park) - listed 1994

Public library, now Newham's registry office. 1898-9 by Silvanus Trevail. Red brick with stone dressings, slate roof with three-stage cupola bearing clock. Two storeys, with gabled attic over entrance bay.

Three bays, the outer bays with five-light mullion and transom windows under parapets sporting trefoil headed panels. Central entrance composed like a Diocletian window, pair of blue marble Ionic columns carrying arch, spandrels with bas-reliefs of seated figures with scroll and book. Aprons of first-floor windows inscribed in raised letters 'Passmore Edwards Public Library'.

Carnegie Library, Plashet Park

Gabled two-storey returns with windows at first and attic storey. Lower rear section contains reading room (low projecting bay on east side originally contained the ladies' bay). Interior contains a hammer-beam roof to rear reading room. The first and attic storeys originally housed the chief librarian.
Opened by Herbert Gladstone, MP, 30 November 1899. Largely paid for by John Passmore Edwards, philanthropist and proprietor of the Building News, who promoted libraries in the poorer parts of London. This is an uncommonly richly decorated example of his patronage in a suburban area.

Source: Building News, 11 November 1898.

We are deeply indebted to English Heritage for their efforts in attempting to preserve key aspects of our architectural history. We acknowledge and are most grateful for their Listed Buildings website (here), from which we have taken most of the material (though not the photos) in this article. We recognise their copyright of the material.

As construction works begins in earnest around Forest Gate station now, and next year on the Goblin line, to facilitate the next stage in the area's transport story, and future development, it seems worth a pause to look at how early road and railway construction helped make Forest Gate what it is today.

London's rapid population growth in the eighteenth century put a strain on the roads bringing foodstuffs and raw materials to the capital. One such road was the old Roman road from London to Colchester, which was, by this time, known as Essex (now Romford) Road. It passed on its way through West Ham on its way to London, from the Eastern Counties
.
The road was described by Daniel Defoe in his 1720's publication A Tour Through The Whole Island of Great Britain as:

That great road from London thro' this whole county towards Ipswich and Harwich which is most worn with wagons, carts and carriages and with infinite droves of black cattle, hogs and sheep of any road in England.

It was the need to improve the road that lead the section between Whitechapel and Shenfield being created a Turnpike Trust (toll road) in 1722 - essentially what is now Romford Road. Defoe commented that:

All those villages are increased in buildings in a strange degree ... and the towns of West Ham, Plaistow, Upton etc. (so insignificant was Forest Gate in its own right at this time that it was bundled up in Defoe's etc!) in all which places above a thousand new foundations have been erected ... this increase is of handsome large houses ... being chiefly for the habitation of the richest citizens (see future articles in this blog featuring the development of Upton, and Upton Lane, in particular) ... there are no less than 200 coaches kept.

J Gibson's 1776 map of a road from  London to Great
Yarmouth. The  original route of the A12 mostly  ran on
this alignment, particularly the  Roman Road from
London to Colchester

A survey of road traffic entering London from the East in 1830 showed that 494 wagons passed along the road each week, along with a thousand head of cattle, 8,000 sheep, 400 pigs and 150 calves.

In addition, private carriages had driven over 350,000 miles along the road and people on horseback rode over 700,000 miles along it during that year.

The road was struggling to cope, and ambitious plans for developing a steam locomotive along the route were drawn up. According to plans in the Essex Record Office, an 1803 proposal envisaged horse drawn locomotives being transported over railway lines, to their destination on the Essex coast.

In the event, the scheme, which would have seen an early "railway" rattle through Forest Gate, came to nothing.

It was over thirty years, 1836, before two railway schemes, each playing a major role in the development of Forest Gate, received the Royal Assent.

The first came from the Commercial Railway Company, built to improve the haulage of both goods and passengers between Brunswick Wharf, at Blackwall and the City. The second was the Eastern Counties Railway, promoted to transport coal from Great Yarmouth (a considerably more important port then, than today) to London.

The original proposed route for the Eastern Counties line was to start at Shoreditch High Street and head eastwards, via Bethnal Green to Mile End.

Here the railway was to veer south, to Old Ford and cross the marshes to Stratford (see engraving, below). The preferred route from Strafford through Forest Gate was for a straight line running in parallel, north of the Turnpike.

On the plans submitted to Parliament, an alternative route, passing north of Forest Gate's Eagle and Child pub was shown. In the event, this was not adopted, and the original proposal was used for the route.

The surveyors recorded the following properties along the route as being in Forest Gate. From West to East: Prospect Place, containing 12 cottages and a small chapel, Chapel Place with six cottages with gardens, Pleasant Place, with 8 cottages with gardens and Whitehall Place, with 8 cottages. All these places were owned by John Pickering Peacock.

Extract from 1867 OS map of Forest Gate,
not location of original railway station,
not on Woodgrange Road,
but a hut on Forest Lane

Then came the Eagle and Child and two cottages, owned by the brewers Combe Dalafield and Company. Next was a series of properties including the houses and gardens of John Brown and William Leverton, buildings and yards owned by Joshua Pedley and the cottage owned by Richard Curtis (no, not that one!) Finally came a place called Hoppett by the Lane, a meadow with a cottage and garden and the Mansion House buildings and yard, all these being owned by John Greenhill.

John Braithwaite was appointed engineer of the Eastern Counties Railway and the Railway Magazine was quick to point out his inexperience, and woeful track record, to date. It, with a note of irony, predicted that it would take him until 1836 (i.e. a hundred years) to complete the construction to Great Yarmouth.

The first twelve miles of the line were, in fact, opened in June 1839 - from Shoreditch to Romford. Two days later, the line experienced its first accident, when both the driver and his stoker were killed, when the locomotive "leapt off the track". The driver, John Meadows had been dismissed previously by another railway company for "furious driving".

East County Railways coming to Stratford,
engraving 1837, featuring a bridge over
the River Lee, on extreme left of picture.
River is foreground is Bow Back river,
on way to Bow Bridge

The first Forest Gate station was opened in 1841. It originally consisted of a small wooden structure, with an entrance on Forest Lane (see location, on Forest Lane, in the extract from the 1867 OS map, above). It was only, originally, served by two trains a day and so poor were the passenger numbers that it was closed, because of lack of trade, between 1844 and 1846.

In 1845 the shareholders of the Eastern Counties railway invited George Hudson ("The Railway King") to help bail them out. Hudson was a crook, but was the inspiration behind building the railway works and sidings in Stratford.

In gratitude, part of West Ham was named after him.

The railway workers in Stratford needed homes, and soon housing was constructed by building societies in parts of Forest Gate, to accommodate them.

Although, under Hudson, trains began to service Forest Gate once more, the service was pretty poor. As late as 1863, John Spencer Curwen, who was behind the Earlham Grove Musical academy (see here), wrote:

The trains were few and uncertain ... Ten or twenty minutes belatement we thought nothing of. Sometimes trains did not come at all ... I do not think there were more than seven or eight trains each way per day. On an average, about six people entered or left at Forest Gate.

"Railway Mania" was an appropriate term to describe the chaos created by rival companies, essentially serving the same area and competing furiously, and often unscrupulously for passengers and freight.

The second Forest Gate station, c 1900, when
the roundel was incorporated into the station.

Early "tourism", rail day excursions and publications like Bradshaws were produced to cater for the rapid development of railways not just for business, but for leisure too. Bradshaws became almost a bible for travellers, providing early versions of what we, today, would call travel guides, offering lengthy descriptions of the key points of interest in and around railway towns and stations.

It's contributors were clearly not too impressed with what Forest Gate had to offer in 1863. The extract, below is the totality of their description:

And so yet another railway came to service the area, this time in the 1890's, and actually featured Forest Gate in its title. This was called the Tottenham and Forest Gate Railway (the core of what is now better known as the Gospel Oak to Barking - Goblin, or Chimney Pot - Line).

It was to link the Midland railway, at Tottenham, with the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway at their junction with the Great Eastern (formerly Eastern Counties Railway). (Confused? You aren't alone). See map, below, for clearer portrayal.

Simplified railway map, c 1914,
showing stations, lines and features

The Tottenham and Forest Gate railway met much popular opposition, as over a hundred recently constructed houses in Forest Gate had to be demolished to make way for the viaducts that carried the railway through the district.

The railway opened in 1894 and was soon running, in conjunction with other companies, trains between St Pancras and Tilbury, via the newly opened stations of Woodgrange Park and Wanstead Park.

The company soon needed more rolling stock to cater for its expanding numbers of passengers, so in 1897-8 it commissioned the construction of 12 engines to service the line. Each was named after an Essex town, or place on its route, one of which was called the Forest Gate - see photo. This, like the other in the series (LTSR 37-48), was in almost continuous commission until it was scrapped, in 1951.

The London, Tilbury and Southend
railway's 1897 locomotive: Forest Gate

Forest Gate was now well served, and heavily dependent on railways, as a form of transport. The six or eight passengers a day of 1841, rose to over 10,000 immediately prior to World War One.

1909 Great Eastern Railway third
class ticket: 1d (less than half of 1p!)
for Forest Gate to Maryland

Yet another form of local public transport was being developed to help with the commuting needs of the Forest Gate and area's population from the 1870's: trams. See our earlier post (here) on their history in the district.

This is the second of two articles featuring nine of Forest Gate's English Heritage Listed buildings. The first appeared last week (see immediately below), and can provide an introduction to this, thus avoiding unnecessary repetition. The tenth Listed building in Forest Gate was featured in our article on Forest Gate's First £2m house? (here).

Red House, Upton Lane - listed 1998

House, later converted into club. There was a building on this site in 1717 and c1760 brickwork to north gable and east front survives, but this building was extensively remodelled in the 1880's.

In 1933 it became a club, with the 1940's caretaker's flat raised to two storeys in the 1960's, erected on site of late C19 kitchen and services. The entire ground floor of the east elevation was converted into a single bar.

Principal west front of 1880s of red brick with stuccoed dressings; roof concealed by parapet and end brick chimneystacks. Two storeys and basement; six windows. Larger projecting bay to north under curved gable has four-light French windows and balcony with pierced balustrade over canted bay to ground floor.

Red House c 1907

Other windows are tall casements. Parapet has panels of pierced balustrading and elaborate urns. Moulded bands between floors and end quoins. Wide porch with cornice having central curved pediment with raised design and pierced balustrading to balcony supported on four rusticated Tuscan columns.

North front is mainly C 18 brickwork and east elevation has full-height bowed bay of the same date. Interior features remain of the 1880's.

Entrance hall has imperial staircase with elaborate wrought and cast iron balustrading with mahogany handrail and series of doors, some with carved surrounds. North ground floor room has marble fireplace with round-headed arch, bearded masked keystone and high relief panels of fruit.

South room has some Minton floor tiles. Both rooms have c1880 window shutters and plaster cornices. Roof structure is of 1880s.

Bell of 1762 in upstairs front office has been resited from a demolished cupola on the roof A Dutch merchant lived in a house here in 1717. Later it was the home of Mr Tuthill (for details of this important resident, see a later post), the manufacturer of early trade union banners and in 1933 it became St Anthony's Catholic Club.

The building was in some disrepair by the 1990's, but with the assistance of English Heritage and Newham Council, it was given a thorough facelift around the time of listing. The inside, however, is still in a rather poor state (certainly given its origins and history) and is kept going by the hard work of volunteers at the club. There has to be some doubt as to how long this shoestring funding approach can be sustained. What then? would be a massive problem for a whole host of organisations.

Rothschild's Mausoleum, Cemetery Road - listed 1984

Mausoleum 1866: Architect - Sir Mattew Digby Wyatt. A circular domed stone building with Renaissance detail. On principal axis of cemetery. Engaged Corinthian columns. Enriched wall surface between. Rectangular windows under cornice with elaborate iron grilles.

Evelina Rothschild's memorial,
Jewish cemetery

Richly carved entablature and parapet. Parapet and fluted dome finished with vases. Mausoleum erected by Ferdinand de Rotherschild to wife Evelina.

Old Spotted Dog, Upton Lane - listed 1967

Timber-framed building, later a public house, dating in part to the late-C15 or early-C16 with subsequent phases of the late-Georgian, Victorian and post-WWII periods.

Exterior: The central range of the main frontage, a timber-framed two-bay hall with open crown post roof, is the earliest part of the building and dates to the late-C15 or early-C16. There are two doors, both with C19 joinery, leading into the building here and the tiled roof eaves come right down to their architraves; there is a brick stack to the right of this range too.

1838 sketch of Old Spotted Dog

This early core is flanked by two-storey cross-wings, also timber-framed, that to the right contemporary with the central hall and that to the left dating from slightly later. Both have jettied, weather-boarded upper storeys with horizontal sliding sashes in the gables and rough-cast rendered ground floors; both jetties rest on later supports, a brick return wall to the left-hand wing and iron posts to the right on the eastern return.

1903 painting, by H Smart,
courtesy of Newham archives

The cross-wing to the left has a four-centre arched door and a large window with marginal glazing on the ground floor, that to the right just a window opening, with an entrance on the canted corner to the return. This return, facing east, has a late-C19 bay window on the ground floor and more sashes on the first. Further along the return is an extension, weather-boarded in keeping with the original, but dates to 1968 and lacks special interest. Above it the gables of the Victorian part of the building are visible, complete with bargeboards and finials.

The return to the west has two Edwardian porches and a brick chimney flue, also of a C19 or later date, as well as further sash windows. Beyond is the addition of the late-Georgian period, possibly a house originally, a stock brick range with a slate hipped roof, gauged brick arches to the sash windows and brick pilasters. The windows to the right have been altered or bricked in and the door altered too; it once had a canopy and porch.

A two-storey extension with metal casements dating to the second half of the C20 abuts this building to the north. Alongside this are a single-storey 1980s function room and a garage. None of these three parts of the building have special interest.

On the contrary, the Victorian sections, visible above ground floor and identifiable through their stock brick elevations with red brick dressings, timber sash windows, decorative bargeboards to the gables and slate roofs, do contribute to the interest of the building.

Interior: In the single room of the central hall, the roof is partly-exposed. This is a crown post with lateral head braces and the timber is hand-sawn but without particular embellishment in the form of chamfers, stops, or other carving. To the right, set under the tie beam, is an inserted stack with hearth, timber bressummer, iron grate and oven. To the left, the wall has a later opening in its upper part looking through to the roof trusses of the cross-wing.

A serving bar and back bar along the back of this room appear Victorian in date, as is some of the other joinery; other elements are modern. The floor is paved with York flagstones. The cross-wing to the left has a crown post roof with studs and braces to the walls.

The ground floor ceiling is supported by Victorian iron colonettes and contains later fireplaces and panelling. The cross-wing to the right has a tie beam and moulded wall plate but no other elements of the roof are visible. There is a simple late-Georgian timber fireplace in the upper room in this wing, some plain partitioning of the same date in another and a sash window in a third room which may indicate the old end wall of the range.

On the ground floor the principal beams in the ceiling are moulded and there are various items of panelling and other joinery including fireplaces dating to no later than the C19. Inside the later sections to the rear, both late-Georgian and Victorian, there are no fireplaces, bar counters or staircases of historic interest as the building was refurbished in the second half of the C20 and much of the fabric dates to this period.

The interior of the Victorian section of the pub is characterised by a medley of timber-framed structures including one section that appears to be a jettied external wall of a timber-framed building, but that does not relate in its location to the late-medieval parts of the building. Some of the timbers are old, others newer, and most are painted with brown paint.

A photograph of 1967 shows a gap in the external wall in this area and the timbers do not appear to be present; photos from 1968 show the interior as it is now. It is likely that most of the internal fabric in this part of the pub was assembled from timbers, perhaps salvaged from elsewhere, in the refurbishment of 1968. It lacks special interest.

History: Originally a house, the Spotted Dog was later converted to a pub, possibly in the early-C19 when it appears on Clayton's map of 1821 labelled 'The Dog'. On an earlier map, by Chapman and Andre of 1777, it is not given a name, despite other public houses nearby being marked, so it was presumably a private abode at that time. A range (which appears domestic and may have originally served as the publican's house) was added in the late-Georgian period, before 1840.

In 1839 the proprietor was a William Vause whose family held the lease until 1917. Vause advertised his business to Londoners in search of resort: a C19 poster survives showing the building and boasting of its 'spacious dining room and billiards' and 'good accommodation for cricket and other field sports'.

Vause poster advertising
Spotted Dog, see above text.

The billiards room may have been a modification of the late-Georgian range; it appears on later photographs with a timber lantern on the roof, which may have lit the games room. At that time the Spotted Dog overlooked playing fields to the west and gardens to the north. Under the Vauses, the old pub was enlarged further, probably in the decades between 1867 and 1896 when its footprint alters on the Ordnance Survey maps.

The area around the Spotted Dog changed dramatically in the late-C19 and early-C20, and by the outbreak of WWI the claim on the Victorian poster that the pub was located in 'one of the most pleasant parts of Essex' was no longer true, not least because from 1888 the Spotted Dog has been in the County Borough of West Ham.

Terraced houses lined nearby streets, the cricket field became the home of Clapton FC (the club remains there to this day) and the pub sold off some of its gardens. The pace of change accelerated in the second half of the C20 and further additions and alterations were made to the building, including major internal refurbishment and extension in 1968, before it fell out of use at the end of the C20.

Reasons for designation: The Spotted Dog public house is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* a well-surviving, if simply constructed, late-C15 or early-C16 house comprising central hall and flanking two-storey cross wings, these with weather-boarded jetties;

* interesting interior including exposed timbers, hearth with bressummer, other fireplaces and historic joinery including a Victorian bar and back bar;

* particular poignancy as a rare-surviving late-medieval building in this area, evoking the rural character that could be enjoyed here until the middle of the C19, when this part of old Essex was lost to the expanding capital.

As a working pub, early 21st century

(see here for a previous, more general history of the Old Spotted Dog)

There are, in addition to the Forest Gate buildings highlighted above, a number of Listed buildings in Manor Park which relate to articles we have previously featured on this site. Among these are seven in the various cemeteries within the post code - mainly the City of London, plus the Manor House (featured recently in our potted history of Manor Park).

Additionally, the Earl of Essex pub, now standing empty and in search of a developer, which featured in Ben Drew's film Ill Manors and the Coronation Cinema, which for a while was a snooker hall and now a (mainly) Asian banqueting hall, just around the corner.

We are deeply indebted to English Heritage for their efforts in attempting to preserve key aspects of our architectural history. We acknowledge and are most grateful for their Listed Buildings website (here), from which we have taken most of the material (though not the photos) in this article. We recognise their copyright of the material.

Although various charity schools were established in England before the nineteenth century, the major push towards providing formal schooling, particularly for middle and working class children, came with the development of two, competing, institutions in the nineteenth century.

The Church of England began to sponsor an organisation, The National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church, that built schools which were popularly known as "National Schools".

Non-conformist churches, in a bid to win the hearts, minds and souls of the young, sponsored a competing network of schools, via an organisation formally known as the British and Foreign School Society. These were popularly known as "British Schools".

The rivalry was fierce, and when one of the organisations appeared in an area and sponsored a school, the other often popped up to provide some competition. And so it was in Forest Gate.

Both adopted the monitorial system, where the older pupils often taught or supervised the education of the younger ones, in huge classes. There were very often few, if any, trained teachers in these institutions.

Other schools, such as Catholic schools, independent schools, "Dame schools" and the famous Earlham Grove Music Academy also prospered in Forest Gate in the latter years of the nineteenth century. This post weaves its way around the story of these early local educators.

As we have already considered (see here), the first traceable "school" in Forest Gate was a British school; initially in the grounds of the Eagle and Child pub, and later, more formally, at the junction of Woodgrange Road and Forest Lane, in what is now an empty building (see below).

Forest Gate's first school, at junction
of Woodgrange Road and Forest Lane,
which now stands empty,
seeking a new tenant/redevelopment

The school shared the premises (on weekdays) with the Congregational church. The school became the sole occupiers of the building in 1856, when the church moved to larger premises.

The "British School's" roll was around 80 at this time, although this dropped to 65 by 1871.

The first burst of real growth of Forest Gate's population came in the decades after the establishment of the British school - mainly as a result of the development of the railways. Many of the newcomers appear to have been Church of England members, as indicated by the growth of CofE churches in the area (see a later post).

The first "National" school to be established in Forest Gate was built on land donated by Samuel Gurney, just a little north of the British school, on Woodgrange Road, in 1853. (see extract from 1867 OS map, below, for respective locations). It was known as the National Emmanuel School, because of its close relationship to Emmanuel Church on the corner of Woodgrange Road and Upton Lane.

1867 OS map, showing close proximity of
National and British schools (top, centre)
in Forest Gate at the time

Government building grants were received for the school in 1854, 1861 and 1867. In 1871 the average attendance was 141. In 1884 the school was handed over to the vicar of St Saviour's in nearby Macdonald Road, when that church was established.

The Education Act 1870 established School Boards in every district of the country, to be paid for from local rates - the origins of the 'nationalisation' of the British education system.

Forest Gate was covered by the West Ham School Board, which took over the local British (i.e. non-Conformist) school and maintained it until it closed, following the opening of the Odessa Road Board school, in 1874. Odessa became the area's first truly state school, with places for 703 pupils.

An early photograph of Odessa Board school,
Forest Gate's first "state" school

Miss Cocksedge's class, Odessa School, 1885

Rapid population growth saw the school extended in 1880 and 1889, to accommodate 1,312 pupils.

A fully developed Odessa school,
before its demolition in 1971

The 'National' schools found the prospect of "state" opposition a threat to their control over the minds and education of the young (see reproduction of poster, below) , and fought the establishment of a local School Board energetically, as the poster indicates. They feared secularisation, and the influence of "ungodliness".

Fierce resistance from the local Church
of England towards the establishment
of Board Schools in West Ham, 1870

Once it was clear the church had lost the battle over the establishment of state schools, they responded by the founding the St James' National school, to compete with the almost adjacent Odessa school, in 1874.

St James' National school, now replaced
by rebuilt junior school

It was founded by William Bolton, the vicar of St John's in Stratford, with a roll of 395 pupils. The original Emmanuel school, now called St Saviour's, suffered as a result, and eventually closed in 1894.

Mass migration to Forest Gate in the last quarter of the nineteenth century further increased demand for school places in the area. The West Ham School Board responded with the construction of the Godwin Road school in 1885, providing facilities for 1,000 new pupils. The school, of course, survives, in a much modernised form, today.

An undated photograph of the original
Godwin school - Forest Gate's second "state" school

The School Board also opened the Whitehall Place school, in 1896, to provide for a further 1,400 places. This survived into the second half of the twentieth century, when it was demolished, to be replaced by what is now Forest Gate Community School, on Forest Lane.

Children from Godwin school, July 1898

The first traceable Catholic school in West Ham was established in Stratford around 1815, and in Forest Gate in 1862. In that year four Ursuline nuns arrived in Upton Lane from Belgium, and as their order required, began supervising the education of young Roman Catholics in the area, and operated a boarding school. We will return in greater depth to the history of the St Angela's school they established, in a later post on this site.

Boarders at St Angela's, 1890's

By 1902 St Angela's had been recognised by the state's Board of Education as a public secondary school. A preparatory department was opened in 1903.

Boarders' study room, St Angela's c 1890

In common with other areas of the country, the East End of London saw the emergence of a number of "independent" schools in the nineteenth century, they were fee paying and some offered a reasonable standard of education and other, "Dame Schools", we often little more than child-minding bodies for working parents.

First assembly hall at St Angela's - photo pre 1914

These schools were unregulated and required no permission to establish. They were not inspected or controlled and standards were often shocking, as Dickens testified in many of his writings.

This lack of registration means that it is difficult to establish accurate numbers of these institutions at any time, and certainly before the 1870's, to have any idea of how many children they catered for.

It was estimated, however, that there were 13 private schools in the West Ham Board area in 1904.

One of the most successful of these was the Forest Gate Collegiate School for Girls, founded in 1874 on Romford Road. This was taken over in the early years of the twentieth century and became "Clark's (private)High School for Girls and Kindergarten and Preparatory Class for Little Boys" - as a close examination of the 1910 photo, below shows!

Forest Gate Collegiate School for Girls,
established 1874, later became Clark's (private)
High School for Girls and Kindergarten and
preparatory Class for Little Boys - photos c 1910

Although it moved premises a time or two, it was still operating along Romford Road until the early years of World War 11. Its fate is unknown.

Neither do we have much information about the local "Dame Schools", although adverts relating to two of them survive.

One, The "Woodgrange Academy for Girls", based in Claremont Road, was sold in 1889, as indicated by the advert, although no details of fees or services offered are available.

Advert, showing change of ownership
of Woodgrange Academy for Girls,
Claremont Road, 1899

The second, the "Ladies' College and Elementary School" of Earlham Grove had termly fees of around £1, and offered "Special attention being given to those who are delicate or backward"!, around the year 1900.

Ladies College and Elementary School,
Earlham Grove c 1900

We have covered the history of the Earlham Grove Music academy, and its influence beyond the area's boundaries in some depth in this early post on this blog.

Future articles in this blog will look at post 1900 education in Forest Gate and examine the history of one or two specific local schools.

We have recently acquired a piece of boxing memorabilia with sturdy Forest Gate roots. It is a copy of the programme for what was probably local boxer Billy Walker's biggest fight, when he met Karl Mildenberger at Wembley for the Heavyweight Championship of Europe, in March 1967.

Programme cover

Walker, who was brought up in Ilford, was a member of the West Ham boxing club, fought regularly at Romford Road's West Ham baths (now the Atherton suites, being rebuilt), and lived for a while on Romford Road, owned the Upper Cut Club on Woodgrange Road at the time of the fight.

The images in this article are taken from the programme of that fight. The copy, although written in a rather showmanship style, gives a clear indication of the importance of the bout in the annals of British boxing history.

Card for the night

The promoter of the fight was the legendary Harry Levene. In his introduction he mentions the fact that the Wembley bill was such big box office that even then - almost 50 years ago - it was relayed in an early close circuit television to cinemas in London, Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich, Nottingham and Southend. Levene went on to say:

I have promoted many major tournaments in my time, including many world championship fights, but never in all my experience have I known such a rush for tickets as I have for tonight's battle between Karl Mildenberger, the holder, and our own Billy Walker, for the Heavyweight Championship of Europe. All tickets for this big arena (Wembley's Empire Pool) were sold before I had announced one single supporting bout. This is ample proof, if it were needed that Walker is the biggest box office attraction in British boxing history.

Boxing writer, Bill Martin, provided a profile of Billy for the programme. He said:

Billy Walker - the whole spirit of boxing

"Take 14 stone of muscle, lace it with guts and determination, top the lot with a handsome blond head and you have Billy Walker, surely the biggest drawing card in British Sport today.

Almost from the moment he first put on a boxing glove, Walker has pulled in the crowds. His amateur career, climaxed by his sensational one round knock-out of the 17 stone American Cornelius Perry, in 1961, was a spectacular interlude relished by all but his opponents. His five years as a professional have been even more colourful. When it comes down to the fundamentals, boxing is a matter of hit and be hit, and we roll up in our thousands because Walker personifies the whole spirit of the business. He lays in with joyful abandon and if he stops one or two in return well, that's show business. In these circumstances anything can happen - and usually does.

That is why Walker is the sell-out King and why nearly 11,000 are here at Wembley tonight, plus a further 40,000 at the far ends of closed circuit T.V. land lines have cheerfully put their hands in their pockets for the privilege of being in on this fracas.

Action shot, accompanying
the article

The drawing power will not go unrewarded. Billy's share for this, his first title fight, will be 23.5% of the take and undoubtedly part of the purse will go towards consolidating the highly successful business empire over which he rules in partnership with Big Brother George.

Partners outside the ring as well as inside, the Walkers have invested shrewdly the cash garnered by junior's flying fists. They own garages, a fleet of taxis, a petrol company, a club and a couple of restaurants.

Success of this kind is not always easy to carry and having a name that is a household word can turn a man's head. But not Walker's. Certainly he enjoys the recognition, the T.V. appearances and the glad hand, but his hat size has not changed and his feet remain firmly on the ground. he is still Billy Walker, everybody's mate.

Advert in the programme, showing
Walker's pull as a poster boy to
promote products. The "Cassius"
referred to in it, is, of course
Mohammed Ali, his pre-Islamic
conversion name

Beneath it all, however, lies an iron determination, a high standard of bravery and an uncompromising attitude towards his work in the ring. "Anyone who wants to keep me down", he says, "will have to nail me to the floor".

It is an attitude which has already secured his place in the story of the British heavyweight division, and it could carry him a lot further up the rocky road to the top.

Programme caption: A faceful of fists
for Jose Menno. Two of them belong
to him, but the other is on the end
of that punishing right arm of Billy
Walker and, as Menno's puffy
face shows, that right really hurts!

Programme caption: Billy Walker and
Ray Patterson pose for the inevitable
'dear old pals' photograph after their
terrific fight at the Royal Albert
Hall on 6th December last.

Alas, the fight did not go to plan, and Walker was badly beaten. He takes up the story in his ghosted autobiography When the Gloves Came off:

Mildenberger was by far the most formidable opponent I'd had to face in twenty-seven pro fights. ... In addition to the capacity Wembley crowd, the fight was shown in thirteen British cinemas and theatres and beamed to Germany, France, Italy and other European countries - a total audience of 75 million, apparently. ... George and I came out with £30,000, more than enough to buy and renovate the property of our second Baked Potato restaurant which George planned to open in Chancery Lane.

I wish I could say I gave the watching millions value for money, but I can't. I did my best, as usual, went at Mildenberger from the first bell, and kept going forward, trying to land the big one, but I took a hell of a beating and I'll admit that it was the first time in my career - amateur and pro - when I was grateful that the referee called a halt; when I wanted a fight over and was content to lose.

The referee stopped the contest in the 8th round and it was the beginning of the end of Billy Walker's boxing career. He had one more big title fight, against Henry Cooper, for the British and Commonwealth title in November that year, which he also lost, a single low key fight the following year, before bowing out after losing to British heavyweight Jack Bodell, almost two years to the day after the Mildenberger defeat.

We have written at length about Billy Walker on this site before (see here, in particular) and his Upper Cut Club on Woodgrange Road. The evening of his biggest fight, to Mildenberger came just three days after the Upper Cut's biggest billing: the Atlantic/Stax tour, featuring Otis Redding, Arthur Conley, Sam and Dave, Booker T and the MG's, Eddie Floyd etc. See here for detail.,

Otis and co at the Upper Cut, just
three nights before the big fight

In our recent article on Forest Gate's listed buildings we mentioned (here) that the Red House, in Upton Lane, was, for a while, home to Mr Tutill, a prominent trade union banner manufacturer.

Early 20th century photo of the Red
House, Tutill residence 1871 - 1887

This was very much an understatement of Tutill's role and importance. Distinguished labour historian Gwyn A Williams wrote this of George Tutill in his introduction to John Gorman's definitive history of trade union banners, Banner Bright:

During the 1840's union banners began to be made in the general style which remained in favour for a hundred years: lavishly illustrated on both sides of silk panels, highly ornamental and trimmed up to sixteen feet by twelve feet in size to be paraded in public, stately and striking. The uniformity, which extended to designs as well as materials was due largely to one man, George Tutill, who set up in banner making in 1837 and over the next fifty years earned for his business a virtual commercial monopoly and a world-wide market.

George Tutill lived in Upton Lane's Red House (illustrated above) between 1871 and till his death in 1887. This post is his story.

George Tutill, posing in the
regalia of Grand Templars
- produced by his firm

He was born in the Yorkshire village of Howden in 1817, two years after the defeat of Napoleon and two years before the significant Peterloo massacre. His father was an illiterate miller. In 1837 the twenty year-old Tutill established the company which was to manufacture more trade union banners than any other in the world- more than three-quarters ever commercially manufactured.

Details of his life before 1837 are obscure, but the company he established in that year still survives and is now based in Chesham, Bucks.

Advert for Tutill's banner makers

The story of how Tutill came to be recognised as the 'universal provider' of trade union regalia was related to Gorman by Ronald Caffyn, whose family had a long tradition in working for Tutill's and whose father had worked with George, the founder:

George Tutill began his life as a travelling fairground showman. In those days ... it was common practice for a showman to decorate his own sideshow, caravan or roundabout, embellishing it with ornate lettering and design, which Tutill did with great style. ...Tutill first met trade unionists during his regular visits to public houses (where the union's held their meetings). He also met with the friendly societies for whom he was to produce so much in the years to come. ... On one occasion ... he was asked if he would paint a banner for a union, which held its meetings at the inn. He accepted and the members were delighted with the result.

And so began his career as a banner maker. Details of his career over the next few years are patchy. But, as an indication of his artistic talents, a painting of his, entitled Scarborough Castle (a few miles from his native village), was exhibited at the Royal Academy.

Front cover of 1896 Tutill catalogue
- showing various aspects of banner
making at City Road workshop

By 1857 he was living in Islington and soon after he established his business at 83 City Road, in a purpose built workshop.. By 1860 he moved house to Canonbury, a more up-market part of Islington, a sign of his increased success and prosperity. A key to his success was moving banner-making on from a simple artisan workshop activity to an almost production-line process.

All of his banners were made from pure silk, and he built on the East London, Huguenot-influenced, tradition of silk weaving in Spitalfields and Bethnal Green.

Tutill banner from 1890's

In 1861 he took out a patent for "treating materials for the manufacture of banners and flags". It was designed to give flexibility and durability to the materials he used in the manufacture of flags, where paint and oils were mixed and then covered with a small film of india rubber, to create and preserve the pictures in the centres of his trade mark banners. The formula was so successful that some of his early banners survive today (130 years on) - images intact.

One of the brass name discs used to
secure lead tapes to Tutill's banners

Tutill's activities at City Road were not confined to trade union banners. Regalia for Oddfellows, Masons, church Sunday schools, Bands of Hope, temperance societies, Rechabites, Orange orders and every kind of friendly society were made, to order. According to Gorman:

Satin sashes, printed emblems, aprons, collars, regalia cases, caps certificates, medals, chains, horns, girdles and even robes and false beards for the Ancient Order of Druids supplied insatiable demand.

With business flourishing, Tutill continued to prosper and in 1871 moved into the Red House, on Upton Lane.

Tutill banner from 1899

The house, itself had been built shortly before 1762 and had been inhabited by Isaac Blijdesteijn (who became and elder in the Dutch church at Austin Friars, in the City, in 1803), son of a Dutch merchant.

Tutill was to live there with his wife, Elizabeth, and their only surviving child, daughter Georgina, until his death in 1887. Elizabeth died in December 1884 and is buried in the near-by Emmanuel Churchyard, in Upton Lane.

Tutill was not one to let the grass grow under his feet, in the business world. In 1881 he installed the largest Jacquard loom in the world in his City Road premises, in order to weave the ever larger banners in a single piece.

Largest Jacquard loom in the world, installed
at Tutill's City Road. The punch cards which
programme the machine can be
seen in the foreground

Tutill seems to have embraced all the elements of a successful Victorian businessman, according to Gorman. He was self-made, creative, inventive and boldly kept pace with the expansion of industrial capitalism, at home and abroad.

He soon cultivated a successful export business. In the firm's catalogue of 1896 (after his death), it stated the firm was exporting banners to Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada and "to the remotest parts of the civilised world"!

Banner believed to have been
designed by George Tutill, himself

Tutill, himself, was presented with the highest award, a gold medal, and a special commendation at the Sydney International Exhibition of 1879. He also took prizes at exhibitions in Brisbane in 1880, Melbourne in 1881 and Adelaide in 1882. He sailed to Melbourne to pick up his award in person.

Although, over fifty years, Tutill made more trade union banners than anybody else, he did not share the political or economic sympathies of his clients. He ran a non-union company, which remained so until well after his death, in 1935.

Design from 1890's

He also obtained a great deal of business from the temperance movement, but that did not affect his fairly notorious drinking habits. He is said to have kept two barrels in his office - one filled with whisky for the drinkers and one filled with port for the non drinkers!

Tutill was a meticulous artist and business administrator and kept long-hand records of all his correspondence from 1840 onwards. Later he kept photographs of every banner the company produced. The entire collection, however (with the exception of three boxes of negatives from the 1920's) was destroyed in the blitz of 1940.

The giant Jacquard loom was removed to Braintree for the duration of the war, to preserve it, but as technology moved on, it became redundant in 1965. It was offered to the Science Museum, who declined, and so it was broken up, for parts.

Design c 1895

The company itself, transferred to Chesham in Buckinghamshire, following the destruction of its City Road premises, after the Second World War.

Back to Tutill, himself. He died on 17 February 1887 at home, in the Red House. A large decorated stained glass memorial window was subsequently constructed at the south west end of Howden Minster. The inscription along the base of the window reads:- "To the glory of God, and in affectionate remembrance of George Tutill, Esq. Born April 16th 1817. Died Feb. 17th 1887. J B Capronnier, Bruxellensis, Fecit 1888."

The business passed to his daughter and son-in-law. Thus business continued and prospered in the boom decade on the 1890's. In the twentieth century demand for banners declined until after the First World War, when there was an upsurge in trade union banner making. Following the General Strike of 1926, demand dropped off again, until 1947, when it prospered with post war confidence (and major nationalisations).

The demand dwindled again until 1967, a year in which the firm of Tutill's did not make a single trade union banner for the first time for 130 years.

As far as the Red House was concerned, soon after Tutill's death, it was occupied by the local MP Major George Banes, who served the area until 1900. According to a certificate inside the building, by 1907 it became a local gentleman/workingman's club apparently a gift to the area by a former resident. It is not clear whether this was Banes or not. The English Heritage's version of its 20th century history is somewhat at variance with this.

Footnote: We are deeply indebted to John Gorman's 1975 book: Banner Bright (pub Allen Lane) for much of the information in this post, and also to Roger Logan's account of Tutill's roles in producing banners for friendly society's, available here

Over 95% of the contents of this site - indeed what is known about Forest Gate - relates to developments over the last 150 years. This article features a much older piece of local history.

While sewers were being constructed behind the Princess Alice pub, at the junction of Romford and Sprowston Roads, in 1875, workmen came across a small gold shiny object. It was soon identified by archaeologists as a Saxon jewelled pin, dating from the 6th or early 7th century A.D. The craftwork on it indicated that it, in all probability, belonged to a woman of high status.

Location of the find: junction of
Romford and Sprowston Roads

Essex - of which Forest Gate has been part - was then an independent kingdom, stretching over the current area of the county and incorporating Middlesex and parts of modern Hertfordshire.

The pin was a one-off find, suggesting that it hadn't come from a local house, or settlement of distinction, or was a burial object. Rather, it was likely to have, in some way, been lost by a traveller on what was the old Roman London to Colchester Road (today's Romford Road).

Forest Gate's Anglo-Saxon pin,
now on display at Oxford's
Ashmolean Museum

It was soon acquired by Sir John Evans (1823 - 1908), an archaeologist who had married into the wealthy Dickinson family of paper and stationery manufacturers. Sir John was very much a "society" man, when such characteristics were fashionable and given high status in the late Victorian era.

Sir John Evans (1823 - 1908)
acquired the gem, soon
after its local discovery

He was, in turn, a prominent member of British "societies" concerned with: antiquities, geology, anthropology, chemistry and science. He was treasurer of the British Society for 21 years and a trustee of the British Museum.

The pin was transferred on his death in 1908 to his son, Sir Arthur Evans (1851 - 1941), who presented it to Oxford's prominent Ashmolean Museum the following year.

Oxford's Ashmolean Museum,
home to the Forest Gate gem

Sir Arthur, himself, was an archaeologist who was appointed keeper on the Ashmolean in 1884. He steered the institution in the direction of his principal interest - archaeology. He is, perhaps, best known for his excavation of, and considerable research into, the relics of the Minoan civilisation of Crete.

Back to the pin. Work by the Evanses and the curatorial staff at the Ashmolean suggests that the pin is stylistically similar to jewellery produced in Kent in the late 6th century. This is acknowledged to have influenced designs in Essex, following the marriage of King Sledd of Essex, to Ricula, the sister of King Aethelberht of Kent, in 580 A.D.

Sir Arthur Evans, keeper of the
Asmolean, who donated
the pin to it in 1909

The pin (see photograph) is 3.5 cm long. Unfortunately, it has suffered structural damage and has been distorted in several places.

It has been described as a "bead", or the head of a pin, but it may have been a pendant. Its craftwork is less sophisticated, apparently, than that found on other garnet-inlaid Anglo-Saxon ornaments.

The pendant (Ashmolean accession number AN1909.517) is on display in the museum's England gallery. The Museum's records describe it as a "4-sided lentoid bead; gold with cloisons of garnet and blue stone; two opposite sides alike. Length 35 mm."

Below we reproduce the reference to the stone in one of the chief reference books on Anglo-Saxon archaeological objects (see footnote for details):

Archaeological Society report and description of the gem

Footnotes:

1. We would like to express deepest gratitude to the Ashmolean Museum and its curatorial staff for assisting with the contents of this article. We are particularly indebted to the Museum for the photograph of the pin, and we acknowledge that the copyright of the photograph of the pin is theirs.

2. The extracted. detailed quote, above, describing the pin, can be found on pp 165-6 of Macgregor, Arthur and Bolick's A Summary Catalogue of the Anglo-Saxon collection (non-ferrous metals), published by Ellen in 1993, from British Archaeological Report 230.

It is less than two years since we published a 24-hour Forest Gate food trail (see here), and we struggled to find half a dozen decent places to eat in the area. That number of additional outlets has popped over the last three months alone, to add to the mix of food and drink options within the E7 postcode.

This article traces the changes and reviews some of the more interesting possibilities currently on offer in Forest Gate.

In many senses the origins of the recent local food boom can be traced back to the opening of the Forest Gate Market in December 2011. The market now, among its varied stalls, sells organic vegetables , a delicious cheese stall (Forest Grater) and charcuterie outlet, with occasional appearances from an Essex organic farmer. There are, additionally, food evenings and appearances by other hot food hawkers at different points during the year.

Woodgrange Market - start of food boom

The first modern coffee shop, Kaffine (now sadly gone, but replaced by Familia), popped up soon after the market opening, to be followed in 2013 by CoffeE7, Aromas on Forest Lane, Artemis (the coffee and crepe rotunda outside the station, closed while the newly-named Elizabeth Line is being developed) and the Forest Tavern.

The following year Compotes, the Wanstead Tap and Woodgrange Road's Afghan restaurant (now gone and replaced by a Peri Peri chicken shop) appeared for the first time. The international food chain Subway, too, opened up at the foot of Woodgrange Road.

2015 saw the demise of the Siam Cafe but the beginnings, underneath the arches in Winchelsea Rd - in close proximity to the Wanstead Tap - of Hawkes, the innovative cider brewers. They soon linked up with Wanstead's Lupollo, to offer a drink and pizza weekend dining option.

There have been half a dozen openings locally since the end of last year, most of which we have visited, and we provide a quick survey of what is currently on offer. The restaurants and bars are listed, below, in no particular order.

Ghost Chilli

This is just a couple of doors down from the now departed Siam Cafe, at the northern end of Woodgrange Road. It is small and pleasantly decorated. It has a ridiculously large menu selection, but the food is all freshly cooked - and delicious. It will certainly give Aromas (just round the corner, and winner of a Time Out restaurant award last year) a run for its money.

Ghost Chilli

It's difficult to assess how well it will do, as there isn't much space for diners, their on-line marketing - in what is becoming a crowded market - isn't great, and its hasn't seemed too busy whenever we've passed.

But we thoroughly enjoyed the good prices, decent sized portions, range of choice, pleasant swift and helpful service and most of all the food. As a BYO restaurant (with an off-licence opposite), diners can save money on alcohol consumption there. It has become our local Indian of choice.

Corner Kitchen

Much trailed and incredibly well located, this new venture has stepped up the ante in Forest Gate dining terms. It is a pizza house, coffee shop and delicatessen rolled into one.

It is owned and run by two local young women with great catering/hospitality CVs. It's a gamble and must have cost a fortune to furnish so tastefully and well (Epping Forest wood table tops, chairs covered by Robinson's, Upton Lane's great local upholsterers). It is staffed by local labour, offers home made products and uses local suppliers for many more.

What's not to like? Well "anarchist" vandals daubed the windows with graffiti during its opening week, presumably objecting to people having some local choice of eatery in a food outlet that, unlike Starbucks, say, will end up paying UK taxes when it becomes a viable proposition.

Corner Kitchen

The main attractions are the pizzas - more expensive than the other local options. But infinitely better: freshly cooked with great and generously portioned ingredients, and totally delicious. As the CK develops, it is extending its range of offers, there are now anti-pasto starters and some great cakes for desserts. Some tasty take-away sandwiches are being offered for the passing trade. The charcuterie range is beginning to expand.

The downstairs dining area options are gradually being developed; as a side-line it features fun activities for under-fives a couple of times a week, meeting the needs of the young mum owners, at the very least!

Forest Gate's super chef, Michael Sanders is running his Supper Clubs from there, starting this week. The match up with Michael, who launched himself locally with these clubs at the Wanstead Tap in 2014, followed by pop up sessions in pubs in Leytonstone and Stratford last year, is a great one, in which both chef and owners deserve to prosper. His prices are a bit up on those at the Tap, but the location is more convenient and the ambience more up market.
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On the drinks front, the all-day coffees are delicious - they need to be, as there's plenty of competition, locally on that front. There is also a range of craft beers and ciders available, together with an extensive (and expensive) wine list - featuring many organic products.

The venture is a great addition to Woodgrange Road and deserves to succeed. Perhaps more than all the other newcomers, judging by its popularity, it seems to typify what the recent incoming residents to our neighbourhood want from local dining: good ingredients, great atmosphere, convenient location and plenty of look-alikes as fellow customers.

After 7 at CoffeE7

The longest-operating of the new local eateries, perhaps sensing a bit more competition, has recently branched out, with its After 7 at CoffeE7 on Thursdays - Saturdays.

And it is great!

The offer is simple: some fine cocktails and a range on bottled beers and ciders and wines plus a very limited, but extremely delicious nocturnal (7pm - 11pm) food range.

After 7 at CoffeE7

There is a great charcuterie board and cheeseboard, supplied by a couple of the stalls on Woodgrange market (see above) on the menu and an absolutely delicious veggie Wheatburger, with fries and side salad.

They are all very reasonably priced, and the three, shared between a veggie and a carnivore, make a delightful light evening meal.

Very highly recommended. We'll be back!

Familia Cafe

This small enterprise on the corner of Woodgrange Road and Forest Lane has replaced the original Kaffine coffee house. It suffers the same problem: a small dining area, but offers - like its predecessor - great coffee, tasty cakes and imaginatively loaded sandwiches.

Familia Cafe

It has a limited, but interesting, lunch selection and more customer friendly staff/owners than its forerunner. We hope it succeeds - but it is in an increasingly crowded market.

Pie Republic

This is next to the aforementioned Robinson's on Upton Lane (in SoRo, as the local hipsters would have it). They opened with a soft launch last week and have a mouth-watering menu of "fresh, wholesome and comforting food with a unique blend of flavours", as the blub has it.

There are half a dozen, reasonably priced starters (£3.95 each, or 3 for £10) and half a dozen delicious-sounding pies, each with 2 sides, for £7.95 as the main attraction: these include chicken, lamb, fish and veggie. The ingredients are exciting and the food looks great.

Pie Republic

For non-pie eaters there are half a dozen other offers, including burgers and fish and chips. The drinks (non-alcoholic) and desert (limited selection) are reasonably priced too.

A three-course meal and drink can be had for well under £20 a head - so a more than decent meal at an even better price!

On the outskirts: Lakehouse Tea Room

This is on Cann Hall Road, just outside E7, but within easy view of the edge of Forest Gate's part of Wanstead Flats. It is an upmarket cafe, providing a wide choice of fresh breakfasts (English and continental) - but being Halal, no bacon is on offer. The sandwiches, home-made cakes and interesting lunchtime soups look tasty and mouth-watering.

Lakehouse Tea Room

A pleasant stop after a ramble round the Flats; it even has some outside seating, on which to continue to enjoy the healthy outdoors. Highly recommended.

On the horizon: pub re-openings

Antic, the brewery that took over the down-at-heel Railway Tavern and turned it into Forest Gate's liveliest pub - the Forest Tavern - a little over two years ago, is looking to breathe life into two other old and famous boozers in the area: Manor Park's Earl of Essex and the Lord Rookwood a couple of doors down from the Lakehouse Tea Room on Cann Hall Road.

These are huge pubs with fine traditions, both now, unfortunately closed. It will be a big ask to turn them around, but it seems like Antic intend off-setting some of their investment costs by building (and selling) flats in and around them - half a dozen 1 - 3 bed flats on the upper floors of the Earl of Essex and flats in the car park/grounds behind the Rookwood, if rumours and early plans are to come to fruition.

Looks like success for the campaign to
"Save the Lord Rookwood" is in sight

As with all Antic pubs, an interesting food offer will accompany the drinking options, once opened. But given the linked-in flat construction plans it could be some months before food and drink are flowing in them.

The real E7 challenges for Antic - or another enterprising pub chain - however, would be to revitalise the Live and Let Live, currently dry (but squatted in?), on Romford Road or even to do something truly innovative with one of Forest Gate's most iconic buildings, The Old Spotted Dog, on Upton Lane.

As far as the Old Spotted Dog is concerned, members of the trust established to save it met with the site's new owners at the end of last year and discussed the developers' plans. These include building low rise flats in the car park area and beyond, and refurbishing the pub, before selling it on.

The attraction of building flats for the new owners is plain and lucrative to see; vigilance will need to be maintained to ensure that the more important historic parts of the development are sympathetically restored to something approaching former glories.

Watch this space.

Last year, to commemorate International Women's Day, we featured the story of Minnie Baldock, the organiser of Forest Gate's Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) - popularly known as The Suffragettes - between 1906 and 1911 (see here).

Minnie Baldock c 1908

This year we focus on a number of local addresses of significance to the WSPU, in Forest Gate, neighbouring Canning Town and the adjacent district of Bow - all within four miles of Forest Gate. We are deeply indebted to Vicky Stewart and Spitalfields Life for the research behind the identification of the Bow addresses and for sourcing some of the photos (see footnote).

Forest Gate

Among local addresses of significance to the suffragette movement are:

Earlham Hall, Earlham Grove (now the Cherabim and Seraphim church)

Location of a WSPU meeting in October 1908. The illustrations below show a near contemporary drawing of the exterior of this, then important, public building and a Stratford Express report of that meeting.

Stratford Express
account of Earlham
Hall meeting

Sketch of Earlham Hall,
shortly before WSPU meeting

102 Clova Road

This was the location of a meeting of the WSPU in Forest Gate, in January 1908 (see Stratford Express cutting). The speaker was the national treasurer of the Suffragettes, Emily Pethwick-Lawrence.

102 Clova Road, today

Stratford Express, reporting
Clova Road meeting

Emily Pethwick-Lawrence

Upton Park station

An outdoor Suffragette meeting, addressed by Emily Pethwick-Lawrence (see above) was interrupted, and probably sabotaged by, a travelling Punch and Judy show, featuring a Mr Punch beating a Judy in September 1906 (see press cutting).

Upton Park outdoor meeting,
disrupted by Punch and Judy show

Canning Town

Minnie Baldock , Forest Gate Suffragette organiser and subject of our profile last year, was an activist in this area, particularly from 1905 - 1911. Before becoming the Forest Gate organiser, she had been instrumental in establishing the Canning Town branch of the WSPU, at a meeting on 29 January 1906.

Unlike many high profile Suffragettes, she was a working class woman, very much in tune with her local community. She was arrested and imprisoned for a month, for demonstrating outside Parliament, in 1908.

Minnie gave a room in her house in Eclipse St, Canning Town (subsequently demolished) to fellow working class activist and prominent Suffragette , Annie Kenney, when she travelled from Lancashire to fight the cause in London.

Annie Kenney

The pair campaigned together in the East End and more widely elsewhere in England, offering some working class authenticity to the Suffragette cause in many communities, which were sometimes difficult to penetrate by the very middle class Pankhursts and some of their sisters.

Oak Crescent, Canning Town (near Bow Flyover)

Currently a green space, but in 1891 home of Minnie Baldock and her trade union and socialist councillor activist husband, Henry Baldock. See census extract, verifying the residence.

Oak Crescent, today

1891 census, showing
Baldocks in Oak Crescent

490 Barking Road

Home of Minnie Baldock at the time of the 1911 census in April. Minnie was diagnosed with cancer four months after this census and treated at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson hospital, near Euston.

On recovery, she effectively retired from political activism and retired to Poole, in Dorset, where she was to live for more than 40 further years.

490 Barking Road, today

1911 census entry

Beckton Road

Route of Women's May Day Rally to Victoria Park, 23 May 1914 - see press cutting from Woman's Dreadnought:

Woman's Dreadnought May 1914

Bow - across the water

Bow, as part of the then borough of Poplar, was a hotbed of left wing politics in the first quarter of the twentieth century. It was an area dominated by casual employment - mainly dockers (men) and seasonal factory work (women). As such, the area was desperately poor. It had already played an important part in the birth and growth of the Dockers' Union, which was to form the basis of what later became the Transport and General Workers' Union T&GWU).

Casual work meant frequent periods of unemployment and reliance on Poor Law payments for men, women and families. The structure of this early form of public assistance required that the entire cost of the benefits distributed in any one Poor Law district to be met by the other, local people, within the same district.

So, people living in the poorest parts of the country paid much higher council rates than those in wealthier areas, because of the larger number of destitute neighbours they were required to support.

This ludicrous position was challenged by Poplar's Labour Council in the 1920's, led by George Lansbury, via a civil disobedience campaign. The councillors' actions in defending the living conditions of their fellow citizens, resulted in their imprisonment - but was ultimately instrumental in ensuring that there was a nation-wide levelling out of support for the poorest areas.

Lansbury, a decade or so later, briefly became leader of the Labour Party, nationally.

Prior to this, however, Lansbury had been very much influenced by the Suffragette movement, which inspired him to resign as the MP for Poplar in 1912. He did so in order to provoke a by-election in which he stood, and focused it exclusively on the issue of Votes for Women.

George Lansbury (Poplar MP and future Labour Party
leader) in Bow: His 1912 "Votes for Women"
by-election attracted Sylvia Pankhurst to
the East End, and to the establishment of the
militant East London Federation of Suffragettes. Their
civil disobedience tactics inspired post WW1 Poplar
councillors to break the law, which in turn,
transformed the welfare state.

Unfortunately, he was defeated in the election, but it proved to be the springboard for longer-lasting and more significant local and national developments, some of which have been alluded to, above.

Sylvia Pankhurst, one of the formidable family of Suffragettes, came to Bow to assist with the by-election campaign and stayed afterwards to organise within the area. She opened up the first local WSPU headquarters on Bow Road in 1912 (soon after Forest Gate's Minnie Baldock had effectively stepped down in the West Ham area, due to ill-health).

Unlike the rest of her family, Sylvia was deeply committed to actively organising local working class women, not simply around the issue of votes for women, but on a wider range of social issues related to their social and economic conditions and poverty.

As such, she became politically divorced from the rest of her family. In recognition of this, the Bow/Poplar organisation changed its name in 1914 to the East London Federation of Suffragettes (ELFS). Their activities were inspirational and paved the way for the post World War 1 civil disobedience undertaken by the Poplar councillors, referred to above.

The remainder of this blog centres around three almost parallel roads, running West to East into Newham from Poplar. By coincidence, the WSPU's headquarters was, over a relatively short period of time, located successively on each of them. The roads were: Old Ford Road, Roman Road and Bow Road.

Buildings on them played a significant role in the history of Votes for Women.

Below we provide details of some of the more significant locations and photographs of most of those which survive, today.

Bow Road

Contemporary photo of Bow Road

Number 198 - First headquarters of WSPU in Bow in 1912. It was an empty baker's shop on which Sylvia Pankhurst painted "Votes For Women" in gold paint, and addressed crowds from its doorstep.

Bromley Public Hall - Sylvia Pankhurst in her memoirs:

On February 14th 1913 we held a meeting at the Bromley Public Hall, Bow Road, and from it lead a demonstration round the district. To make sure of imprisonment, I broke a window in the police station ... and went to prison and began the hunger and thirst strike.

Bromley Public Hall

Bow Palace of Varieties, 156 Bow Road - Built on the rear of the Three Cups pub, it was a public hall, with a capacity of 2,000. Sylvia Pankhurst in her memoirs wrote:

While I was in prison after my arrest at Shoreditch ... a meeting ... was held in Bow Palace on Sunday afternoon December 14th. After the meeting it was arranged to go in procession around the district and to hoot outside the homes of hostile borough councillors.

Bow Road Police station - The police were brutal to the Suffragettes. Daisy Parsons, who later became a West Ham councillor for Beckton Ward and mayor described part of what she told to Prime Minister, Asquith, as a member of a deputation on 20 June 1914:

Suddenly, without a word of warning, we are pounced on by detectives and bludgeoned and women were called names by cowardly detectives. When nobody is about ... these men are not fit to help rule the country, while we have no say in it.

Bow Road police station around the time
Suffragettes were assaulted there

Minnie Lansbury clock - near junction with Alfred Street - Minnie was George's daughter-in-law who was active in local politics. She was imprisoned in Holloway for her Suffragette activities and died age 32.

Minnie Lansbury clock

George Lansbury Memorial - near junction with Harley Grove - Memorial commemorating Suffragette supporter, who lived locally and worked at his father-in-law's timber merchants, nearby.

George Lansbury memorial

Old Ford Road

Near contemporary photo of Roman Road

400 - Third headquarters of local Suffragettes (initially WSPU, later ELFS), in 1914. A women's hall was built on land at the rear, which was used as a cost-price restaurant, providing nutritious meals to women suffering huge increases in food prices in the early months of World War 1.

438, The Mothers' Arms - The East London Federation of Suffragettes set up a creche and baby clinic here, staffed by Montessori-trained nurses. It was converted from a pub previous called the Gunmakers' Arms.

Roman Road

Public baths and library at about
the time the Suffragettes' HQ
was were located on Roman Road

Contemporary photo of Roman Road

Roman Road Market - The East London Federation of Suffragettes ran a stall in the market, decorated with posters, selling their newspaper The Woman's Dreadnought.

159 (subsequently renumbered 459) - Location of WF Arber and Co, a firm of printers that produced free-of-charge handbills for the WSPU.

Photo of Arber's before closure,
but after street renumbering

321 - Second headquarters of Bow WSPU. Sylvia Pankhurst described it, in her memoirs:

We decided to take a shop and house at 321 Roman Road at a weekly rent of 14s 6d (73p) a week. It was the only shop to let in the road. The shop window was broken across and only held together by putty. The landlord would not put in new glass, nor would he repair the many holes in the shop and passage flooring because he thought we would only stay a short time.

We would be delighted to hear, and include details of any other local sites of significance, which we will be happy to add to the above account.

Footnote: Fuller details of the Bow addresses and Spitalfields Life can be found here. An excellent, accessible, publication: East London Suffragettes by Sarah Jackson and Rosemary Taylor provides further details and gives a great account of the suffragette movement in, well, East London. Priced £9.99, it can be purchased at the Newham Bookshop, and other outlets.

Our last post featured some heroic local women's fight for the vote, this one looks at a rather less public spirited local woman.

It is the case of 72 year old Forest Gate resident, Jane Rebecca Yorke, the last person convicted under the Witchcraft Act of 1735, in 1944. It was a fascinating case that:

•Led to the scrapping of the law,

•Involved four days court action in West Ham, and

•Was taken up by the Director of Public Prosecutions, who referred it for

•Trial at the Old Bailey, before a leading judge who has previously supervised a number of other "witchcraft trials"

•Received massive coverage in the local press (over 8 densely packed full broadsheet page columns of the Stratford Express) at a time of newsprint scarcity and rationing.

•Unusually for a relatively minor case, still merits its own substantial file in the national Public Records Office, including a full transcript of the West Ham Police Court proceedings.

•Caused panic within the more formal Spiritualist movement within the UK.

•Saw Yorke represented in court by William Daybell, whose firm of solicitors continues to practice in the Broadway in Stratford today.

The above is all the more surprising when a study of the court transcripts suggests that the case was little more than that of a rather clumsy, small-time, local con artist, who prayed, overwhelmingly, on the fears and gullibility of poor, vulnerable, East End women.

At the time, Yorke was widowed and lived at 198 Romford Road (see photo of the house, today, below). She was charged with:

Conspiring together with persons unknown to pretend to exercise, or use, a kind of conjuration (magic spell) and that through the agency of Mrs Yorke, spirits of deceased persons appeared, and that the spirits were communicating with living persons present.

The charges related to seven events occurring over three dates in May 1944, West Ham magistrates heard on 11th July. On the July date she was remanded on bail until the end of the month, when a full three day trial took place at the local Police (former name of Magistrates) Court.

These appearances resulted in extensive coverage in the Stratford Express of the time (see extracts from clippings, below).

198 Romford Road today - the
basement was the "scene of crime"

On the advice of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Jane Yorke was then remanded for trial at the Central Criminal Court (Old Bailey) in September later that year.

At this trial she was found guilty on seven counts by the Recorder of the Court, Sir Gerald Dodson, and was fined £5 and bound over, to keep the peace and not re-offend, for three years.

The relative leniency of the punishment has subsequently been put down to her age, disability and previously reported good behaviour. All in all, this was an anti-climatic outcome for a case that attracted so much attention and had such significant long term effects.

Judge Dodson told Yorke, at the conclusion of the Old Bailey trial, that she "had been trading on the susceptibilities of poor distressed people" and that it was necessary "to protect women who had gone( to her) in their sorrow and bereavement to get some spurious comfort".

The case was the last conviction in England under the Witchcraft Act of 1735, and, because of its nature, lead to a repeal of that Act, and replacement by the Fraudulent Mediums Act, 1951.

Nobody ever claimed Yorke had been a witch, but the Witchcraft Act was, apparently, the only legal device available, at the time, for arresting and charging her for being a phoney medium.

The replacement 1951 Act effectively recognised that, and updated the legislation to be more specific about fraudulent mediums.

Sir Gerald Dodson, judge at
the Old Bailey trial of Jane Yorke

Mr Elam, the prosecutor at the Old Bailey, said that the Yorke case was not a trial of Spiritualism, but that she was pretending to be able to do something, which in fact, she knew she could not do.

Following Yorke's conviction, some Spiritualist meetings due to be held elsewhere in the country, were banned, with her verdict being used as justification. This caused some consternation within the Spiritualist community, who sought legislative clarification of their status - hence the 1951 Act.

The Yorke case is covered in Malcolm Gaskill's book: Hellish Nell, Last of Britain's Witches and Gerald Dodson's memoirs: Consider Your Verdict, as well as in the Stratford Express of the time. This article is based on these sources, together with her extensive file at the Public Records Office.

Jane Yorke was arrested on 10 July 1944 at her Romford Road home. "Why after 23 years? ... All I have got to say is that I am a born medium", she told the police.

Part of Stratford Express
coverage, 14 July 1944

The case against her was that she held séances in the front room of her basement where "spirits" spoke through her Zulu guide. He apparently, impressed the sitters with his "war cry" of "Umba, Umba, Umba"!

Three police officers - Sub Divisional Inspector William Watt, Sergeant William Holliwell and Women Police Constable Constance Larner - had attended these events and described them in court.

Their testimonies suggested that each of the events was attended by around 20 - 25 people (almost all of whom were women), each of whom was required to pay 1/- (5p) and place a personal item on a hymn book.

Yorke then appeared to affect a trance and spoke through "communicants" who passed on messages from alleged deceased people to some of the attendees.

She claimed that Queen Victoria was a frequent communicant, as was Sherlock Holmes author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (who, himself had been a slightly eccentric Spiritualist).

Apparently, Mrs Yorke "scrunched up her face" when she was "conveying messages from Queen Victoria". One "message" from the late queen, is said to have guaranteed the success of D-Day : "Get your red, whites and blues ready".

Public Records Office
file of the Yorke case

Conan Doyle, allegedly, told one sitter that the War would be over by October 1944.

Acting under cover, the police inspector was told that he had lost his father in the First World War, the policewoman that her dead baby was beside her holding a bunch of roses and the sergeant that his brother had been burned alive during a bombing mission in World War 11. The police officers testified that none of these "facts" relating to alleged relatives was true.

The court also heard of messages from alleged dead relatives of other attendees, who according to those present, had not existed.

All of these claims were, presumably, reasonably easy to prove, or disprove. When they were shown to be inaccurate, Yorke blamed the effects of World War 11 bombings on her lines of communication.

Some of her messages, however, came relatively close to terrifying her audience. In one case she impersonated the brother of one of her sitters. He had been killed in a World War ll flying mission (this part was almost accurate) and told the woman that "a loved one is going to meet a serious accident but I fear it will be fatal."

The sitter was not told who this person was to be, but was advised to "take care of her husband". She, understandably perhaps, responded by "crying bitterly."

The prosecutor at the trial said that Mrs Yorke appeared to have a Zulu spirit guide and that at the sittings she appeared to go into a trance.

For the prosecution, Divisional Inspector William Watt said that Mrs Yorke had an old age pension of 10/- (50p) per week. She had been interested in Spiritualism for 30 years and had been actively engaged in it for the previous ten.

Part of Stratford Express
coverage, 29 July 1944

She had lived at the Romford Road house since 1914 and her husband, James, who assisted her at Spiritualist meetings, had died the previous year (1943). The police superintendent said that the case had come to light following a complaint. Observations were kept on her house and, according to the prosecutor:

It was quite clear that the majority of the women (attending) were either widows or mothers of men lost in the war, and from my own observations, it was obvious that a number had been on more than one occasion and that Mrs Yorke relied very largely on an extremely keen memory in dealing with them.

Given the inaccuracy of much of what she told the under-cover police officers at the seances, it would have been surprising if she was not as inaccurate in her "messages" from other alleged spirits to other attendees.

If so, it begs the question of why those attending returned to hear Yorke so frequently, unless they were both vulnerable and desperate.

Guilty: part of lengthy
Stratford Express coverage
of Old Bailey verdict,
September 1944

Mrs Yorke, from the dock, said that she did not charge for private sittings or circles (clearly not true, according to the accepted police evidence), but that there was a bowl in which people could drop money if they cared. She said that she did not know what she uttered during séances.

Gerald Dodson, the Recorder, in sentencing Yorke, said that he wanted an undertaking from her that the harmful practice would be dropped and that he had no desire to deal with the case in any other way.

The Home Office took the records of this and earlier cases and drafted a law that excluded mention of witchcraft, which didn't feature in her case, and instead focused on the practice of fraudulent Spiritualist Mediums - hence the 1951 Act.

This satisfied "legitimate" Spritualists, as the Yorke case and outcome had subsequently been used by the police in a number of localities elsewhere in the UK to prevent advertised Spiritualist meetings from happening.

Unfortunately, little else is known of Jane Yorke. No publicly available pictures of her seem to have survived and there are no verifiable details of her death, although she may have been buried in Hackney in the early months of 1953.

It is not clear whether anyone has heard from her since.

This short post is a summary of the regeneration plans currently out for consultation concerning 39a - 49a Woodgrange Road (between Gregg's and Barry's) - see map and photo for location.

In the apparent absence of any other on-line "community forum", this blog can be used as a medium for people to share views on the proposals. For full details of how this could work, see the footnote at the end of this article.

Most of the shops and buildings
covered by the proposal

London Iron Works (LWI) is a medium sized east London-based firm of developers who have worked up proposals for the redevelopment of this small stretch of Woodgrange Road. They have nothing to do with the much larger and controversial plans put forward and then abandoned by Obsidian four years ago.

LWI held two consultation evenings on 21 and 22 March at Durning Hall. We attended, as did many others. Helpful staff from the developers were on hand to answer questions, and as far as we could discern, they were very open and honest about the challenges and opportunities the proposals present.

Location map

Below is a short summary of what we discovered and felt worth sharing with others who were, perhaps, not able to attend.

We have no vested interest, whatsoever, in the outcome of the consultation, although, for the record, were impressed by the proposals. Let that, however, not inhibit those with alternative views from sharing their thoughts, below.

There are currently 12 retail units affected by the proposal. They, and the accommodation behind, would be demolished. The accommodation is largely officially vacant, although it is believed there are a number of squatters in situ.

The proposal would be to "revitalise" the shops. There would be no guarantee of tenure for the existing shops in the new development, and in any case they would have to close or move for at least 12 - 15 months around the rebuilding period (see anticipated timescale, below).

Artist's impression, from the south

Rents in the new shops will be considerably higher than those currently paid by the present occupiers. This is likely to be a significant issue for Barry's, the butcher, for example.

The proposal is to construct around 60 residential units. The exact mix will be subject to negotiation between developer and the council. It would, for example, be in the financial interests of the developer to only build one-bedroom flats for sale.

The council, however, will wish to see some larger properties (2 and 3 bedrooms) to ensure a good demographic balance of families, singles etc in the development and also to guarantee that there is an appropriate mix of social and owner-occupied properties. The developers accept this, and negotiations between council and developers will determine the final outcome mixture.

Artist's impression, from Earlham Grove:
flats on far right of drawing representation
of separate development plan - see text

All, or almost all, units will have balconies, most of which will be south facing.
There will be some recreational space (roof gardens etc) in the development and provision for cycle parking.

There could be some consequential modifications to the local road lay-out and this will doubtless feature in the mix of negotiations between the developer and the council.

As mentioned above, London Iron Works, the developers are an east-end firm specialising in medium size developments, like this one, that aim to fit in with local community needs and are empathetic to the local architecture (so no 19 storey building proposals, here).

They are working with Newham council on other developments in Manor Park - near the railway station and in East Ham, in what was the old Co-op site (the car park next to the Denmark Arms).

Artist's impression, from corner of Hampton Road

Although they aim to be empathetic with Victorian architecture, they are building in and for the 21st century, so will not seek to replicate 1880s buildings. In trying to be sympathetic, they will pay due regard to the local skyline, and brick work, for example.

Little is known about what is likely to happen to the former "Obsidian lands", although it is inconceivable, with the imminence of Crossrail, there will not be significant development proposals coming along soon.

It does seem likely that there will be a development, built around the same time as this Woodgrange Road one, a little behind it in Earlham Grove. It will be in the land boarded by blue hoardings, between Barry's and the Community Garden.

Artist's impression: front elevation

We understand that London Iron Works was interested in developing this too, but found negotiations around acquisition and planning extremely difficult. Instead, it would appear that the Council-back and owned Red Doors company is likely to do the construction and Swan Housing, who effectively run the council's outsourced housing management function, will operate the development.

We idly ask whether these council "insiders" found negotiating life for the plot as difficult as London Iron Works seemed to. You may smell a rat, we couldn't possibly comment.

It is interesting, however, that although this Earlham Grove development is being advanced by those with great insight into the local authority, its ways and, presumably the local community, they have not found it desirable or necessary to seek the views of the affected public on their proposals, as London Iron Works has.

Artist's impression of a possible floor plan

If you would like to comment to London Iron Works directly about their proposals, the e.mail address is WoodgrangeRoad@yourshout.org. Their freefone number is 0800 458 6976.

Anticipated timescale for Woodgrange Road proposals

Spring 2016 - exhibition and local consultation

Summer 2016 - having taken consultation on board, submit development scheme for planning discussion/consent

December 2016 - planning approval, or rejection. If consent:

January 2017 - give one year's notice to quit to existing shops and tenants

January 2018 - begin construction work

Jan - March 2019 - completion of project: new owners/tenants move in

Footnote: using this thread as a discussion forum

At the end of this article is a Comments box. Would-be contributors are invited to post their thoughts and share them with other local people. (This site gets over 250 hits per day, so people may feel it is a good vehicle to act as a discussion forum).

If you wish to contribute, simply fill in the comments box, below. You have the option of leaving your name and or a pseudonym, or posting anonymously. Your posting e.mail address will be known by the site. We undertake to share it with nobody, if that is your choice.
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This post is published to celebrate what would have been Ronnie Lane's 70th birthday - on 1 April.

Forest Gate youngster, Ronnie Lane's life (1 April 1946 - 4 June 1997) was perhaps best summed up by one of his greatest hits, penned with Steve Marriott: All or Nothing.

Ronnie, as a
mod, with the
Small Faces

Ronnie was a key figure in two of Britain's most influential bands in the 1960's and 70's (The Small Faces and The Faces), yet died in poverty and obscurity aged only 51 in a remote town in the American Rockies. This is his story.

Ronnie was the son of a Forest Gate lorry driver, Stan, and his wife Elsie, and spent his childhood at 385 Romford Road - see photo. Stan was the main influence on his early life and took responsibility for raising Ronnie and his older brother, Stan junior, as his mother began to suffer from the same debilitating disease - Multiple Sclerosis - that was to end Ronnie's life, prematurely.

385 Romford Road, today

Brother Stan referred to their mum as a "cold fish", and Ronnie always spoke of his dad in revered terms, barely mentioning his mother, in later years.

Encouraged by his dad, Ronnie picked up a guitar for the first time aged 14.

Soon after he left school (which he detested) he signed up to an art course at what was later to become Lister school. He subsequently drifted around a series of mundane jobs (electrician's mate, pipefitter's mate, scooter messenger, fairground worker etc) until he got his first musical break, as a guitar tester for Selmer's.

Looking to form a band, c 1964

He soon got the music bug and was quickly putting up adverts in local shop windows (see photo of an example)looking to recruit band members. This lead to the foundation of his first band, The Outcasts, with local drummer Kenny (later Kenney, of Who fame) Jones.

The band quickly fell apart, however, but the pair of them teamed up with fellow local boy Steve Marriott (brought up at 26 Strone Road, Manor Park, opposite the Ruskin Arms), and Jimmy Winston on keyboards. Ronnie switched from playing lead guitar, to bass and Marriott gave him the nickname, Plonk, as a result.

Ronnie recording, and in his element

The four of them were snapped up by Don Arden, the notoriously aggressive manager, who promoted them as a band to appeal to Mods.

The Small Faces, as they were to be called - they were all under 5' 5" tall - had their first hit: Whatcha Gonna Do About It - in October 1965.

They were widely seen as being cheap imitations of The Who, at first. They rapidly ditched Jimmy Winston and replaced him with a Ronnie Lane -look-alike, Ian McLagan, on keyboards.

The Marriott/Lane song writing duo penned a dozen hits for the band over the next three years, including All or Nothing, a number 1 in September 1966.

They played twice at Billy Walker's Upper Cut Club, on Woodgrange Road (see below for the adverts and the Stratford Express report).

Advert for the first
Upper Cut gig,
January 1967

Stratford Express,
6 Jan 1967

Add caption

Stratford Express 13 Jan 1967

The controversial Arden had the band on wages, without passing on the royalties for their songs, claiming that they were " too high on alcohol and drugs the whole time" to be able to handle more money.

Second Upper Cut gig, July 1967

... and the trouble that followed

The band eventually disentangled themselves from his clutches, and from the Decca label they recorded on. They then teamed up with Andrew Loog Oldham - then manager of the Rolling Stones - and signed up to a new record label, Immediate, that he launched in 1967.

A stream of hits followed, including Itchycoo Park. The location of the park has been one of pop music's long running obsessions, but in the autumn of 1967, Ronnie called it "A place we used to go to in Ilford years ago (a bombsite, next to a railway line, according to Kenny Jones). Some bloke we know suggested it to us because it was full of nettles and you keep scratching".

Press profile (Valentine's magazine)
of Ronnie in 1967

Other successes followed, like Lazy Sunday Afternoon and the seminal Ogden's Nut Gone Flake album, which topped the charts for six weeks.

Ronnie (centre) at recording of
Ogden's Nut Gone Flake album

Then - the almost inevitable, for the time: members of the band turned to LSD and Indian mysticism and tensions mounted over "musical differences"; Marriott left and went on to form Humble Pie; the Immediate label went broke - and it took over two decades for the band members to get their royalties from the remnants of the company.

Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood, both formerly of the Jeff Beck Group joined the rump of the Small Faces, and because these new pair weren't particularly short, the "Small" in the band's name was dropped - to become The Faces.

Stewart was to prove to be another Marriott, as far as Lane was concerned - more interested in going his own way. He soon had huge hits with Maggie May and the Every Picture Tells a Story album, as a solo performer; so Ronnie dropped out of The Faces, in protest, in 1973.

It was to be largely downhill, in music, health and money terms for Ronnie Lane from now.

He had an unsuccessful spell at running a sheep farm in Fishpool, in Wales - he was no farmer. He put together another band, perhaps by way of prediction, known as Slim Chance, which had a spectacularly badly managed and financially disastrous tour, and bankrupted Ronnie.

By this time, his health was starting to deteriorate. At first he put the clumsiness he was developing down to the long-term effects of drink and drug abuse. Slowly the realisation dawned, however, he was struck by the same debilitating MS that was to kill his mother.

Around this time he developed close friendships with both Eric Clapton and Pete Townsend (of The Who), both of whom were later to help him financially, in trying to treat his disease.

Ronnie went to Florida in the early 80's and in desperation began experimenting with some quack remedies to address his MS.

His musical allies (Pete Townsend, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Steve Winwood, Kenney Jones, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts, Andy Fairweather-Low etc) rallied and helped support his charity ARMS (Action Research into Multiple Sclerosis) and raised over $1m. in benefit concerts for the cause.

A branch of the charity was set up in the USA, but 90% of the proceeds were frittered away in "administrative costs", with long-standing litigious repercussions.

Ronnie relocated to Austin, Texas in 1987, where he met his third wife, Susan Gallegos, of Hispanic/North American heritage (her father had been an Apache chief). As his condition deteriorated, he began to withdraw socially.

Ronnie in Austin c 1987

In 1994 the couple moved to the relatively remote settlement of Trinidad in the Colorado Rockies (pop 5,000). By now Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood were beginning to take care of his medical bills, and royalties from the music he had created over two decades earlier began to trickle in.

Ronnie with stick at Faces benefit
reunion for MTV, with Bill Wyman,
far left, deputising for him for the gig

His mobility and speech rapidly deteriorated and he died of the same disease that killed his mother, in 1997. He was buried in a private ceremony, just hours afterwards.

The inscription on his grave indicates that in his later years he turned his back on his rock 'n roll hell-raising, and in his final interviews denounced the use and effects of alcohol and drug abuse.

Ronnie's grave - Trinidad, Colorado (1)

Ronnie's grave, Trinidad, Colorado (2)

His memory lives on, but not just through his music.

In a rare moment of wry humour, Newham Council recognised him around the turn of what would have been his 55th birthday by naming a road after him in Manor Park (see photo).

Newham's tribute: Ronnie Lane, Manor Park.
Was it wit, or co-incidence that the choice of
location is one of the shortest streets in the borough?

He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012.

A tribute to the Small Faces, All or Nothing, has recently been put together by former East End Actress, Carol Harrison, and it runs at the Vaults Theatre, Waterloo until 30 April this year.

Footnote: We are indebted to Mojo Magazine for an article authored by Wayne Penne on Ronnie Lane, in September 1997 for much of the material and insight in the above post.

Local Wanstead Flats' historians Mark Gorman and Peter Williams, continue our occasional series, The Street Where You Live with a glance at Dames Road, running from the junction of Woodgrange/Woodford Roads to the Leytonstone borders, along the edge of Wanstead Flats. See the footnote for details of earlier articles in this series and other work on local history by Mark and Peter.

The area between Maryland Point and Forest Gate was largely under-developed agricultural land, until the 1860's, after which it was slowly transformed into market gardens and gradually housing, as transport and population growth moved eastwards, with the rapid expansion of London.

Extract from 1863 OS map - showing area very open, with farmland and some substantial villa-type homes (Forest House, Sydney cottage -see photo below for an example, today). Wanstead Flats
is in the top right hand corner. The line of the future Barking Oak
railway is marked in red.

The "market gardens" in and around what we now know as Dames Road were developed as leisure and commercial pursuits by people from the more traditional east-end, such as Whitechapel, and cabinet makers of Curtain Road in Hackney. The gardens provided recreational and trading activities for some adventurous people, many, perhaps, missing their own rural roots in earlier days, in Essex and Suffolk.

The "gardens grounds" offered weekend time away from inner city congestion, as five and a half day working became more common and the railway network reached out into areas such as Forest Gate. Many of those renting the land for the gardens would put up huts - for weekend stays - which soon developed into housing in the area.

The western part of Forest Gate, between Woodford Road and Tower Hamlets Road, belonged to the Dames family for much of the first half of the nineteenth century. Charles Richard Dames was a sugar refiner, probably born in the parish of St Mary, Whitechapel in 1793.

Like many city merchants, Dames bought property on the fringes of London, and became a substantial member of the local community. He was elected a churchwarden, for example, in 1855. By the time of his death, in 1862, he held land and had homes in both Whitechapel and Forest Gate.

He died at Forest House (see 1863 map, above), which was located approximately where Anna Neagle Close is, today - probably in a house similar to the one pictured below. He may have commuted from this rural home to the city in the years running up to his death.

89 Dames Road, today - now split into flats,
but one of the villa type houses that populated
parts of Dames Road at the end of the 19th century

From 1855, Dames began to sell off some of the land between Woodford and Tower Hamlets Roads , in small plots. About 1866 - after his death - the Conservative Land Society bought a large area, leading to more rapid development there. It, and the United Land Company, which also bought plots locally at this time, cut them up into smaller plots and sold them to local developers and would-be owner-builder-occupiers.

The sale of Forest House by the Dames
family to the Conservative Land Society
- Essex Standard, 4 April 1866

Another contemporary land sale for
development, in the district
- Chelmsford Chronicle April 1886

The object of the Conservative Land Company was to create Conservative-voting constituencies in localities where they bought land. At a time when the voting franchise still depended on property ownership, particularly outside the cities, the sale of building plots was seen as creating an independent, reliable Tory electorate (echoes of Lady Porter in 1980's Westminster - except she used tax-payers' money, to do it!).

OS map 1895 shows the area largely developed,
though the area south of Sydney Road
(named after the cottage formerly there), is
still not built on.There were still some market
gardens and allotments there until World War 1

(The Land Company was reasonably successful in their aims locally, as Conservative MPs held the constituency containing Forest Gate for about half of the years between the time when it had its own MP- 1885 - and the First World War - see here, for details.)

It is likely that the Birkbeck Building Society, the Birkbeck Bank and Birkbeck Freehold Land Society were also active in and around the Dames Road area at this time. They were offering plots of land for 5/- (25p) per month "either for building or gardening purposes". Some of these may have been west of Dames Road. where there were garden plots owned by east Londoners who came out to them at the weekend.

These Birkbeck organisations were all vehicles for making loans to aspirational members of the working class who wanted to build their own homes, or at least acquire a plot of land in the suburbs, springing up on the fringes of London.

As Conservative Land Company chairman concluded in 1866; "The working man doesn't like being patronised. They don't like going into model lodging-houses, and prefer buying land and building their own homes."

He described the Conservative Land Company's acquisition of the Dames Road area site, in 1866, in glowing terms, as "one of the most valuable building properties ever acquired by the society in the suburban districts."

The site, he said, was adaptable both for villas (usually high quality, detached houses) and houses of "a superior class", but also for working class dwellings. It fronted the road leading to Wanstead Flats and Forest Gate station, offering a frequent service to London, at cheap fares.

Charles left £90,000 (almost £10m today, using the Bank of England inflation calculator) in property and cash to his three sons and his daughter, on his death. His son, George, died soon afterwards in 1878. He too was a sugar refiner and substantial property owner - some in the Forest Gate area - much, presumably, inherited from his father. He did, however, live in Stoke Newington, where three servants catered for his needs.

Post Card showing Dames Road c 1906, featuring
the Forest Glen on the left.

The Dames Road plots were built upon predominantly in the years prior to 1878, becoming the homes of clerks and small businessmen in the City. Rents ranged from 8s 6d a week to £40 a year. In other parts of Dames Road, 4-roomed and 6-roomed houses fetched between 9s and 11s a week, and were occupied by two families, according to early twentieth century social researchers Howarth and Wilson.

The tenants were builders, stonemasons and other artisans, and a few clerks. These properties were said to be much in demand in the early years of the twentieth century. Building in Dames Road ceased about 1880. Meanwhile, Field Road and Odessa Road (built in the 1850s) to the west of Dames Road were home to less well-to-do artisans, carmen (drivers of horse-drawn goods wagons) and labourers.

Fast forward to the post World War 11 period, and the re-development of the lower part of Dames Road. The photo below shows it under redevelopment early 1980s. This was in preparation for rebuilding for "slum clearance". This site was one of the last council housing developments carried out by Newham directly without the involvement of a housing association.

Foot of Dames Road, c 1984, at time of
"slum clearance", making way for one of
Newham Council's last housing developments

Indeed, it was built by the council’s own directly employed labour force (DLO). Such council building died out in Newham by 1985 as the Thatcher government did not want local authorities to build council homes. Housing associations took over that role.

The last council development in Newham was Howards Rd E13 (done jointly with an association) until the direct development of council rented homes started again on a very small scale about 5 years ago. There have been a few small rented developments since.

Other Dames Road snippets

This site has referred to Dames Road, in passing, in previous posts, some of which readers may be interested in revisiting.

Cycling The foot of Dames Road, at the turn of the twentieth century, was at the centre (or should we say hub?!) of a significant local small-workshop cycle industry, hosting at least half a dozen, manufactories - see here. A detailed account of life and work in one of them - Clark's - from 1897, appears here.

One of the turn of the century cycle
manufacturers at the foot of Dames Road

Boot making Last year, we traced the story of Dames Road boot maker, TR Page, from a postcard sent showing the exterior of his shop, through much of the twentieth century (see here).

Page, the boot makers, 1915

Doodlebug Dames Road was the site of one of Forest Gate's worst bombing sites in World War 2, when a Doodlebug destroyed much of the land and houses near the Holly Tree public house - see here for details.

Junction of Dames and Pevensey
Roads, site of 1943 Doodlebug hit

Listed building - Our recent article on Forest Gate's English Heritage-listed buildings featured 89 Dames Road - photograph above. Unfortunately, little is known of the history of this once splendid villa (now flats), but, see here, for details.

Anti- German riots We have not covered this before, but couple of postcards have recently appeared for sale on eBay, featuring a German baker on Dames Road, whose property looks as if it was targeted for anti-German riots during World War 1. See the photos of Gobel, the baker's, located at 74 Dames Road (site of a car workshop, today) and note from the second photo what appears to be riot damage suffered by it.

Gobel's bakers, 74 Dames Road, in peaceful times

The same shop at time of anti-German
riots, c 1915 - see window damage

... and today

We covered anti-German riots in Forest Gate in May 1915, following the sinking of the Lusitania, a year ago (see here). The looting/rioting of the Gobel's shop , however, did not feature. The 1906 post card, above, suggests that Gobel did not move into the shop on Dames Road until after that time, although a 1912 trade directory lists an Ambrose Gobel as being a baker at that address, then.

Idris Elba's Dames Road connection Hollywood superstar actor, Idris Elba can claim a significant Dames Road influence on his life(see here). He worked at Uncle Tom's garage (see above for photo) as a youngster, having spent most of his youth growing up in Canning Town. He revisited the garage in November 2013, on a trip back to his roots.

It was doubtless this Dames Road experience that enabled him to play a strong role in the great American TV series The Wire and the Mandela movie, for which he was nominated for an Oscar!

We acknowledge the Newham Recorder's copyright of the photo, below, capturing the moment. Their report of the occasion can be found here.

Idris Elba-revisiting Uncle
Tom's Garage, on Dames
Road, where he worked
as a youngster - in
November 2013.
Copyright Newham Recorder

Fairs Dames Road, of course leads in to Wanstead Flats, a pleasure ground for many years. Below is an extract from an 1898 newspaper describing a scene at a Bank holiday fair on the Flats that year, focusing on the important role of the Holly Tree on Dames Road. The extract may be indistinct, so we have transcribed a relevant section of it, below.

Chelmsford Chronicle - 15 April 1898

Partial transcript:

Bank Holiday on Wanstead Flats

by a Perambulating Pressman

Wanstead Flats have long been a favourite resort for the East London Bank Holiday crowd, and this Easter my curiosity led me to Wanstead to see how their amusement is catered for. ...

The streets were thronged with people and all were enjoying themselves with that absolute abandon which is so characteristic of the Easter holiday maker. ...

The young ladies ... sang with a gusto which only high spirits could produce, but "Marry the girl you fancy" was the popular refrain.

There are several railway stations "quite adjacent" to the Flats, and a good service of buses is capable of rapidly transporting visitors to the gay scene, but for the holiday traffic special brakes were put on the route from Stratford, and at: "Tuppence all the way", these command full complements of passengers. ...

The centre of the fun, I found, was on Dames Road, had by the Holly Tree Tavern. Here was a gigantic country fair, or rather twenty country fairs rolled into one, constituting a scene of startling splendour, which is difficult easily to describe. A gorgeous merry-go-round occupied a central position, rivalling in its gold and brilliant colours, its mirrors and dazzling lights, scenes depicted in the Arabian Nights.

... This elaborate piece of mechanism must have cost a small fortune, but it was providing a gold mine to its proprietors.

... A "wild Indian chief" emerged into the open, brandishing a sword and uttering horrible gutteral sounds. He was silenced in summary fashion by the proprietor, who gave graphic accounts of the sights to be seen inside. Meanwhile the "Indian Chief" had disappeared into the wigwam and I followed bent on investigations.

Answering a common-place remark, the wild warrior lapsed into unmistakable Cockneyese, and openly admitted he was a fraud. ...

This extract came from Peter's posting on Woodford Road. There are other items in that post which relate to Dames Road - see below for link to it.

Footnote: Peter William's other local postings on The Street Where You live can be found by clicking on the relevant street: Woodford Road, Ebor Cottages and Chestnut Avenue.

Peter and Mark have written a number of booklets on Wanstead Flats: on Prisoner of War Camps during WW2, Post War struggles to prevent development and, most recently games and sports on the Flats at the end of the 19th century.

These can be bought, very reasonably priced, from Newham Bookshop, or from the Leyton and Leytonstone Local History Society, who published them, here.

Mark and Peter can regularly be found giving talks on their publications, which are totally absorbing and come very highly recommended.

This post marks the third anniversary of the blog, so a retrospective look at the "then" of Forest Gate life in 2013, compared to the "now", seems in order.

But first, what of the posts published to date? Regular readers will know, we have tried to combine a bit of informed comment on contemporary matters within Forest Gate, with some digging back into the area's rich historic past.

A few numbers, to start with. We have published 135 posts, to date, and the site has experienced almost a quarter of a million views since its beginning. The hit rate is currently running at approximately 250 per day.

There have been almost 150 comments made to articles, mainly offering further illustration or recollections of the original post. The recent post on Woodgrange Road development has received 25 comments (see below)

There is a supporting Twitter account (@e7_nowandthen) which has over 1,100 followers. Most tweets advertise and support new posts, many simply forward tweets from others relating to Forest Gate. We are always happy to retweet, whenever appropriate.

We have no FaceBook presence.

So, what has caught the eye of the browsers?

All time top five hits

Not surprisingly, the posts that have been viewed most frequently are all from the first year of publication - they have been on-line for longest, so have the most time in which to be accessed by visitors.

The most viewed post of all was our first - it's all been downhill since! In descending order of access, the all-time biggest hits have been (hit hyper-linked title to access):

Fire Guts Famous Gym
This recorded a fire at Wag Bennett's house/gym on Romford Road, the week before we launched. But more importantly, it offered a lavishly illustrated account of the place as a temple dedicated to body building and to the Mr Universe career of Arnie Schwarzenegger, whose early work-out base it was.

Arnie, with Wag Bennett, outside
the location of the 2013 fire

Upper Cut Part 1
Billy Walker's Upper Cut on Woodgrange Road only lasted a year (from Christmas 1966 until the following year's festive season). It was one of the most important British music venues in the 'Swinging Sixties'. This post records the first half year of the club's existence - with details of acts appearing, and provides details of the dozen or so other posts on Upper Cut-related items on this website.

Jimi Hendrix - an early performer at the
Upper Cut, where he penned Purple Haze

Forest Gate Beer Guide
This speaks for itself. The first of our annual survey of Forest Gate's drinking venues, together with a bit of history of long-gone boozers. It is surprising the differences each year's survey has thrown up.

The Fox and Hounds soldiers on,
oblivious to the changes!

Rise and Decline of Local Jewish Community
Forest Gate was home to a thriving Jewish community from the 1880's until the 1960's. This post tells the fascinating story.

Earlham Grove synagogue - centre
of Forest Gate's Jewish community life

Christmas Day in the Forest Gate Workhouse
Forest Gate was, for much of the latter half of the nineteenth century, home to an Industrial School - effectively one for the children of parents who were workhouse inmates. This is a contemporary account of Christmas Day in the Forest Gate Industrial school in 1896.

'Twas Christmas day in the Workhouse

Year 2 - April 2014 - April 2015

The top five were:

Fascists in 1930's Forest Gate
Forest Gate was home to a thriving branch of the British Union of Fascists in the 1930's. This post details the individuals, locations and events involved.

Arthur Beavan -
Forest Gate's 1930's
fascist organiser

Forest Gate Industrial school story
This article records the history of the site on Forest Lane, from is opening as an Industrial school in the mid nineteenth century, to housing development it is today.

The former Industrial school, in its
role as a maternity hospital in the 1970's

Forest Gate Gourmet Trail
Just two years ago, we struggled to find enough interesting places to eat-in, locally, over a 24-hour period. This post records the trail we took. How things have changed! See below, for details of more recent food developments.

Woodgrange Market - gourmet food comes to town

Tragic End to World War One Romance
Local resident, Paul Holloway, published an account of the relationship between his maternal grandmother, Forest Gate girl May Larby, and another young local resident, Jack Richardson in the run up to and early years of World War 1, to commemorate the centenary of the outbreak of the war .

They were two bright, young spirits: their relationship ended with Jack's untimely death in action. The book is based on meticulous research and pieced together surviving correspondence between the two. This is one of two posts summarising their story.

Jack Richardson

Trebor Story
Trebor of Katherine Road was one of the few thriving factories in Forest Gate in the 1980's. This post tracks the growth of the company from its origins at the start of the twentieth century until its take-over and closure eight decades later. It was most famous for the Extra Strong Mints it produced and the employment it offered.

Arial view of Katherine Road's Trebor
factory, in the 1980's, before its
re-development as "loft apartments"

Year 3 top hits - April 2015 - April 2016

In contrast to the historic nature of most of the popular posts from the previous two years, last year's top hits have almost all been on contemporary topics. It is likely that, as time passes on, some of the more historic posts from the year will receive more attention and may well supplant them as most viewed posts of the year.

The top eight posts, in descending order of popularity, have been:

Development proposals for 39a - 49a Woodgrange Road
One of our most recent, with the largest number of comments received by any. It has been on-line for less than a month, suggesting, perhaps that this web site has a valuable role to play as a local sounding board for local issues - with a guarantee of no censorship of views of respondents. We are open to suggestions.

From Gregg's to Barry's - shops threatened
by latest development proposals

Two years ago - and counting
The oldest of last year's posts has proved to have been the second most popular. It was last year's equivalent of this one, in fact. Will the present post be as popular?

Forest Gate short-changed
One of two widely-accessed articles this year pointing to the problems a rotten, no opposition, one-party Labour state causes Newham. This one focuses on cronyism/buying off of communities, as a totally ineffectual councillor is given a significant salary as "mayoral adviser" on Forest Gate and does nothing.

The post names and shames. Fortunately, two months after it was published, she was removed from her sinecure.

Newham: the patronage
council: £6,000 p.a. for
Cllr Rahman for no product

Councillor/Landlord interests in Forest Gate
Second popular post on problems caused by lack of accountability and transparency in the weak one-party Labour state of Newham. The Labour party has become a "flag of convenience" for those who, anywhere else, would represent the Tories.

They position themselves to ensure they are aware of developments affecting their significant rental property interests in the borough (and Forest Gate, in particular), on the Council. This post names and shames.

Ahmed Noor - disgraced,
former - now suspended -
"Labour" councillor/landlord

A Wander Down Woodgrange Road in 1900
One of only two true "history" piece among the most viewed of this year's crop. It is the first of a two-parter, using trade directories, contemporary photographs and adverts to paint a picture of how Forest Gate's main thoroughfare looked at the end of the Victorian era.

Spurgeon's - Gent's outfitters
on Woodgrange Road, 1900

Famine to Feast
A recent look at the rapid increase in good eateries to have opened up in Forest Gate over the last six months alone. It includes reviews - overwhelmingly positive - of the new eating out experience in the area.

Corner Kitchen - delightful addition
to local eating out options

Forest Gate during the Blitz
This is one of two posts offering the most comprehensive published account of the impact of bombs (the blitz and Doodlebugs) on Forest Gate during WW2, with dates, locations and details of deaths/injuries/damage inflicted.

Upton Lane school, devastated by a Doodlebug

Very Poor Food Hygiene Practice in Forest Gate
Although there has been an explosion of good places to eat in the area over the last year (see above), the overall standard of hygiene in many local food outlets, as measured by the Food Standards Agency, is woeful. This posts names and shames.

Introduction to Forest Gate - immediately
opposite train station - Eat More - zero
stars for food hygiene. Dreadful.

The changes

Forest Gate is going through a period of rapid change, and its root cause is probably the same that sparked off its last period of major transformation - significant railway development.

As we have posted on a number of occasions, Forest Gate's late nineteenth century growth can largely be accounted for by the coming of the railways and the provision of relatively cheap transport into the City. For a post on the development of the railways in Forest Gate, see here.

The area became an early and true suburb as people moved from more inner London areas in search of relatively cheap property and open spaces at that time.

150 years later, history is repeating itself, in a refined way. Not new railways, but the prospect of Crossrail and a serious upgrading of the GOBLIN line, by 2019, have once again made Forest Gate a v. des. res.

This time, it is not so much for those fleeing Whitechapel and surrounds, but more those flat owner/dwellers from Stoke Newington/Dalston/Hackney who have made a financial killing over the last few years and now wish to establish roots in a house, and possibly begin reproducing in Forest Gate.

Housing

So, house prices, particularly in the increasingly fashionable "Forest Gate Village" have doubled in the years since we began publishing, with one Sebert Road property recently being put on the market for £640,000 - 90% more than its asking price (admittedly before refurbishment) just 15 months previously.

You just have to wander in to the Forest Gate Tavern or Corner Kitchen to see plenty of evidence of the phenomena.

Food and drink

As we have pointed out, above (here) there has been a huge improvement in the eating out offer locally, over the last three years, and the rate of progress is accelerating, as witnessed by the last six months. Choice in eating out in Forest Gate, has become a reality for many local people - newcomers and older established residents, for the first time.

Ghost Chilli - understated but excellent
new "Indian" addition to the Woodgrange
Road eating out options

Entertainment

Part of the package demanded by the incomers is better entertainment. This site has always - in the Events column (right) - tried to list local gigs etc. To be frank, we have usually relied on gigs in Leytonstone to keep the column on the road. But, over the last three years, the Wanstead Tap and Forest Tavern have popped up and together with other E7 venues provide almost daily entertainment options.

It's a small - but illustrative -point, for the first time, this site will now only feature exclusively Forest Gate events - and it's a lively, varied, local selection on offer.

Forest Tavern, as much a place of entertainment
and eating as a pub - great addition
to the local social scene

Arts

Pop-up art exhibitions have begun to appear in places such as The Gate and Compotes cafe. Last year saw Forest Gate's first Arts Trail, with more than a dozen venues exhibiting a range of locally produced art. This year's, the second, is now in preparation and promises to be a bigger and better one. Graffiti on shop shutters used to be as good as it got on the contemporary "arts" front, locally.

Education

A generation ago white middle class families were happy for their children to spend their primary school years in Forest Gate, with a sprinkling of more than decent schools available. White flight, however, kicked in, with a pretty poor secondary school offer. And off many of the families tootled, in pursuit of "a better education" for their post-primary kids.

Forest Gate Community school
- recently assessed as "Outstanding"

What a change! Now, with the recent "Outstanding" judgement that Forest Gate Community school received from Ofsted, the area has one of the best concentrations of good schools in the country, see here. Three of the areas's secondary schools are now labelled "Outstanding" and the fourth, Stratford Academy, "Good".

Community Life

Civic Society - or "The Big Society" (remember that one, Dave?) as the Tories tried to rebrand it - has developed apace over the last three years. So, from nowhere, we now have a thriving (almost farmers') market, each week. The Women's Institute and The Community Garden and regular Wanstead Flats' litter-picks have joined them as local not-for-profit regulars boosting local community spirit.

Civic society in action - community
mural surrounding community garden

Other, commercial initiatives, such as Swing Patrol, Dig-a- Little, yoga, boxing and martial arts classes have all popped up and added to an increasingly rich local social mix and community offer.

Where we started

This site, and indeed this post, started off with the fire at Wag Bennett's old house and gym on Romford Road. It has since been boarded up, squatted and set alight - all the while an eyesore.

Well, in keeping with the onwards and upwards nature of Forest Gate in general, the house has now been refurbed and looks as if it will soon be on the market and inhabited. Spiraling house prices have made a restoration commercially sensible. A decade ago, the place would have been demolished and an eyesore block of flats built to replace it.

So, gentrification can have some beneficial impacts on preserving interesting buildings,local history and heritage, even if some older shops - on Woodgrange Road, for example - become victims.

We have covered the history and route of the Gospel Oak to Barking over-ground rail line(GOBLIN) through Forest Gate on this site before (here). It was constructed amid much controversy and protest locally, as its construction involved knocking down a number of relatively recently built, and much needed, houses, over 120 years ago.

To minimise the house demolition programme, much of the route was built across a series of viaducts, which resulted in an elevated track, giving it the nickname the 'Chimney Pot Line'. The viaducts, in turn, created over 100 railway arches along the short stretch of the line that passes through Forest Gate, alone.

GOBLIN, or Chimney Pot Line, route
as it meanders through Forest Gate

These arches have traditionally been either left vacant, offered passageways - as in some of the section on Woodgrange Road - or have been rented out, typically to metal-bashing workshops, car body repair shops or storage depots.

Many are currently boarded up and unoccupied, while others are vacant, having recently been refurbed and open for leasing at ever-increasing rents.

Gradually, changes in function are beginning to take place, as property prices in the area generally have soared, and the once shunned arches are now offering relatively cheap locations for a number of local enterprising service-sector businesses.

This post offers a quick glance at some of the more interesting ventures that have cropped up in recent years as the GOBLIN meanders through Forest Gate. They are unlikely to be adversely affected as the line shuts down for 8 months major refurbishment later this year.

The map, above, shows the route and the rest of this blog looks at some of the more unusual businesses operating underneath the arches. We are taking a generous interpretation of Forest Gate's area, and tracing the line from Woodgrange Park station, on Romford Road, through Wanstead Park station till it leaves Cann Hall Road on its journey to Leytonstone High Road.

Hampton to Balmoral Roads Four of the more traditional metal bashing/car repair workshops. Nothing of exceptional interest.

Sebert to Lorne Roads Perhaps the longest-established, non traditional, user dominates this stretch: The Old Slate Yard. It is a florist and what is politely referred to as "architectural reclamation yard" (web)

As their website says:

The Old Slate Yard is a family run business situated in the heart of Forest Gate London. The Yard started 30 years ago buying and selling reclaimed slates, bricks and tiles etc. Since then it has now expanded greatly and now has a beautiful florist catering for all your floristry needs"

Floristry at the Old Slate Yard

Much the greater part of the yard is occupied by reclaimed building materials - extremely useful for people trying to get an authentically traditional feel for their Victorian house. This is particularly helpful for those living within conservation areas (like the Woodgrange estate) where materials, such as this firm supplies, are often specified for those seeking planning permission for major works to the houses.

More traditional reclamation
activities at the Old Slate Yard

The firm's website and more recent initiatives within The Old Slate Yard have, however, focused more on the firm's floristry and gift offers. This is probably a generational thing within the family running the Yard. It is to be hoped that the traditional side of the business does not fade away as time moves on.

This section of the arches also houses a fast-food storage depot.

Latimer Road Less interesting: there are three storage arches and three car repair workshops occupying the arches along this stretch.

Cranmer RoadMilma Foods (web)is an Asian food manufacturer, registered in Manor Park. It occupies three arches along here. It produces and stores mixes for Dosa/ Wet Idli. According to the company's website it is "The leader" in the production of these mixes in the U.K . and supplies them to hotels and catering establishments in Britain and elsewhere.

Milma's famous mix

On the opposite side of the road is an ally, hosting 15 units, many recently refurbished by Network Rail, running behind Woodgrange Infants school, to Avenue Road.

While most of these are the traditional car repair workshops, two recently occupied ones catering for the sport/fitness/wellness sector have popped up.

These are MBox - a boxing and martial arts gym (web). According to its website:

MBox Forest Gate is a specialised boxing, martial arts and performance training space in the heart of East London's historic boxing scene.

Phoebe Wynne-Jones, of MBox

Founded by Forest Gate local and professional boxing coach, Mickey Cunningham, and nutritionist/trainer Phoebe Wynne-Jones, MBox provides a relaxed positive environment, open to all levels from novice to pro. We focus on health and well-being in conjunction with a sense of community and good vibes.

Mickey Cunningham of MBox

The company offer twenty hours of classes per week. Fuller details, and prices are available on the website.

The second is a yoga studio: Space East (web). According to its website:

The aim was simple... An inclusive studio, a welcoming space where everyone, no matter your shape, size, fitness level, age or ability, feels valued, capable and comfortable... however with a certain amount of healthy challenge!!

Fitness class at Space East

Our aim is to provide an aesthetically pleasing place in which to keep fit and healthy. But most of all a space to enjoy and have fun. Here at 'The Space East' we include everyone, the young, the old, the bendy Wendy's and the not-so-flexible!

It is a space we have created for you and we would welcome your thoughts. We value any suggestions you may have that would enable us to help you, and the people you love feel included.

We really hope you enjoy 'The Space'

Avenue - Chestnut Roads The half a dozen or so units along this stretch are currently out of service and operation and don't look like they will be hosting businesses any time soon.

Wanstead Park station There are nine arches here, running underneath the station platforms and track. There is an interesting selection, including a kitchen warehouse and builder's merchants, an embroidery workshop, a mobility-car sales depot and a unit offering courtesy cars as replacements for those damaged in accidents.

Wanstead Park station in 1967,
before major railway arch development

Recently installed up-lights on Woodgrange Road
pavement, providing safety and increased
attraction to the area.

Bignold Road There are four car repairers/metal bashers along the section.

Strode to Station/Winchelsea Roads (arches 350 - 379) This is the most interesting and diverse sections of sub- trainian Forest Gate. A latter-day, older and less frenetic Ian Drury may be tempted to pen a ditty entitled "Sex aids, and Folk and Alcohol" to describe it.

Unlike many of the other sections featured in this article, the majority of the units are in a row running parallel to, and having direct access off, a public highway - thus have a much more visible and accessible public presence.

The strip features half a dozen car and motorbike repairers and dealers and a small number of units which are currently to let. In addition, there is an extensive construction company depot and firm specialising in 'structural architecture': RSJs and the like. There is also an insurance brokers along this stretch.

The more recent, and possible more interesting additions, include:

Sh! This is a relatively large building and, apart from a sign simply announcing its name, fairly anonymous and incongruous looking. It is, in fact, the mail order headquarters of one of Britain's biggest sex-aid retailers. The company's HQ is located in similarly anonymous premises, just across the road; it once had two retail outlets (now just one) at fairly up-market London addresses.

Contrary to the impression in the company's name, it has much to shout about.

The firm is extremely woman friendly, and indeed some of the floorspace in its retail outlets has been women only access, and other parts are only open to men if accompanied by a woman.

Sh! - but quite a lot to shout about

It's website says:

When Sh! was launched, way back in 1992, we'd no idea would it would be a journey that would alter the face of the British sex industry forever, inspire change and bring respect and focus to female sexuality. We simply wanted a place we felt happy to shop in. From our first trip around Soho sex shops, to being taken to court, discovering Jessica Rabbit, introducing sex toys to the NHS and launching Cafe V .... we have an interesting history.

Strange how our little area of East London: with Sh! and the sex shops empire of West Ham FC owners, has turned out to be the sex-aid hub of the UK.

Hawkes (web) This is an exciting venture that opened last year, whose progress we have noted in passing in our articles on the local food and drink scene (see here, for an example). It is a relatively new ginger beer and cider-making company, brewing on the spot, but specialising in using London grown apples - thus taking sustainability a step further than most.

Hawkes: setting out their stall

The firm, intriguingly, has a "supply and return" offer, whereby local growers who donate apples in the autumn are paid for their troubles with bottles of cider made from previous brewings!

The company also hosts great Cider and Pizza nights at weekends, where freshly, oven cooked pizzas are made, on site, by the great Lupollo pizza firm of Wanstead.

The staff are incredibly friendly and a great time can be had there. Highly recommended!

Brettells (web) We have covered this company before (here), which has recently returned to its Forest Gate original home, after an extended stay in workshops in Chestnut Road. The firm of wood turners and works has a long tradition, being able to trace its origins to Huguenot settlers and Hackney workshops.

Wanstead Tap (web) After years of selling craft beers on farmers' markets, Tap entrepreneur, Dan Clapton, took a giant leap forward a couple of years ago and opened up "underneath the arches". As such, it was a risky step, but one which seems to be paying off, with his unique offer.

Tap logo

The Tap is open most afternoons and evenings at weekends. The afternoon offer is mainly as a child-friendly cafe, although the great attraction for many, both then and particularly in the evenings is the extensive range of 80 - 100 craft beers and ciders.

The Tap is making a name for itself with its exciting and eclectic social evenings. These are a bit sporadic, depending on the availability of guests etc. But, the 70-odd seater venue can often be found hosting book launches, in conjunction with Newham Bookshop and comedy nights, with well-know figures (Alexei Sayle and Bob Mills come to mind).

There are also fascinating "evenings with" interesting people, iconic folk musicians, and managers and support and promotional staff associated with major entertainment stars.

Setting up for another busy
night at the Wanstead Tap

Open times are erratic. Drinking and entertaining times are good.

Aphrodite's (web) Aphrodite Fingal-Rock Innes (nickname: Dixie, pictured, below) and William Powell launched Aphrodite's in 2015 - a venture which emerged from a shared passion for Middle Eastern food, and a common childhood base in South Wales.

Dixie is a chef and finalist in Channel 4's The Taste. The two owners are innovators and their recently launched, unique Pomegranate Ketchup seems to be proving a big hit.

Dixie - the face of Aphrodite's

The pair operate a street food outlet, from the back of a Citroen van at weekends in Maltby St Market, and during weekday lunchtimes at different City locations.

Maltby St, in Bermondsey is a little jewel: it has developed rapidly over the last couple of years by young food suppliers priced out by the more established Borough St market, near-by, at London Bridge.

Maltby St - haven for those
priced out of Borough Market

Check Maltby St and Aphrodite's out - you won't be disappointed!

Thorpe to Cann Hall Road This stretch hosts half a dozen metal bashing/car repair shops and a number that are currently vacant, or boarded up. There is also a scaffold company, toy and tool wholesaler and a car wash arch.

In keeping with the recent focus on sports and exercise, there is also a longer-established Karate school (web) It seems to have been running for about four years.

According to its website:

Okinwan Karate School (OKS) is a professionally run, independent family Dojo (ed: room where Karate and other martial arts are performed) at the heart of East London, in Forest Gate. It is fully kitted and offers a variety of classes.

OKS specialises in teaching Karate to children between 4 and 16 years only, and although adults are not accepted entry level, children who start with OKS can remain with the team into their adult Karate training lives.

Youngsters at Okinwan Karate School

And just next door; another strange unit: Christ Embassy, Forest Gate - a black evangelical church.

Overall
These sub-trainian units, between them, probably employ 300-400 people, and as such, collectively represent the largest number of non-public sector jobs provided in Forest Gate, today.

Some of the unit holders are complaining at the rapidly increasing rents being charged by Network Rail for them - particularly after refurbishment. The rail landowners are obviously waking up to the considerable commercial opportunity their trains rumble over.

Anyone interesting in leasing one of the 20 or so vacant units in Forest Gate should contact Network Rail, on 0800-830-840,in the first instant.

This is the first of two articles looking at monuments and public art in Forest Gate. There is an unexpected, unifying, theme running through almost all of them.

This article examines the chronologically earlier pieces, which are mainly the monuments, constructed from stone, of one variety or another. The next instalment will look at other public art forms, which have a much more temporary feel about them, as they have been created from less durable materials.

Below we provide a round-up of what is known of Forest Gate's monuments - sadly, in some cases, not much!

The Gurney obelisk and water trough on The Broadway, Stratford

Although this is clearly not in Forest Gate, in a strange way it provides the link, which connects almost all the other monuments and art works covered in this and the following post.

Samuel Gurney (1786 - 1856) has probably been Forest Gate's most significant resident, and will be the subject of a future post on this site. He was one of Britain's most important 19th century bankers and lived in what is now West Ham Park.

He was brother to prison reformer, Elizabeth Fry, a prominent Quaker and played a leading part in anti-slavery work (including helping to fund the establishment of the African state of Liberia). Samuel was a significant figure in the story of education - both locally and nationally - and was a fierce public campaigner against capital punishment - an unpopular position to take at the time.

An 1861 drawing of the Gurney memorial,
Stratford, soon after its erection in 1861

He was also a major local land-owner and towards the end of his life owned almost half of what currently constitutes Forest Gate. Following his death in 1856, his grandson, who effectively inherited his estate, gradually sold much of it off.

From those sales came the establishment of a number of local cemeteries, the old industrial school, now residential accommodation on Forest Lane, the Woodgrange estate, the "Forest Gate village" area, much of the housing to the west of Woodgrange Road, south of the railway, up to Atherton Road, as well as West Ham Park, itself.

The obelisk and water trough, outside St John's church in Stratford is 40 feet high and made of granite. It was unveiled in 1861, having been designed by Gurney's fellow Norfolk-man, John Bell, whose other work can be seen decorating Kensington's Albert Memorial and the Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green.

The inscription on it reads: "In remembrance of Samuel Gurney, who died on 5th June 1856. Erected by his fellow parishioners and Friends (members of the Quaker faith) 1861. 'When the ear heard him, then it blessed him'".

It has been a key landmark in the area for over a century and a half.

The cairn and water fountain West Ham Park

This monument, near the main entrance to West Ham Park on Upton Lane, is all that remains of Ham House - Gurney's former residence. The cairn and fountain are constructed from rubble and remnants from the house, and located immediately in front of where it stood.

The cairn in West Ham Park, marking
location of Ham House, on whose grounds
the park was established

The house, itself, was knocked down in 1872, prior to the sale of the grounds surrounding it, by Samuel's grandson, John, to the Corporation of the City of London, for the establishment of West Ham Park.

The Park , which was opened two years later by the Lord Mayor of London in a ceremony full of pomp, is probably Gurney's most obvious lasting legacy to Forest Gate.

Joseph Fry Drinking Fountain, Wanstead Flats

Another Gurney connection. Joseph Fry (1809 - 1896) was Samuel Gurney's nephew, being the sixth of Elizabeth Fry's children. He was brought up next door to the Gurneys, in The Cedars, on Portway - which later became the local Territorial Army headquarters (an ironic use for the former house of a Quaker family).

The fountain at the southern end of Wanstead Flats was erected in memory of Joseph, for his commitment to the Metropolitan Drinking and Cattle Trough Association. This body raised donations and for the construction of many drinking fountains, for people and horses in and around London, in the second half of the nineteenth century.

In undertaking this work, Joseph was continuing the work of his uncle, Samuel Gurney, who took time off from his many other commitments to be instrumental in establishing the Association in the 1850s!

Joseph Fry water fountain, Wanstead Flats

The Association was originally started by Gurney and a colleague as a way of providing clean water for London's poor, and an alternative to beer, following a severe cholera epidemic in the early 1850s. As such, many of the original fountains were sited opposite pubs. The animal connection and troughs only came a decade later, and were developed under Fry's watch.

The Flats' memorial to Fry was built from the proceeds of funds collected from an appeal launched as a tribute to recognise Joseph's work, after his death, in 1897.

It has recently been cleaned, but the descriptive panels that were attached to it have been removed, over the years (any information on their fate?). Little else is known about this strangely located obelisk.

This memorial brings us, conveniently, to our next local landmark ...

Forest Gate Clock Tower and drinking fountain

Perhaps the district's best known and widely shared image. It was erected by the Metropolitan Drinking and Cattle Trough Association (see above, and the Gurney connection), following a donation by A Corbett around the turn of the 19th/20th century.

The Gurneys had already sold the land on what is now the Woodgrange estate to Thomas Corbett in 1877 for £44,000. On Thomas' death in 1880, his son Archibald took over the development of the estate, until he left to pursue a career as a Liberal politician in Glasgow, around the turn of the century.

1908 postcard, showing original location
of the Forest Gate Clock Tower and drinking fountain

The clock/trough/fountain is the only public reference to the Corbett family left within the area: the name "A Corbett" can be seen engraved on the base of the structure.

It has been moved at least once in its 120 year existence, as can be seen from its positioning in the 1908 photograph above.

West Ham synagogue memorial, Earlham Grove

Firstly, the road on which it is located. It was named after Earlham Hall, the Norfolk country house in which, yup, Samuel Gurney, was born. The road was built on former Gurney land.

We have covered the history of the local Jewish community, which was concentrated in and around Earlham Grove, in some detail here.

There was a synagogue at 91 - 95 Earlham Grove throughout the entire twentieth century. Attendances, however, dropped considerably after the movement of much of the local Jewish community into Essex, following the extension of the Central Line after World War 11.

West Ham synagogue memorial,
Adler House, Earlham Grove

The house of worship, almost inevitably, closed as the active congregation dropped to barely a couple of dozen, in 2004.

Following its closure, some remnants were salvaged from the building and turned into a small memorial in the courtyard of Adler Court, the social housing project that was built, to replace the synagogue.

The housing development was named after a prominent local rabbi and the memorial incorporates the star of David that was prominent on the frontage of the building's Communal Hall, as well as plaques commemorating the opening and extension of the synagogue.

This post should be read in conjunction with the immediately previous one, on monuments in Forest Gate, that looked at; The Gurney Memorial in Stratford, the cairn in West Ham Park, The Joseph Fry water fountain on the corner of Capel Road and Wanstead Flats, the clock and drinking fountain, outside Forest Gate railway station and the synagogue memorial, in Earlham Grove.

This article features more recent installations. Unlike the above mentioned, these are all made of less robust materials than stone. But like all of the stone monuments, there is also an on-going Samuel Gurney connection with them.

The Preacher - Woodgrange Methodist church

The Gurney connection, first! The Woodgrange estate and much surrounding land was part of Samuel's local land portfolio, before it was gradually sold off by his grandson, following Samuel's death in 1856.

The statue of The Preacher protruding from the Methodist church on Woodgrange Road was recently awarded Grade 11 listed status by English Heritage, which inspired us to find out more about it.

As we have reported previously, the original Methodist church on Woodgrange Road was destroyed in the blitz, on 3 December 1940. When it was being rebuilt in the 1950's, its architects appointed Hungarian-born sculptor Peter Laszlo Peri to create a statue/wall relief on the main, front-facing, wall of the main church building.

Peter Peri's The Preacher,
Woodgrange Methodist church

The resulting "Preacher" was unveiled in 1961 and is described by English Heritage as: "A striking long-limbed figure, grasping a prayer book. It is made of a dark mixture of concrete, resin and metallic powders, mixed by Peri and dubbed "Pericrete".

Among Peri's other works are three sculptures on a housing estate in Vauxhall, dedicated to children who lost their lives in the blitz. They were created between 1949 and 1952.

Peri has an interesting personal history. He was born Ladislas Weisz in Budapest on 13 June 1899, of Jewish parents. The family changed its name in the early years of the twentieth century, to sound less Jewish, because of the rise of anti-semitism in the city, in the years leading up to the First World War.

Peter eventually fled persecution from Hungary in 1921, seeking refuge, ironically, in Berlin, where he began sculpting his revolutionary "Wall reliefs".

Peri and his wife subsequently became communists and fled to Britain after Hitler's rise to power. He settled in London and worked in studios around the capital - finally in Camden Town.

He was largely ignored by the British arts establishment during his lifetime, which some have put down to his communist sympathies. He became a British citizen in 1939 and took the name Peter Peri. He later became a Quaker.

Peri subsequently undertook a number of post-war commissions and participated in exhibitions and arts exhibitions throughout the 1950's. He died on 19 January 1967, as a largely ignored, or under-rated, artist.

Window and mosaic on Durning Hall

These are in Earlham Grove, once Gurney land and named after Earlham Hall, Norfolk - his birthplace. The window is the altar window of the Church of the Holy Carpenter and was designed by Shingler and Risden Associates.

Durning Hall alter window -
designed by Shingler and Risden

The mosaic, according to tiles within it, was commissioned by Newham Council Leisure Services in 1996. It seems to celebrate the activities that took place within the community centre, at the time.

It appears to have been created by attendees at the Greenhill Centre, in Manor Park, according to tiles, within it.

1996 Durning Hall mosaic

If anyone has more details about these artworks, we, and the staff at Durning Hall, would love to hear about them.

Community painting on Balmoral Road bridge

This is situated on part of the former Hamfrith estate, which - of course - for a while was owned by Samuel Gurney.

According to a plaque on it, the artwork was created by the local community and "commissioned by the Mayor of Newham and local councillors" in July 2013, to commemorate a major piece of work to strengthen the bridge.

Balmoral Bridge community painting

The mural features representations of the local area, including Wanstead Flats, the clock tower and Rotunda on Woodgrange Road, next to the station as well as local forms of transport. One panel on it is dedicated to the names of some of those involved in its creation.

The mural replaces a former community mural, which was created, overwhelmingly, by children from Godwin and Woodgrange schools, which was damaged during the bridge strengthening.

Meanwhile - Forest Gate Rail station

Other artwork from these two local schools could be found on the walls of Forest Gate station, on the bridge from the entrance to platform one. This, doubtless won't survive the current refurbishment work being undertaken there at present.

Crossrail, however, have been swift to commission a piece of surreal art along the long brick wall adjacent to platform 4. This was put up in two days by an Italian artist, who prefers to create under the pseudonym Bifido, rather than under his own name, and some co-workers/artists.

Bifido, and team, looking pleased with
themselves, having created "Meanwhile"
in mid March 2016

The piece, entitled "Meanwhile" is constructed from paper, tiles and glue, using a "paste-up" technique (otherwise known as the more down to earth "stick on the wall badly, then watch it start to peel off after a couple of weeks" technique, to most Forest Gate residents).

The work features, among other objects, a giant snail, a man standing in a huge tea cup, and falling leaves, metamorphosing into butterflies, a few clocks and a train. Just out of vision, Salvador Dali can be sensed turning in his surreal grave.

Bifido describes the work, in a statement that is destined for Private Eye's Pseuds Corner, as:

Looking at the spectator waiting for his train: an everyday repetitive sense of wait clashes with the speed of the train. Wait and speed are concepts at the core of this eclectic narrative: they combine and relate in an oxymoronic way.

Hoarding, around the Community Garden, Earlham Grove

Until the new station artwork, this was Forest Gate's latest significant piece of public art, and of course it is situated on former Gurney land (see above for the connection)!

The Community Garden steering group held a public competition last spring, seeking a designer /artist to offer a proposal for illustrating the rather stark and dull hoardings that surrounded the under-construction garden.

Community Garden mural -Metamorphosis
- designed by Jim Valentine, painted by
over 70 local people, 2015

The competition was won by local artist, Jim Valentine (see his website: here, for more details), for his work Metamorphosis. Over seventy members of the local community (named in a panel on the mural) took part in The Big Paint in September last year, to colour in Jim's design outline on the hoardings.

The mural proved to be a great success and a colourful addition to the local area. Unfortunately, some of the panels were blown down in a storm at the turn of the year.

There has been something of a stand-off between the Community Garden committee and local council over who will take responsibility for the damage and restitution. Fortunately a way forward seems to have been agreed.

This will result in a replacement of some of the damaged panels, while leaving more openings in the fencing for public viewing of the rapidly developing garden project. This will be in response to local public demand which has sought better viewing facilities.

A date has yet to be fixed for the repair and restoration, but as the committee says: it is an ill wind ...

So, the last two posts have focused on a ghost running through them, a future post will address the life and Forest Gate times of Samuel Gurney.

Footnote: We have not covered any of the many memorials/prominent headstones/ sarcophaguses in Forest Gate's cemeteries in this post, they have been covered elsewhere in this site on a number of occasions.

Nor have we included a number of other, smaller, items of public interest - often details on walls or reliefs on the faces of buildings. Many of these have been recorded in an interesting, though slightly dated, website: Exploring London. They can be accessed here.

Forest Gate's growing mid-nineteenth century population was added to by an influx of Irish economic refugees, fleeing the potato famine (see here for examples).

The then Strafford Catholic priest, James McCoin was on the look-out for help in educating Catholic children, as a counterweight to the CofE and Non-Conformist education provided by local charity schools (see here, for details of these schools and early formal education in Forest Gate).

In February 1862 he invited a party of four Ursuline nuns from Belgium to visit the Upton area (the more developed part of Forest Gate, at this time). The Ursuline order was one largely committed to education and had been seeking a base in England for at least a decade. They had previously sought bases elsewhere, including in Walthamstow - but to no avail.

Following their visit to Forest Gate, they acquired a semi-detached house with a large garden in Upton Lane, then described as "in the country village of Upton". They bought the adjoining house the following year, which together, in the St Angela's story, became known as "The Old House".

Some of St Angela's pupils, pre 1887,
when school uniform first introduced

The pair of these houses appears to have been built almost two centuries earlier, in 1684, although few details of their earlier history seem to remain.

Unfortunately, neither does there appear to be any surviving images of the properties, prior to very extensive later alterations by the Ursulines. The houses were, initially, to be the nuns' convent. The four original nuns were soon joined by four more.

On 28 May 1862 Mother Agatha and Mother Victoire began to teach in two cottages in Sun Row, as Green Street was known. The following year the nuns had the stables in the convent converted into a school - a big improvement on Sun Row - and moved the teaching there.

First assembly hall, 1889 - 1914

The nuns continued to commission building in 1872. The first wing included a study hall (later library) - see photo, with classrooms and a dormitory above. Boarders moved in, leaving the dozen or so day pupils in The Old House.

In 1874 Mass began to be said in the school, thus saving the local faithful a weekly trip to Stratford - and continued until the church of St Antony's was built a short distance down the road in Upton.

The chapel, as it was in 1884

In 1875 a boys school - St Bonaventure's - was opened a few yards away
In 1882 a new wing was started at St Angela's and included a chapel and more classrooms.

1884 convent building

As an aside, it is quite remarkable how an area such as Upton, for so long a home to wealthy Quakers (the Fothergills, Frys, Gurneys, Pellys, Listers etc - see later posts for details and their full widespread impact), within two decades had become the centre of a thriving Catholic community - spawning two schools, a convent and a church.

Sporty boarders at St Angela's, post 1887,
but pre 1900 - note cricket bats on far left of photo

This small strip of land provides, in microcosm, the traditional role of the East End: a host to successive waves of immigrants and other outsiders, with one community - usually seamlessly and peacefully - replacing another. The "displaced" communities, typically, move on, usually in a diversified way, to more established and often more affluent areas elsewhere.

An early pupil described arriving at the school:

My first sight of Forest Gate was when the train drew up at a wooden platform, backed by a hedge, which displayed a placard: 'Forest Gate'. There was nothing to be seen but trees and a country road. Only one house did we pass on the way to the convent, and everything was still and silent.

The school building, itself, was homelike ... there was nothing but a notice-board to indicate it was a school.

Boarders' study hall, built 1884

The school soon became a success - by 1893 it had a roll of 229 - which was quickly replicated elsewhere. So, in 1892, four of its nuns moved to Wimbledon to establish a school there, and in 1899 the convent took charge of the parish school of SS Peter and Paul in Ilford for a decade or so, and supplied nun/teachers to it for almost half a century.

The convent, photo 1902

The Upton convent spawned another successful school in Brentwood in 1910 and others followed in Billericay, Palmers Green and Becontree.

St Angela's grotto, pre-1914

Success for St Angela's meant growth, locally, too. By 1899 it had grown further and took possession of another wing in St George's Road.

St Angela's assembly hall, pre-1914

Upton had a reputation for hosting fine gardens. Dr Fothergill's house (which later became West Ham Park - see later posts) being the most prominent. The convent, too, was noted for the splendour of its gardens.

Convent garden, 1910

Children's garden, 1922

The twentieth century continued to see growth and change for St Angela's. It appointed its first secular mistress - Miss Harrington - in 1903. The following year it became one of the first Roman Catholic schools in the country to gain recognition from the government's Board of Education.

First science laboratory, opened 1907

By 1921 the school had 700 pupils, when Mother Xavier, who first became headmistress in 1878, retired. Four years later the Rosary Chapel was built "in thanksgiving for protection in the world war". The boarding system was phased out from 1931 and the dormitories were converted to general school use and a dormitory for the sisters.

St Angela's prep school, 1914

Internal reforms within the Catholic church soon saw the convent's novice nuns being transferred to Westgate-on-Sea and the convent itself began sending out - and receiving - missionaries from Africa, Asia and South America.

With the onset of the second world war, the school and its pupils were evacuated to Thetford in Norfolk and Newquay in Cornwall and the "Old House" was used as a public shelter for local people during the hostilities.

St Angela's evacuees potato
picking in Newquay during WW2

The 1944 Education Act meant big changes for the school; in conjunction with West and East Ham councils, it set about doubling its size. It became truly comprehensive for the first time (a status that was not officially confirmed until 1976) and attracted pupils from over 20 Catholic parishes, in the wider East London area.

Aerial view, 1953

With this growth, support and recognition came a greater "professionalism" of teaching at the school. The number of sisters who taught there declined considerably - to be replaced by lay qualified teachers, although nuns continued to hold non teaching roles in both the school and wider community.

By 1980 there were only about 20 nun/teachers at St Angela's.

On 16 March 1982 a fire swept the sisters' dormitory quarters on a day when the girls, or "Brownies" (so called because of the colour of their uniforms) were not present. The damage was substantial and many of the nuns had to be re-located during the extensive restoration process.

Tentacles spread into Ilford

In 1993 Delilah Smith was appointed the school's first lay head, and remained in post until 2009. During that time she picked up an OBE for her work and saw the number of sixth form pupils soar from 300 to 800, in a collaborative partnership with the near-by St Bonaventure's.

St Angela's continues to prosper today and is designated "Outstanding" by Ofsted.

This is the fifth in an occasional series of articles by Forest Gate resident, Peter Williams, who specialises in Newham housing, maps and local history. In each he looks, in detail, at the history of particular streets in Forest Gate.

Peter has complemented his own knowledge by accessing the increasingly digitised national newspapers' collection - which can be found here- and has added extracts from this that refer specifically to Earlham Grove.

Earlham Grove is named after Earlham Hall, near Norwich, seat of the Gurney family; now part of the University of East Anglia.

Gurneys' ancestral home - Earlham Hall, today

The Gurney family was a major landlord in Forest Gate in mid Victorian times and with other Quaker families, like the Frys (of chocolate and prison reform fame) and Barclays, were merchants and bankers in the City of London.

As we have shown in previous posts, Samuel Gurney, perhaps the most famous of the family, owned up to half the land that constitutes Forest Gate. He lived in what is now West Ham Park, until his death in 1865.

1863 Ordnance Survey map, showing vacant
land behind Pawnbrokers' Almshouses on
Woodgrange Road, up to the railway line,
where Earlham Grove would soon be built.
The open spaces to the right of the
almshouses is what later was to become
the Woodgrange estate

The Great Eastern Railway was built in the 1830s opening the Forest Gate area up to development. Work on the Woodgrange estate started in the late 1860s.

Earlham Grove started a little later. The houses are larger than the typical terraces developed by speculative builders for the army of clerks in the City of London in the later nineteenth century. They were more like what the Victorians and Edwardians called villas – for the better off middle classes; solicitors; business people.

Same area in 1895 Ordnance Survey map - now
heavily built over. Orange arrow points to site of
modern Community Garden (see below) on Earlham Grove

On the map, above, the Almshouses have gone, and in this 30 year period between the publication of the two maps hundreds of houses were built, including Hamfrith, Atherton, Norwich, Sprowston, and Clova Roads, and Earlham Grove, which were part of the Gurney estate (c. 1870–90), on the north side of Romford Road. These houses, many of which survive, include detached, semi-detached, and terraced types.

Earlham Grove - 1911

Buildings of interest

16 Ex Jewish refugee hostel. With the rise of Hitler to power in the 1930's, many Germany Jews sought refuge elsewhere in Europe, mainly within existing Jewish communities. Forest Gate played its part. A hostel was opened at 51a Romford Road, which accommodated 20 people. This later moved to 16 Earlham Grove. It was supported financially by the Earlham Grove synagogue (see below). Other families within the local community took in refuges who could not be accommodated there.

16 Earlham Grove today - a refuge
for Jews fleeing Nazi Germany in the 1930's

The article below, from 1933, suggests that Forest Gate may not have been the anti-semitic haven that those fleeing persecution from Nazi Germany many have hoped for. A magistrate, in 1933, telling a clearly Jewish immigrant from Earlham Grove that: "There's more trouble in this country through people like you than all the others put together. I wish we could throw you out neck and crop".

Chelmsford Chronicle 19 May 1933

93 - 95Formerly West Ham Synagogue and Shul (1897 - 2004). See here for a post on the 20th century Jewish community of Forest Gate, whose focal point was this building. It was the first synagogue in Essex and became the strongest in Newham. The foundation stone of the building in the photo was laid in 1910.

The synagogue, up for sale in 2004

The site is now a four-storey block of flats called Adler Court - named after a prominent rabbi at the former synagogue - owned by East Thames Housing Association.

Adler Court today - on the
site of the former synagogue

128 Earlham Grove - A house, whose occupant, Francis John Fitzgerald, hosted a quite remarkable event in the struggle for Irish independence in 1921. We will outline some extraordinary Forest Gate connections with the birth of the Irish Free State in the next blog on this site. Watch this space!

128 today, Francis John
Fitzgerald's home in 1921

136 - Site of the Community Garden was occupied until a few years ago by a very large detached Victorian villa. Originally it had been a doctor’s surgery. It was converted to a hostel for homeless families, probably in the 1980s, and was known as Earlham Lodge. It was run by Newham Housing Department.

Community Garden hoarding, designed
by local artist Jim Valentine and painted
by upwards of 70 local volunteers

There was no resident warden, but a mobile member of staff looked after a number of Housing Department hostels. There were 9 rooms of different sizes and it was targeted at small families such as a single parent with a young baby.

Families typically stayed there for a few months before moving onto another form of homeless temporary accommodation. They were given a licence agreement, not a tenancy. Bathrooms were shared and each room had basic cooking facilities Following a review in the mid 2000's, the Housing Department decided to close its directly managed hostels.

The site is still owned by Newham Council who hope for a housing development on the site in the longer term, but meanwhile, have given the Community Garden a short-term lease, so that it can be used as a community facility rather than remain an unsightly piece of waste land.

There continue to be a number of other large houses in the Earlham Grove that are used for some form of supported housing for vulnerable people including children’s homes, homeless hostels, cheap B&Bs and accommodation for people with learning disabilities.

175Built as Earlham Hall in the 1870s, for full details, see here. Briefly, it was established in 1879 by John Curwen, the Congregational minister, for his Tonic-Sol-Fa College. The Metropolitan Academy of Music followed on from 1906 until World War II, and then London Co-operative offices preceded the arrival of the Cherubim and Seraphim congregation in the 1970s.

An 1890's sketch of Earlham Hall,
when it was in its prime

It is still occupied by the church. Now The Holy Order of the Cherubim and Seraphim Church has its UK headquarters there. Arriving in the 1970s it is one of the earliest African congregations to settle in Newham. As the first African instituted church, it was originally established among the Yoruba people in Western Nigeria in 1925.

African Church of Cherabim and Seraphim, today

The 'Aladura', or African indigenous tradition, combines teaching and practices learned from western missionaries with elements of traditional African traditions. In Forest Gate the church is led by Pastors and Apostles, worships in distinctive white robes and emphasises prayer-including night vigils.

The church's worshippers in full regalia

Behind the church you can see is an older building the Tonic Sol Fa college, where this system of musical notation was taught.

193 - The Jive Dive. Kenny Johnson, who went on to successfully manage the Lotus Club on Woodgrange Road for over 40 years, began life as an impresario here. In 1960 he took over what had previously been the Earlham Grove Dance Academy (next door but one to the Royal Mail sorting office) and turned it into a pop music venue. See here for further details.

193 - location of 1960's
Jive Dive, now an HMO

The Jive Dive originally opened as a coffee bar, but soon obtained an alcohol license. The ground floor was converted into a bar, and the basement a dance hall. It was imaginatively decorated, for the time - with bamboo partitions, film and gig posters on the walls and with plants, real and artificial, adorning key areas.

Kenny Johnson, outside the Jive Dive, in the
sixties, proudly displaying his recently acquired Jag

Eddie Johnson, in his book Tales from the Two Puddings, says this of the place:

The Jive Dive seemed to fulfill a real need in young people; it was the time of the 'mod', and young East Enders were, in those days, the most fashion conscious in the world; rendezvousing in Forest Gate every weekend and going to our club, they would have a few drinks and then dance their socks off in the basement. There was no trouble and the customers were a lovely crowd.

The venue proved a great success, but the resultant crowds were understandably less popular with the residential neighbours, and so the brothers closed it as a venue and looked elsewhere for music promotional opportunities. They took on the floor space above what is now the Poundland and the Lotus Club, on Woodgrange Road was born.

Kenny (bearded) and Eddie Johnson, relaxing
with a pint at the entrance to the Jive Dive

193 Earlham Grove is now a house in multiple occupation.

Durning Hall Christian community centre replaced an earlier Durning Hall, founded about 1885 at Limehouse (see here for fuller details). The premises in Woodgrange Road were registered for worship in 1953 (what is now the Aston Mansfield charity shop) and in 1959 the main buildings of the centre were opened in Earlham Grove, containing a church, hall, offices, gymnasium, and chaplain's flat. A hostel, with shops below, was later completed on the Woodgrange Road frontage.

Durning Hall, which is non-denominational, is administered by the Aston Mansfield charities trust, founded in 1930 by Miss Theodora Durning-Lawrence. It caters for all age-groups. The church of the Holy Carpenter, designed by Shingler and Risden Associates, has a fine altar wall of stained glass.

Durning Hall today, featuring the stained
glass window referred to in the text

Odd ecclesiastical event

In the 1890s there was a strange bit of church history when some people from Emmanuel parish church (corner of Romford Rd and Upton Lane) started a rival church in Earlham Grove called Christ Church, because they felt the services at Emmanuel were becoming 'too Roman'. A small (corrugated) iron building had been erected, seating about 200 and continued until at least 1903, see cutting, below.

Essex Newsman - 2 December 1893

Rivalry between the two places of worship ended up in a court case in 1903 (see cutting, below), where the parties promised to behave, or the police would be called!

The dispute between Emmanuel and
Christ Church reaches the courts,
as this 1903 cutting shows

Significant deaths in Earlham Grove

Other press cuttings (below) show a slightly more tragic side of life for some Earlham Grove residents.

1. A suicide of an Earlham Grove resident, in 1907

Chelmsford Chronicle 22 March 1907

2. A life of a motorist fatally injured by a council tram, in 1906, just £250

Chelmsford Chronicle 29 March 1907

3. An air accident death for an Earlham Grove resident, and early member of the RAF. N.B. initials in article below: RFC = Royal Flying Corps (a fore-runner of RAF) and HAC = Honourable Artillery Company.

Chelmsford Chronicle, 6 July 1917

4.Another suicide

Essex Newsman 21 February 1920

5.WW2 bombings

Two of the biggest bombing hits in Forest Gate during World War 2 fell on Earlham Grove. See here for full details. Nineteen people were killed on 6 March 1945, by a Doodlebug when nos 56 - 62 were destroyed. Ten people were killed just six months previously, when a bomb destroyed numbers 3 - 7. See link, above, for all the names of those reported killed by those bombings.

Doodlebug of the kind that inflicted
damage on Earlham Grove during WW2