Albert Court, 89 Dames Rd, a history and research journey

Local historian, housing expert, and frequent contributor Peter Williams provides a fascinating account of this unusual building set back from the highway on Dames Road. In it, he references several sources that can aid people who wish to trace the history and backgrounds of their older properties.

89 Dames Road today - author's photo

The house at the southern end of today’s Dames Road predates the existence of that street, as perhaps its location, set back from the road, suggests. The street was initially called Leyton Road, but the name was changed to Dames Road in February 1887.

Listed buildings

89 Dames Road became a listed building in 1981, and its formal designation dates its construction to around 1840 – “Two storeys, four bays wide with asymmetrically placed entrance, all under a hipped and slated roof set back from road frontage” (www.historicengland.org.uk provides details of listed buildings).

Over the years, the building has been a substantial family home, business and catering premises and has housed six self-contained flats for almost 40 years.

Old maps

There may have been a house on the site before this time, as the 1777 Chapman and Andre map (www.map-of-essex.uk) shows a row of buildings on the approximate location of Albert Court, just below “The Lodge” on the map below. This could have been “Forest Lodge”, the alternative name for 89 Dames Road.

Chapman and Andre map - www,map-of-essex.uk

Newspaper archives

The earliest occupants we have been able to trace of 89 are the Ward family, who lived there in the 1860s. We know this through birth announcements in the Chelmsford Chronicle in May 1863 and January 1869 (address searches through the British Newspaper Archive—a subscription service can provide similar information – www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk).

Chelmsford Chronicle - 22 May 1863

Chelmsford Chronicle - 29 January 1869

Genealogy websites

This clue opens up access to the census (accessible via www.ancestry.com and www.findmypast.co.uk – both subscription services). According to birth records (also available via these two sites), the Ward family occupied the house as early as 1858 but did not appear in the 1861 census. However, they did a decade later.

1871 census

The head of the household was Humphrey Ward, a corn miller. This sounds strangely like a farming-related occupation, but Forest Gate was then a predominantly rural area. Humphrey had joined many in migrating from the countryside to what we today would consider a London suburb to seek his fortune. His wife, Hannah, was born in West London (source: birth records on Ancestry and Find My Past).

Google Books

Humphrey seems to have had business interests in the Anchor Flour Mills, Shad Thames, Wapping (source: contemporary records accessed through Google Books tab, a major source of information, as they have digitised business directories). He would appear to have been involved in local Liberal politics, as shown in this 1873 notice.

Essex Times - 12 April 1873

Inflation calculators

He died in 1872, aged just 52, leaving his estate to his wife (source: probate records, also on Ancestry and Find My Past) – it was around £500,000 at current prices (source: Bank of England inflation calculator -www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator).

The property’s furniture and effects were put up for sale in 1877. They included three milk cows (one in calf) and a horse and carriage. See below.

Stratford Express 24 March 1877

Local history websites

Humphrey’s widow, Hannah, moved to 65 Romford Road by the time of the 1881 census, and their former house, in what was still Leyton Road, was sold in 1886. (for a history of Dames Road itself, see www.e7-nowandthen.org/2016/04/the-street-where-you-live-4-dames-road.html – always a good source for local history!).

The sale notice, see below, describes the house as having stabling and a garden – about half an acre in total. Its proximity to Forest Gate station was a selling point. It contained “a large drawing room, dining and morning rooms, seven bed and dressing rooms, excellent offices and extensive stone basement”. It was a freehold property.

Chelmsford Chronicle - 26 March 1886

It can be time-consuming to trace the occupants of a building via censuses if you don’t have an occupier’s name, but sifting through census files by enumeration district can locate a house and its occupants.

The 1891 census shows the house occupied by Joseph Merritt, a dock foreman born in Bethnal Green, and his family. By 1901, he had progressed to become a grain merchant, a reminder of how crucial commercial trade was in the area; the Royal Docks were then the largest enclosed docks in the world, and London was the largest port at the height of the empire.

1901 census

They were a prosperous family, as adverts in the local papers in 1895 and 1899 show them advertising for servants.

Barking, East Ham & Ilford Advertiser 30 March 1895

Barking, East Ham & Ilford Advertiser 18 February 1899

Joseph died in 1906 and is buried in Manor Park's City of London cemetery (source: Ancestry and Find My Past). Fortunes could be made, and Joseph seems to have prospered, leaving almost £500,000 (in today’s terms) in his will (see probate and inflation calculation sources above).

Genealogy websites' fallibilities

Although census information can be invaluable during house history searches, it is not infallible, as the 1901 and 1911 censuses show. There is confusion about whether the Sparrow or Merritt family were the primary occupants – the former being the daughter and grandchildren of the latter. It takes scrutinising both documents to piece together the likely story. There can also be transcription problems with census documents when the enumerator’s handwritten records are misread by those administering the web sites, as is the case for this house in the 1911 census (see spelling of “Merritt” below).

Inaccurate transcription of 1911 census entry (Ancestry)

It would appear that one of Jospeh Merritt’s daughters, Mary Jane, had left the family home by the time of the 1891 census and married George Henry Sparrow. The 1901 census shows her living at 89 Dames Road with her children but no husband. It is unclear whether this was because of a family break-up.

Mary Jane and her children still lived on Dames Road at the following census, again minus her husband – she was not a widow, as this would have been recorded. He could have been absent on business or at sea – this is not recorded either.

Mary Jane’s mother, Jane, continued to live at the house and died the following year, leaving almost £750,000 in today’s terms. This presumably included the value of the house, which was put on the market three months after her death.

Probate entry, from Ancestry, 1912

Stratford Express 28 September 1912

By the time of the 1921 census, the property’s occupants were the Knight family. Father and son Alfred were described as ships’ caulkers who worked in shipbuilding to ensure the vessels were watertight. Alfred snr was born in Tidal Basin, Canning Town, and their son, Alfred John, seemed to have had a sideline as a musical impresario – see an advert from the Essex Times below.

1921 census entry - Ancestry

Essex Times 2 November 1918

          

Five years later, the house was up for sale again.

                          

Although the circumstances of the sale are unknown, the following advert in the Westminster Gazette suggests that all was not well with the family’s finances!

 

Westminster Gazette 5 May 1927

89 Dames Road was soon taken over by Hart and Holman, a catering firm, occupying the premises for the next fifty years.

West Ham and South Essex Mail, 24 July 1931

The Hart family lived there at the time of the 1939 Register (see: Ancestry and Find My Past), and the Holmans lived on Romford Road.

1939 Register - Ancestry

Many press announcements, articles, and adverts have testified to the use of 89 Dames hosting weddings, Sunday school events, and social gatherings in a large function hall, as indicated below.

The Stage - 20 November 1958

Council archives

Newham Council Archives has an extensive collection of images currently being catalogued and digitised in preparation for the opening of the council’s new Heritage Centre in 2026. They are currently located in the library on The Broadway in Stratford. Access is usually by appointment only, but the facility is currently closed, as they prepare for the relocation. Archives can be a valuable resource for people tracing the history of local buildings. Among Newham’s images are a number relating to 89 Dames Road.

Newham Archives

The house in the 1970s - Newham Archives

Planning department websites

Mr Holman of the catering firm died in the late 1970s, and although the business continued, within a few years, plans were made to convert 89 Dames Rad into six flats. Council planning department records (www.newham.gov.uk/planning)—both current and historical—are open for public inspection online and can provide vital clues about a building’s history and changes in use, shape, and function over a lengthy period.

Newham Planning website, www.Newham.gov.uk

Property sales websites

89 Dames Road remains the site of the six flats for which planning permission was given in the mid-1980s. One was last on the market five years ago for £355,000 (sites like www.rightmove.co.uk and www.zoopla.co.uk are invaluable in tracing recent house sales prices).

Footnote: You can read some of Peter’s other contributions to this blog here:

The oldest continuously occupied house in Forest Gate? - https://www.e7-nowandthen.org/2024/02/the-oldest-continuously-occupied-house.html

The Simpsons – Forest Gate’s jerry builders and slum landlords - https://www.e7-nowandthen.org/2024/05/the-simpsons-forest-gates-jerry.html

Donal Hunter House, Woodgrange Road:  https://www.e7-nowandthen.org/2018/01/donald-hunter-house-woodgrange-road.html

and updated here: https://www.e7-nowandthen.org/2024/01/woodgrange-road-developments.html

23 Earlham Grove – an insight into the local housing crisis - https://www.e7-nowandthen.org/2017/11/23-earlham-grove-insight-into-local.html

Forest Gate’s first £2m house? - https://www.e7-nowandthen.org/2015/11/forest-gates-first-2m-house-224-romford.html

 

Forest Gate's listed buildings (1)

In our recent feature on what may become Forest Gate's first £2m house (here) we noted that it was "listed", by English Heritage and gave the grounds for its status.

There are, in fact ten "listed" buildings in Forest Gate. We feature the other nine in a two-part series, of which this is the first.

The borough of Newham boasts 116 such buildings, many associated with the former Docks, Tide Mill in Stratford, Abbey Mills pumping station, churches or cemeteries. Three have Grade 1 listing (All Saints, Strafford, Tide Mill, itself, and St Mary's the Virgin, East Ham). The other 113 are Grade 11 listed.

"Listing", in lay terms, means that the conservation body English Heritage recognises that the building has features of architectural interest which are worthy of preservation. These are highlighted in the citation for listing and are included, in each case, in this article.

Local authorities have a responsibility to ensure that, as far as possible, these features are preserved and will not, under normal circumstances, give planning permission to attempts to disrupt them. 

For their owners this can be a double edged sword: kudos of owning a listed building, but often real difficulty in changing its design or appearance which can cause difficulties if looking to sell - presumable an issue for the owners of ex-pubs the Spotted Dog and Earl of Essex - see next episode.

The text below is (slightly) edited from the English Heritage website and can, in places, be very architecturally technical. But even a lay reader can get the drift of what is being appreciated by those responsible for the listings, from their citations.

89 Dames Road - listed 1981

House probably circa 1840. Two storeys, four bays wide with asymmetrically placed entrance, all under hipped and slated roof set back from road frontage. Of stock brick, double fronted with additional bay to north.

89 Dames Road

Segmental headed ground floor sashes set in recessed semicircular stucco arched surround tied together at window head level by a profiled stucco string. First floor segmental headed sash windows lie below closed overhanging roof eaves.

Main entrance accentuated by entablature supported by Doric columns. Interior not seen.

In the 1950's it was run as a wedding venue by a company called Hart and Holman. They had a huge function hall, which embraced, among other things church and Sunday School events, from the Christian Israelite church, almost opposite. One local attendee described events there as being "the highlight of our year".  

Now residential flats.

Church of St Antony and Monastery, St Antony's Road - listed 1984

Church and Monastery 1884 (foundation stone) finished in 1891. Architects Pugin & Pugin (Of Houses of Parliament fame). Early English and Geometrical Gothic Church. Yellow stock brick with ashlar dressings. Slated roofs.

 Austere. 7-bay nave with tall clerestory. Lean-to aisle roofs, double to (liturgical) south, to incorporate confessionals. Gabled chapel to south. South-eastern apsed chapel. Rose window over High Altar. 6 light traceried window to west end above gabled entrance. Cuspless three-light clerestory windows. Lancets to confessionals.

Church and monastery of St Antony

Monastery 2-storeyed with transverse gable to left and smaller gables to centre and right. Similar materials to church, but blue, chamfered engineering bricks to window openings. Lower windows paired lancets with leaded lights.

Beneath gables three light tracery windows, pointed head to left, the others with stepped, square, heads. Walls buttressed. Building linked to church. Gabled entrance, porch to left, with Mother & Child statue in canopied niche above.

Duke of Fife public house, Stafford/Katherine Roads - listed 1984

Public house circa 1895. Frederick W Ashton. A richly ornamented corner public house. 2 storeys with slated mansard and attic storey. Yellow stock brick with painted stone or stucco dressings. Jacobean motifs. Balancing elevations to Katherine Road front and to Stafford Road flank with 2-storey wing on flank.

Front has two segmental arches to ground floor, two 3-light windows to first floor, and balustraded with buttresses gabled dormers above. Ornamental panels above and below first floor windows with panelled pilasters between. Octagonal corner turret, (dome now missing) with linked female caryatids to drum.

Duke of Fife, ex-pub, now 
restaurant and banqueting hall

Arched entrances between ground floor, windows and to corner, with carytid-ornament above. Chimney stacks have pilaster ornament, and those on south side are gabled and buttressed like attic window. Similar gabled window to slated wing. Later single-storey wing at back. Interior not seen.

Now Asian restaurant.

Emmanuel Church, Vale Road - listed 1984

Church 1852. Sir George Gilbert Scott. Decorated Gothic style. Kentish ragstone. Tiled roof to eaves. No clerestory.

Emmanuel church, 1907

Perpendicular north aisle of 1890, the same height and width as original nave. Short tiled broach spire over chancel arch. Lady Chapel to south side balances organ chamber to north. Lean-to south aisle. South porch. Aisles are buttressed. Low turretted north transept. Vigourously foliated columns to 6-bay nave arcading.

Former Congregational church (now Azhar Academy), Romford Road - listed 1984

Former Congregational Church of 1880 by T Lewis Banks with church hall of 1883. Later known as United Reformed Church. Converted in 2002-3 to a school, the Azhar Academy Girl's School. 

Materials: Knapped flint with red stone and red brick dressings, tiled roof.

Exterior: Early English Gothic style. Externally the former church is largely as constructed, having an nave with lean-to aisles, south-eastern vestry and 3-stage buttressed and pinnacled tower with short spire to the south-west; the former church hall abuts the church's east end.

Former Congregational church,
 now Azhar Academy

The tower has triple arcading to top stage with a gabled centre panel of louvres and blind arcading below. To Romford Road, the west end has two gabled, porched entrances with arcades between on the ground floor above which are three lancets with brick mullions flanked by trefoil arches and single lancets; the uppermost portion of the gable has triple lancets, flanked by blind single lancets, and a decorative cross set into panel of red stone at the apex, the pinnacle of which is missing.

To the right of the entrance is a projecting vestry, which resembles a short tower at the lower levels with arcading to ground floor and buttresses to corners, triple mullioned windows to first floor, and parapet above. It is surmounted by a steeply pitched, curved-hipped, tiled structure, almost semi-circular, with continuous timber mullioned glazing with leaded lights. Twin gabled transepts project to either side of the nave with round-arched, stepped lancet windows, moulded brick mullions and stone pilasters.

The two-storey, gabled former church hall to the rear of the building has gabled porches facing west. The lancet windows to the west and north have all been infilled with breezeblocks. The single bay joining the former church to the hall has been converted into a stair and heightened with glazed clerestory and a modern roof.

A two-storey former clergy house with gables to north and south abuts the rear of the hall to the east. It is of flint with brick quoins, chimney stacks and window dressings, and the gable to the north is rendered. The window to ground floor has been blocked which is adjacent to a small brick porch with pitched roof. 

Interior: None of the original fixtures and fittings remain. Classrooms and offices have been inserted into the former nave, arranged across two mezzanines, fronted with glass to the central hall areas. The upper floors are reached by a stair and lift in the tower and the stair at the rear between the school and old hall.

The nave arcading - large sandstone pillars - and aisle and clerestory window mouldings remain exposed and the contrast between modern and historic materials means the old arrangement is roughly readable, assisted by the use of glass partitions. The windows have red brick and red stone arched dressings with red stone pilasters and moulded motifs, some have stained glass in the upper sections.

At first floor the timber wall posts, hammer beams and arched braces on stone corbels are visible in the modern classrooms. A floor inserted at the impost level of the roof vault has created a large prayer hall in the roof space where the impressive original hammer-beam roof is visible.

A second prayer hall is accommodated in the former church hall to the rear; a suspended ceiling has been inserted here but window openings and wall posts to the roof structure are visible. The former clergy house is used for utilities.

History: The building was constructed in 1883 to designs by T Lewis Banks for the Congregational Church. The foundation stone was laid by Henry Wright Esq JP, and the builder was Charles Sharpe. It abutted a church hall, built by the same congregation and architect, dating from 1880 which survives to the rear of the former church.

The building became known as the United Reformed Church in the second half of the C20 and in 2002, having become redundant as a church, was granted listed building consent for conversion to a school. The Azhar Academy Girl's School opened in 2003. 

Reasons for designation: The former Congregational Church is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* it is a landmark on Romford Road, in particular its impressive tower with pinnacled buttresses and short spire;
* good composition and detailing in the Early English style;
* the use of materials is good, including knapped flint, sandstone and red brick dressings (the former untypical in this area);
* an interesting ensemble of buildings, as was common in non-conformist churches, including a slightly earlier church hall of 1880 and a clergy house.

Carnegie Library, Plashet Grove (in Plashet Park) - listed 1994

Public library, now Newham's registry office. 1898-9 by Silvanus Trevail. Red brick with stone dressings, slate roof with three-stage cupola bearing clock. Two storeys, with gabled attic over entrance bay.

Three bays, the outer bays with five-light mullion and transom windows under parapets sporting trefoil headed panels. Central entrance composed like a Diocletian window, pair of blue marble Ionic columns carrying arch, spandrels with bas-reliefs of seated figures with scroll and book. Aprons of first-floor windows inscribed in raised letters 'Passmore Edwards Public Library'.

Carnegie Library, Plashet Park

Gabled two-storey returns with windows at first and attic storey. Lower rear section contains reading room (low projecting bay on east side originally contained the ladies' bay). Interior contains a hammer-beam roof to rear reading room. The first and attic storeys originally housed the chief librarian. 
Opened by Herbert Gladstone, MP, 30 November 1899. Largely paid for by John Passmore Edwards, philanthropist and proprietor of the Building News, who promoted libraries in the poorer parts of London. This is an uncommonly richly decorated example of his patronage in a suburban area.

Source: Building News, 11 November 1898.

We are deeply indebted to English Heritage for their efforts in attempting to preserve key aspects of our architectural history.  We acknowledge and are most grateful for their Listed Buildings website (here), from which we have taken most of the material (though not the photos) in this article.  We recognise their copyright of the material.