please empty your brain below
Nice to know I live in a Victorian treasure!

Paul Draper | 06.05.17 - 7:29 a.m. | #

East Shopping Centre is built out of the shell of the old Forest Gate tram depot. Converted about 10 years ago, after decades of decay.

scrumpy | 06.05.17 - 7:59 a.m. | #

It's actually Jilbabs. A type of clothing.

dg writes: Consonant switched, thanks.

Debster | 06.05.17 - 8:10 a.m. | #

Kennard /Street/ not Kennard Road down in Silvertown.

dg writes: Fixed, thanks.

Henry | 06.05.17 - 8:42 a.m. | #

I have a friend who lives in the East Ham side of Newham, and spent an evening winding her up by calling it either New Ham, or 'East'um' or 'West'um', pointing out that as Newham was named after the two, surely one of those sets of pronunciations should be correct.

RG | 06.05.17 - 9:38 a.m. | #

scrumpy | 06.05.17 - 7:59 a.m

Not quite scrumpy. It wasn't a tram depot it was Forest Gate Bus Garage closed on 26th April 1960 and been unused ever since until the shopping mall took over.

Agent Z | 06.05.17 - 10:21 a.m. | #

Still on the subject of bus depots, just off Green Street is where the old Upton Park depot used to be, whilst the wasteland next to Newham Council offices is I presume the same bit of land that housed one of the temporary bus depots for the Olympics. I can't remember now if it was Athletes or Media, I think the former. (I can't open the map to check if it is the same bit of wasteland, but the depot was accessed from Beckton Park DLR and was huge)

Al | 06.05.17 - 10:50 a.m. | #

@Al It was the depot for the athletes and officials between sites such as ExCel and Stratford. There were also 2 Fred Olsen cruise ships docked on the north wall for the drivers and other support staff during the games.

scrumpy | 06.05.17 - 11:00 a.m. | #

To make sense of RG's comment, I had to deduce that Newham is pronounced New'um. Wikipedia confirms this, and it is presumably no surprise to the majority of readers.

Which makes me wonder how many other place names I am mispronouncing (in my head, at least). I was taught in childhood to say Lester, Cister and Wooster (though the middle one now seems to be out of line with most if not all local people). But of course, Newham had not been created in those long-ago times.

Malcolm | 06.05.17 - 1:03 p.m. | #

I don't think Green Street is in yer actual East End (if that's what you meant), which finished at the River Lea.

Running_Correspondent | 06.05.17 - 1:20 p.m. | #

The fiveways junction in Upton Park by the '66' statue is with Barking Road not Romford Road.

dg writes: fixed, thanks.

born in Barking | 06.05.17 - 2:42 p.m. | #

This, this is why I've never written a book

diamond geezer | Homepage | 06.05.17 - 3:17 p.m. | #

As it has been puzzling me all day, what is the item in dg's photograph of Beckton Park that looks like a wind powered water pump?
It is in the middle of his picture and you can see the supports and what looks like rotating fan blades on the top.

John | 06.05.17 - 4:24 p.m. | #

The East Shopping Centre is more recent, the original plans fell through, Streetview shows a 'screen' covering the front in 2008 with 'Emerald Shopping Centre', the next view in 2011 shows the site still derelict, with bits of torn screen, 2012 its all tidily boarded up, 2014 work has actually started, June 2015 its open, unlike 'Emerald Shopping Centre' the original front has been retained.

Still anon | 06.05.17 - 6:48 p.m. | #

Malcolm: "I had to deduce that Newham is pronounced New'um."

When I lived in Newham about 10 years ago, the automated message when you called Newham council services switchboard said (annoyingly) "Thank you for calling New...HAM council."

Wonder if it still does?

langdon | 06.05.17 - 6:52 p.m. | #

logically I think New Ham is the more suitable pronunciation, i.e. East Ham plus West Ham equals New Ham ... did Newham as a name exist before the new borough, or was it invented for it?

Caz | 06.05.17 - 9:28 p.m. | #

According to Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Borough_of_Newham):

"the name [Newham] being a portmanteau word reflecting its creation while combining the compass points of the old borough names."

Wonderful if true.

Dan | 07.05.17 - 1:16 a.m. | #

"This, this is why I've never written a book."
But how lucky you are to have a veritable army of proof-readers all working for nothing.

Great Aunt Annie | 07.05.17 - 7:23 a.m. | #

My Mum wa brought up in Crescent Road, when it ran from Plashet Grove to Green Street, before the old houses were demolished and the residents were rehoused, some in new towns and some in blocks of flats in the East Ham area. My Nanna moved to a block of flats in Katherine Road. I have wonderful memories of being sent to the Jewish (I think) bakery in Plashet Grove to collect the most amazing crusty rolls for everyone for breakfast. Seems like a long time ago!

Christine Scantlebury | 07.05.17 - 10:48 a.m. | #

Not immediately obvious as you cross over the Boleyn but perhaps worthy of note is the fact that the door numberings on Barking Road reset from 751 to 1 as the road changes from the old West to East borough areas. This continues to cause confusion to the logistics and delivery sectors a century on.

Nico | 07.05.17 - 5:27 p.m. | #

I knew we'd get you down to the docks at some point - just a small step now to pop you into a boat for a bit of a row :)

Moogal | 08.05.17 - 7:43 p.m. | #

Nico: You shared an interesting fact. I used to live on Barking Road and always had people travelling to East Ham instead of Plaistow. I always wondered why there were 2 numbers so thanks. This makes me feel they should name the roads: Barking Road West and Barking Road East.

Interesting that Boleyn Ground was located in East Ham but club is called West Ham. But it works now as they are technically in the West Ham borough.

| 10.05.17 - 7:41 p.m. | #

But West Ham were founded by iron workers at the shipyard in Canning Town which was in the borough of West Ham.

Paul Draper | 11.05.17 - 8:49 a.m. | #











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