Canning Town

Chip Chap Club

Newham Story Admin — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 23:48:19 -0800

The Canning Town Field Club, afterwards The ‘Chip Chap' Club. William Swain, William H. Smith (Hon. Sec.), Amos Herring (President), William J. Swain and Phillip Thornhill. Photographed on 13 July, 1884.

In January 1883, four working men of Canning Town who were interested in natural science, formed themselves into a private association which was given the name of ‘The Canning Town Field Club' they were Amos Herring, a man of over 50 years of age; Phillip Thornhill, aged from 25 to 30 years; William H Smith, 24 years old and William J. Swain, of middle age.

Thornhill was son-in-law to Herring. Each of the four were ordinary workmen; Herring and Thornhill lived at 33 and 26 Montesquieu Street, were boilermakers, Smith of 4 India Terrace, Ford Street was a storekeeper at the Victoria Docks, and Swain of 5 St Lukes Square, Hoy Street, was his assistant-storekeeper.

Great Aunt Ethel

Newham Story Admin — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 05:00:59 -0800

This is thought to be the wedding photo of my great aunt Ethel Nicholls to Mark Moore, the date is about 1908.

Ethel brought up my dad. She lived in Denmark Street, then at 6 Watford Road where she was bombed out in the blitz. She then stayed with my mum and dad at Collier Row until she was re-housed in a prefab in Swanscombe Street. She liked it there so much she didn't want to leave.

Ethel worked at Clarnico's sweet factory. Her most treasured possession was her amber beads and when she went out she would always wear them. I remember as a child when I went to visit her in the prefab she would make cups of tea made with condensed milk and get out the biscuit barrel. She had an iron beadstead with brass knobs. Every year, without fail, she would send me a postal order for 2/6d for my birthday. She was seriously injured in a road accident on the Barking Road.

Evacuated From Star Lane

Newham Story Admin — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 05:59:28 -0800

The photo, taken in Addington Road, shows Star Lane School where Kath Wighton was a pupil.

It is 1939, I am nine years old and living in Addington Road, Canning Town with my father John Frederick Wighton, a ships plumber working in the docks, my mother Lilian, my older brothers Johnny and Jim who are both at work and Flo my older sister who attends Pretoria Road School.

WAR is talked about; my father has dug a large hole in the garden to put in an Anderson shelter, my mother has made blackout curtains, and we have tried on our gas masks, but I am still playing out in the street with my friends, shopping with my mother and sister, and having family trips out at the weekend to Stratford, Chingford and Wanstead. GOING AWAY is talked about, and I will go with my sister, but then it is realised that she will be leaving school on her birthday in November so I will go with my own school, Star Lane.

Gandhi in Canning Town

Newham Story Admin — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 06:39:54 -0800

The photograph shows Charlie Chaplin and Gandhi at the house of Dr Katial in Beckton Road, Canning Town.

Mahatma Gandhi came to London in 1931 to attend the Round Table Conference. Gandhi spoke eloquently at the Conference, an international talking shop to discuss Indian independence, but was out-manoeuvred by representatives of the British Raj and supporters of the caste system.

He refused to stay in a West End hotel, preferring to stay among the working people, and so chose to make his home at Kingsley Hall in East London for 12 weeks. Huge crowds greeted his arrival.

Roof Tops at Canning Town

Newham Story Admin — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 10:39:56 -0800

This view is thought to be the area known as Old Canning Town, laying between the stretch of the River Lea known as Bow Creek and the railway. The gas holders in the distance could either have been at Bromley-by-Bow or Poplar Gasworks. The church would have been St Gabriel in Wellington Street, built in 1876 on the site of an earlier iron church. St Gabriel's was damaged during the Second World War and demolished about 1955.

Etching dated 1934, from the collection of Newham Heritage Services.

Spire at Holy Trinity

Newham Story Admin — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 10:36:02 -0800

The spire of Holy Trinity towered above the Barking Road at Canning Town.

The Church of The Holy Trinity originated in 1857 when the vicar of St Mary's, Plaistow and Sir Antonio Brady formed the Plaistow and Victoria Docks Mission, to serve the rapidly growing area previously called Hallsville. In 1861 Brady built a new National school in Barking Road, which was also used for worship until 1867, when the church was opened. It stood on the corner of Barking Road and Hermit Road.

The church was badly bombed during World War 2 and the ruins finally demolished in the mid 1950s. The site of the church has been grassed over but is still referred to today as Trinity Church.

Woodcut from watercolour sketch, undated. From the collection of Newham Heritage Services.

Bridges at Canning Town

Newham Story Admin — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 09:32:13 -0800

In the foreground is the Gas Bridge, looking south along Bow Creek, it was built in 1870 to carry gas and water mains across the River Lea. The abutments of this bridge are still standing.

Beyond that is the second ‘Iron Bridge' over the River Lea at Canning Town, which replaced an earlier bridge built in 1810. The second bridge was actually of steel and made at the nearby Thames Iron Works in 1896 - but the old name ‘stuck'. It was designed by Alexander Binnie, Chief Engineer to London County Council.

The Iron Bridge was demolished in 1934-5 after the new Canning Town Bridge was opened in 1932 on a new alignment north of the Gas Bridge. The new bridge was widened in the late 1990s and is now the western approach to the Canning Town flyover. The new Jubilee footbridge is built on the abutments of the old Iron Bridge.

Nanny and Grandad Watson - Hoppin'

ryanfan9135 — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 12:08:14 -0800

Every year in September all my family, nan, grandad, aunts and uncles would go to Kent hop picking. My mum would pack tea chests with pots, pans and all the other necessities for living in wooden huts with not many facilities. We would go for a few weeks and my teacher in Star Lane remembers his class being very quiet for those few weeks.

Photo: Private family collection

Launch of HMS Thunderer

Newham Story Admin — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 15:34:35 -0800

HMS Thunderer was the last ship to be built by the Thames Iron Works Shipbuilding & Engineering Company of Victoria Dock Road, Canning Town.

‘Thunderer' was launched on 1st February 1911 and at 22,500 tons was the largest ‘dreadnought' afloat, she went down river to the specially built Thunderer Jetty at Dagenham Dock to be fitted out as she was to big for the Royal Docks,

She went on to fight at the Battle of Jutland in 1916 and was armed with ten 13.5-inch guns in pairs and sixteen 4-inch guns. ‘Thunderer' remained in service after the end of the Great War and was decommissioned in 1921. She was used as a cadet training ship from 1921 until being sold for scrap on 27 December 1926.

Bill and Emma Taylor

Kathy Taylor — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 16:17:48 -0800

My grandparents, Bill and Emma Taylor with baby William, their first child.

Nan was born in Cubitt Town on the Isle of Dogs in 1886 and granddad in Greenwich in 1883. They met in the Greenwich foot tunnel and were married by special licence a few weeks later, that was in 1904 and Nan was just 17 years old.

They came to live in Hermit Road, Canning Town in 1905 where baby William was born and sadly died 15 weeks later. They had another fifteen children, one of whom also died in infancy. My mum who was the youngest was born in 1928.

Photo: Private family collection