Channelsea River - Abbey Mills
Waterworks River, City Mill River, Bow Back River, Three Mills Wall
River, Channelsea River
The Waterworks River and the City Mill River flow south east and meet to form the Bow Back River flowing south west and the Three Mills River flowing south. The Prescott Channel leaves the Three Mills River to the south east. The Channelsea River flows south into Abbey Creek
The Great Eastern Railway to Ilford runs north eastwards still coming from Bethnal Green Station
Post to the north Stratford
The Waterworks River and the City Mill River flow south east and meet to form the Bow Back River flowing south west and the Three Mills River flowing south. The Prescott Channel leaves the Three Mills River to the south east. The Channelsea River flows south into Abbey Creek
The Great Eastern Railway to Ilford runs north eastwards still coming from Bethnal Green Station
Post to the north Stratford
Post to the east West Ham Plaistow
Abbey Creek
Abbey Creek is a tidal inlet between the River Lea and the Channelsea. It is north of the Channelsea Island. It provides a wetland habitat with reed beds and mud banks with a colony of the German Hairy Snail
Long Wall Path. Path along the north bank of Abbey Creek. The path should go from Abbey Mills to Three Mills via the Prescott Channel alongside the Creek. It has been blocked for the convenience of TV companies.
The Snail. A piece of redundant turbine from the pumping station.
Channel under the Northern Outfall Sewer which used to lead to Abbey Lock Tide Gates and the Channelsea River.
Abbey Lane
This was once called Abbey Mill Road
School21 Primary School. This is a ’free’ school opened in early 2012 in new buildings. It is the Primary part of a school which includes primary and secondary pupils.
64 Royal Mail Delivery Office
Dominant Works. This was here in the 1950s, owned by W.May making selling ‘hardware’.
Dexine. Established in 1895, the firm was here in 1939. Since 1943 it has been based in Rochdale. Makers of Dexonite Super Ebonite for electrical insulation and also specialists in the manufacture of mouldings, tubes, rods and sheets for all Air Ministry requirements. They also made synthetic rubbers,
Channelsea House Business Centre
Abbey Mills. Sewage pumping complex consists of four individual pumping stations, the Group HQ buildings, stores and mechanical engineering workshops. It handles the sewage of the 52 square miles low level area of north London and all dry weather flow is pumped her via the Northern Outfall.. It also deals with the flow from two Northern Low Level sewers, the Isle of Dogs branch sewer and the West Ham diversion sewer, which all meet here. Storm Sewage from this Low Level system is lifted about Twelve metres to the Outfall Sewers which are in the embankment on the north east side of the Station. From there is flows by gravity to the Beckton Works 4 miles away. Storm over flow is pumped direct to Abbey Creek. The total Capacity of the station is 3,410,000 m/d.
Gates and gate piers to Abbey Mills Pumping Station. Built 1868 and probably by Bazalgette. Brick gate piers with wrought iron gates which have scrolled and fancy ironwork. Lodge also Built 1865 by Bazalgette for the Metropolitan Board of Works. Single storey brick building
116-130 Houses for the workmen in pairs built in 1865. They front onto Abbey Lane and the sewer's embankment. Built 1865 by Bazalgette, they are generously laid out.
Superintendent's House. This is the end house in the terrace. It is a brick house with fancy rainwater pipes and chimneys
Reservoirs marked on 1890s map behind the cottages
Station A. The main engine house at Abbey Mills. Built 1865-1868 by Bazalgette for the Metropolitan Board of Works. it originally housed eight beam Engines of a gross capacity of about 720.000 m/d with cylinders 4'6" in diameter, a stroke of 9', beams 40' long and flywheels 28' in diameter.. They and the associated sixteen Cornish boilers were built by Rothwell & Co., Bolton. They were removed in the early 1930s and replaced with eight electrically driven centrifugal pumps –‘Daleks’. The building’s design is said to show the influence of Ruskin. It is cruciform with an octagonal Lantern and domed towers. Each arm of the cross terminates in a massive porch with polychromatic decoration. Inside the crossing is supported by decorated cast iron Columns. The design has been attributed to Bazalgette himself, his chief assistant engineers - Edmond Cooper and John Grant, the Metropolitan Board of Works chief architect George Vulliamy, and Charles Driver, an architect who specialised in such projects. William Webster was the contractor. Inside is elaborate fancy iron work, including plaques with the arms of the constituent London boroughs of the Metropolitan Board of Works.
Station B. This used to be called the Diesel Engine House and was built in the early 1890s; re-engined in 1934 and 1972. It had two electric and two diesel driven pumps used For the Isle of Dogs Branch Sewer.
Station C. This was the Gas Engine House built 1910 - 1914 and until 1972 contained gas-engined centrifugal pumps, later replaced by Diesel engines. They lifted storm water to the Outfall Sewers or Abbey Creek.
Station D. built in 1970/71 for diverting West Ham flows to Abbey Mills, and used for pumping storm water only to the Abbey Creek. It had electrical pumps operated by remote control from Station A.
New Pumping Station. Shiny metal building opened in 1997 with a reinforced concrete substructure and pumps on the ground floor. The engineers were Ove Arup & Partners; architects were Allies and Morrison.
Chimneys. Two free standing chimneys were taken out at the outbreak of the Second World War. The bases remain. Built 1865 and designed by Bazalgette for the Metropolitan Board of Works in brick. They have elaborate porches with fancy capitals.
Storage building on the Abbey Mills site. Built 1865 by Bazalgette in grey brick
Gas works wall. Wall of West Ham gas works which stood in Union Road. Gate to the Transco Operational Holder Station.
Bridge over the Channelsea. Beside it was Abbey gateway and a toll bar stood here. Rebuilt 1967.
Abbey Mills Play Centre. Designed by Hawkins Brown with a steel frame and barrel roof.
Abbey Road
West Ham Abbey once covered much of this area. The site, including that of the Abbey buildings, was between the Channelsea and what is now Manor Road to the east of this square. Stratford Langthorne Abbey, or the Abbey of St Mary's, Stratford Langthorne was a Cistercian monastery founded in 1135, a daughter house of Savigny Abbey. It was one of the largest Cistercian abbeys in England with 1,500 acres of land, and 20 Essex manors. Nothing visible remains on the site, factories were built here and now the Jubilee Line depot. Recent archaeology had identified some elements of the Abbey.
Wharf and port area developed here by the Abbey and for the use of local mills. By 1920 their dock was filled in and factories built on the site. The Wharf for the Abbey Mill was just south of Abbey Lane Bridge.
Calico grounds. In 1747 marshes between Stratford and the Abbey Mill were called the ‘calico grounds’ for which in 1699 a calico printer built sluices and dams in the Channelsea River. It is thought that the first calico-printer in England was William Sherwin of West Ham, who took out a patent in 1676, and had a virtual monopoly.
West Ham Abbey Print Works. This was established about 1830 by R. & E. Littler, silk printers from Merton. Reading Littler is said to have developed a 'madder green' dye and to have given the recipe to John Tucker who had taken over the works by 1840. Archaeologists have identified a large single storey shed marked as 'Dye House'. Below the Stone Company's building was a flagged floor stained with reds, browns and blues and intersected with brick lined drainage channels. Fragments of London Stoneware pottery jars were found marked as 'West Ham Abbey' and 'Tucker'.
284 Patent Victoria Stone Company Ltd. They were on the east bank of the Channelsea. A shed built here in 1891 was later used to store paper for the Daily Mirror. The company was formed to exploit the 1860s patents of Henry Highton for the production of an artificial stone. Syenite from the Groby Quarries in Leicestershire was ground, mixed with Portland cement and cast in moulds. The resulting block was steeped in silicate of soda for ten days and it was then hard and impervious. The remains of large concrete steeping tanks have been unearthed
Stronghold Works. Saul D Harrison. The firm was founded in Great Yarmouth in 1891 and is now in Romford. They make cleaning cloths, wipes, rag merchants and makers of re-cycled cloths. Plant includes a huge rag washing machine which resembles a rotary cement kiln in its construction
Ingham Clark varnish factory which was here from 18952 to the 1930s. They had previously been founded in the City of London in 1846. They made ‘Britmore’ paint and varnish and eventually aeroplane dope and had other factories in Paris and Buffalo.
Langthorne Works. Richard Gay & Co 1900 making paint and became part of Pinchin Johnson
West Ham Sewage Pumping Station. Built by West Ham Corporation from 1897 by Lewis Angel to raise sewage to the Northern Outfall. West Ham had previously not had permission to do this and so had been pumping into Abbey Creek. The works had two Woolf compound rotative beam pumping engines built by Lilleshall and Co., 1895-1900. There are also three compound steam engines driving centrifugal pumps which have now been removed. There were nine Lancashire boilers, four hand fired and five mechanically stoked. The engines last ran in January 1972. The building is in use as a training facility and the state of the engines, etc is unknown.
Adam and Eve Road
This has now disappeared under the Jubilee Line depot. However it was originally a right-angled northwards turn of Abbey Lane, defining the site of the Abbey and leading to its lands. It was named for a pub.
Bisson Road.
West Ham Borough housing built for people displaced by Grove Bridge. 1936
Bridge Road
26 Albion Pub. Now demolished. Opened in the early 1860s.
Morwood and Rogers, tin plate works were here 1862-74. They were taken over Shinwells before 1928. Now gone
Nissen Huts used as housing after bombing. Still there in 1969
Stratford Market. The Great Eastern Railway established this fruit and vegetable market in 1879. It was connected to the main line at Stratford and had extensive sidings alongside Bridge Road. Trains were able to run right into the market shed. After the Second World War the market gradually began to use lorries and this trade continued into the 1990s particularly after 1964 when a fire at Bishopsgate meant that trade came to Stratford, including Sugar beet for Tate and Lyle. There were approximately 22 warehouses in lightweight cast and wrought iron clad in timber matchboard. South of this was the Great Eastern Railway coal yard
Bridgewater Road
The road leads to an area which is essentially an island between the Waterworks River, the sewer and the railway.
Bridge. Concrete Beam Bridge over the Waterworks River built in 1938. The Contractors were Commercial Structures Ltd. has two spans cantilevered from a support in mid-channel. The approach to it has granite setts.
Bow Paper works. Kendon Packaging Group was set up in Bow by Leslie Kendon in 1933 to sell paper and twine. The firm is now run by his sons and grandson. They take Kraft, greaseproof and tissue paper in roll and sheet form and cut it as customers need. The works was compulsorily purchased for the Olympics and Kendon have relocated to Enfield and the buildings demolished
Light Engineering Works
Acrise Freight Depot. This is now on the site of the paper and an engineering works.
Burford Road
Stratford Market Depot. Carriage sidings and depot of the Jubilee Line extension on the site of factories and of Adam and Eve Road. One of the first buildings to be completed on the Jubilee Line Extension, this was a complex providing train maintenance and stabling facilities alongside extensive office and ancillary buildings. A super shed was designed as the main train shed. This, by Wilkinson Eyre, is A 100m wide, with a 190m long arched roof to coves 11 maintenance bays.
Stratford workshops. Great Eastern Railway print works built in 1893 and enlarged in 1901. The building is in distinctive railway style of red and blue brick is in a large rectangular block. Here timetables, posters, handbills, tickets and other items were printed, with the composing room on the top floor.
Stratford South Central by Stock Woolstencroft, 2003, characteristic such early 21st development in Stratford. Five blocks of offices and flats.
Carpenters Road
Carpenters Tenant Management Centre
Channelsea
The Channelsea is culverted through this area and a public footpath runs along much of its length,
Bridge to the island from chemical works on the riverside
Channelsea Island
This is an artificial island dating from the 11th and constructed for the abbey mill. The island was given to Barking Abbey by Queen Maud in about 1110. Christ’s Hospital owned it later. Since 1996 owned by Anjuman-e-Islahul Muslim charitable trust for with plans for a mosque on the island as part of their Riverine site to the east on the former chemical works.
Abbey Mill. The earliest mill recorded here was called Wiggen Mill later called Honeredes or the Abbey Mill. This water-mill was given by Queen Maud to Barking Abbey as the endowment for Bow and Channelsea bridges. It was later bought by Stratford Abbey which had it until the Dissolution after which it was privately owned but was in the hands of Christ’s Hospital from the 1670s. The hospital sold it in 1914 to West Ham borough council and it stopped work before 1929. It stood on an island in the Channelsea River and was mainly been a corn mill but ground rape and linseed in the 18th. In the 18th the site included a smock windmill and by 1819 when the water-mill was on the east of the site, the windmill was on the west, and an engine house behind it. The complex was burnt down in the early 1860s and rebuilt in brick. In the Second World War it was again burnt down, and the site cleared in 1967
Channelsea Road
Halling Wharf – this is now housing
Pinchin Johnson, paint and varnish makers here from around 1895 and moved to Canning Town in 1920
City Mill River
City Mill or Spileman’s Mill was on the City Mill River. It was connected with Saynes Mill for most of its history. From the 13th they were administered by the City Bridge House as part of the funding for London Bridge. Spilemans Mill was held in the 13th century by John Spileman and it was a fulling mill in1304 and 1354. In 1600 it had two water-mills one of which was for Gunpowder Mill. In 1738 there was a cornmill, a fulling mill, a limekiln, a mill-house, a warehouse, and five cottages. In 1805 Part of the premises was leased by Howard & Allen while other parts were used for corn-grinding, and paper. Howards remained until 1914. After 1914 the City of London let the premises in separate lots and in 1932–3 it was demolished under the River Lee Flood Relief Scheme.
Howards and Sons, established at City Mills from 1805. The original partnership was between Luke Howard and William Allen in 1798 with a pharmacy in Lombard Street and a laboratory at Plaistow which moved to City Mills under Luke Howard and Joseph Jewell... The company developed products as the result of experimental work done by members of the Howard family by the 1830's Howard and Jewell's work on quinine was resulting in it becoming the most profitable enterprise of the company. In 1898, the firm began a move to Ilford and was purchased by Laporte in March 1961
City Mill Lock. The lock is the junction of Three Mills Wall River, Waterworks River, St Thomas’ Creek and City Mill River. It was built as part of the 1930s improvement programme with conventional mitre gates. It had two pairs of gates pointing west, so the lock could be used when the level of the water in the Waterworks River was lower than in the City Mill River, and a another pair pointing east, to stop high tides in the Waterworks River forcing the gates open, and draining City Mill River. The original gates lasted for almost seventy years, but by 2000 were thought unsafe. In 2005, it was partly restored as planning gain from the developers of Bellamy Homes. Three sets of steel gates were installed and paths and access arrangement were improved. This left the lock in good condition, but not operational. That was later funded by the money for the Olympic Games and the lock was formally reopened in 2010.
Claypole Road
Houses with plaques for a building date of 1911.
Bennet and Jenner Ltd. Chemical manufacturers in the 1930s-40s. On the site of the Royal Mail depot. Sulphur kilns are shown on 1940s maps.
Printing works 1950s
Friendship Way
Carpenters Primary School. The Carpenters’ Company maintain close links with the school
High Street
Bridges. Before changes in the 1930's the main road from London crossed the Lea and its branches at Stratford by five bridges, all of ancient origin. The High Street was a causeway between them and the bridges have been said to have been built by various mill owners. The River Lea flood relief scheme was a means of change. In the 1960s the road became a dual carriage way from Station Street to Bow Bridge where the flyover was built in 1967
Groves Bridge. Built in 1933 to replace St. Michael's, Peg's Hole and St. Thomas' Bridges. The Contractors were U & C French Ltd. and the engineers were Lionel Jenkins MA Mints C.Eng. It was named after Alderman Thomas Groves. The Mayor of West Ham when it was built by that Borough. T
Channelsea Bridge. The original Channelsea Bridge was, like Bow Bridge originally built with money from Queen Maud and Administered by Stratford Langhorne Abbey. It was built between 1100 and 1118, to carry the main road over the Channelsea River. Some of the original 1741 bridge is said to be visible below the concrete box and lower corner is medieval.
Harrow or St. Michael’s Bridge was at the Abbey Lane junction 1850s St. Michael's (or Harrow) Bridge and spanning, the eastern arms of Waterworks river. It was replaced by Groves Bridge. It was owned by the City of London as the owners of Saynes Mill. The bridge dated from at least the 14th and was in stone. It had been rebuilt in 1790, with a single stone arch. There were several works alongside it or nearby – a Harrow Bridge Ironworks, and chemical works, one of which was concerned with brewing sugars.
84 Harrow Pub. Now disappeared the pub was there from the 1820s
Harrow Bridge Wharf. In the 19th this was a lime and slate works owned by James Maw & Son.
Pegshole Bridge. This was a brick bridge which spanned the western arm of Waterworks River. . It was owned by the City of London as the owners of Saynes Mill. The bridge dated from at least the 14th but during the 19th, as the result of confusion over the ownership of Pegshole and St.Thomas's bridges, the names of those two bridges were transposed. In 1933 Sit was replaced by Groves Bridge, built in connection with the flood relief scheme
St. Thomas of Acre Bridge. Owned by the owner of St.Thomas Mill, but mistakenly swapped round for Pegshole Bridge.
Bow China Factory. The factory site is thought to have been on the north side of the street east of Cook's Road, west of Marshgate Lane and south of the Bow Back River. The Bow porcelain factory 1747-1764 was like the contemporary Chelsea works involved in the manufacture of early soft paste porcelain copying imported Chinese and Japanese and Meissen figures. The partners were Thomas Frye and Edward Heylyn probably using a factory already existing here. In 1750 Frye was manager of the factory, 'New Canton, under owners John Crowther and Weatherby. By 1758, the three hundred people were employed but by 1776 the owners were bankrupt and the health of the owners ruined by the process. The remaining assets were transferred to Derby. Fragments of porcelain were found during excavations in 1867 and further finds were in 1921 behind a row of wooden-fronted buildings known as "China Row." An inlet from the tidal Bow Back River is likely to have been used as a dock in the 17th. What may be the remains of tanners were found there and also a sawpit. Dumped material included examples of sprig moulded china wars, under glaze-blue Chinese imitations, enamelled wares, cutlery handles and of the figurines.
32-36 Central House. It is thought that part of the Bow Chinas works was on the site of this block.
37 Poth, Hille & Co Ltd. Established 1870, appear to have come to Stratford some time in the early 20th . They make a variety of waxes including beeswax, carnauba wax, ozokerite; polish waxes for boot, floor and furniture polish makers, Japan wax, Spermaceti, etc.
77-79 Factory of Bell and Black, manufacturers of wax vestas, camphorated gas and patent wire fuses 1839-1882. They had offices at Bow Lane in the City, and branches in Manchester, York and Glasgow.
119 Woodman Pub. This was a Watney’s house on site by 1870 and rebuilt in 1930. Closed in 2006 and the building is in other use.
113-135 Sugar refinery. in 1843 a factory stood on the south sie of the stret west of Three Mills river, It was occupied by Charles Saunders. In 1852 it was controlled by Law Bros and in 1853 by William Corrie. It ids thiugh this refinery gaven its name to Sugar House Lane. What is thought to have been a warehouse survives
160-170 Warton House. This was Yardley's Box Factory built in 1937. It is a straightforward ‘modern’ building by Higgins & Thomerson with a tiled facade and a curved end. The railings have 'Y' motifs; and on the west end is a tiled picture of the 'Primrose Sellers’, from Wheatley's Cries of London series, adapted by Yardley. Currently covered with scaffolding to be ‘refurbished’.
196 Green Man Pub. This was there before 1700 and closed in 2000, demolished in 2002. It once had its own distillery, but by 1937 was a Truman’s house.
Charles Deason and Co. Timber Merchants since 1851
Wilmer & Sons. Green Cast Iron Building accessories from 1874 Wilmer and Sons 1900. They took over Lea's Foundries in 1942. Closed 1963
225-227 Greengate Pub. This was a Taylor Walker house, on site by 1859. Closed in 1997 and demolished in 2010
197 Two Brewers Pub. This pub was on site before 1776 and closed, as a Charrington’s house in 1995. Since demolished.
Ashton & Green. Made cast-iron accessories for the building trade in Stratford from 1874. In around 1900 they became Wilmer and sons and in 1939 took over the neighbouring Lea Foundry Ltd.in 1942, to become Wilmer Lea Foundries in1945. They left in 1962.
306 West Ham Labour Party offices. 1930s facade with faience-clad
320 The Builder's Arms, Interwar free Tudor of 1937; pretty gutters with foliage trails and hoppers marked 'BB'
Stratford Market Station. Opened in 1847 by the Eastern Counties Railway. The name at the start was Stratford Bridge and renamed when the Great Eastern's vegetable market was opened in 1880. In 1892 it was rebuilt and resited to allow for accommodating two more freight lines and the building on the High Street dates from this time. The station was used for trains running into Fenchurch Street from the North Woolwich which did not call at Stratford Low Level. But this service was withdrawn in 1940. The statin closed in 1957. The roadside entrance building remained empty for a long time but in 1975 it was renovated for commercial use. If was again refurbished by Newham Council in 1995 with a public walkway passing through the east corner. The freight complex to the rear of the station now houses the Jubilee Line depot and the station platforms were not finally demolished until the early 1990's when the Jubilee Line was extended through the station
322 Broadway House and Jubilee House. Council Offices, 1980s. .
335-7 The Yorkshire Grey. This pub was present by 1751 and was a coaching inn. It was renamed The Log Cabin in 2000 and closed in 2005, shortly. The core of the building is 1740, with a closed-string stair. Currently being refurbished probably as a hotel.
Barsham Lonsdale. Factory in 1839 making emery cloth on a site adjacent to the south side of St.Michael’s Bridge. In 1862 the works became Stratford Emery and Glass, managed by and taken over by Charles Poupard until 1870.
Christ Church. Built 1852 to serve Stratford Marsh. Thomas Curtis contributed to the cost of the site and the building. The stone building was designed by John Johnson in 14th style with a north tower and a spire. Demolished before 1986.
Duncan House. University of East London building about to be replaced by a 33 storey blocl
Gay Road
Play Sow and Grow. Young people’s project on some of the pumping station’s grounds and using old caretaker’s house.
Hunts Lane
Hunts Animal Products. Dead dog factory. They came from Lambeth in 1860s, because of by laws on offensive trades there and began to use imported bones here. They produced tallow, meal, animal food and fertilizer manufacturers.
Jupp Road.
Public baths pre‑1930 owned by Carpenters Co. demolished.
Livingstone Road
The road has now vanished under redevelopment
Wix Co. Cigarette factory for Kensitas. Julius Wix was born in Russia in 1860 and came to London where he worked as a tobacco cutter and blender. In 1901 he set up in business in Whitechapel and various other east London address. The factory was taken over by North East London Polytechnic as Livingstone House.
Stratford Gas Works. It was opened in 1845 by the West Ham Gas company and passed in 1910 to the Gas Light and Coke Co. (The ‘Chartered Company’ based in Beckton). It became part of the North Thames Gas Board on nationalisation in 1949. In 1956 output was 1,241m cubic feet of gas. Coal from via the Great Eastern railway and the Channelsea – for many years cast iron columns remained embedded in the wall along the Channelsea River and there was a canopy over the towpath on opposite site to stop coal falling on passersby. One gasholder remains on site
Marshgate Lane
10-14 Bowden’s Glassworks. Established in Highgate in the late 18th, John Bowden Ltd, glass benders, moved to Bloomsbury in 1800. After the Second World War they took over part of Grove Glassworks, The works contained kilns used to bend large panes of window glass, which was heated and allowed to assume the shape of a mould before being annealed.
Grove Glassworks. Robinson, King and Co & British Challenge Glazing Co., glass makers of Barklay reflectors, and other scientific glassware, plate glass stockists. 1916 and later Pillar Holdings, bombed
Loose Ltd. cocoa and chocolate. 1898-1917.
T.H.Harris tallow melter. Moved here in 1873 and left in 1952 having been associated with Unilever.
Alfred Jeffery (Waterproof) Ltd. Established 1841, probably in Commercial Road, Limehouse, came here 1879. Made marine glues, resins, sealing compounds
Usher Walker Ltd. Made Printing inks and rollers and opened in Sugar House Lane in 1892. They were bombed out there in 1940 and rebuilt in Marshgate Lane. They incorporated Slater & Palmer who began in Marshgate Lane in 1882. They are now part of Sun Chemicals.
Crown Sulphur works on site for 40 years. Originally T.D. Crown it later became Johnson and Hooper until 1906.
Northern Outfall Sewer
Northern Outfall. Part of Bazalgette's main drainage scheme constructed for the Metropolitan Board of Works. Built in 1862-3, it runs in a 12 foot high earth embankment from the Wick Lane Main Drainage Depot. There is a public footpath along the top. It is made of brick barrels while plate-girder bridges, with decorative balustrades, carry the sewers in pipes over river channels, roads and railways. There is a mid-19th century cast iron plaque on the brick support of the sewer which states “ESSEX SEWERS. This erection placed on the ancient River wall by permission of the Court of Sewers subject to all their rules and orders. The owner is required always to keep the surfaces of the ground up to this STANDARD LEVEL”.
Rick Roberts Way
Main road through a regeneration area south of the High Street
Rowse Close
Stratford Wire Works. Founded as the Henry Aimno Wire Works in 1878. Became the Dupree Wire Works 1882-1926, became Stratford Wire Works, still on site.
Sugar House Lane
The road is built through the line of what was a dock reached by a short channel from the Lea. This may have been built by the Middlesex and Essex Turnpike Trust, the site owners. It was originally called Stratford Dock, and later Meggs Dock, after a local firm. It was filled in in the early 20th when it was called Mill River Wharf.
Dane & Co Ltd. began making printing inks here in 1853. The Dane Group plc occupied a group of buildings between Sugar House Lane and Three Mills Wall River. A mid-20th century building on High Street has tiled panel of a Great Dane to advertise the firm. The firm moved to Manchester where they introduced Day Glo colours, and has since been bought by an American firm
Hodson and Co. 1862-1939.thought to be the first dye works in the area. Harry Hudson & Co had works in Mitcham, The City and elsewhere. They were white lead, colour, printing ink and varnish manufacturers
Johnson and Cumber Ltd. c. 1878. Printing ink manufacturers.
M.Petrushkin Ltd. Established 1894. Came to Sugar House Lane 1956. 'Petapak Products'. Make cardboard boxes, fine paperboard containers, cartons, etc.
Streimer Road
Named after the Streimer Nougat works in Victoria Street
Royal Mail Stratford Delivery Office
Ward Road
Site of A.T.More paint manufacture 1890 until 1920s
Warton Road
Stanleys (Stratford) Ltd. 1917 'makers of oil, chemical and petroleum jelly, general merchants and shippers.' Later made waterproofing and fireproof flooring materials.
VW Co., A late 1920's firm who started with motor radiators, cylinders, wings, bonnets and exhaust boxes, and later general sheet metal work, turning, milling, machine tool designs, etc.
James Palmer candles and soap l876-1939
Kerrys (Ultrasonics), Ltd. This firm was based here in the 1962 selling the Italian Brezza motor scooter by Aermacchi
Lea Bank Works. Johnson chemical works, 1870s
Waterworks River
Saynes Mill. The name probably means 'the lord's mill', and in the 13th it was held of Richard de Montfitchet, lord of a manor in East and West Ham. It was a water-mill, in 1304. It was closely connected to Spileman's Mill, on City Mill River, and from the 13th they were part of the endowment of London Bridge, administered by the wardens of the Bridge House. In 1615 the property was a water-mill plus land and it was for many years occupied by the Slipper family, and was sometimes called Slippers Mill. In 1652, after there were two water-mills. The West Ham Waterworks Co., about 1745, proposed to set up works on land rented from John Cox the then lessee of Saynes Mill, and by 1762 the Waterworks company had bought his residue of his lease. The company rebuilt the corn-mill and had installed a pumping engine on the east side of the premises. . Water was drawn from the Lea at Saynes Mill - ‘and a fire engine throws the water out of a creek… conveyed into a reservoir to settle and a mill used later’. The Waterworks Co retained the mill until 1883 and it became known as the Waterworks Mill. In 1873–81 it was occupied by factories. And by 1893 it had been demolished.
Windmill - In 1720 Saynes Mill included a windmill and in 1744–6 and 1777 there was windmill east of Waterworks River. In 1849 it was a derelict post mill.
Wilmerlee Close
Named after WilmerLea Foundries, in the High Street until 1962
Trolley bus switch point
Wise Road
Earliest West Ham council houses by Lewis Angel, Borough Surveyor.
Sources
British History. Essex web site
British Listed Buildings web site
Carr. Docklands
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Co-partnership Herald
Dead pubs web site
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Abbey Creek
Abbey Creek is a tidal inlet between the River Lea and the Channelsea. It is north of the Channelsea Island. It provides a wetland habitat with reed beds and mud banks with a colony of the German Hairy Snail
Long Wall Path. Path along the north bank of Abbey Creek. The path should go from Abbey Mills to Three Mills via the Prescott Channel alongside the Creek. It has been blocked for the convenience of TV companies.
The Snail. A piece of redundant turbine from the pumping station.
Channel under the Northern Outfall Sewer which used to lead to Abbey Lock Tide Gates and the Channelsea River.
Abbey Lane
This was once called Abbey Mill Road
School21 Primary School. This is a ’free’ school opened in early 2012 in new buildings. It is the Primary part of a school which includes primary and secondary pupils.
64 Royal Mail Delivery Office
Dominant Works. This was here in the 1950s, owned by W.May making selling ‘hardware’.
Dexine. Established in 1895, the firm was here in 1939. Since 1943 it has been based in Rochdale. Makers of Dexonite Super Ebonite for electrical insulation and also specialists in the manufacture of mouldings, tubes, rods and sheets for all Air Ministry requirements. They also made synthetic rubbers,
Channelsea House Business Centre
Abbey Mills. Sewage pumping complex consists of four individual pumping stations, the Group HQ buildings, stores and mechanical engineering workshops. It handles the sewage of the 52 square miles low level area of north London and all dry weather flow is pumped her via the Northern Outfall.. It also deals with the flow from two Northern Low Level sewers, the Isle of Dogs branch sewer and the West Ham diversion sewer, which all meet here. Storm Sewage from this Low Level system is lifted about Twelve metres to the Outfall Sewers which are in the embankment on the north east side of the Station. From there is flows by gravity to the Beckton Works 4 miles away. Storm over flow is pumped direct to Abbey Creek. The total Capacity of the station is 3,410,000 m/d.
Gates and gate piers to Abbey Mills Pumping Station. Built 1868 and probably by Bazalgette. Brick gate piers with wrought iron gates which have scrolled and fancy ironwork. Lodge also Built 1865 by Bazalgette for the Metropolitan Board of Works. Single storey brick building
116-130 Houses for the workmen in pairs built in 1865. They front onto Abbey Lane and the sewer's embankment. Built 1865 by Bazalgette, they are generously laid out.
Superintendent's House. This is the end house in the terrace. It is a brick house with fancy rainwater pipes and chimneys
Reservoirs marked on 1890s map behind the cottages
Station A. The main engine house at Abbey Mills. Built 1865-1868 by Bazalgette for the Metropolitan Board of Works. it originally housed eight beam Engines of a gross capacity of about 720.000 m/d with cylinders 4'6" in diameter, a stroke of 9', beams 40' long and flywheels 28' in diameter.. They and the associated sixteen Cornish boilers were built by Rothwell & Co., Bolton. They were removed in the early 1930s and replaced with eight electrically driven centrifugal pumps –‘Daleks’. The building’s design is said to show the influence of Ruskin. It is cruciform with an octagonal Lantern and domed towers. Each arm of the cross terminates in a massive porch with polychromatic decoration. Inside the crossing is supported by decorated cast iron Columns. The design has been attributed to Bazalgette himself, his chief assistant engineers - Edmond Cooper and John Grant, the Metropolitan Board of Works chief architect George Vulliamy, and Charles Driver, an architect who specialised in such projects. William Webster was the contractor. Inside is elaborate fancy iron work, including plaques with the arms of the constituent London boroughs of the Metropolitan Board of Works.
Station B. This used to be called the Diesel Engine House and was built in the early 1890s; re-engined in 1934 and 1972. It had two electric and two diesel driven pumps used For the Isle of Dogs Branch Sewer.
Station C. This was the Gas Engine House built 1910 - 1914 and until 1972 contained gas-engined centrifugal pumps, later replaced by Diesel engines. They lifted storm water to the Outfall Sewers or Abbey Creek.
Station D. built in 1970/71 for diverting West Ham flows to Abbey Mills, and used for pumping storm water only to the Abbey Creek. It had electrical pumps operated by remote control from Station A.
New Pumping Station. Shiny metal building opened in 1997 with a reinforced concrete substructure and pumps on the ground floor. The engineers were Ove Arup & Partners; architects were Allies and Morrison.
Chimneys. Two free standing chimneys were taken out at the outbreak of the Second World War. The bases remain. Built 1865 and designed by Bazalgette for the Metropolitan Board of Works in brick. They have elaborate porches with fancy capitals.
Storage building on the Abbey Mills site. Built 1865 by Bazalgette in grey brick
Gas works wall. Wall of West Ham gas works which stood in Union Road. Gate to the Transco Operational Holder Station.
Bridge over the Channelsea. Beside it was Abbey gateway and a toll bar stood here. Rebuilt 1967.
Abbey Mills Play Centre. Designed by Hawkins Brown with a steel frame and barrel roof.
Abbey Road
West Ham Abbey once covered much of this area. The site, including that of the Abbey buildings, was between the Channelsea and what is now Manor Road to the east of this square. Stratford Langthorne Abbey, or the Abbey of St Mary's, Stratford Langthorne was a Cistercian monastery founded in 1135, a daughter house of Savigny Abbey. It was one of the largest Cistercian abbeys in England with 1,500 acres of land, and 20 Essex manors. Nothing visible remains on the site, factories were built here and now the Jubilee Line depot. Recent archaeology had identified some elements of the Abbey.
Wharf and port area developed here by the Abbey and for the use of local mills. By 1920 their dock was filled in and factories built on the site. The Wharf for the Abbey Mill was just south of Abbey Lane Bridge.
Calico grounds. In 1747 marshes between Stratford and the Abbey Mill were called the ‘calico grounds’ for which in 1699 a calico printer built sluices and dams in the Channelsea River. It is thought that the first calico-printer in England was William Sherwin of West Ham, who took out a patent in 1676, and had a virtual monopoly.
West Ham Abbey Print Works. This was established about 1830 by R. & E. Littler, silk printers from Merton. Reading Littler is said to have developed a 'madder green' dye and to have given the recipe to John Tucker who had taken over the works by 1840. Archaeologists have identified a large single storey shed marked as 'Dye House'. Below the Stone Company's building was a flagged floor stained with reds, browns and blues and intersected with brick lined drainage channels. Fragments of London Stoneware pottery jars were found marked as 'West Ham Abbey' and 'Tucker'.
284 Patent Victoria Stone Company Ltd. They were on the east bank of the Channelsea. A shed built here in 1891 was later used to store paper for the Daily Mirror. The company was formed to exploit the 1860s patents of Henry Highton for the production of an artificial stone. Syenite from the Groby Quarries in Leicestershire was ground, mixed with Portland cement and cast in moulds. The resulting block was steeped in silicate of soda for ten days and it was then hard and impervious. The remains of large concrete steeping tanks have been unearthed
Stronghold Works. Saul D Harrison. The firm was founded in Great Yarmouth in 1891 and is now in Romford. They make cleaning cloths, wipes, rag merchants and makers of re-cycled cloths. Plant includes a huge rag washing machine which resembles a rotary cement kiln in its construction
Ingham Clark varnish factory which was here from 18952 to the 1930s. They had previously been founded in the City of London in 1846. They made ‘Britmore’ paint and varnish and eventually aeroplane dope and had other factories in Paris and Buffalo.
Langthorne Works. Richard Gay & Co 1900 making paint and became part of Pinchin Johnson
West Ham Sewage Pumping Station. Built by West Ham Corporation from 1897 by Lewis Angel to raise sewage to the Northern Outfall. West Ham had previously not had permission to do this and so had been pumping into Abbey Creek. The works had two Woolf compound rotative beam pumping engines built by Lilleshall and Co., 1895-1900. There are also three compound steam engines driving centrifugal pumps which have now been removed. There were nine Lancashire boilers, four hand fired and five mechanically stoked. The engines last ran in January 1972. The building is in use as a training facility and the state of the engines, etc is unknown.
Adam and Eve Road
This has now disappeared under the Jubilee Line depot. However it was originally a right-angled northwards turn of Abbey Lane, defining the site of the Abbey and leading to its lands. It was named for a pub.
Bisson Road.
West Ham Borough housing built for people displaced by Grove Bridge. 1936
Bridge Road
26 Albion Pub. Now demolished. Opened in the early 1860s.
Morwood and Rogers, tin plate works were here 1862-74. They were taken over Shinwells before 1928. Now gone
Nissen Huts used as housing after bombing. Still there in 1969
Stratford Market. The Great Eastern Railway established this fruit and vegetable market in 1879. It was connected to the main line at Stratford and had extensive sidings alongside Bridge Road. Trains were able to run right into the market shed. After the Second World War the market gradually began to use lorries and this trade continued into the 1990s particularly after 1964 when a fire at Bishopsgate meant that trade came to Stratford, including Sugar beet for Tate and Lyle. There were approximately 22 warehouses in lightweight cast and wrought iron clad in timber matchboard. South of this was the Great Eastern Railway coal yard
Bridgewater Road
The road leads to an area which is essentially an island between the Waterworks River, the sewer and the railway.
Bridge. Concrete Beam Bridge over the Waterworks River built in 1938. The Contractors were Commercial Structures Ltd. has two spans cantilevered from a support in mid-channel. The approach to it has granite setts.
Bow Paper works. Kendon Packaging Group was set up in Bow by Leslie Kendon in 1933 to sell paper and twine. The firm is now run by his sons and grandson. They take Kraft, greaseproof and tissue paper in roll and sheet form and cut it as customers need. The works was compulsorily purchased for the Olympics and Kendon have relocated to Enfield and the buildings demolished
Light Engineering Works
Acrise Freight Depot. This is now on the site of the paper and an engineering works.
Burford Road
Stratford Market Depot. Carriage sidings and depot of the Jubilee Line extension on the site of factories and of Adam and Eve Road. One of the first buildings to be completed on the Jubilee Line Extension, this was a complex providing train maintenance and stabling facilities alongside extensive office and ancillary buildings. A super shed was designed as the main train shed. This, by Wilkinson Eyre, is A 100m wide, with a 190m long arched roof to coves 11 maintenance bays.
Stratford workshops. Great Eastern Railway print works built in 1893 and enlarged in 1901. The building is in distinctive railway style of red and blue brick is in a large rectangular block. Here timetables, posters, handbills, tickets and other items were printed, with the composing room on the top floor.
Stratford South Central by Stock Woolstencroft, 2003, characteristic such early 21st development in Stratford. Five blocks of offices and flats.
Carpenters Road
Carpenters Tenant Management Centre
Channelsea
The Channelsea is culverted through this area and a public footpath runs along much of its length,
Bridge to the island from chemical works on the riverside
Channelsea Island
This is an artificial island dating from the 11th and constructed for the abbey mill. The island was given to Barking Abbey by Queen Maud in about 1110. Christ’s Hospital owned it later. Since 1996 owned by Anjuman-e-Islahul Muslim charitable trust for with plans for a mosque on the island as part of their Riverine site to the east on the former chemical works.
Abbey Mill. The earliest mill recorded here was called Wiggen Mill later called Honeredes or the Abbey Mill. This water-mill was given by Queen Maud to Barking Abbey as the endowment for Bow and Channelsea bridges. It was later bought by Stratford Abbey which had it until the Dissolution after which it was privately owned but was in the hands of Christ’s Hospital from the 1670s. The hospital sold it in 1914 to West Ham borough council and it stopped work before 1929. It stood on an island in the Channelsea River and was mainly been a corn mill but ground rape and linseed in the 18th. In the 18th the site included a smock windmill and by 1819 when the water-mill was on the east of the site, the windmill was on the west, and an engine house behind it. The complex was burnt down in the early 1860s and rebuilt in brick. In the Second World War it was again burnt down, and the site cleared in 1967
Channelsea Road
Halling Wharf – this is now housing
Pinchin Johnson, paint and varnish makers here from around 1895 and moved to Canning Town in 1920
City Mill River
City Mill or Spileman’s Mill was on the City Mill River. It was connected with Saynes Mill for most of its history. From the 13th they were administered by the City Bridge House as part of the funding for London Bridge. Spilemans Mill was held in the 13th century by John Spileman and it was a fulling mill in1304 and 1354. In 1600 it had two water-mills one of which was for Gunpowder Mill. In 1738 there was a cornmill, a fulling mill, a limekiln, a mill-house, a warehouse, and five cottages. In 1805 Part of the premises was leased by Howard & Allen while other parts were used for corn-grinding, and paper. Howards remained until 1914. After 1914 the City of London let the premises in separate lots and in 1932–3 it was demolished under the River Lee Flood Relief Scheme.
Howards and Sons, established at City Mills from 1805. The original partnership was between Luke Howard and William Allen in 1798 with a pharmacy in Lombard Street and a laboratory at Plaistow which moved to City Mills under Luke Howard and Joseph Jewell... The company developed products as the result of experimental work done by members of the Howard family by the 1830's Howard and Jewell's work on quinine was resulting in it becoming the most profitable enterprise of the company. In 1898, the firm began a move to Ilford and was purchased by Laporte in March 1961
City Mill Lock. The lock is the junction of Three Mills Wall River, Waterworks River, St Thomas’ Creek and City Mill River. It was built as part of the 1930s improvement programme with conventional mitre gates. It had two pairs of gates pointing west, so the lock could be used when the level of the water in the Waterworks River was lower than in the City Mill River, and a another pair pointing east, to stop high tides in the Waterworks River forcing the gates open, and draining City Mill River. The original gates lasted for almost seventy years, but by 2000 were thought unsafe. In 2005, it was partly restored as planning gain from the developers of Bellamy Homes. Three sets of steel gates were installed and paths and access arrangement were improved. This left the lock in good condition, but not operational. That was later funded by the money for the Olympic Games and the lock was formally reopened in 2010.
Claypole Road
Houses with plaques for a building date of 1911.
Bennet and Jenner Ltd. Chemical manufacturers in the 1930s-40s. On the site of the Royal Mail depot. Sulphur kilns are shown on 1940s maps.
Printing works 1950s
Friendship Way
Carpenters Primary School. The Carpenters’ Company maintain close links with the school
High Street
Bridges. Before changes in the 1930's the main road from London crossed the Lea and its branches at Stratford by five bridges, all of ancient origin. The High Street was a causeway between them and the bridges have been said to have been built by various mill owners. The River Lea flood relief scheme was a means of change. In the 1960s the road became a dual carriage way from Station Street to Bow Bridge where the flyover was built in 1967
Groves Bridge. Built in 1933 to replace St. Michael's, Peg's Hole and St. Thomas' Bridges. The Contractors were U & C French Ltd. and the engineers were Lionel Jenkins MA Mints C.Eng. It was named after Alderman Thomas Groves. The Mayor of West Ham when it was built by that Borough. T
Channelsea Bridge. The original Channelsea Bridge was, like Bow Bridge originally built with money from Queen Maud and Administered by Stratford Langhorne Abbey. It was built between 1100 and 1118, to carry the main road over the Channelsea River. Some of the original 1741 bridge is said to be visible below the concrete box and lower corner is medieval.
Harrow or St. Michael’s Bridge was at the Abbey Lane junction 1850s St. Michael's (or Harrow) Bridge and spanning, the eastern arms of Waterworks river. It was replaced by Groves Bridge. It was owned by the City of London as the owners of Saynes Mill. The bridge dated from at least the 14th and was in stone. It had been rebuilt in 1790, with a single stone arch. There were several works alongside it or nearby – a Harrow Bridge Ironworks, and chemical works, one of which was concerned with brewing sugars.
84 Harrow Pub. Now disappeared the pub was there from the 1820s
Harrow Bridge Wharf. In the 19th this was a lime and slate works owned by James Maw & Son.
Pegshole Bridge. This was a brick bridge which spanned the western arm of Waterworks River. . It was owned by the City of London as the owners of Saynes Mill. The bridge dated from at least the 14th but during the 19th, as the result of confusion over the ownership of Pegshole and St.Thomas's bridges, the names of those two bridges were transposed. In 1933 Sit was replaced by Groves Bridge, built in connection with the flood relief scheme
St. Thomas of Acre Bridge. Owned by the owner of St.Thomas Mill, but mistakenly swapped round for Pegshole Bridge.
Bow China Factory. The factory site is thought to have been on the north side of the street east of Cook's Road, west of Marshgate Lane and south of the Bow Back River. The Bow porcelain factory 1747-1764 was like the contemporary Chelsea works involved in the manufacture of early soft paste porcelain copying imported Chinese and Japanese and Meissen figures. The partners were Thomas Frye and Edward Heylyn probably using a factory already existing here. In 1750 Frye was manager of the factory, 'New Canton, under owners John Crowther and Weatherby. By 1758, the three hundred people were employed but by 1776 the owners were bankrupt and the health of the owners ruined by the process. The remaining assets were transferred to Derby. Fragments of porcelain were found during excavations in 1867 and further finds were in 1921 behind a row of wooden-fronted buildings known as "China Row." An inlet from the tidal Bow Back River is likely to have been used as a dock in the 17th. What may be the remains of tanners were found there and also a sawpit. Dumped material included examples of sprig moulded china wars, under glaze-blue Chinese imitations, enamelled wares, cutlery handles and of the figurines.
32-36 Central House. It is thought that part of the Bow Chinas works was on the site of this block.
37 Poth, Hille & Co Ltd. Established 1870, appear to have come to Stratford some time in the early 20th . They make a variety of waxes including beeswax, carnauba wax, ozokerite; polish waxes for boot, floor and furniture polish makers, Japan wax, Spermaceti, etc.
77-79 Factory of Bell and Black, manufacturers of wax vestas, camphorated gas and patent wire fuses 1839-1882. They had offices at Bow Lane in the City, and branches in Manchester, York and Glasgow.
119 Woodman Pub. This was a Watney’s house on site by 1870 and rebuilt in 1930. Closed in 2006 and the building is in other use.
113-135 Sugar refinery. in 1843 a factory stood on the south sie of the stret west of Three Mills river, It was occupied by Charles Saunders. In 1852 it was controlled by Law Bros and in 1853 by William Corrie. It ids thiugh this refinery gaven its name to Sugar House Lane. What is thought to have been a warehouse survives
160-170 Warton House. This was Yardley's Box Factory built in 1937. It is a straightforward ‘modern’ building by Higgins & Thomerson with a tiled facade and a curved end. The railings have 'Y' motifs; and on the west end is a tiled picture of the 'Primrose Sellers’, from Wheatley's Cries of London series, adapted by Yardley. Currently covered with scaffolding to be ‘refurbished’.
196 Green Man Pub. This was there before 1700 and closed in 2000, demolished in 2002. It once had its own distillery, but by 1937 was a Truman’s house.
Charles Deason and Co. Timber Merchants since 1851
Wilmer & Sons. Green Cast Iron Building accessories from 1874 Wilmer and Sons 1900. They took over Lea's Foundries in 1942. Closed 1963
225-227 Greengate Pub. This was a Taylor Walker house, on site by 1859. Closed in 1997 and demolished in 2010
197 Two Brewers Pub. This pub was on site before 1776 and closed, as a Charrington’s house in 1995. Since demolished.
Ashton & Green. Made cast-iron accessories for the building trade in Stratford from 1874. In around 1900 they became Wilmer and sons and in 1939 took over the neighbouring Lea Foundry Ltd.in 1942, to become Wilmer Lea Foundries in1945. They left in 1962.
306 West Ham Labour Party offices. 1930s facade with faience-clad
320 The Builder's Arms, Interwar free Tudor of 1937; pretty gutters with foliage trails and hoppers marked 'BB'
Stratford Market Station. Opened in 1847 by the Eastern Counties Railway. The name at the start was Stratford Bridge and renamed when the Great Eastern's vegetable market was opened in 1880. In 1892 it was rebuilt and resited to allow for accommodating two more freight lines and the building on the High Street dates from this time. The station was used for trains running into Fenchurch Street from the North Woolwich which did not call at Stratford Low Level. But this service was withdrawn in 1940. The statin closed in 1957. The roadside entrance building remained empty for a long time but in 1975 it was renovated for commercial use. If was again refurbished by Newham Council in 1995 with a public walkway passing through the east corner. The freight complex to the rear of the station now houses the Jubilee Line depot and the station platforms were not finally demolished until the early 1990's when the Jubilee Line was extended through the station
322 Broadway House and Jubilee House. Council Offices, 1980s. .
335-7 The Yorkshire Grey. This pub was present by 1751 and was a coaching inn. It was renamed The Log Cabin in 2000 and closed in 2005, shortly. The core of the building is 1740, with a closed-string stair. Currently being refurbished probably as a hotel.
Barsham Lonsdale. Factory in 1839 making emery cloth on a site adjacent to the south side of St.Michael’s Bridge. In 1862 the works became Stratford Emery and Glass, managed by and taken over by Charles Poupard until 1870.
Christ Church. Built 1852 to serve Stratford Marsh. Thomas Curtis contributed to the cost of the site and the building. The stone building was designed by John Johnson in 14th style with a north tower and a spire. Demolished before 1986.
Duncan House. University of East London building about to be replaced by a 33 storey blocl
Gay Road
Play Sow and Grow. Young people’s project on some of the pumping station’s grounds and using old caretaker’s house.
Hunts Lane
Hunts Animal Products. Dead dog factory. They came from Lambeth in 1860s, because of by laws on offensive trades there and began to use imported bones here. They produced tallow, meal, animal food and fertilizer manufacturers.
Jupp Road.
Public baths pre‑1930 owned by Carpenters Co. demolished.
Livingstone Road
The road has now vanished under redevelopment
Wix Co. Cigarette factory for Kensitas. Julius Wix was born in Russia in 1860 and came to London where he worked as a tobacco cutter and blender. In 1901 he set up in business in Whitechapel and various other east London address. The factory was taken over by North East London Polytechnic as Livingstone House.
Stratford Gas Works. It was opened in 1845 by the West Ham Gas company and passed in 1910 to the Gas Light and Coke Co. (The ‘Chartered Company’ based in Beckton). It became part of the North Thames Gas Board on nationalisation in 1949. In 1956 output was 1,241m cubic feet of gas. Coal from via the Great Eastern railway and the Channelsea – for many years cast iron columns remained embedded in the wall along the Channelsea River and there was a canopy over the towpath on opposite site to stop coal falling on passersby. One gasholder remains on site
Marshgate Lane
10-14 Bowden’s Glassworks. Established in Highgate in the late 18th, John Bowden Ltd, glass benders, moved to Bloomsbury in 1800. After the Second World War they took over part of Grove Glassworks, The works contained kilns used to bend large panes of window glass, which was heated and allowed to assume the shape of a mould before being annealed.
Grove Glassworks. Robinson, King and Co & British Challenge Glazing Co., glass makers of Barklay reflectors, and other scientific glassware, plate glass stockists. 1916 and later Pillar Holdings, bombed
Loose Ltd. cocoa and chocolate. 1898-1917.
T.H.Harris tallow melter. Moved here in 1873 and left in 1952 having been associated with Unilever.
Alfred Jeffery (Waterproof) Ltd. Established 1841, probably in Commercial Road, Limehouse, came here 1879. Made marine glues, resins, sealing compounds
Usher Walker Ltd. Made Printing inks and rollers and opened in Sugar House Lane in 1892. They were bombed out there in 1940 and rebuilt in Marshgate Lane. They incorporated Slater & Palmer who began in Marshgate Lane in 1882. They are now part of Sun Chemicals.
Crown Sulphur works on site for 40 years. Originally T.D. Crown it later became Johnson and Hooper until 1906.
Northern Outfall Sewer
Northern Outfall. Part of Bazalgette's main drainage scheme constructed for the Metropolitan Board of Works. Built in 1862-3, it runs in a 12 foot high earth embankment from the Wick Lane Main Drainage Depot. There is a public footpath along the top. It is made of brick barrels while plate-girder bridges, with decorative balustrades, carry the sewers in pipes over river channels, roads and railways. There is a mid-19th century cast iron plaque on the brick support of the sewer which states “ESSEX SEWERS. This erection placed on the ancient River wall by permission of the Court of Sewers subject to all their rules and orders. The owner is required always to keep the surfaces of the ground up to this STANDARD LEVEL”.
Rick Roberts Way
Main road through a regeneration area south of the High Street
Rowse Close
Stratford Wire Works. Founded as the Henry Aimno Wire Works in 1878. Became the Dupree Wire Works 1882-1926, became Stratford Wire Works, still on site.
Sugar House Lane
The road is built through the line of what was a dock reached by a short channel from the Lea. This may have been built by the Middlesex and Essex Turnpike Trust, the site owners. It was originally called Stratford Dock, and later Meggs Dock, after a local firm. It was filled in in the early 20th when it was called Mill River Wharf.
Dane & Co Ltd. began making printing inks here in 1853. The Dane Group plc occupied a group of buildings between Sugar House Lane and Three Mills Wall River. A mid-20th century building on High Street has tiled panel of a Great Dane to advertise the firm. The firm moved to Manchester where they introduced Day Glo colours, and has since been bought by an American firm
Hodson and Co. 1862-1939.thought to be the first dye works in the area. Harry Hudson & Co had works in Mitcham, The City and elsewhere. They were white lead, colour, printing ink and varnish manufacturers
Johnson and Cumber Ltd. c. 1878. Printing ink manufacturers.
M.Petrushkin Ltd. Established 1894. Came to Sugar House Lane 1956. 'Petapak Products'. Make cardboard boxes, fine paperboard containers, cartons, etc.
Streimer Road
Named after the Streimer Nougat works in Victoria Street
Royal Mail Stratford Delivery Office
Ward Road
Site of A.T.More paint manufacture 1890 until 1920s
Warton Road
Stanleys (Stratford) Ltd. 1917 'makers of oil, chemical and petroleum jelly, general merchants and shippers.' Later made waterproofing and fireproof flooring materials.
VW Co., A late 1920's firm who started with motor radiators, cylinders, wings, bonnets and exhaust boxes, and later general sheet metal work, turning, milling, machine tool designs, etc.
James Palmer candles and soap l876-1939
Kerrys (Ultrasonics), Ltd. This firm was based here in the 1962 selling the Italian Brezza motor scooter by Aermacchi
Lea Bank Works. Johnson chemical works, 1870s
Waterworks River
Saynes Mill. The name probably means 'the lord's mill', and in the 13th it was held of Richard de Montfitchet, lord of a manor in East and West Ham. It was a water-mill, in 1304. It was closely connected to Spileman's Mill, on City Mill River, and from the 13th they were part of the endowment of London Bridge, administered by the wardens of the Bridge House. In 1615 the property was a water-mill plus land and it was for many years occupied by the Slipper family, and was sometimes called Slippers Mill. In 1652, after there were two water-mills. The West Ham Waterworks Co., about 1745, proposed to set up works on land rented from John Cox the then lessee of Saynes Mill, and by 1762 the Waterworks company had bought his residue of his lease. The company rebuilt the corn-mill and had installed a pumping engine on the east side of the premises. . Water was drawn from the Lea at Saynes Mill - ‘and a fire engine throws the water out of a creek… conveyed into a reservoir to settle and a mill used later’. The Waterworks Co retained the mill until 1883 and it became known as the Waterworks Mill. In 1873–81 it was occupied by factories. And by 1893 it had been demolished.
Windmill - In 1720 Saynes Mill included a windmill and in 1744–6 and 1777 there was windmill east of Waterworks River. In 1849 it was a derelict post mill.
Wilmerlee Close
Named after WilmerLea Foundries, in the High Street until 1962
Trolley bus switch point
Wise Road
Earliest West Ham council houses by Lewis Angel, Borough Surveyor.
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British History. Essex web site
British Listed Buildings web site
Carr. Docklands
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