tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4060845208960850368.post3020913936841124572..comments2024-03-23T20:56:45.192+00:00Comments on E7 Now & Then: Forest Gate - the chic and the shabbyMichelle Ohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02786732761856671353noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4060845208960850368.post-784959248534864852023-02-09T13:49:30.636+00:002023-02-09T13:49:30.636+00:00Hi, I was wondering if there is any information av...Hi, I was wondering if there is any information available on a bookshop in Forest Gate that was owned by William Barton around the late 1800’s early 1900’s. If anyone has an idea where I could find such knowledge that would be great, thanks! Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4060845208960850368.post-57665454788150888802022-01-13T23:28:34.998+00:002022-01-13T23:28:34.998+00:00I think heritage is important but it is also impor...I think heritage is important but it is also important to note that many of the notable people of Forest Gate left pretty quickly after their careers took off. Many other residents started to leave in the 1970s because most parts of Newham started to resemble slums. The area and its local economy was devastated by WWII. Local jobs started disappearing in the 1970s as factories started to close, and by the 1980s the area was very decrepit and poverty was rife. The better off people started selling up their houses to new arrivals from abroad. The reason they left was because most of the things you romanticise about here were already in terminal decline, and that is why people sold their homes to immigrant families from Asia and Africa because they didn't want to live in a place that had no real opportunities left. <br /><br />Buildings become derelict when people or busineses vacate. If people cared about them, no one was stopping them from purchasing and preserving them. You mention the Odeon cinema becoming an eyesore but regardless of what you think of the mosque, the cinema had been in disuse for years and years before that, so if people cared about it so much, why wasn't it preserved? Why didn't anyone buy it and turn it into a cinema again? The entire borough of Newham lacked a functioning cinema from the mid-80s onwards (as far as I am aware), and it wasn't until the Picture House opened in the late 1990s that the borough had a proper cinema again. If people leave the area, abandon their buildings, the spaces will find other uses. No one is going to sit around and say "let's keep this because it meant so much to people who don't live here anymore". No point in moaning about cultural heritage if it meant so little to people in the local area that they left. I also think many people who have lived here for the last few decades may not have the same memories as people talking about the distant past, you completely disregard the histories of the immigrant families as if it doesn't matter. It is still part of the history. It does matter because Forest Gate continued to exist through the late 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. The changes that took place deserve a far more respectful and intelligent analysis so people could understand the complete history of the place and the reasons and processes that effected the transformation. As many people who were born and raised here in recent years read this to find out more about the area they call their home now, it is unfortunate that this website has taken the tone that the area went into decline because of the large Asian demographic of the area, which is certainly implied here, as your comment about the Odeon mosque seems to suggest. If the former residents thought Forest Gate was so special they could have stayed. The truth is in the 1970s and 1980s the area was very run down, unemployment was high and richer people were never going to move in. Poor immigrant families form India and Pakistan were unable to afford properties in the affluent areas of the city so they chose to move here, and former residents saw their opportunities to sell up and move to slightly better areas. That was their choice. Nostalgia is all fine and dandy, but you miss the bit between the halcyon days and the present. What happened in between was a mass exodus of families who used to live in the area, and with them went what they now claim to have valued about the area. If they valued it so much, they wouldn't have left. People should take off their rose tinted glasses.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4060845208960850368.post-9852596231293904872014-05-06T10:57:55.485+01:002014-05-06T10:57:55.485+01:00Thanks for your interesting articles, I do read th...Thanks for your interesting articles, I do read them even though I may not post comments. I agree that it is important to keep the local heritage, but the change in demographic due to housing changes may help. For the Spotted Dog to work as a pub it needs more people to drink in it than were when it was last open. I did use to go there back in the day. It would be great to have the cinema back as a cinema but any private investor with a plan to do it all up would need to know there was enough demand (and disposable income) in the area, with Westfield and Stratford Picture House just down the road..Jauntyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13698872994172759180noreply@blogger.com