23 Hampton Road – one-time host to a factory and a synagogue

Regular contributor, Peter Williams, examines some of the fascinating history of 23 Hampton Road, on the Woodgrange estate, as part of his irregular series examining the backgrounds of some of Forest Gate’s more unusual houses.

23 Hampton Road, today

Architects working on the house prior to its sale in 2018, described it thus: “The unusually large rear wings were originally used as a surgical belt factory and later also used as a garment factory”. (here).

As we have previously reported, construction of the Woodgrange estate began in the 1870s. 23 Hampton Road is an odd shape compared with the rest of the street, as the old map below shows, indicating where the factory would have been located. 

23 Hampton - fifth house from the left 

Modern Ordnance Survey mapping shows the strange shape more clearly still:

23 Hampton - fifth house from left

Estate agent’s photographs accompanying the 2018 sale of the property show the scale of the extended wings.

Zoopla

The Woodgrange estate was tightly managed through leases by the original developers, the Corbett family, so it is surprising that this property looks so different.

The very orderly residential Hampton Road in the early 1900s. On the far right of the photos is the estate office, from which the Corbett family kept a close eye to ensure that high residential standards were maintained, which makes it strange that an industrial premises was permitted at number 23.

The first purchaser of the house, according to its lease was George Wheeler, "an anatomical belt maker". The 1881 census showed him to be the 49-year old head of household, employing “6 girls and one boy”, probably in the enlarged wings of the house.

A clue as to why the house had extended wings is to be found in the original 1880 lease for the property. Wheeler's address, as purchaser of number 23, was given as 18 Hampton Road, suggesting that as 23 was being constructed, he commissioned a bespoke design of the house, to accommodate his factory, from his then residence, almost opposite.

A decade later, Wheeler was still the head of household and now described as a widower. The only other occupants of the house were two domestic servants. Wheeler’s occupation was now described as a “Surgical instrument maker,” consistent with the description provided by the architects in 2018.

Evidence of the property accommodating the small factory can be found in a 1894 Kelly's Directory (below), describing it as "Leopold House":

Kelly's Directory 1894

"Leopold House", Hampton Road,  was the address given in an advert seeking  sewing machinists for the factory there:

London Daily Chronicle 20 Dec 1883

By the time of the 1901 census, the Dawes family were living in the property: Elijah Seale Dawes, his wife, Emily, two daughters, and a domestic servant. Elijah was born in Stoke Newington in 1858 and was an ironmonger. There is no evidence of a factory on the premises at this time. The Dawes family were still there a decade later. By 1921, Elijah was retired and living in Wanstead.

The house was inhabited by Philip Wolfers and his family in 1921. 62-year-old Philip was born in Spitalfields and was described as retired in the census returns. He had been a teacher and a Rabbi in South Wales, later serving the Walthamstow and Leyton Synagogue (see press extract). His 61-year-old wife, Louisa, was born in Amsterdam, and their 29-year-old son, Abraham, a self-employed shopkeeper, born in South Africa. Lionel was the youngest member of the family, having been born in South Wales, presumably when Philip was a Rabbi there, in 1900.

Wathamstow and Leyton Guardian 17 Mar 1915

Although described as retired, Philip appears to have used 23 Hampton as a small synagogue, probably located within the enlarged wings, during his time there, as indicated by an announcement of its closure as a synagogue in 1931.

The London Gazette 22 Sept 1931

Within a year of the house’s closure as a synagogue, it was occupied, at least in part, by wholesale poultry salesmen, who formed part of what was emerging as a House in Multiple Occupation, a familiar fate of many houses on the Woodgrange estate during the inter-war period.

By the time of the 1939 National Register, twelve people lived at number 23: four members of the Toomey family, retired naval pensioner George Raffin and his wife, George Kingsworth, Henry Bone and four members of the afore-mentioned Barnett family.

The head of the Barnett family was Nathan, a 63-year-old Russian Jew who emigrated to England in 1898. He had run-ins with the police and was imprisoned in 1943 for breaking World War 2 food and rationing restrictions. 

Chelmsford Chronicle 29 Jan 1943

Nathan's son, Louis, also had problems with the police. He was part of a conspiracy involving false medical evidence presented during World War 2, to avoid being called up for military service, for which he received a two-year prison sentence.

South Essex Mail 5 July 1940