150th anniversary of Woodgrange estate

This July marks the 50th anniversary of Forest Gate's Woodgrange estate being granted Conservation Area status by the council, later ratified by the government. The designation was deliberately timed to coincide with the centenary of the start of construction on the estate.

We have already published several articles about this estate – see the appendix for details. This one marks the beginning of a series of new blogs on the estate's developments over the past century and a half. It explores the estate's origins, while situating its development within a wider historical and social context.We hope to mark the 150 years in other ways over the coming months, which we will showcase as they happen on this site.

 Origins

Glasgow developer Thomas Corbett purchased 110 acres of land on which the estate was built from the Gurney family for £44,000 in January 1877, (see Fn 1).

Archibald Cameron Corbett (1856 - 1933), son of Thomas and main developer of Woodgrange estate

Initially, 1,160 houses were constructed on the Woodgrange between 1877 and 1892, including all existing ones, as well as houses on Romford Road and shops on the eastern side of Woodgrange Road. The lengthy 15-year construction period is partially explained by a slump in the building trade in the mid-1880s, during which construction was halted. When it resumed towards the end of the decade the newer houses - on the eastern end of the estate - were built to more modest standards, reflected in cheaper prices - see below.

Although many suffered bomb damage during World War II (details of which will be covered in a future article in this series), we are not aware of any others having been demolished for reasons other than this subsequently.

Such was the success of the Woodgrange estate that Corbett’s heirs went on to develop six other large estates in east and south east London: Clements House, Ilford (93 acres, starting in 1893), Grange House, Ilford (74 acres, 1894), Downshall, Seven Kings (107 acres, 1898), Mayfield, Goodmayes (100 acres, 1899), St Germans, Hither Green (278 acres, 1896), and Eltham Park (334 acres, 1900).

Location, location, location

So, why did Corbett pick Forest Gate for his first significant estate development in London? The straightforward answer lies in two words: transport and opportunity.

The railway boom of the early and mid-19th century brought the Eastern Counties Railway to rural Forest Gate in 1839, when its population was only 5,000 (see Fn 2). At that time, the area was mainly occupied by market gardens, and there were only almshouses (see Fn 3) on the stretch of Woodgrange Road between the railway station and the then Princess Alice pub on Romford Road.

The railways brought Forest Gate within a 20-minute journey of the heart of the City of London, making it an ideal suburb for middle-class, clerical and managerial workers serving booming City institutions.

The opportunity for Corbett was the Gurney family's financial hardship (Fn 4), which owned much of the land in Forest Gate. This enabled him to buy the land, and Forest Gate suddenly became a thriving suburb. The area's population of 5,000 when development started grew to over 20,000 by the time the estate was completed.

Distinctive features of the estate

Unlike most housing developments in the Victorian era—well illustrated elsewhere in Forest Gate—Corbett insisted on the adoption of uniform design standards for every house on the estate. Therefore, although each house is unique, there are multiple variations in construction features—such as different bricks, some with verandahs and others without, some with single-storey extensions, others with two-storey extensions, and some with none, as well as the existence of bay windows and cellars or their absence.

1878 sales leaflet for Woodgrange estate properties

At a single stroke, the estate’s architectural design skilfully achieved both individuality for each house, within an overall coherent design setting.

When it came to selling the houses, Corbett severed the properties from the land on which they were built and disposed of them separately, thereby generating two sources of income from the estate. Middle-class individuals purchased the houses on 99-year leases, and the properties' freeholds were sold to institutional investors, who collected an annual ground rent from the leaseholders.

Larger houses at the western end of the estate would normally sell for around £530, with an annual ground rent of 8 guineas (£8.60). The smaller double-fronted houses at the eastern end of the roads would generally have sold for £330, on a 99-year lease, with a ground rent of £6.30.

Corbett was firm in his insistence that the estate's appearance be maintained to a high standard, thereby benefiting the freeholders by preserving the value of their investments. Leases required purchasers to decorate the interior and exterior of the houses at regular intervals and to keep the exteriors looking smart in specified ways. 

An estate office, located at the end of Hampton Road (now number 2), was established to ensure compliance with the standards.

Hampton Road, early 20th Century. Property on far right, Corbett's estate office.There to ensure conformity to appearance standards of houses on the estate maintained.

Trees were planted at regular intervals along the roads, and roundabouts were installed to enhance the estate's appearance, which was particularly important as it was then car-free. The teetotaller Corbetts included restrictive covenants in leases that forbade the sale of alcohol from any of the properties.

Affluent and aspiring

The fact that Corbett named all the houses on the estate (Windsor, Claremont, Osborne, Hampton, Richmond and Balmoral) after royal residences suggested he was appealing to aspiring would-be home owners.

A glance at the 1881 and 1891 censuses of Claremont Road (see Fn 5) – the first to enumerate the Woodgrange estate - gives an indication of how successful Corbett had been in identifying and satisfying his target market of residents. City workers and people in marine-related occupations (the estate is only three miles north of the then bustling London docks) predominated.

In 1881, 83% of houses on Claremont Road had at least one live-in domestic servant, usually a maid of all works, and 22% of houses employed two live-in servants, typically a nanny and a maid of all works. The servants were predominantly single women from East London or Essex, earning roughly £12-£16 per year, plus board and lodging (See Fn 6).

The construction of Essex’s then-largest synagogue on Earlham Grove, just a short walk away from the estate, in the early years of the twentieth century, made it an attractive location for the resettlement of successful Jewish immigrants and their children from the Whitechapel area and altered the demographics of the Woodgrange houses. (see Fn 7).

We are lucky to have a number of surviving Edwardian postcards of the estate (see Fn 8), which show what a fine state the area was in, maintained by careful leaseholders who adhered to the Corbett demands.

Edwardian Windsor Road

Edwardian Claremont Road

Edwardian Osborne Road

Changing demographic and occupant profiles

A combination of changes to the country’s workforce profile after World War I and the impact of the 99-year leases on the houses in the estate significantly altered the occupational makeup and appearance of it between the wars and subsequently.

The number of women in domestic service in Britain declined by almost one third between 1881 and 1921, largely accounted for by the death of over 700,000 men during the war, and the consequential “substitution” of women into formerly male employment. One result was a significant decline in the number of servants living in the estate’s houses.

By the late 1920s, the unexpired terms of the 99-year leases on the Woodgrange houses were dropping below 50 years, so the houses themselves were becoming less attractive as long-term homes and acquisitions. Houses on the estate were changing hands at ever-lower prices in the inter-war years due to their shortening leases.

As a result, the composition of households on the estate changed markedly. Over time, there were significantly fewer large families with live-in domestic servants. Many of the once-stylish owner-occupied middle-class houses began to be converted into Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs).

We will examine this in more detail in future articles, as we analyse the 20th-century census and National Register results for Claremont Road.

The consequences were that the overall standards of upkeep of many houses declined, as absentee owners chose not to improve properties with shorter lifespans, or simply sit back and collected rents, with no regard for the condition of the properties they let.

The Woodgrange estate suffered significant bomb damage (Fn 9), particularly at the western end of Windsor and Claremont Roads, which we will reflect on in a future article.

Post-World War 2 immigration into the UK, and Newham in particular, also altered the nationality of origin of many of the estate's residents, as the larger houses met the needs of larger families.

Conservation Area status

Post-World War II, prospective homeowners on the estate began to consolidate their leases by purchasing the freeholds, to extend their ownership duration. During the early 1950s, the now short leases of the houses were trading for very small sums, and prospective owners were acquiring the freeholds from the institutions that owned them, often paying twice the price of the lease for the privilege.

The owners of the newly united properties began restoring the estate to its “v, des res” status, investing in improving and maintaining their houses as owner-occupied dwellings rather than letting them fall into disrepair.

In an inspired act of heritage conservation and recognition, Newham Council designated approximately 70 acres and about 600 houses of the original estate as a Conservation Area in July 1976 to safeguard its significant architectural heritage. This was officially ratified by the government the following year to acknowledge and celebrate the estate's centenary.

Standards to be adhered to in properties on the Woodgrange estate, following adoption of Conservation Area status

The area was expanded in 1979 to include the original Corbett shops on Woodgrange Road (40-66). The designation has preserved the properties' external, road-facing appearance since then.

That status has led to a renewed interest in maintaining the estate's features and condition, as well as in attracting the type of families Corbett originally envisioned. Modern status symbols on the estate are no longer domestic servants, but many of the highly expensive cars that adorn the drives of some of the houses.

More recently, almost turning full circle, the construction of the very successful Elizabeth Line, calling at Forest Gate, together with almost boon town status of Stratford has increased the desirability of living on the estate.

As a consequence, house prices skyrocketed over the last forty years, reaching nearly 3,000 times their original value - treble the rate of general inflation over the period, according to the Bank of England!

 Footnotes:

1.   Woodgrange Farm and the Growth of Modern Forest Gate – here; Woodgrange Estate - the early years -  here; and Archibald Cameron Corbett – the man and his houses - here 

2.   Forest Gate's early transport history - here 

3.   Pawnbrokers of Forest Gate - here 10 July 

4.   Samuel Gurney (1786 - 1856) - Forest Gate's most influential resident - here 

5.   Upstairs, downstairs (Claremont Road in the 1881 census) - here ; Claremont Road 1891 census - here 

6.   Adverts for servants in Claremont Road - here 

7.   The rise and decline of Forest Gate's Jewish Community - here 

8.   Edwardian postcards of the Woodgrange estate - here 

9.   Claremont Road, temporary WW2 fire station - here 

Some E7 late Victorian letterheads

Frequent contributors, Peter Williams and Mark Gorman share some interesting Forest Gate discoveries from their recent work within Newham Archives. 

In the Newham council archives, there are extensive records for what was called the “West Ham Burial Board”.^[1] These Boards were a response to the crisis of overflowing cemeteries in central London from the 1850s onwards and the Boards managed local public/council cemeteries.

The West Ham Board secretary was a Mr Self, and he seems to have kept meticulous records of all the Board’s activities. The archive boxes contain neat bundles of correspondence on a whole range of matters.

The present article concentrates on the letterheads and details of small firms in Forest Gate and Stratford who supplied the Burial Board. It gives an insight into both the lovely artwork of this business correspondence, as well as the range of businesses locally around 1900. There are the obvious suppliers to a cemetery, such as monumental masons, but also more obscure businesses.

Newham Volunteer Kathleen Partington has been cataloguing these papers, and I am grateful to her for drawing these items to my attention.

We start with the monumental masons, the first one, WT Sumpter, based in what is now Cemetery Road E7.

William Thomas Sumpter was a stonemason born in Shoreditch around 1823. By the early 1870s, he was living in Forest Gate, on a property near the new cemetery opened by West Ham council in 1857. He was declared bankrupt in 1867 but appears to have recovered. Bankruptcy was common among small businesses during the Victorian era, and people seemed able to recover quickly in that lively period. He died in 1926 and is buried at East Ham parish church.

Cosburn was another mason in the area of West Ham cemetery in Odessa Road, E7. He had been born in Minchinhampton in Gloucestershire in the mid 1840s and migrated to London as a young man, married young, and was living in Chatsworth Rd off Forest Lane with his young family by his mid twenties. Hundreds of thousands of people moved from the English countryside to London in the Victorian era to make their fortunes. His wife was a Londoner, born in Chelsea.

West Ham, the council-run cemetery, was different from say Manor Park cemetery, which was a family-run, profit-making business. In fact, it is still run by the same family who opened it in 1875, (see here)

The West Ham Cemetery Board clearly needed many other kinds of supplies, most notably ironwork of various kinds. Here we have Henry Freund, based in Tower Hamlets Road off Forest Lane.

Interestingly, the trade directories a few years before this list him as a timber merchant on the same road. Then, in 1908, he is listed as a builder’s merchant at 112-120 Tower Hamlets Road, which is also very close to West Ham cemetery. The site is now under modern housing.

In 1862, Freund had been an ironmonger in Bethnal Green and then had opened a branch in Forest Gate, no doubt as it developed rapidly from the 1860s, with a massive demand for building materials. This newspaper advert shows his business had several branches by the mid-1890s.

Tower Hamlets Independent and East End Advertiser - 29 August 1896

Henry Freund died in 1926 and is buried in East Ham parish church.

There are several letterheads in the collection for a firm called Venables, who were based close to the Holly Tree pub in Dames Road. They were shoeing smiths, a reminder that in Victorian and early Edwardian times, London was entirely dependent on horses for road transport, and there were places to get horseshoes done everywhere. There were serious predictions at that time that central London was going to grind to a halt soon due to the sheer amount of horse manure. But then the car came along!

Notice Venables also had a branch at Forest Gate station.

This invoice is written to the West Ham Cemetery Co., which is strange as it was not a company but council-run. West Ham council came into existence in 1886 and took over the cemetery from the local board of health, the precursor to councils.

Oddly, the following crime report, which discusses Venables, also mentions Mr. Freund being cheated. Notice that the Venables business is described as being on Leyton Rd, because what is now known as Dames Rd was formerly part of Leyton Rd until the 1890s.

Leytonstone Express and Independent - 21 November 1885

Sometimes the letterheads give a precise address, though here a company called Bayliss seems to have occupied a couple of different addresses in Forest Gate.

Today 134 -138 Forest Lane looks purely residential, rather than a shop premises.

Later Bayliss’s lamp depot was at 96 Woodgrange Rd. Today, those premises are occupied by a highly skilled plaster moulder, Louis, who hails from Malta. By coincidence, he also carves grave stones!

Lamp oil was the primary source of light until the widespread availability of gas after World War I. With the advent of domestic electricity between the wars, Bayliss adapted his business to accommodate electric lighting, having begun his career as a plumber.^[2] Towards the end of his career, he was referred to as a ‘battery service agent’.

West Ham and South Essex Mail - 05 February 1937 

Henry Stanley Bayliss lived above the shop at 96 Woodgrange Road, according to the 1911 census. He was then described as a gas fitter. He still lived there in 1921. Like many shopkeepers, he lived upstairs with his wife and children. 

He had moved to a farm at Abridge in Essex before he died in 1944, and called it Woodgrange.

 

Probate records via Ancestry

He died wealthy, with an estate worth £5,000, which is equivalent to approximately £250,000 today. This wealth allowed skilled craftsmen/shopkeepers to earn a good living, reminding us that Forest Gate was an affluent suburb. He is buried in West Ham cemetery, where he had provided goods and services whilst trading.

Another small business person in this area was Arthur Bignell, an ironmonger.

Here is a newspaper advert:

West Ham and South Essex Mail - 31 March 1900 

 

Arthur Bignell was born in Croydon in 1862. In the early 1900s he lived in Odessa Road, so not above his shop at 21 Upton Lane. He retired to Banstead (near Croydon) in Surrey to live with one of his children, and died in 1947.

He seems to have been involved in local politics, standing for the West Ham School Board in 1895.

West Ham and South Essex Mail - 02 March 1895

 

Finally, there is another horse shoeing business, this time located in a railway arch of the newly opened overhead railway through Forest Gate, which was only completed in the mid-1890s. It was originally known as the Tottenham and Forest Gate Railway, and its three hundred plus arches must have provided many opportunities for small business premises, as they do today (see here).

 

This location must be very close to the current Youth Zone building.

 Conclusion

Newham Archives holds extensive records of the West Ham Burial Board, which are currently being catalogued by a volunteer. Amongst the records are invoices from suppliers to the Board. As well as being attractive Victorian letterheads in their own right, we can, by using other sources, like online newspapers and Ancestry.com build up a picture of local businesses and businessmen in the Forest Gate area 120 years ago. It was a thriving new suburb with many small businesses, some of which left their owners wealthy.

Thanks to Jess Conway, Newham Council archivist, for permission to photograph the letterheads.

Footnotes

---

1. The Burial Acts of 1852 and 1853 placed all decisions initially with local vestries. In the mid-19^th century, vestries played a central role in the collection and distribution of local rates. The Burial Acts permitted each vestry, using a strictly framed democratic process, to vote to establish a burial board. Each board would then be able to raise funding to establish a new cemetery. Burial board cemeteries were laid out in their many hundreds, paid for through loans secured from the Public Works Loan Board and repaid out of the rates. Burial boards were composed of elected ratepayers who managed the cemetery in accordance with government guidelines.

 2. West Ham council had its own electricity department at this time, and indeed generated and sold electricity for profit from a major power station in Bidder Street, Canning Town. This was nationalised after 1948.

 

Strange Claremont Road deaths (2) - suicides

This is the second of three articles we are publishing on unusual deaths and their inquests of residents of Claremont Road, based on a rigorous interrogation of the British Library Newspaper Library's collection of almost 90 million newspaper pages. 

The first article, on child deaths can be found here, and included details of the death of 16-year-old nanny Constance Susan Hand, of 56 Claremont, who died of arsenic poisoning in 1881, with no apparent cause of the suicide being reported..

1891: William Turner: “Hanged, while in an unsound state of mind”, aged 50

Transcript of the West Ham and South Essex Mail article, below.

 

West Ham and South Essex Mail 18 July 1891

“Sad death of Mr WH Turner – it is with regret that we record the melancholy death of Mr WH Turner of Claremont road, Forest Gate, who hanged himself at his residence on Thursday the 10^th inst … while in an unsound state of mind. The deceased gentleman had been in a depressed condition for some time, and although in good circumstances, having retired from business only 12 months ago, was haunted with an idea that he had not sufficient to keep himself."

"No one, however, had the least suspicion that he contemplated suicide, and when the news of his death became known, it caused a violent shock to those who had known him. He was a gentleman highly respected by a large circle of friends, and as president of the Liberal Association, and in other capacities, he had been of great service to the Liberal party, many of whose officers and members followed his remains to the grave.”

It would appear that Turner was a juryman on a high-profile case for compensation against the Tottenham and Forest Gate Railway at the time of his death. This was reported to the court two days later and the case continued in his absence. There is no indication from newspaper coverage that the case was a factor in his suicide.

55 Claremont Road, today

 

William Turner was born in Acton in 1841 and lived at 55 Claremont Road with his wife, Maria, daughter, niece, and a boarder when he died aged 50 in 1891. He was described as “living on means”. At a time when there were no state pensions, fifty seems a very young age to have retired, and it seemed the cause of his depression. He was principally a linen draper throughout his working life.

Turner and his wife were living in Leyton Road, West Ham, by the time of the 1871 census. They had a 15-year-old son, William. A decade later, the family lived at the Claremont Road address and had another son, Harold, born in 1873.

Sources: West Ham and South Essex Mail 18 July, Essex Times 22 July, Find My Past

 1926: Henry Lee Lewis: “Suicide, while of unsound mind”, aged 63

In articles recording his death, Henry Lee Lewis was described as living on Claremont Road, with no house number given. At the time of his death, he was a married and childless 63-year-old schoolmaster who had moved to Hastings in the last few weeks of his life because of his poor health. He taught at Colgrave Road school in Leytonstone and had previously lived in Leyton and on Cann Hall Road.

His body was discovered, slumped on a deckchair on the pier at Hastings on Tuesday 29 March, and taken to the Royal East Sussex Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. An almost empty bottle of Lysol, a disinfectant, was found near his deckchair.

Hastings and St Leonards Observer 3 April 1926

 

A note addressed to his wife was found in the hotel where they were staying. Although its full contents were not revealed at the inquest, the coroner read extracts, which said: “I am wearing you out. You have been my angel. Forgive me.”

A witness at the inquest said that: “Mr Lewis’ health had given him much anxiety” over recent weeks, and that he had been complaining about a loss of taste and hearing. He had been suffering from neurasthenia, a form of chronic fatigue caused by stress. He had no financial troubles, but had been talking of suicide in the weeks before his death..

The post-mortem found that he had about 10 ounces of Lysol in his stomach and “the stomach wall was practically gangrenous, due to the effects of the disinfectant. There were smaller marks of burning on his lips.”

The coroner’s verdict was: “Suicide whilst of unsound mind.”

West Ham and Essex Times 2 Apr, Manchester Evening News 30 Mar, Hastings and St Leonards Observer, 3 April

1928: Maria Susan Hibbs: “Suicide while of unsound mind”, aged 64

Miss Maria Sarah Hibbs was a 64 year old costumier, living at 54 Claremont Road, when she committed suicide in August 1928. This was next door to number 56, where Constance Hands (see earlier post) had taken her own life 37 years before and opposite where William Turner had killed himself ten years later. 

Sarah Hibbs' body was discovered in the garden, underneath an open landing window by her housekeeper, Annie Anderson.

54 Claremont Road, today

 The inquest heard:

"On Saturday, the housekeeper went out, and when she returned, she called out to Miss Hibbs, but got no reply … She noticed that a landing window was open, and later, when she went into the garden, she saw the deceased’s body lying on the ground beneath the window."

The investigating police officer, PC Ware told the inquest that:

"The woman had apparently fallen from the landing window, which was four feet from the floor. However, on the landing beneath it was a laundry box, and on top of that, an attache case. The height of the box and the case was about two feet."

The medical evidence was that death was due to a fracture of the skull.

West Ham and South Essex Mail 7 Sept 1928

Bryce Rogers, another witness, friend, and confidante from Forest Hill, tried to give some context at the inquest. He said that Maria Hibbs confided everything of a financial nature to him, and that: “she was under the impression that she was in a bad way financially, but her ideas of financial disaster were delusional.”

He said he was able to show her she made a profit each week in her business, but “she had made an investment in an electrical concern, and the shares have fallen considerably, and this worried her.”

"She was, he said, very miserable and depressed and was in poor health. She was worried because her business was very bad. She had resources and was quite sound financially, but she exaggerated the matter considerably."

The jury’s verdict was: “suicide due to an unsound mind”.

Source: West Ham and Essex Mail 7 Sept