Woodgrange Road: 1990 - 2024, a photographic essay

We stumbled upon a captivating collection of photographs on Flikr, showcasing scenes of Forest Gate captured in three different sessions in and around 1990 by the talented photographer Peter Marshall. With his generous permission, we are delighted to present a unique 'Then and Now' photographic essay, primarily centered around Woodgrange Road.

We are most grateful to the contemporary local photographer Igoris (Iggy) Taran for his 2024 take on the locations originally featured almost 35 years ago. 

You can find out more about Peter and Igoris and their work in the footnote to this article.

The changes between the two sets of photos are striking and barely need commentary, but it seems sensible to provide some explanation and context for some images and their locations.

Although there are very noticeable changes, there are less obvious similarities. Each pair of images exhibits simultaneously change and similarity (same building, different function, same function, different appearance, same features, different layout or colouring, etc). 

It is almost like a trip down Schrodinger's Street! Plus ca change!

Music venues

Woodgrange Road and its offshoots have played an important role in local musical history, as we have written about frequently on this blog. Two of the significant venues, the Lotus Club (featured here) and De Underground, which we hope to feature in the future, were still in operation in 1992. The locations still exist—but as flats now—and in one case, has a very different external appearance.

De Underground

De Underground was an important venue in the development of contemporary urban music. It operated from 18 Sebert Road from 1991 - 1996. Below is Peter Marshall's 1992 shot of it.

18 Sebert Road 1992

Its role was significant enough for Newham council to erect a blue plaque by it in May 2021 in recognition of its role in the "development of UK hardcore, jungle, and drum and bass music." The owners of number 18 would not give permission for it to be erected on their wall, so it was placed next door - see below:

The plaque in situ - now removed

Proudly displaying the plaque, before it was placed on the wall was one of De Underground's key figures, Uncle 22. See below:

Uncle 22 - with the plaque

How different that 18 Sebert Road location looks today—it is home to some pretty shabby-looking flats. Number 16 has recently been renovated, during which the plaque was removed and has yet to be replaced.

18 Sebert Road, today

The Lotus Club

The Lotus Club operated at the other end of Woodgrange Road, above what is now Poundland. Below is a photo of the entrance to the club, tucked away around the corner:

Lotus Club - Post Office Approach - 1991

And here is that same entrance today. Largely the same appearance, still an entrance, but now to more shabby-looking flats. There is something rather sad about ground-breaking venues of 35 years ago becoming anonymous housing today. But, that's part of the story of change of purpose and continuity of buildings:

Entrance to a block of flats - 2024

Eagle and Child figurines

When the Eagle and Child pub—the one with the longest continuous history in Forest Gate—was refurbished in the 1890s, some distinctive figurines were placed on the facia board. Over 130 years later, they survive, but in a neglected state.

Above- Peter Marshall's 1992 photos

Peter captured them in 1992, looking quite spruced up next to the nameplate of what was a pretty seedy and rough pub by then.

 

Today, the pub has gone, transformed into the Woodgrange Pharmacy. But the figurines have that uncared-for look about them.

Above Iggy Taran's 2024 photos

They are the same objects on a building with different functions and care plans!

Moon House

This Chinese takeaway has been a long-term fixture on Woodgrange Road. When Peter captured it in 1992 it looked like your archetypal "Chinese Chippy" of the day, as shown below:

 

Moon House 1992

The location, name, and function have remained constant - and so has the family! When we showed the current staff the earlier image, they immediately recognised it as their childhood home/shop. The next generation now manages the take-away, with a far wider selection of dishes and an altogether more modern appearance.

Moon House, 2024

Forest Tavern, clocktower and station kiosk

Same kiosk, different roof fabric, same clocktower, different place, same pub, different name!

1992

 

2024

14 Sebert Road

Same shop, same door, different goods!

1992 baby clothes and second-hand shop

2024 - Pizza Haven

Tyre shops

From the tyre shop of 1992 to the tyre shop today!

Peter Marshall took photos of 84 Woodgrange Road, which was labelled a tyre shop, but had clearly been turned into a furniture store, retaining the old facia board. That space is now The Globe, an Albanian restaurant. 

Same place, very different appearance.

The same could be said of 24-26 Woodford Road, which he also photographed. It has been transformed from Kasey's (?) in 1992 to today's local tyre shop. It has the same function, but in a different location!

84 Woodgrange Road

1992 tyre shop, turned furniture store 

Today - Albanian-run coffee shop and restaurant

24-28 Woodford Road

All change! Different feel, look, and purpose.

1992 - Entrance to what we believe to have been Kasey's motorbike shop

2024 - highly recommended tyre shop!

Blondies - 473 Romford Road

It's not quite Woodgrange Road, but here we have the same shop, same location, but different offerings, with tanning and tattooing added to the selection!

Blondies - 1992

Blondies - 2024

Graffiti

Same medium, different subject matter, and different locations on Woodgrange Road!

1991-2

2024

Street life

Four of the locations of Peter Marshall's photos of street life on Woodgrange Road in 1991/91 offer interesting comparisons today.

Young drivers

The location is the same, as is the fact that the shop to the right is a butcher's. The change is that it is now Halal. The toy car has gone.

 1991

2024

People on the street

Same location, different demographic. The shop in the background was Woolworth, the same building today is the Tesco Express.

1991

2024

Near the bus stop

The same location, equally diverse demographic. The children's play train has been replaced by a soulless, secure metal box. A striking difference between these two photos is the considerable increase in street furniture in the contemporary one, a feature recurring in many of the contrasting photographs above.

1991

2024

Tyre shop - street life

The 1990's tyre shop, turned 2024 restaurant was featured above. Below are street life scenes outside it: same sentiment (adult(s) and child), different ethnicity, from the same photo-shoots.

 1992

2024

If any readers have photographs of earlier-era Forest Gate locations that would offer interesting contrasts to the contemporary look and feel of a place, we'd be happy to consider running a feature similar to this one. Just get in touch! 

Footnote

'Then' photographer, Peter Marshall writes: "I began taking photographs around 1970, later teaching and writing about photography and moving into photography full-time around 2000. My first major project was on Hull and was exhibited there in 1983 and was followed by work on the Lea Valley, the Thames, Paris and more. I've photographed buildings and events across London since the 1970s and in this century have concentrated on protests which I still regularly photograph. My pictures have been in various exhibitions and some are in collections, including the Museum of London. They have been published widely in newspapers, magazines and books, including over 15 I've self-published on Blurb. My websites include >RE:PHOTO blog, My London Diary, Hull Photos and the River Lea/Lee Valleyand I now have over 30,000 pictures on Flickr.

 

'Now' photographer, Igoris is a London-based photographer who works with portraiture, documentary and landscape photography. Currently part of an exhibition curated by Johny Pitts at the Hayward Gallery: After the End of History: British Working Class Photography 1989-2024. Contact: picsfromiggy@gmail.com, website: igoristaran.com Contact:picsfromiggy@gmail.com, website: igoristaran.com.

Thanks, for the memory (2)

This is the second of two postings, summarising comments on some of the articles that have appeared on this blog, since its inception.

Please see the opening paragraphs of last week's blog - immediately under this - for the rationale for running these pieces.

And - if you have memories relating to any of the articles that have appeared on this website, we'd be delighted to hear from you (by name, or anonymously). Simply type away in the 'Comments' section at the end of each article.

The rise and decline of Forest Gate's Jewish community

Original article link: here, date:20 November 2013

This is one of the site's most visited posts and has certainly provoked the largest number or recollections from visitors. Below are edited highlights of a number of them. A visit to the original posting on : xxxx is highly recommended for more detailed memories.

1. Anonymous

My grandparents, aunts, my mother, a cousin, my father all lived in Forest Gate. Three or more marriages at Earlham Grove shul 1933 - 1961. There were many that had moved from Whitechapel. Granddad worked as a presser and in the evenings finished suits that were sold in a shop in Green Street... It was all tough work. My mother told me she remembered in the late 1930's coming across graffiti: "All Jews are rich". This was far from the truth.

Earlham Grove synagogue

2. Anonymous

I grew up in Forest Gate and remember my childhood with fondness. When we moved to Forest Gate from Clapton the Earlham Grove Synagogue was full to capacity over the Jewish New Year and we had to use the Youth Services building. The Simchat torah party was very lively. My mother was on the ladies guild and I used to go with her to prepare for the party. I remember buttering so many bridge rolls. Laying the tables for 200 and a lady called Big Bloomah scared the life out of me. The parents association always took the kids from the Hebrew classes out every summer, usually to Westgate, and we went to the Norfolk Hotel for lunch. They were good times, never to be repeated.

3. Anonymous

My father was caretaker at this Synagogue from 1961 - 1963. I was only a five month old baby when my mum and dad moved here. I can remember it as if it was yesterday. Rabbi Shnider was so lovely, but Cantor Blackman wasn't very nice. There were 2 Irish sisters who helped my dad with the upkeep of the 2 shuls, 1 hall and the grounds. I remember the children coming into the Hall for lunch. There was a school over the road from the Synagogue, and a men's gym in the basement of one of the buildings.

4. Anonymous

I grew up in Forest Gate my parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins were all members. I remember some very happy times going to the synagogue for the Sabbath, High Holidays and Hebrew classes... I of course remember Rabbi Waller, who was a wonderful teacher, Rev Schneider, Mr Woolf, Mr Weinburg, Mr Barnett all the committee and Ladies Guild. The most upsetting thing was when the fire burned it down.

5. P Shapiro

I grew up in Green Street, but my best friend lived in Earlham Grove and my sister married a man from Earlham Grove and got married in that shul. Back in the 50's and 60's it was a very close community. There were several kosher shops and a large Jewish population who had moved from the East End. I used to attend the Youth Club, which was held in the shul hall. A reunion a few years ago brought back many memories. From Stratford Grammar School in Upton Lane, my friends and I went to Kosher dinners at the shul too. They were not very good, but oh! that jam and coconut tart!  My mother had a stall in Queen's Road Market, down Green Street. Recently that was saved from redevelopment. It is now called "Queen's Market" and there is a support group. Nobody had a car in my family and I remember very clearly the long hikes between Oakdale Road and Earlham Grove, which seemed a never ending length! Happy days.

Fascists in 1930's Forest Gate

Original article link: here, date:16 April 2014

A number of posts on this site have provoked family recollections or stirred an interest in delving into family history. This one provoked one of the most painful stirrings (see second comment below).

1. Birdman

I remember Higgs the furriers extremely well and used to go past it on my way to school in the 1960's. I had no idea of its links to British Fascism. I know the wife of the Jewish landlord we had kept her furs there, so perhaps she didn't know of the link either.

471 Romford Road - from fascist furrier's
 to Islamic charity shop, in one generation!

2. Kate Higgs

James William Higgs was my great grandfather and although I know he was a racist and an eccentric, I had no idea about his fascist history!!  I'm completely shocked and unsettled by what I have just learnt. Especially as I was brought up by his grandson in the complete opposite way - to stand up for human rights, equality and to respect others religious beliefs - which I am so incredibly grateful for. This has inspired me to learn more about my family history and to write it down for the future generations. If anyone out there has information on (or photos) of my great grandfather (nicknamed Jimmy) and the shop Higgs Furriers please contact me at kateyhiggs@gmail.com I'd be so grateful! Thank you for putting the information up.

Kenny Johnson and the Lotus Club

Original article link: here, date:17 September 2014

1. Eddie Johnson (Kenny's brother)

It might interest people to know that Norman Arsonsohn, the owner of the former skating rink that found renewed fame as the 'Upper Cut' first approached me about what to do with the premises. I passed him to my brother, Kenny, who was enthusiastic about opening a rock venue, he produced detailed plans for Aronsohn and it was a cause of much angst when a deal with the Walker brothers was signed and they seemed to follow Kenny's plan, probably given to them by Norman Aronsohn. Aronsohn was a shadowy figure in the world of high finance and it was often said that he was the 'Mr X' behind many of George Walker's schemes.

Kenny Johnson, in the cloakroom
 of the Lotus club, 1960's

Forest Gate's proud suffragette legacy

Original article link: here, date:6 March 2015

1. Jean Bodie

I am trying to research old 'Granny Baldock' for whom my mother worked as a young girl when she lived in Hamworthy. Minnie Baldock lived across the street from us when she was old and we were afraid of her because she wore long black dresses and we thought she was a witch. It was my mother who told us that she had been a suffragette when she was a younger woman. Now that I am older too, I am pleased that I knew her, despite the fact that as a kid I went scrumping on her property.

Minnie Baldock, c 1908

I'm wondering if she sold the land (in Poole) to the Labour Club, or they were sponsoring her to live at 73 Rockley Road, where the Labour Club was built. I just cannot remember when it was built; do you know?

Forest Gate short-changed

Original article link: here, date:20 May 2015

Cllr Rohima Rahman - still missing,
 but not collecting £6,000 for it.

1. John Walker (posted two months after a critical article attacking the inaction of Cllr Rohima Rahman as the Mayor's "Advisor" on Forest Gate, at £6,679 per year).

We are delight to report that Cllr Rahman has now been replaced, without public comment, by Robin Wales as his Forest Gate Advisor. The new post-holder is Forest Gate North councillor, Rachel Tripp.

Turning the Pages of history

Original article link: here, date:27 May 2015

1. (Cllr) John Gray

I have lived around the corner from the rocket impact for 26 years and never knew about it.

A V1 rocket, of the kind that hit Dames Road

2. Richard40

I lived in Bective Road through the war, Page was our local shoe mender. I also remember the V1 incident vividly. It was a sunny day, we children were all playing in the gardens, our mothers all chatting over the fences, when suddenly someone shouted. There above us was the V1, it passed us as we scrambled into the Anderson shelters. It hit the top of a large Sycamore tree in Gobbells Bakery, breaking the top off, carrying on to Dames Road, where the damage was caused. Although we had little damage in our road, we had plenty of real scares, with a prisoner of war camp a few yards away, our mothers were always on edge.

3. Brian Arthur

I was born in Pevensey Road in 1948 and my mother spoke about the doodlebug hit on the trolleybus. They eye-witness account really conveys the full horror of the event, which would have been hushed up at the time. Before the new houses were built, opposite the Holly Tree pub, an infants schools occupied the site, which I attended.  Half of the playground was still a bomb site when I was there and I remember playing on it - great fun for a little boy!

Forest Gate's role in WW1, the Hammers battalion (1)

Original article link: here, date:5 June 2015

Evonne

William Busby was my great-grand-uncle.... Thank you for posting such interesting pictures and stories about the men. It was wonderful to see the homes of the Page and Holthusen families as they are now.  We live in the United States and I've been researching Forest Gate/William's life, your blog has been wonderful to learn about Forest Gate, then and now.

William Busby - hero then,
 cherished now

Kenny Johnson and the Lotus Club

We've featured a brief history of  Upper Cut club, on Woodgrange Road, on this site a number of times in recent months - including our recent chat with the club's big name "owner", Billy Walker (see here).

This week we feature a less famous local impresario, but one who, without doubt, had a much greater and longer lasting influence on the music scene in Forest Gate, East London and further afield - Kenny Johnson. We caught up with Kenny recently and chatted about his Forest Gate days and in particular his greatest local legacy, the Lotus Club.

Lotus club, above Courts on right of photo,
with Xmas decs -  1983

The Club was located  above what is now the 99p stores, and existed , in one form or another, under his control as a music venue for almost 40 years. The building was completed in 1938, as a classic Burton's men's outfitters, and, as was almost standard practice, the shop had a snooker hall on the upstairs floors.

During the Second World War the premises were used as a base and bar for the Home Guard and the place where children's rations were dispensed by the Ministry of Food.


Kenny Johnson keeping an eye on the Lotus cloakroom

The Lotus Ballroom was opened on the first floor of the building in about 1952, by ballroom dance impresarios Byron and Mons Woodmansee, as the dance craze swept the country. By the end of the 50's Burton's had pulled out and the rest of the block was occupied by Courts, the furniture company.  The ballroom, however, remained unaffected.

Undated ticket for a Lotus disco, for 12.5p!

Enter, Kenny Johnson. Kenny was brought up in Old Ford, and moved to Forest Gate's Earlham Grove in the late 1950's.  He soon started to work at the Ilford Palais as a bouncer, where he met future Upper Cut club owner, Billy Walker. Like Billy, he was an amateur boxer and had been a market porter, but at Spitalfields.

When the Palais closed for a year for refurbishment, around 1960, Kenny spotted a gap in the market and opened the Jive Dive, in a house in Earlham Grove (number 193), next to the Royal Mail sorting office, in 1960, in what had previously been the Earlham Grove Dance Academy.


Kenny outside the Jive Dive,
successful enough to allow a jag

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 (with beard) on the door of the
Jive Dive, with friends and relatives

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

The Jive Dive seemed to fulfil 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.

Ever a man with an eye for a show business opportunity, Kenny spread his impresario wings wider, and put on regular and very successful gigs in the upstairs of Stratford's Two Puddings pub - later run by his brother Eddie - as the Big Beat Club.

He promoted events at other local venues, such as West Ham Town Hall, The old Eagle and Child pub on Woodgrange Road and the Spread Eagle, in Tottenham, West Ham Baths (where Jerry Lee Lewis was to play for him - see photos), Shoreditch Town Hall, Dagenham, Harlow and Croydon. And then very much further afield in the UK, in Liverpool and elsewhere, where his dad and uncle would help with the management of the events.


Jerry Lee Lewis gig, promoted by
Kenny Johnson, 1964

Jerry Lee Lewis, playing I'm on Fire,
recorded the night before his West Ham
Baths gig. The video can be found on
YouTube here:

Jerry Lee, with some of Kenny's friends
and family prior to the Romford Road gig

Kenny felt there was a gap in the market for a permanent pop music venue in the Forest Gate/West Ham area. As he was having difficulties at the Jive Dive he saw that the Lotus Ballroom's success was waning, as fashions moved on, and seized an opportunity with both hands.

He bought the lease of the ballroom, and reopened it, as the Lotus Club, in 1962. He brought to it one of Britain's earliest discotheques (the original having been pioneered at the Two Puddings), and began to attract some decent bands, to provide live gigs. It soon became the most popular haunt in North East London and Essex.


A night at the Lotus, with Tommy Bruce on mike

The line-ups were amazing, and over time, certainly rivalled those of the Upper Cut, for their significance. They included the Small Faces, as Kenny was friends with Ronnie "Plonk" Lane, founder member and bassist, and the band used to rehearse at the Two Puddings, when his brother, Eddie, ran it.



'You Really Got Me' - Kinks gig for £70
- the price of the band, not the ticket!

Kinks, dedicated followers of fashion

Small Faces: rehearsed in Two Puddings,
starred at the Lotus

Kenny remembers hosting Long John Baldry and His Hoochie Coochie Men, when the future Elton John, who then played the organ, and Rod Stewart were in the line up. In a considerable coup for the Club, Kenny booked a Kinks gig for £70 the week they topped the charts with You've Really Got Me - September 1964.
 

Lotus, Stratford Express advert 3 November 1967

Kenny was well connected in music circles, which accounted for the array of talent he was able to book, and the club's success rapidly grew.  He soon felt he needed a venue that could accommodate more than the 600 or so that the Lotus regularly attracted, and spotted an opportunity when the former roller rink, on the other side of Woodgrange Road became available.  It was in the hands of liquidators, NSA investments and he prepared to re-locate.

But, just as he was about to do so, the Walker Brothers nipped in, cut a deal with the liquidators' owner, Norman Aaronshon, and the Upper Cut opened, as local competition for the Lotus. Kenny stayed put.

He says he bore the brothers no malice, and his friendship with Billy, which had gone back to the time when they sparred with each other at West Ham Boxing club, in Plaistow's Black Lion pub, remained unaffected.

Other big names continued to appear at his club, including local boys David Essex and  Joe Brown, big name British groups, like The Hollies. Pretty Things Manfred Mann, the  Animals and Searchers, along with transatlantic stars like The Temptations, Little Eva and John Lee Hooker.

Kenny's most fondly remembered gigs featured Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, and Mary Wells (which attracted his biggest ever turnout).


Lotus advert for the Club's biggest
 gig, Stratford Express 17 April 1967;

600 adoring fans flock to Kenny's
favourite gig, to hear Mary Wells' My Guy

His connections in show business extended to television and he supplied bands to appear on Ready Steady Go, and was able to attract a TV crew to his staging of Screaming Lord Sutch, at the Lotus, when he was standing for Parliament.  A clip from the gig survives on YouTube (see below) and on the walls of the venue you can see adverts for the forthcoming Kinks gig.



Screaming Lord Sutch ; Jack the Ripper
- at the Lotus Club. Video can be found on YouTube here:

The Lotus was opened 6 nights a week and could count on big crowds, including the Swinging Sixties style "celebrities" and "personalities" like West Ham footballers Bobby Moore and Geoff Hurst, as well as local boxing heroes.
The Club, however,  was hit by changing licensing regulations from the late sixties, which affected admission criteria and imposed stricter health, safety and fire escape regulations (no more 600 crowds!).  These restriction gradually adversely impacted on the type of band the Club was able to attract, and thus, on its popularity.

Stratford Express
22 December 1967

So, Kenny Johnson extended his reach and featured gambling, bingo and a regular restaurant on the premises, to compensate.  These, too, suffered as a result of changing local authority regulations, which further inhibited business for the venue.


Kenny in the 70's, when
Lotus club in full steam

The Lotus Club continued, with dwindling crowds, until the mid 1990's when Kenny reached out to a new community and offered Sabura - a West African/Portuguese music tradition, which attracted considerable Angolan audiences, and regular live radio broadcasts to Lisbon and Luanda (capital of Angola!).


The Lotus Club, in its 70's manifestation as a casino

Courts the furnishers sold the building to the Peabody Trust, who wanted to redevelop it for social housing, in 2001 (their attempt failed), and the Lotus Club was evicted  - bringing down the curtain of 40 years of live music at the venue - a remarkable feat for a small, apparently sleepy suburb of East London.

Kenny now lives by the Essex coast, is a regular visitor to Forest Gate and maintains his fitness by weekly tennis sessions, a passion he embraced half a century ago.  Recently, together with brother Eddie, he has promoted a couple of Sixties revival nights at Stratford Town Hall, putting on bands of the time, to the great delights of attendees of the time!   We will happily promote any future events they promote!

Kenny today: "Anyone for tennis?"

Footnotes We would like to thank Kenny for his time and memories during the interview we had with him, his brother Eddie, whose book Tales from the Two Puddings will stir many a memory for older regulars of his former Stratford pub, but most of all to local historian Carol Price. She is Kenny's cousin, biggest promoter, interview fixer and, most of all, supplier of many of the fascinating photos featured in this blog.  All errors are, of course, ours.

We would be delighted to hear memories from any attendees at Lotus club events, or indeed anyone of the "scared" audience, featured in the clip from the Screaming Lord Sutch gig!