Turning the Pages of history

Wednesday 27 May 2015


We've recently come across a great website, that specialises in getting hold of old postcards, putting them into a social and family context and relating their back story, and we are very grateful to them for inspiring this posting.

One of their subjects is a 1915 card from Dames Road - sent 100 years ago today, on 27 May. Their blog gives some fascinating details (see here) and we thought we'd paint a fuller picture, by putting it more firmly in its local context.

Below is the rather plain postcard, and it shows the shop front of TR Page, Bootmakers - with a young girl in the foreground.

Start of the tale: postcard
 of Page's shop on
 Dames Road, 1915
The second photo below, is a blow up of the image of the girl. The postcards' blog identified her as Ethel Page - daughter of the bootmaker. She was born in 1907, so would have been around 8, when the card was sent. As can be seen, she was well-dressed, including wearing a rather smart pair of boots - presumably made by her father, Thomas.

Ethel, proudly modelling her dad's boots
The recipient was her friend, Lily, in Crowthorne, Berkshire, an altogether more salubrious area than Forest Gate.

So, what can we add?

Well, Dames Road gets its name from, the Dames estate, of which it was part, until the mid nineteenth century.

The social commentators, Howarth and Wilson, in 1907, had this to say about the part from where Page traded:

In Dames Road, which for the most part runs northward from Woodford Road, are some new flats, with separate front doors. The accommodation consists of four rooms and a wash-house downstairs, and three rooms and a wash-house upstairs. They were built in 1903, and are inhabited mostly by newly married City clerks.

These flats are very strictly kept, as they are in great demand. The rest of Dames Road, which was built in 1878, is chiefly inhabited by clerks and businessmen in the City, and has shops on one side of the southern end. The rents vary from 8s 6d, per week to £40 per year. The houses have maintained their level up to the present time, but the shops are difficult to let.

We can assume, therefore, that Page's shop was constructed around 1878.

According to local trade directories, Thomas Richard Page, a boot maker, set up shop there in 1908 - around the time of the birth of his daughter, Ethel. The shop is long gone - see later - and was near the present Anna Neagle Close.

Page lived above the shop, in a four-room flat.  At the time of the 1911 census he was aged 34 and shared the accommodation with his 30-year old wife Eliza and 4 year old daughter Ethel.

Trade directories suggest that Page continued to operate as a boot maker from the premises until the end of the first World War.

By 1922 he moved his workshop a little further up the street, to 54 Dames Road, where he traded from for the next 30 years - but now as a boot repairer, rather than boot maker. Presumably  more highly automated factories in places like Northampton priced small local manufacturers out of the production of footwear. He must have felt deskilled by industrial progress.

While trading from 54, he could well have been a witness to one of the area's more dramatic events - in 1944. Although Dames Road was hit by three small explosions during the Blitz of 1940 (on 16 September and the 8th and 15th October), the damage was minor and mainly structural.

The Germans launched their much more vicious series of V1 attacks on London from June 1943, and Dames Road took a very direct and spectacular hit on 27 July 1944 - a little over 100 metres from Page's shop.

A "Doodlebug" hit a trolleybus at the junction of Dames and Pevensey Roads - by the Holly Tree pub, killing at least eight people.

Below we reproduce an extract from the following week's Stratford Express, describing the incident.

The extract is interesting, in that, apart from recording the incident (rather vaguely), it shows the level of censorship prevalent during World War 2 - designed to not give too much information to potential German spies about locations, and therefore assist in the accuracy of further bombing raids, but also in not fanning the flames of despondency and having an adverse affect on morale on local people.

Without a very detailed knowledge of local events and geography, it would be impossible to locate the bombing location referred to in the extract below. The incident was reported on an inside page of the paper, whose front page was filled with comparatively trivial local day-to-day civilian matters, and it is almost certain the newspaper underestimated (deliberately, or otherwise) the numbers of fatalities endured, in its report.

The extract below is from the Stratford Express of 4 August 1944. It may be difficult to read, so a transcription is supplied below it.

Stratford Express, 4 August 1944,
 recording the Dames Road
 trolley bus incident
Incidentally, the cinema referred to, again obliquely, as being damaged, in the headline, is almost certainly the Rio Cinema on Woodgrange Road, which was hit on 29 July (not that you would know if from the report!). It is now the location of the Durning Hall charity shop.

When a number of dwellings were damaged close to a public house (ed note: Holly Tree) and the edge of open land (ed note: Wanstead Flats); early on Thursday evening last, listening apparatus was employed by members of the rescue parties with a view to finding how many victims were trapped. It was a demanding voice, heard through a loud speaker demanding: "Quiet, please, everyone" which brought a strange silence on the scene. A moment before there had been all the noise inseparable from the aftermath of any "incident"; but the voice that came out the loud speaker altered that. Men perched precariously on debris were listening for sounds which would indicate the presence of survivors. The hush was a weird one, but it told the listeners all that they wanted to know, and in a minute came the voice again. This time it said "Thank you, carry on" and the resources were soon rapidly in progress. A passing vehicle (ed: the trolley bus) was wrecked by the blast and there was loss of life amongst those travelling on it. The dead included William Winter, Dennis Barfield, Thomas Driscoll and Reginald Hillman.

It is likely that the four mentioned above were passengers on the trolley bus, because four residents of Dames Road were also killed on that hit, according to Air Raid Precautions (ARP) records. They were: Gladys Blackman (aged 39), Wendy Blackman (aged 4), Abraham Ince (aged 76) and Edith Tilley (aged 41).

The eye witness account, below, from a very credible witness, suggests that the death toll was very much higher. No publicly available records confirm quite how many, but well into double figures, by the sound of things.


Eye witness account from
 Cyril  Demarne, later chief
 of  West Ham Fire Service
James Owen, author of Danger UXB - The heroic story of the World War 11 Bomb Disposal Teams, quotes Cyril Demarne's account of the incident. Cyril was a fireman of the time, and later became Chief Fire Officer of West Ham:

A particularly nasty, gory, situation confronted us, following a V1 explosion in Dames Road, Forest Gate. A trolley bus, crammed with home going workers had caught the full blast and the whole area was a sickening sight. Dismembered bodies littered the roadway; others were splattered over the brickwork of the houses across the way and the wreckage of the trolley bus was simply too ghastly to describe.

The roof and upper deck, together with the passengers, were blasted away. Standing passengers on the lower deck were also  flung against the fronts of houses on the other side of the road. The lower deck seated passengers were all dead. Although many of the victims had been decapitated, they were still sitting down, as if waiting to have their fares collected.

Demarne described the Dames Road bomb as "the most horrific thing I ever witnessed." Given the position he rose to in the service, and the number of incidents he must have witnessed in a long and distinguished career, that is some testimony to the horror of the event.

Thanks to local community historian, Carol Price, for pointing this reference out, and for confirming neighbourhood memories of the nature of the incident.

The houses in the photo, below, were built on the site of those destroyed by the bomb, post-war.

Junction of Pevensey and Dames
 Roads today - location of the
 trolley bus bombing in 1944
Back to the Pages of Dames Road. Thomas Richard Page ceased trading as a boot repairer at 54 Dames Road in 1952 - some 44 years after he began shop life in Forest Gate - aged 75. Presumably he retired, or died.

The business carried on, however, for another 15 or so years, in the name of Charles Thomas. We don't know whether he was a relative of Thomas, or had purchased a going business concern. Neither do we know why he ceased trading, but can assume that he became a victim of the throw-away society that would rather buy new than repair old.


The lower part of the eastern side of Dames Road was demolished in the 1970's for redevelopment, and the photo below shows the cleared ground, including what would have been Page's two shop locations, in 1984.

Lower part of Dames Road,
 undergoing redevelopment, mid 1980's
The area between Dames Road and Woodford Road is now covered by a small residential estate.


Amazing, where following the tale of a postcard can take you!

Forest Gate - short-changed

Wednesday 20 May 2015


Newham is, of course, a one party state, at local council level. There is no formal opposition on the 60-0 body; and the elected mayor, Sir Robin Wales, is able to treat the borough as his personal fiefdom.

Council meetings are over in minutes, public scrutiny is thin on the ground and decisions are taken behind closed doors, in party caucuses, or in pubs by the cronies.

We, the citizens, are administered to and treated with contempt by the power elite.

Robin Wales, like political leaders world-wide (as Cameron will soon be showing us, by the bucket load), has a juggling act to perform, to retain power and keep the comrades happy. And he does so at our expense - quite literally.

Mates are given top, and lucrative jobs in "the cabinet", complete with meaningless sounding "portfolios". Others, whose support, or that of their communities, he needs to retain power are paid off - by our taxes - with sinecures. All but one of the nine mayoral advisors for areas of the borough are, for example, of Asian heritage. Each of the nine of them receive £6,679 p.a. for undefined purposes (i.e. in excess of £60k in total)

Step forward Cllr Rohina Rahman.



Who, you may ask? She has been a councillor for Green Street East (roughly the area south of Romford Road, between Green St and Katherine Rd.), since 2006.

She has hardly made a mark in her 9 years on the council - though has picked up £100,000 for the privilege. Google searches, a trawl through Newham Recorder back editions and the Newham Council website struggle to throw up her name once a year, on average (apart from at election times, when she is looking for votes, of course).

Forest Gate resident, Martin Warne, who runs excellent blog www.forestgate.net, has tracked her contribution to the council and its democratic processes. He recently wrote:


According to council records, in the 2014/15 municipal year, she turned up to just three of eight meetings of the Health and Social Care scrutiny commission she sits on, and not a single cabinet meeting. She attended four full meetings of the council, although the minutes do not record her uttering a single word.

That works out at about £2,000 per hour on official duties - averaging out her £11,000 p.a. councillor remuneration between recorded attendance at recorded council meetings.

Her track record, to be frank, is probably little different from many of her 59 colleagues, on the council.

So, why single her out?

Because, exactly a year ago Robin Wales appointed her his "Mayoral Advisor" on Forest Gate and awarded her £6,679 a year for the post, allegedly for one day per week's work - in addition to her basic £11k per year councillor remuneration.

What does this onerous position involve? We wish we could tell you. There is no job description or list of duties and accountabilities attached to the function.

Freedom of Information requests to the council, over a year, seeking answers to the "what does the job involve?" question have been ignored/rebuffed/evaded/frustrated.

This website - interested in all matters Forest Gate - decided to try and find out.

Two months ago, we wrote polite letters to Cllr Rahman, Robin Wales, council chief excecutive, Kim Bromley-Derry, and the council's "Head of Complaints, Members Inquiries and Freedom of Information".

The letters asked for a job description, list of duties undertaken in exchange for the remuneration, and sight of any reports produced and recommendations made, affecting our area.

Below, we reproduced the sum total of the answers received, so we can show you, in completely unedited form, what we are getting for our money.


What 2 months time and over £400,000
 a year's salaries and expenses can
 tell us about what Cllr Rahman has done
Why does Robin Wales need a "Forest Gate Advisor"? He has spent most of the last 20 years living within a couple of hundred metres of the area, and is frequently seen in and around E7 - particularly coming in and out of the railway station.

Forest Gate is probably over-represented by Newham councillors who live within the area, and  four of the district's councillors (Ellie Robinson, Rebecca Tripp and Seyi Akiwowo, from Forest Gate North and Dianne Walls from Forest Gate South) are some of the most hard working and diligent members of Newham council, active and visible within the area.

What other advice does he need about the area - that justifies the expenditure of over £6,000 per year? We are still waiting to hear - and will share the answers with you, when we do.

Just a reminder. Robin Wales is paid over £80,000 as the council's mayor - over three times the average Newham wage. Kim Derry-Bromley, the council's chief executive is paid £195,000 a year - and will get a bonus this year for being the returning officer in the general election.


Kim Derry-Bromley - the
£195k p.a. sound of silence
Both of them have a legal responsibility for ensuring that public funds are used responsibly and appropriately. One year on, they cannot, between them, offer a single line of explanation for what Newham gets by way of advice on Forest Gate, for this £6,000+ expenditure.

Cllr Rahman's £6,679 payment isn't, apparently, enough to enable her to be able to account for her actions, either. And presumably the council's "Head of Complaints, Members Inquiries and Freedom of Information", on an estimated minimum of £40k p.a., is too busy applying for other similarly exotic sounding jobs in BBC's excellent W1A to have time to respond to our request.

Robin Wales, of course, has form when it comes to wasting money on vanity projects. Like the £40m he has given Tory peer Karren Brady and her pornography producer fellow directors of West Ham, to move to a ground that most fans don't want to go to. 

Then there is the, who knows what (£1m per year?) actual costs of producing the Wales fanzine - The Newham Mag.


Robin Wales: vanity, patronage
 and no accountability
As we face 5 years of Tory government, the £20bn of cuts they promised - but wouldn't spell out during the election - will begin to tumble out. Local government, we know, will take a big hit.

How will Robin Wales react to the central government imposed cuts, locally?

Protect the poor and sacrifice vanity, or continue to squander £6,679 a year on the silent Ms Rahnam and her ilk (£60k+, in total)? 

A not unreasonable litmus test of his priorities will soon be with us.

Centenary of anti-German riots in Forest Gate

Monday 11 May 2015

Following the outbreak of World War 1, in August  1914, there were a number of riots and skirmishes aimed at German nationals, or those who were thought to be Germans, in towns and cities throughout Britain, including locally.

Location and date unknown, but a widely
used photo illustrating looting of "alien"
shops in East London during World War 1
A recent exhibition by the excellent Eastside Community Heritage (see footnote for details) looked at much of the anti-German activity in East London during World War 1. 

One of the more bizarre aspects of this was re-naming the former  King of Prussia pub on Stratford Broadway the more "patriotic" Edward V11 (who had recently died). Both his family and their name - Saxe-Coberg - were, of course, equally German.

Stratford's King of Prussia pub renamed Edward V11

The biggest upsurge in anti-German feeling locally came nine months after the outbreak of hostilities; and followed the sinking of the Lusitania on 7 May 1915. There was a significant amount of rioting and looting of German premises in both Forest Gate and Manor Park, by - as we shall see - Forest Gate residents.

Most of the copy in this blog is taken from the Stratford Express of the time.

Sinking of the Lusitania

The Lusitania was a British ocean-going liner, launched in 1906, and was for a period the world's largest ship. It regularly crossed the Atlantic - from the UK to New York.



The Lusitania - one time largest ocean going vessel

In February 1915 Germany declared the waters around Great Britain as a war zone, and said it would attack hostile vessels. In April 1915 their embassy in London placed adverts in the British press, warning civilians of the perils of  transatlantic travel for the duration of the war (see advert, below).


German advert, warning
travellers to avoid the 
Lusitania, April 1915
On 1 May the Lusitania left New York on its final voyage, and was hit by a German U-boat, off the south coast of Ireland, on 7 May.  It sunk, completely, within 18 minutes.

1,198 people perished in the sinking and 764 survived.

Britain claimed the Germans had broken international conventions, by hitting a civilian ship. The Germans countered (correctly) by saying that it was an auxiliary military ship, since it was carrying over 4 million rounds of ammunition and other military equipment.

This was denied by the British government, who used the incident as leverage to persuade America, which had lost citizens in the sinking, to join the war.

The sinking lead to widespread anti-German riots throughout the United Kingdom, including - as we shall see - in Forest Gate and Manor Park.

The first extract, below, is from the Stratford Express dated 15 May 1915, and describes local riots on the nights of 11 - 13 May 1915.
 
We have cross referenced the premises and business mentioned with local trade directories  of the time, and, where possible, are showing photos of those locations today. We are also highlighting the names of local streets and addresses in the text that follows.

The second extract is from the the following week's edition of the paper and records the court appearances and sentences of local people convicted of rioting and looting. It suggests that the justice was pretty summary.

Riots, Stratford Express Sat 15 May 1915

Stratford Express 15 May 1915
Anti-German feeling has been high in every quarter ..., and commencing on Wednesday afternoon many ugly scenes have occurred...
Quite close to Upton Park station there is a large butcher's shop kept by Messrs Schuch and Sons  (341 Green Street) and for many hours on Wednesday evenings these premises formed the scene of an extraordinary demonstration.



341 Green Street now - a library, on the site of
Schuch's 1915 looted butcher's shop

Thousands of people gathered in the roadway and it was with great difficulty the trams and motor buses made their way through the crowd.
The police did what they could to protect the premises but they could do very little in the face of such an overwhelming crowd .. but every minute the 'ping' of a stone would strike the shop or upper windows and when the glass fell to the pavement there was a loud cry of exhalation. Hundreds of youths were in the crowds and for hours sang snatches of patriotic songs.
Green St is paved with cobble stones, and by the number of stones that were thrown it was quite evident that a certain element in the crowd had brought their 'weapons' with them from some other place.
At Manor Park everything was quiet until the evening, when a large crowd assembled in the Broadway and a determined attack was made on two shops in that district - one a watchmaker's shop, kept by Messrs Krenz and Sons (697, Romford Road) and a pork butcher kept by Mr Streitberger (693, Romford Road), all the front windows in the pork butchers shop were broken, but the damage inside the house does not appear to have been so great as was the case in some instances. 
 
693 - 697 Romford Road today, a century ago,
 the premises of the looted watchmaker's of Mr Krenz
 and the pork butcher's of Mr Streitberger

The watchmaker's shop, however, was gutted, and had a bomb dropped on the shop greater damage could not have been done. Not a vestige of a window was left, and all the goods were destroyed or removed.

799 Romford Road - Bachmeyer's hairdressers,
1915, chicken shop today
Two shops kept by men named Bachmeyer - one being in Station Road (51)and the other in Romford Road (799) - were also attacked and a great deal of damage done". (These were both hairdressers shops. See photographs of locations today; 51 Station Road continued to be a hairdresser - 100 years on -until its very recent closure!).

51 Station Road, Manor Park
- hairdressers in 1915 (Bachmeyer's),
and until very recently, now
In addition to the events above, on 12 May 1915 a large crowd attacked house of Martha Mittenzwei, a German citizen, in Manor Park, but no details of her address survive.

Also, at a date unknown, Menzler's  shop (speciality unknown) -  890 Romford Rd, near Manor Park -  was attacked by stone throwing.


890 Romford Road today - 1915,
 the attacked premises of Mr Menzler

Court proceedings, Stratford Express 15 May 1915

Stratford Express - 22 May 1915
Thirty eight men, women and lads appeared before Mr WJ Grubbe, the stipendiary magistrate, on Thursday, charged with various offences, including theft, unlawful possession and disorderly conduct. Fines were imposed in a few of the more serious cases, but most of the prisoners were bound over for six months.
Amazing scenes, in which tremendous crowds took part were described by the police.  Sub-divisional Inspector Cudmore said that about twenty five different premises were damaged on the previous night, and there were thousands of people everywhere.  He had a force of 200 under him, but the crowd could not be dispersed.
Among those charged were: Walter Dixon, 38, labourer of 23 Harold Road, Upton Park; Victor Rider, 18 barman, 13 St George's Ave, Forest Gate and Harry Gordon Hall, 16, tailor's assistant of 23 Dorset Rd, Forest Gate, all charged with disorderly conduct, in Green St.
Inspector Cudmore said that at 11.10 pm he was called to 341 Green Street, the premises of Mr Schuch, a pork butcher. There was a hostile crowd of about 2,000 persons. The whole place had been wrecked and furniture had been thrown into the road from the rooms upstairs. He entered with a number of officers and special constables, and found over 30 persons inside, smashing everything they could lay their hands upon. Practically all the goods were stolen. All except the prisoners got away on hearing a shout of 'Police' five of them were in the cellar, and three were trying to push a large wire mattress downstairs.
Owen McGuire, 23, a coal heaver of 222 Queen's Road, Upton Park, who was charged with insulting behaviour was said to have 'dived' through the window of a butcher's shop in Green Street. He then went upstairs and through things into the street. When charged, he said 'I have only done my duty'. He was bound over.
John Enifor, 30, stevedore, of 343 Green Street, Upton Park and John Gardiner, 35, dock labourer of 3 Kings Road, Upton Park were charged with unlawful possession of two portions of bedsteads.
Inspector Cudmore said he saw the prisoners in Green Street, each carrying the back of a bedstead. Enifor said: 'They are all taking them home, and I don't see why I should not'. The prisoners said the bedsteads were thrown out of the windows'.

Inspector Cudmore said that there articles were presumably from the same butcher's shop. The prisoners were each fined 10s.
Thomas George Kirby, 34, grocer's assistant, of 17 Lansdown Road, Forest Gate, was charged with insulting behaviour, and also with throwing missiles. PC Watts 121K said prisoner was outside a butcher's shop shouting 'Come on, boys, let's do the XXXX in.' The windows had been broken and he shattered the remainder of the glass with stones. He was fined 5s on the second summons.
Ada Goding, 47, married of Henderson Road, Forest Gate, had possession of four half quarters of flour, taken from John Hoebig's shop at 60 Green Street, Forest Gate (see below) - She said her children brought the flour home. She was fined £1 or 10 days.

 
60 Green Street, John Hoebig's looted
 shop, 1915, Asian restaurant today

Mary Stephenson, 37, of Oakdale Road, Forest Gate was fined £1 or 10 days for having possession of 28 gramophone records taken from Hoebig's premises - she said her little boy brought the records home.

Eliza Mott, 29, married of Oakdale Road Forest Gate accused of having Mr Hoebig's sewing machine, said her little boy brought the machine home. She was fined 40s or 31 days.
Lena Harris of Studley Road, Forest Gate, who had a quantity of Mr Hoebig's kitchen utensils in her house, she said the children brought them home. She sent them back to the shop, but it was boarded up.
Mr Gillespie said: 'I think Mr Fagin must take a class down there' Fine £1 or 10 days.
 
Joseph Bornheim's furrier's,
6 Sebert Road, today
Lily Grimater, 27, married, of Forest Street, Forest Gate, who had a fur muff which had been taken from Joseph Bornheim's furrier's shop, 6 Sebert Road, Forest Gate, pleaded that she was in the crowd and that the things were thrown from the window and she picked the muff up. The police said the shop window was cleared, and many valuable furs stolen. Fined 40s or 31 days.
Below is a contemporary photo of Moy's coal and coke dealer of 741 Romford Road, whose premised were looted as belonging to an "alien" at the time of these riots.

1915 photo of Moy's coal dealer's
looted shop during World War 1, 741 Romford Road.


741 Romford Road now - hand wash car cleaners
Footnotes

1. The Eastside Community Heritage travelling exhibitions: Little Germany Stratford and East London 1914 is highly recommended as a source of additional information on the treatment of Germans and other suspected "aliens" in East London during World War 1. See here, for details.


2. Nusound 92FM, the local community radio station recently interviewed this blog's author about the post, above. Click here, to listen to the 20 minute long interview.

Woodgrange Road in 1900 - East Side

Friday 1 May 2015



This is the second, of two, blogs attempting to capture how Woodgrange Road looked at the start of the twentieth century, using a combination of the copy from Kelly's 1900 Directory, adverts from the 1896 Forest Gate Weekly News and contemporary photographs.

Not all of the 1900 buildings survive, of course.  World War II bombs took out the lower East side of Woodgrange Road (From Romford Road, to Osborne Road) and parts of the West side.

Additionally, what is now Station Parade, opposite the station, hosted a cluster of coal merchants around the year 1900 (obviously bringing in their stock by train and storing it as close to the railway as possible), as the blog shows.

So, what follows are the businesses listed in the 1900 directory, by name and function, with what occupies the store today -where appropriate - (in brackets and italics), immediately after. The photos are of street scenes, usually looking down the roads, as they are crossed, or significant buildings (like the train or fire station.

East Side


Looking up Woodgrange Road,
 from Romford Road 1903

2 - Freeman Hardy and Willis - Bootmakers (Iceland - Supermarket and the Gate - Library and Council centre and offices occupy the space up to Post Office Approach)
2a - Robert Page - Florists (Ditto)




2b - Norman Lang - Confectioner (Ditto)
2c - Mrs Gilbert - Fancy rep (Ditto)
4 - George Smart - Butcher (Ditto)
6 - H Williams - Hosier (Ditto)
8 - Gedge Brothers - Drapers (Ditto)
10 - John Munro - Grocer (Ditto)
12 - George Davy - Mantle maker (Ditto)
14 - Henry Palmer - China dealers (Ditto)
16 & 3 - John Spurgeon - Tailor (Ditto)
18 - Edward Taylor - Furniture dealer (Ditto)
20 - Walter Lidbury - Fishmonger (Ditto)
20 a - James Halsey - Sanitary engineer (Ditto)

Windsor Road (Post Office Approach)




22a - Young Men's Christian Association (Tesco - Supermarket
22 - Picken Brothers - Tea dealers (Ditto)




24 - Picken Brothers - Chemists (Ditto)
26 - Joseph Rockley - Piano and music warehouse (Ditto)
28 - 34 - Leslie Spratt - Draper (MK Bros - Butchers and Cash and carry)
36 - Robert Bonar - Mantle warehouse (Pradip Patel - Opticians)
38 - Samuel Weakley - Physician and surgeon (Travel Track - Travel agents)

Claremont Road


Claremont Road c 1908
Wesleyan Methodist Chapel


Above, looking up Woodgrange Road,
 from Romford Road, featuring Woodgrange
 Methodist church, below the original
 church, prior to its WW2 bombing



Osborne Road

40 - Lord and Co - Drapers (Woodgrange Medical Practice - Health centre)



42 - E Sudworth - Dairy (Ditto)




44 - Lewis Lawrence - Baker (Mobile Shop - Internet cafe)

46 - Curtis and Hamme - Fishmonger (Woodgrange Solicitors - Solicitors)
50 - Ind, Coope and Co - Brewers and wine and spirit merchants (vacant - formerly Herbal Land - Chinese medicine)
52 - Albert Govier - Bootmaker (Charsitikka - Afghan restaurant)




54 - Hy Dyer and Sons - Undertakers (Salam Global/ Map Express - Cargo/internet)
56 - Harold Mitchell and Co - Drug stores (Moon House - Chinese takeaway)



58 - John Kettle - Grocer (Vacant - very formerly Victoria Wine - Off licence; and soon to be Corner Kitchen, deli/pizzeria?)



Healthy whisky
salesman- Cllr John Kettle
Hampton Road


Hampton Road, 1902
60 - Thomas Walker - Post, telegraph and savings bank office and fancy stationer (Pizza Hut - Fast food)




62 - Bodega Co - Wine merchants (Nandy & Co - Solicitors)




64 - Truefit Bro - Tailors and outfitters (Ladbrokes - Bookmakers)
66 - Albert Baker - Tobacconists (Naz - Photographic studio)
66 - Craddock and Co - Hairdressers (3 Station Parade - Tiger - Dry cleaners)



68 a - Frederick Warren - Coal merchants (4 Station Parade - Umar - Hairdressers)
68 b - Tyne Main Coal company - Coal merchants (5 -6 Station Parade - IT Solutions - Computer repair)
68 c  - Great Eastern Direct - Coal merchants (7 Station Parade - Vaping House - Electronic cigarettes
68 d - BM Tite and Sons - Coal merchants  (8 Station Parade - Eat More - Fast food)
68 e - CW Tanner - Coal merchants (9 Station Parade - Pak Money - Money Transfer)
68 f - Carrick, Davies and Partners - Coal and coke merchants (10 Station Parade - Postal Service - Mail depot)
68 g - William Cook - Coal merchants 
68 h - T Porter - Coal merchants
68 i - MH Abbott - Coal merchants
70 - Salmon and Gluckstein - Tobacconists (Spencer's - Estate agents)
72 - JH Venables - Shoeing forge (London Sweets and Grocery - Supermarket)
74 - Thomas and Miss Mary Whenn - Cocoa rooms (Dixey Chicken - Fast food)
76 - John Weeden - Oilman (Firawari - Supermarket)
78 - Gleich and Son - Hairdresser (Wilkinson - Estate agents)

Sebert Road


Looking towards the clock,
 from Sebert Road
Sebert Road c 1908

Forest Gate sub Fire Station (this was a sub station of the West Ham Fire Brigade, which closed in the 1920's, when the service became fully motorised, and so vehicles could move more quickly from the main station, next to Stratford Town hall - which can still be seen. Thanks to Peter Williams for the contents of this note.)



80 - Ford's Drug's Stores (Woodgrange Dental Surgery - Dentist)
82 - Henry Noble - Plumber (Vacant)



84 - George Bishop - Greengrocer (Soultrim - Barber)
86 - George Winter's - Cheesemonger (Preston Motors - Car showroom)
88 - Smith & Veasey - Baby linen warehouse (Ditto)


Smith and Veasey

90 - John Day - Pork butcher (Forest Gate Food and Wine - Supermarket)
92 - Henry Tennett - Grocer (Bangla Cash and Carry - Supermarket)
94 - David Cannan - Physician and surgeon (Forest Gate Opticians - Opticians)
96 - Ward Whiteway & Co - Printers (Interiors London - Interior decor)




98 - Forest Gate Gazette and West Ham Herald (Jamia Darussunah - Mosque)
100 - Frederick Brion - Baker (Sherman Pharmacy - Chemists)
102 - William Hattersley - Ironmonger (Blackbird Travel Agency - Travel agents)
104 - 106 - Henry Dyer - Undertakers (Zan's - Hairdressers)
108 - Dunn and Co - Tailors (Amba News - Newsagents)
110 - The Danish Dairy Co - dairy supplies (Country Style - Caribbean restaurant)
112 - The Eagle and Child - Public house (Woodgrange Pharmacy - Chemists)


Detail from frontage of Eagle
 and Child pub, rebuilt 1896
118 - Francis Trimmer - Surgeon (Berek Food Centre - Supermarket)
120 - J Mardling & Co - Furniture Removers (Compotes - Bakers + Cafe and Contemporary Home design - Kitchen furniture)


Looking north, towards
 Wanstead Park station

Wanstead Park Railway Station