Thames Tributary Loxford Water - Central Barking
Thames Tributary Loxford Water
Loxford Water continues to flow south west towards the River Roding
The Gospel Oak to Barking Railway arrives in Barking
Barking Town Centre - or rather the northern part of the centre, missing the town hall. Somewhere here are the remains of a small Essex country town built around and to serve the all powerful abbey.
Post to the north Loxford
Post to the west Barking/Newham borders
Bamford Road
Cinema DeLuxe. Opened in 1914 and closed in 1925. The building then became a second hand furniture store and then a sausage factory. This was demolished and Council almshouses built which have also now been demolished for the ring road.
Barking
Barking was a suburb in the 1950s but in 1900 was a fishing village. It is separated from Dagenham by the River Rom and until 1858 included Ilford. The centre still retains a medieval street pattern and the town grew up around the London Road east of the Roding crossing.
Barking Park
Opened in 1898 and laid out to designs by the Council Architects, C.J. & C.F. Dawson.
Lake, created by damming Loxford Water, runs along the north side of the park.
Indoor bowls centre
War memorial for Barking men who fell in two world wars. Every Remembrance Day there is a commemorative ceremony. It is in ornamental gardens and an arboretum installed in 1922. It is in Portland stone, curved and stepped with polished granite name panels.
Horse Chestnut Avenue planted by Prince George on his visit to the park in the mid 1930s.
Miniature railway which opened in the 1950s. It had three coaches hauled and a steam locomotive named "The Empress" later replaced by a diesel called ‘Little Nan’. The railway ran from the entrance in Longbridge Road to a turntable at the lake. In 2005 it was closed but has been reopened. About halfway along the line, trains went through a gated level crossing.
Church Road
1 Britannia pub. Built in 1898 by F.W.Ashton with half-timbering, turrets and pargetting. Owned by Youngs it closed when they sold off pubs in 2009 and was bought by a local hotel. It is now the “Royal Brits Hall” and sold as a ‘wedding venue’.
New housing by Jestico & Whiles for the East Thames Group.
Model Cottages. Demolished in 1901 as unfit.
East Street
The western end of the street was once known as Bull Street
Magistrates Court. This was built as Public Offices and a Free Library. 1893-4 by C.J. Dawson, Surveyor to Barking Local Board. It is a two storey brick building with a clock turret. It became a magistrates' court in 1960, after a new town hall was built and it was sold to Essex County Council. The courthouse was moved from Broadway where a royal coat of arms, dated 1588, hung. A tower has been built at the back and reliefs of Barking Abbey and a medieval fishing smack by A. John Piwie removed.
Barking Market. The town has an ancient market right dating from 1175 but it declined in the 18th. The current market dates from 1991
1-11 Edwardian terrace of shops
2a-4a Burtons shop. Built 1931 in Art deco style with elephant head capitals. Now in other use with flats above shops13-27 Edwardian terrace of shops
34 Shop built for Marks and Spencer but now in other use. designed by Lutyens (not the famous one, his son)
41 MacDonald’s Late Victorian/Edwardian building with beehive motif on the pediment
33-35 Fawley House. Built 1822-1860 and the oldest secular building in Barking Town Centre. This was owned by the Hewlett family, prominent Barking fishermen and owners of the Short Blue Fleet. Ground floor converted into two shops
54-66 terrace of Edwardian shops
Bull pub dated to early 15th, the current building is 1925. Outside is a sculpture of a bull. There are a number of outhouses associated with it.
Central Hall Mission Methodist church. Built in 1928 with money from J.Arthur Rank. Destroyed by enemy action in 1945 and demolished. It had replaced an earlier Methodist chapel on the other side of the road. Shops on the site – although a new church was built to the rear.
Weslyan chapel which was a wooden building from 1797 and a Sunday school from 1825. In 1869 a new chapel was built. Demolished when Central Hall was built and the Capitol cinema built on the site.
Capitol Cinema opened 1929 and became an ABC in 1930. It had a Standaart organ, its own orchestra and a cafe. It closed in 1959 and demolished. The site became an extension to Marks and Spencer and has since closedWesleyan school opened in 1845. Closed around 1899
Paddocks 18th house which stood until 1910 at the junction with Ripple Road.
Bath House. A building in a complex of new residential and commercial units by builders, Redrow Regeneration for the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. Built in the site of the public baths
Barking Apprentice, hospitality and catering social enterprise
Public baths opened in 1899. Included Turkish baths and winter dinner dances. It closed in 1986 and was demolished
House of Correction. Opened in 1609. In 1790 it consisted of a 'fore-gaol' for men and a 'back-gaol' for women. There were no chimneys but there were offensive sewers. There had been only one prisoner in 1776
Rope Works Building yellow and green facade built over the library. The names refer to a local rope works – Cutmore and Shrier - on whose site it is built
Lemonade Building – R Whites Soft Drinks Factory was to the south of here. This is another block of flats.
Piano Factory. New flats on the site of what is said to be a piano factory
Fanshawe Avenue
Fanshawe was the name of a local landowning family. The roads in this area were known as Barking New Town in the late 19th
Ilford Lane
Loxford Bridge. The bridge crosses Loxford Water and dates from the mid 15th.when it was subject of dispute between the vestry and the manor.
Al Madina Mosque
Linton Road
This was once called Station Road
1 Maritime House. Slab of aggregate facing;
15 Roycraft House
2 Barking Tap and Buzz previously called the Brewery Tap. Dates from 1894. Originally formed part of Barking Brewery
26 Badawa House. Youth and childcare centre
41 Presbytery and the former school of 1862, still with its bell.
Almshouses in a 2-storied block.
Baptist Tabernacle. Strict Baptist Association bought land in Linton Road and in 1878 a day school was opened. Then in 1893, the Queen's Road Baptists built the Tabernacle and the old chapel was sold to the Peculiar People in due course. The Tabernacle is built in brick by Holliday and Greenwood, builders and later remodelled including two halls at the rear. On pediment is painted '18 BAPTIST TABERNACLE 93'. There are four foundation stones, all 1893 and art-nouveau iron gates and railings at the front. Inside is a large space with three galleries, a big open ceiling with big timber trussed on iron columns. There is balcony for preaching and below a sunken baptistery with stone steps. There are Art-Nouveau-style stained glass windows and memorial plaques. The first organ, installed in 1911, was built in 1825 for the Trinity Chapel, Mare Street, Hackney. In 1914 an institute was erected by church members using second-hand bricks.
Barking Brewery. It belonged to the Glenny family until 1930 when it was sold to Taylor Walker. It had been started in 1864 to provide beer to farmers and beginning in a farm shed.
Crown House, angular tower in reinforced concrete.
St Mary and Ethelburga Roman Catholic church. A church, dedicated to St. Ethelburga, was opened in 1858 at the back of the Red Lion. The present church was built in 1869 by John Newton of Buries, Newton & Partners.
The Lintons estate. Local authority housing including a 16 -storey slab of 1960-3 by M. Maybury, Borough Architect. The estate was an early example of using precast factory-made components by Concrete Southern Ltd. Demolished
London Road
Extended in 1937 leading to much demolition
Methodist Church. 1958-9 by George Baines. & Syborn, replacing the Central Hall, in East Street, which was bombed in 1945 and built on the back of that site
White Horse Pub
Longbridge Road
Ancient track way 1609 called Smallwood Lane
Lodge at Barking Park entrance. Typical arts and crafts park lodge house in Brick in 1912
Dome-capped gate piers to the park
22-30 Odeon Flats on the site of the Odeon Cinema. It opened as The Rio Cinema in 1935 operated by Kessex Cinemas and designed by George Coles. Facilities included a cafe and a beauty parlour. It had a stage and dressing rooms. It was taken over in 1936 by GFC (Eastern Cinemas) and then by Odeon Theatres Ltd in 1943 and re-named Odeon. In 1974 it became a three screen cinema and six screens in 1990. It closed in 1998 and was demolished in 2001.
Spotted Dog Pub. Built in 1870 .and rebuilt later. It is in red brick with and half-timbered gables.
15 buildings associated with the pub since 1870
St Thomas More Roman Catholic church built in 1935 in Red brick
Barking Arms Pub. Also called the Top Up Bar. This was previously Lloyds Bank
The Barking Dog. Wetherspoons pub. They claim the name is to do with the Barking fishing industry and the Dogger Bank
76 Heathway House.
North Street
Jolly Fisherman pub. Built 1906 on the site of an earlier building.
66-68 Red Lion public house. Built in 1899 but mentioned in 1609. Red brick first floor. Castellated top. Now flats
10 Beehive crest of Stratford Cooperative Society, of which it was formerly a branch. Dated 1900.
82-84 Plaque inscribed "St John’s Market 1894".
15-19 St Margaret’s Primary School. The school was founded in 1649 and the present building was opened in 1968. It became a two form entry school in 1994
Edward VIII Pillar box.
Park Avenue
Entrance to the park. When trains were not running on the miniature railway the level crossing gave access to the park but this entrance is now closed.
Ripple Road
Junction with East Street in the pedestrianised shopping area
Bandstand at the crossroads.
2 Former British Gas building built for North Thames Gas. Now a sports shop. Edwardian three storey red brick building. Winged cherubs outside.
6 Police Station. Built 1910 by John Dixon Butler in red brick and Portland stone. Entrance with original lamp and railings.
Blake's ironmongers and furnishers Was big corner block at the crossing an Edwardian Baroque landmark, grandiose clock tower was destroyed by bombing.
Vicarage Field Shopping Centre. Built 1990 in pretend Victorian. This is on the site of a football ground and links through to Station Parade.
Station Parade
Barking Station. Opened 1854. It stands on a number of lines – it is between Upney and East Ham stations on the District Line, between Upminster and West Ham stations on the main line railway, it is the Terminus of the Silverlink line from Woodgrange Park station, and the Terminus of the Hammersmith and City Line from East Ham station. It was originally opened by the London Tilbury and Southend Railway and was a terminus in a country town. By 1856 trains were running to Tilbury coming from Bishopsgate and Fenchurch Street, later they went on to Pitsea and Southend. In 1894 trains could go from St.Pancras to Southend via Barking and in 1902 the District Line reached the town. The station was re built in the 1950s by John Ward of British Railways Eastern Region, and is said to be ‘an echo of the entrance to Rome station’. It has pre-cast concrete beams which form an undulating roof. The booking hall is on a bridge over the tracks.
2 Barclays Bank – a prominent corner building.
4- 8 Built early 1902. Three storey terrace.
Tanner Street
Was previously called Loxford Street. It refects tanning as a local indusrry carried on here since the middle ages - there is a reference to Odo the tanner 1232
Vicarage Drive
Offices in the old Vicarage, built in 1794 with gardens which once fronted Ripple Road. It was built with a legacy from Dr Ralph Freeman, Fellow of All Souls College and replaced an earlier house, owned by Jeremy Bentham, father of the philosopher who stayed there frequently.
Clinic NHS built in the 1930s
Wakering Road
Wigham House. Built by the Owen Luder Partnership in 1973-5
Phoenix House. Job Centre built in the late 1980s
William Street
School – Catholic School now not used.
Sources
Cinema Treasures, Web site
Clunn. The Face of London
Day. London Underground
Field. London Place Names
London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. Web site
London Wildlife. Nature Conservation in Barking and Dagenham .
Nairn. Modern Buildings
Victoria County History. Barking.,
Walford . Village London.
Loxford Water continues to flow south west towards the River Roding
The Gospel Oak to Barking Railway arrives in Barking
Barking Town Centre - or rather the northern part of the centre, missing the town hall. Somewhere here are the remains of a small Essex country town built around and to serve the all powerful abbey.
Post to the north Loxford
Post to the west Barking/Newham borders
Bamford Road
Cinema DeLuxe. Opened in 1914 and closed in 1925. The building then became a second hand furniture store and then a sausage factory. This was demolished and Council almshouses built which have also now been demolished for the ring road.
Barking
Barking was a suburb in the 1950s but in 1900 was a fishing village. It is separated from Dagenham by the River Rom and until 1858 included Ilford. The centre still retains a medieval street pattern and the town grew up around the London Road east of the Roding crossing.
Barking Park
Opened in 1898 and laid out to designs by the Council Architects, C.J. & C.F. Dawson.
Lake, created by damming Loxford Water, runs along the north side of the park.
Indoor bowls centre
War memorial for Barking men who fell in two world wars. Every Remembrance Day there is a commemorative ceremony. It is in ornamental gardens and an arboretum installed in 1922. It is in Portland stone, curved and stepped with polished granite name panels.
Horse Chestnut Avenue planted by Prince George on his visit to the park in the mid 1930s.
Miniature railway which opened in the 1950s. It had three coaches hauled and a steam locomotive named "The Empress" later replaced by a diesel called ‘Little Nan’. The railway ran from the entrance in Longbridge Road to a turntable at the lake. In 2005 it was closed but has been reopened. About halfway along the line, trains went through a gated level crossing.
Church Road
1 Britannia pub. Built in 1898 by F.W.Ashton with half-timbering, turrets and pargetting. Owned by Youngs it closed when they sold off pubs in 2009 and was bought by a local hotel. It is now the “Royal Brits Hall” and sold as a ‘wedding venue’.
New housing by Jestico & Whiles for the East Thames Group.
Model Cottages. Demolished in 1901 as unfit.
East Street
The western end of the street was once known as Bull Street
Magistrates Court. This was built as Public Offices and a Free Library. 1893-4 by C.J. Dawson, Surveyor to Barking Local Board. It is a two storey brick building with a clock turret. It became a magistrates' court in 1960, after a new town hall was built and it was sold to Essex County Council. The courthouse was moved from Broadway where a royal coat of arms, dated 1588, hung. A tower has been built at the back and reliefs of Barking Abbey and a medieval fishing smack by A. John Piwie removed.
Barking Market. The town has an ancient market right dating from 1175 but it declined in the 18th. The current market dates from 1991
1-11 Edwardian terrace of shops
2a-4a Burtons shop. Built 1931 in Art deco style with elephant head capitals. Now in other use with flats above shops13-27 Edwardian terrace of shops
34 Shop built for Marks and Spencer but now in other use. designed by Lutyens (not the famous one, his son)
41 MacDonald’s Late Victorian/Edwardian building with beehive motif on the pediment
33-35 Fawley House. Built 1822-1860 and the oldest secular building in Barking Town Centre. This was owned by the Hewlett family, prominent Barking fishermen and owners of the Short Blue Fleet. Ground floor converted into two shops
54-66 terrace of Edwardian shops
Bull pub dated to early 15th, the current building is 1925. Outside is a sculpture of a bull. There are a number of outhouses associated with it.
Central Hall Mission Methodist church. Built in 1928 with money from J.Arthur Rank. Destroyed by enemy action in 1945 and demolished. It had replaced an earlier Methodist chapel on the other side of the road. Shops on the site – although a new church was built to the rear.
Weslyan chapel which was a wooden building from 1797 and a Sunday school from 1825. In 1869 a new chapel was built. Demolished when Central Hall was built and the Capitol cinema built on the site.
Capitol Cinema opened 1929 and became an ABC in 1930. It had a Standaart organ, its own orchestra and a cafe. It closed in 1959 and demolished. The site became an extension to Marks and Spencer and has since closedWesleyan school opened in 1845. Closed around 1899
Paddocks 18th house which stood until 1910 at the junction with Ripple Road.
Bath House. A building in a complex of new residential and commercial units by builders, Redrow Regeneration for the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. Built in the site of the public baths
Barking Apprentice, hospitality and catering social enterprise
Public baths opened in 1899. Included Turkish baths and winter dinner dances. It closed in 1986 and was demolished
House of Correction. Opened in 1609. In 1790 it consisted of a 'fore-gaol' for men and a 'back-gaol' for women. There were no chimneys but there were offensive sewers. There had been only one prisoner in 1776
Rope Works Building yellow and green facade built over the library. The names refer to a local rope works – Cutmore and Shrier - on whose site it is built
Lemonade Building – R Whites Soft Drinks Factory was to the south of here. This is another block of flats.
Piano Factory. New flats on the site of what is said to be a piano factory
Fanshawe Avenue
Fanshawe was the name of a local landowning family. The roads in this area were known as Barking New Town in the late 19th
Ilford Lane
Loxford Bridge. The bridge crosses Loxford Water and dates from the mid 15th.when it was subject of dispute between the vestry and the manor.
Al Madina Mosque
Linton Road
This was once called Station Road
1 Maritime House. Slab of aggregate facing;
15 Roycraft House
2 Barking Tap and Buzz previously called the Brewery Tap. Dates from 1894. Originally formed part of Barking Brewery
26 Badawa House. Youth and childcare centre
41 Presbytery and the former school of 1862, still with its bell.
Almshouses in a 2-storied block.
Baptist Tabernacle. Strict Baptist Association bought land in Linton Road and in 1878 a day school was opened. Then in 1893, the Queen's Road Baptists built the Tabernacle and the old chapel was sold to the Peculiar People in due course. The Tabernacle is built in brick by Holliday and Greenwood, builders and later remodelled including two halls at the rear. On pediment is painted '18 BAPTIST TABERNACLE 93'. There are four foundation stones, all 1893 and art-nouveau iron gates and railings at the front. Inside is a large space with three galleries, a big open ceiling with big timber trussed on iron columns. There is balcony for preaching and below a sunken baptistery with stone steps. There are Art-Nouveau-style stained glass windows and memorial plaques. The first organ, installed in 1911, was built in 1825 for the Trinity Chapel, Mare Street, Hackney. In 1914 an institute was erected by church members using second-hand bricks.
Barking Brewery. It belonged to the Glenny family until 1930 when it was sold to Taylor Walker. It had been started in 1864 to provide beer to farmers and beginning in a farm shed.
Crown House, angular tower in reinforced concrete.
St Mary and Ethelburga Roman Catholic church. A church, dedicated to St. Ethelburga, was opened in 1858 at the back of the Red Lion. The present church was built in 1869 by John Newton of Buries, Newton & Partners.
The Lintons estate. Local authority housing including a 16 -storey slab of 1960-3 by M. Maybury, Borough Architect. The estate was an early example of using precast factory-made components by Concrete Southern Ltd. Demolished
London Road
Extended in 1937 leading to much demolition
Methodist Church. 1958-9 by George Baines. & Syborn, replacing the Central Hall, in East Street, which was bombed in 1945 and built on the back of that site
White Horse Pub
Longbridge Road
Ancient track way 1609 called Smallwood Lane
Lodge at Barking Park entrance. Typical arts and crafts park lodge house in Brick in 1912
Dome-capped gate piers to the park
22-30 Odeon Flats on the site of the Odeon Cinema. It opened as The Rio Cinema in 1935 operated by Kessex Cinemas and designed by George Coles. Facilities included a cafe and a beauty parlour. It had a stage and dressing rooms. It was taken over in 1936 by GFC (Eastern Cinemas) and then by Odeon Theatres Ltd in 1943 and re-named Odeon. In 1974 it became a three screen cinema and six screens in 1990. It closed in 1998 and was demolished in 2001.
Spotted Dog Pub. Built in 1870 .and rebuilt later. It is in red brick with and half-timbered gables.
15 buildings associated with the pub since 1870
St Thomas More Roman Catholic church built in 1935 in Red brick
Barking Arms Pub. Also called the Top Up Bar. This was previously Lloyds Bank
The Barking Dog. Wetherspoons pub. They claim the name is to do with the Barking fishing industry and the Dogger Bank
76 Heathway House.
North Street
Jolly Fisherman pub. Built 1906 on the site of an earlier building.
66-68 Red Lion public house. Built in 1899 but mentioned in 1609. Red brick first floor. Castellated top. Now flats
10 Beehive crest of Stratford Cooperative Society, of which it was formerly a branch. Dated 1900.
82-84 Plaque inscribed "St John’s Market 1894".
15-19 St Margaret’s Primary School. The school was founded in 1649 and the present building was opened in 1968. It became a two form entry school in 1994
Edward VIII Pillar box.
Park Avenue
Entrance to the park. When trains were not running on the miniature railway the level crossing gave access to the park but this entrance is now closed.
Ripple Road
Junction with East Street in the pedestrianised shopping area
Bandstand at the crossroads.
2 Former British Gas building built for North Thames Gas. Now a sports shop. Edwardian three storey red brick building. Winged cherubs outside.
6 Police Station. Built 1910 by John Dixon Butler in red brick and Portland stone. Entrance with original lamp and railings.
Blake's ironmongers and furnishers Was big corner block at the crossing an Edwardian Baroque landmark, grandiose clock tower was destroyed by bombing.
Vicarage Field Shopping Centre. Built 1990 in pretend Victorian. This is on the site of a football ground and links through to Station Parade.
Station Parade
Barking Station. Opened 1854. It stands on a number of lines – it is between Upney and East Ham stations on the District Line, between Upminster and West Ham stations on the main line railway, it is the Terminus of the Silverlink line from Woodgrange Park station, and the Terminus of the Hammersmith and City Line from East Ham station. It was originally opened by the London Tilbury and Southend Railway and was a terminus in a country town. By 1856 trains were running to Tilbury coming from Bishopsgate and Fenchurch Street, later they went on to Pitsea and Southend. In 1894 trains could go from St.Pancras to Southend via Barking and in 1902 the District Line reached the town. The station was re built in the 1950s by John Ward of British Railways Eastern Region, and is said to be ‘an echo of the entrance to Rome station’. It has pre-cast concrete beams which form an undulating roof. The booking hall is on a bridge over the tracks.
2 Barclays Bank – a prominent corner building.
4- 8 Built early 1902. Three storey terrace.
Tanner Street
Was previously called Loxford Street. It refects tanning as a local indusrry carried on here since the middle ages - there is a reference to Odo the tanner 1232
Vicarage Drive
Offices in the old Vicarage, built in 1794 with gardens which once fronted Ripple Road. It was built with a legacy from Dr Ralph Freeman, Fellow of All Souls College and replaced an earlier house, owned by Jeremy Bentham, father of the philosopher who stayed there frequently.
Clinic NHS built in the 1930s
Wakering Road
Wigham House. Built by the Owen Luder Partnership in 1973-5
Phoenix House. Job Centre built in the late 1980s
William Street
School – Catholic School now not used.
Sources
Cinema Treasures, Web site
Clunn. The Face of London
Day. London Underground
Field. London Place Names
London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. Web site
London Wildlife. Nature Conservation in Barking and Dagenham .
Nairn. Modern Buildings
Victoria County History. Barking.,
Walford . Village London.
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