By Robert Rogers

The “Settlement of the Poor” Act of 1722 (The Poor Law) empowered parishes to Build `Workhouse’s`. A workhouse was built at Abbey road, West Ham. By the end of the 18th century, 125 out of a population of just under 6000 were housed in this workhouse.  

The influx of causal labour and the poorer residents, plus the general economics caused and alarming increase in the Poor Law expenditure for West Ham. Also the effects of the industrial revolution caused farming labours to come off the land to seek employment.   These included economic migrants from both Scotland and Ireland (My family history shows that a possible great grandfather came from Ireland as a Navigator (or Navvy) to dig out the Royal Docks).

West Ham, a reasonably comfortable suburb in the 18th Century with a poor rate (form of tax) of 1/6 in the pound, was fast becoming a poor east London parish with a rate of 8/- in the pound.  In 1836 the West Ham Poor Law Union was formed.  1855 saw an enquiry in to the poor sanitary conditions in West Ham by the General Board of Health. The outcome of this was the establishment of the West Ham Local Board of Health in 1856. 

In 1859, the Revd Mr. Douglas of the Victoria Dock Mission wrote an article to the Times Newspaper at Christmas, describing the wretched state of the working people in the area. Charles Dickens coined the name “Londoners over the Border” to describe Canning Town, in an article in his journal `Household Words` in 1857. An article backed this up by Henry Morley on the state of Canning Town. Lord Bethel of Romford (1861-1945) made a speech that would not be out of place to day, when he described the conditions in `South Hallsville`, blaming the major problems on drink, poor education and the influx of people to the area to find work that did not exists. He knew what he was talking about because as John H Bethel he was a `Progressive `Councillor in both West & East Ham, and a member of the first West Ham Council after it became a Municipal Borough in 1886. (East ham became a MB in 1904).

In 1889, West Ham became the first labour Controlled Council in Great Britain, and a county Borough (East Ham became a CB in 1915).  He was the Mayor of West Ham in 1893-94 (his deputy was William J (Will) Thorn) He became a Liberal MP in 1906. West Hams first Municipal Housing was in Bethel Avenue (named after him) in 1899.

In the winter of 1894/5, there were 7000 unemployed in the area. Some of their plight was so bad that the Evening News raised a special fund to supply 2000 meals a day from two depots in the area. Again in 1904/5 the depression was so bad, caused by `Boom and Bust Policies` that the Daily News and the Daily Telegraph raised £25000 to ease the problems in West Ham. In 1905 a Distress Committee was established to provide work and assistance for the unemployed. 

In 1905 West Ham were the first Borough to introduce the Unemployed Workers Act, which allowed the Borough to set up a Distress Committee. In an act to bring to the Attention of the Council that the men of the area were not Lazy but prepared to work, a group of men lead by Councillor Ben Cunningham occupied some waste ground in St Mary's Road, Plaistow. They cleared the site and planted Vegetables in a Triangle shape, which gave it the name the `Triangle camp`. The men were know as the `Plaistow Landgrabbers`. Although the council served them with an injunction to move them off the land, they had made their Point and started a change towards the Unemployment. Jumping 102 years later, a plan for the Bakers Row, E.15 area, an area has been set aside to grow vegetables on the site of a part of the old Stratford Abbey at Abbey gardens, and the project is called `What Will the harvest Be` in respect to these men and a sign painted on the wall behind their camp which said "What will the Harvest Be?"

West Ham problems were so great that in 1907, Howarth and Wilson published a study called `West Ham-a Study of Social and Industrial Problems`. It was sadly to take the Great War (World War One) to bring employment, and then as it took the young men to fight for their country, the women of the area had to take on the men’s roles at work. Once the war ended un-employment rose again, and by 1932 out of a population of 294,278 there was 20,642 `out of work`. A lot of people joined the National Unemployed Workers Movement, and others organised local protest. In October 1932, one of these Protests in Romford Road developed into a riot.

Although Lord Bethell died in 1945 he is still remembered today in a Communal Art Project on a wall in Hermit Road Park, E.16. Bethell had purchased the land for West Ham to build a park to give a `Present view` to the people who lived in Bethell Ave.