Great Eastern Railway to Ilford Globe Town

Great Eastern Railway Line to Ilford
The railway to Ilford running from Bethnal Green Station goes north eastwards

Post to the west Bethnal Green
Post to the east Mile End

Bancroft Road
The road was built to access the Mile End Workhouse from Mile End Road.
238 The Carlton Arms Pub. This dates from at least the 1850s.
Devonshire Road Goods yard. This was near to Globe Road station at ground level built in 1880. It was accessed by a ramp from the main line above and it was worked by small GER locomotives.  An entrance with a sign faced onto Bancroft Road. The yard was on both sides of the line with coal drops on the south side. It closed in 1967
Jewish Burial Ground. The abandoned cemetery of long closed Maiden Lane synagogue in Covent Garden. The Maiden Lane Synagogue was the result of disputes in the 19th. This break away congregation bought its own cemetery at Globe Fields and the first burial was in 1811.  By 1884 it was in disrepair and by 1895 filled up.  Then Henry Harris donated land in Edmonton for a grave yard this to community and Bancroft Road. Maiden Lane's declining membership brought on a financial crisis, and by 1907 they were bankrupt and terms were agreed with the Westminster Synagogue for a takeover. Bancroft road cemetery was bombed during World War Two and little now remains. Following publicity about the state of this cemetery a group has been formed and work to tidy and restore it is taking place.
Mile End Workhouse. In 1857 Mile End Old Town became a separate Poor Law 'Hamlet'. A new workhouse, was built in 1858-9 adjacent to the Jews' burial ground. The first stone was laid in 1858 and the building was designed by William Dobson and constructed Messrs. Ayers of Dover. It had an entrance block facing onto Bancroft Road with board-room and offices; casual wards with a stone-breaking yard, accommodation wards, dining room, chapel, infirmary, an imbeciles' block and a school block with its own laundry, playgrounds, and sheds. In the 1920s it became Mile End Hospital.
275 Mile End Hospital. In 1858-9 a new workhouse and infirmary for 500 inmates was built to the north of Mile End Road.  The Mile End Old Town Infirmary for the workhouse opened in 1883 on the site of the old infirmary and imbecile wards.   A Nurses Training School was established in 1892.   During the Great War WW1 the Infirmary became a military hospital.  In 1930, it came under the London County Council and was renamed Mile End Hospital.  It joined the NHS in 1948.   In 1968 the London Hospital took over the management and it became the London Hospital (Mile End). It is now a community hospital caring mainly for elderly patients.  A Centre for Mental Health opened here in 2007.
Crown Works. Mineral Water factory. This was Stower’s Lime Juice Cordial works owned by Alexander Riddle & Co. Stowers had begun in Commercial Street as British Wine & Pickle makers and were taken over by Riddle in 1880. They moved, Bancroft Road in 1912 and stayed there until 1960
Crown Works. In the 19th this was the works of Henry Roberts and Co. manufacturers of brewery plant and equipment.

Longnor Road
Entrance to hospital car parks
Entrance to complex of University Halls of Residence.


Meath Crescent
New housing on the site of the goods yard.
Boundary mark stone which says “St. M. M. E. B. G. M. E. O. T. 1885 1885”. This appears to mark the boundary between St. Matthews Mile End, Bethnal Green and Mile End Old Town
Devonshire Road Goods yard.  The yard was on both sides of the line with an entrance in Bancroft Road on the south. The north side is said to be the original section and which handled perishable goods. In the 1870s an incline was built north of the line which served street level sidings and which connected to the south by lines under the viaduct. From 1922 it was called Mile End and Devonshire Street depot and from 1939 it was Mile End only.


Meath Gardens 
This was originally Victoria Park Cemetery.  This was notorious for the scandalous conditions when it was a neglected private cemetery. The site was bought for building purposes in 1840 by the MP of Tower Hamlets, Butler who gave the land but it was not paid for and meanwhile burials had taken place and a chapel had been built.  The cemetery was never consecrated and closed in 1876 contain some 300,000 bodies and was described as 'gruesome state' by Lt. Col J J Sexby of the London County Council Parks Department.   Butler’s son agreed with the Metropolitan Gardens Association that the land should be used for a park and but this could not happen for legal reasons until the London Council had been formed. After fund raising and donations work began under the Association’s landscape gardener, Fanny Wilkinson, using unemployed labour.  It took a year to complete. It was called Meath Gardens after the Earl of Meath, who was the Chairman of the Association and it was opened in 1894 by the Duke of York with gardens and children’s playgrounds’. Management was by the London County Council. A playground was added in 1990, and beyond the boundary are the Prospect Allotments. A tree was donated by Hillier Nurseries Ltd to the Aboriginal Cricket Association in 1988, and a plaque is inscribed ‘'In memory of King Cole, Aboriginal cricketer, who died on the 24th June 1868. Your Aboriginal dreamtime home. Wish you peace'.
A Gothic arch with plain initials 'VPC' and date 1845. This was the former entrance to the cemetery and may be by Thomas Ashpitel, who designed the now demolished mortuary and chapel.


Morpeth Street
Morpeth Secondary School has nearly 1,200 pupils who students come from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds. It specialises in the Arts and Music.  A Central, Secondary school, Morpeth Street, was opened in 1910 for the School Board for London.  The school was by T.J. Bailey, roughcast rendering and chequer-pattern tiles. It followed the pattern for central schools of a hall flanked by pavilion wings and single-storey rear classroom block. The entrances have Art Nouveau details and inside, are staircases with bow-fronted balustrades with heart-shaped motifs. There was cupola with a weathervane of swallows in flight. After the Second World War it provided general, technical, and commercial courses and an enlarged site included the ormer Portman Place School. They also took over the old John Scurr School in Wessex Street as an annexe. A new block with containing workshops, gymnasium, library and hall was added in 1974. An extension was added in 1997 by Norman & Dawbarn. And in 2001 a library by the same firm. A new Performing Arts building was opened in 2007 by the British film director and producer (and former Morpeth parent), Danny Boyle.
Portman Place School. This was opened by the School Board for London in 1878. And a new block added in 1896, with drawing room, laboratory, cookery and manual training centres, and a special school. This was designed by T.J. Bailey, with a tall, pyramidal roof to a stair tower. It closed in 1947/51 and the site was taken into Morpeth Secondary School.


Palmers Road
The canal area alongside which the road runs is currently being developed for housing
Palmers Wharf.  This was the name of the site from the 1890s when it was owned by the London Oil Storage Company They dated from 1885 and were an early company developing tank farms, in riverside and other locations.  The wharf it was heavily bombed in the Second World War.  Structures were later replaced by canal side wharves with cranes and an overhead canopy over the canal. The wharf is said to have largely dealt in timber. Latterly as Suttons Wharf it has been occupied by Suttons International specialising in exhibition display and other items.
Victoria Works Palmers Wharf. Making oil and candles 1869-1946. By the 1940s they were also making furniture.
Steelux Holdings Ltd. This company was making future on the site in the 1980s.  It has also been used by Stringer Limited, now based in Greenwich, who make office and retail furniture and display items.


Roman Road
Globe Town Market. Traditional market in a 1950s built shopping precinct.
170 Angel and Crown. This pub dates from at least the early 19th but was rebuilt in 1951.


Smart Street
Meath Gardens Childrens Centre


Walter Street
Chemical Works 

Sources
Aldous. London Villages 
Bethnal Green Free Art and History. Web site
British History Online. Bethnal Green 
British Listed Buildings. Web site
Cinema Treasures. Web site
City and East London Beer Guide
Closed Pubs. Web site
Clunn. The Face of London
Connor. Liverpool Street to Ilford
East London History Society Review
GLIAS Newsletter
London Encyclopaedia
London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Web site
London Gardens Online. Web site.
Lost Hospitals of London. Web site
Lost Pubs Project. Web site
Lucas, London
Mementos of Tower Hamlets. Web site
Morpeth School. Web site
Morpeth School. Wikipedia. Web site.
Workhouses. Web site

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