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| Forest Gate | |
|---|---|
 Woodgrange Road, Forest Gate | |
  Forest Gate Location withinGreater London | |
| Population | 33,619 (2011 Census. Forest Gate North and South Wards)[1] |
| OS grid reference | TQ405855 |
| London borough | |
| Ceremonial county | Greater London |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | LONDON |
| Postcode district | E7 |
| Dialling code | 020 |
| Police | Metropolitan |
| Fire | London |
| Ambulance | London |
| UK Parliament | |
| London Assembly | |
| 51°33′03″N0°01′39″E / 51.550832°N 0.02737°E /51.550832; 0.02737 | |
Forest Gate is a sub-district ofWest Ham in theLondon Borough of Newham,East London, England. It is located 7 miles (11 km) northeast ofCharing Cross.
The area's name relates to its position adjacent toWanstead Flats, the southernmost part ofEpping Forest. The town was historically part of the parish (and laterborough) of West Ham in thehundred of Becontree inEssex. Since 1965, Forest Gate has been part of the London Borough of Newham, alocal government district of Greater London. The town forms the majority of theLondon E7 postcode district.
Neighbouring areas includeLeytonstone to the north,East Ham to the east,Plaistow to the south andStratford to the west.
The first known record of the name 'Forest Gate' comes from the West Ham parish registers of the late 17th century[2] and describes a gate placed across the modern Woodford Road to prevent cattle straying from the openWanstead Flats area ofEpping Forest onto the main Roman road (Romford road) linkingCamulodunum toLondinium. The gate was located close to the former Eagle & Child public house. It never was a toll gate and was demolished along with the keepers' cottage in 1881.
At the time of the gate's construction, the Forest and its mosaic of habitats (coppice woodland, common grazing and wood pasture) extended fromEpping to the Romford Road where a coppice woodland called 'Hamfrith' (meaning the woodland belonging to theHam area) Wood, which existed until around 1700,[2] formed the southernmost point.
AnAnglo-Saxon jewelled bead was found in Forest Gate in 1875 during sewer construction behind the former Princess Alice public house in the Sprowston Road area. The 'bead' is made of gold, garnet and blue glass dating to the late sixth or early seventh century with the workmanship suggesting that it belonged to a woman of wealth or high status such as a 'princess' and dates from the 6th–7th centuries (500 – 699 AD). At this timeEssex was an independent kingdom with a territory extending over Essex, Middlesex and London and half of Hertfordshire. Having been found as a single object, it is surmised that the bead was lost casually whilst travelling along the ancient Roman road (now the Romford Road) rather than as a burial object, but this is by no means certain as there is a lack of detail about how it was recovered.[citation needed] Stylistically, the piece is said to relate to similar jewellery produced inKent, which influenced designs in Essex. It is known that KingSledd of Essex marriedRicula, the sister of KingÆthelberht of Kent in about 580 AD. The piece was acquired bySir John Evans and was presented to theAshmolean Museum in Oxford bySir Arthur Evans in 1909.
The area remained rural until the 19th century. From the 18th century a number of wealthy city dwellers had large country houses in the area and many of them wereQuakers; the best known of these were the families of Gurney, Fry and Lester. As the population expanded, new churches were built in the area, such asEmmanuel (1852) and its mission churchSt Mark's (1893-1898).
In 1890 a fire at the Forest Gate Industrial School in Forest Lane, occupied by children belonging to the Whitechapel Union, killed 26 boys between the ages of 7 and 12 years old.
Forest Gate formed part of theCounty Borough of West Ham since its creation (initially as a municipal borough) in 1886. The county borough was abolished to form part of the present-day London Borough of Newham in 1965.
Local history blogE7 Now and Then details other Forest Gate history.[3] Anethnographic study of the neighbourhood by researcher Dr Joy White,Terraformed: Young Black Lives in the Inner City, was published in 2020 byRepeater Books.[4][5]
Newham has the second highest percentage ofMuslims in Britain at 24.3% and Forest Gate reflects this with 23.4% stating their religion asIslam in the 2001 census. Many have theirroots in Bangladesh andPakistan and most follow theSunni Deobandi or theSalafi tradition.
The Woodgrange EstateConservation Area is a residential area with predominantly double-frontedVictorian three and four bedroomed houses built between 1887 and 1892 by developer Thomas Corbett and sons who went on to oversee the construction of more than 1,100 houses to exploit the transport links provided by one of the first Essex lines, opened byEastern Counties Railway in 1839, running through Forest Gate in 1840. Corbett paid £40,000 (equivalent to £4,800,000 in 2023) for land associated with Woodgrange Farm, Essex, in 1877, which was formerly used as a market garden serving London.[citation needed] The Woodgrange Estate consists of four roads from north to south: Hampton Road; Osborne Road; Claremont Road and Windsor Road, all of which link to Woodgrange Road to the west.
There are blocks of council flats at the western end of Claremont and Windsor roads built on the site of houses damaged during bombing inWorld War II. Nearby Godwin Junior School in Forest Gate recently[when?] picked up aBritish Council International School Award, while theOfsted Outstanding-ratedForest Gate Community School remains one of the best in the country, by measure of Progress 8 scores.[citation needed] To the north of the railway running through Forest Gate is the "village" with terraced streets named for theOxford Martyrs (Latimer, Ridley and Cranmer) running up to the open spaces ofWanstead Flats.
Forest Gate also housesWest Ham Park, providing a place for sports to be played and to the north Forest Gate bordersWanstead Flats, which has numerous football pitches and areas set aside for bio-diversity and walking.
Among the many teams playing on the flats is Sunday League football teamSenrab F.C. Based in Forest Gate, Senrab operates fifteen teams for age groups ranging from 5 to 17 years old and has produced several players who have gone on to successful professional careers, including:John Terry (who gave an undisclosed sum to keep the club running in April 2011),Sol Campbell,Jermain Defoe,Ledley King,Bobby Zamora andPaul Konchesky. Several professional coaches also started out at Senrab, most notablyDario Gradi,Ray Wilkins andAlan Curbishley.
Pubs include theSpotted Dog at 212 Upton Lane.
Forest Gate railway station is in London fare zone 3 on theGreat Eastern Main Line and was first opened in 1840, a year after the line was built, but closed in 1843, before re-opening after pressure from local residents on 31 May 1846. The station is now on theElizabeth Line, with services westbound toPaddington and eastbound toShenfield. Other stations in the area includeWanstead Park railway station, which is on theSuffragette Line in Zone 3.
Forest Gate is on theLondon Buses network, served by routes:25, 58, 86, 325, 330, 308 and 425. Night busN25 andN86 run overnight through Forest Gate.[6]
Forest Gate has various associations with music and acting: it was for many years the home of theTonic Sol-fa College ofJohn Curwen, which taught large numbers of people to play music without learning conventional notation and theForest Gate School of Music. In December 1966Jimi Hendrix wrotePurple Haze in the Upper Cut Club, owned by Douglas Bayle and George and Billy Walker, it had been opened by The Who, and had The Small Faces as the house band, for a while. It later became the Ace of Clubs in Woodgrange Road.[7]De Underground Records, the seminaljungle/drum and bass record shop and studio was located in Sebert Road, Forest Gate, from 1991 to 1996.[8] TheNewham Generals (D Double E & Footsie) are also from Forest Gate, and the video for their song 'Frontline' was filmed atForest Gate railway station. Ben Drew akaPlan B grew up in Forest Gate and lived in Hampton Road on the Woodgrange Estate.[9]Depeche Mode started recording in John Bassett's studio on Sebert Road.[10] The firstRock Against Racism concert was held at the Princess Alice pub at the junction ofRomford Road and Woodgrange Road in 1976.[11][12]
Damnably Records began in Forest Gate on Salisbury Road and many of its bands includingShonen Knife,Geoff Farina,Chris Brokaw,Wussy stayed or visited there while on tour andKath Bloom played a house concert there in 2011. Also based in the same E7 cul de sac that Damnably Records once called home are Vacilando '68 Recordings (previously operating as The Orchestra Pit Recording Co.) who have released vinyl records by international artists such as Howe Gelb, Orkesta Mendoza,Marianne Dissard and Naim Amor, as well as having a heavy involvement in the Medway music scene through the likes of The Singing Loins, Theatre Royal and Stuart Turner and the Flat Earth Society. Damnably and Vacilando '68 have teamed up numerous times to promote live shows including at the now defunct Moka East based in the Olympic Park, Stratford.
Forest Gate is home tonon-league football clubClapton CFC., who completed the purchase of London's oldest senior football groundThe Old Spotted Dog Ground in 2020.[13] The area is also home to well-known Sunday league sideSenrab F.C.
Former managers ofWest Ham United Football Club associated with Forest Gate includeAlan Curbishley andTed Fenton. Other footballers from the area include England internationalKen Brown, Republic of Ireland internationalChris Hughton,Simon Royce,Jason Lee,Linvoy Primus,Bondz N'Gala andJay-Emmanuel Thomas.
JJ Jegede, the long jumper, was born and raised in Forest Gate and won the silver medal at the 2011 UK Championships and gold at 2012 UK Indoor Championships.[14]
Mark Hunter was born and raised in Forest Gate and won the gold medal in the lightweight double scull at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and gold medals in the lightweight double scull at 2010 and 2011 World Championships.[15]
Other sportsmen and women connected with Forest Gate include heavyweight boxing championsBilly Wells[16] andLennox Lewis, 7 times world karate championMolly Samuel, cricketerRavi Bopara, sprinterDamien Greaves, Olympic fencerLinda Strachan, and Olympic and Commonwealth Games athleteJean Desforges.
Anna Neagle was born in the area in 1905, and has a road named after her off Dames Road. Other actors born in Forest Gate includeDavid Farrar,Malcolm McFee,Billy Murray,Terrence Hardiman andChiwetel Ejiofor.
Other actors associated with the area includeThe Wire starIdris Elba, andEastenders'Ricky Norwood.[17]
Jimi Hendrix is reputed to have composed "Purple Haze" in the Upper Cut Club in Woodgrange Road.[18] Musicians from Forest Gate include biographer, composer and pianistNorman Charles Suckling,John Ashton,Kele Le Roc and heavy metal vocalistSarah Jezebel Deva.Ronnie Lane of theSmall Faces was born inPlaistow but spent his childhood and early adulthood in Forest Gate, living at 385 Romford Road.[19] Roy Carter, a rhythm guitarist with 70s hit funk bandHeatwave, was raised in Forest Gate.
Some British hip hop artists are associated with the area includingD Double E andTempa T. Top-sellingGrime artist and rapperPlan B, has a song "Raking the Dead" which refers to a friend who discovered a body on Wanstead Flats.
Artists from Forest Gate includeBetsy Schneider,John Bowstead,Walter Westley Russell andBarry Windsor-Smith. WriterMary Renault was born in the area.
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