Picture of the month
Mystery Wartime Evacuees
29/01/12 05:19
Seeking information on war time evacuees to Weston Super Mare in the 1940s.
During the War Group Captain and Mrs McCRAE had three evacuees from, we think, the East End of London.
The boy in the picture was called Harold HORSLEY now sadly deceased.
We know the two girls in the photograph were not Harold's sisters.
The photograph is currently in possession of the granddaughter of Captain & Mrs. McCrae.
If you can identify the girls in the picture please contact the webmaster here
Picture of the Month
14/09/11 23:09
Image courtesy of Tower Hamlets Archives
St Andrew’s Hospital, Devons Road, Bromley-by-Bow, c1934
Originally known as the Poplar and Stepney Sick Asylum, this building was opened in 1871 and served the districts of Poplar, Bromley, Bow, Limehouse, Wapping, Shadwell and Ratcliff.
It was one of the first and largest workhouse infirmaries built under the Metropolitan Poor Act of 1867. It was renamed St Andrew’s Hospital in 1925.
The hospital has now been demolished and is being replaced by a large housing scheme called St Andrews.
Picture of the Month
15/07/11 04:54
© Image courtesy of the Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives
This photograph by Poplar photographer William Whiffin shows a Truman’s brewery dray outside the building which was erected in 1927-8 but there had been a tavern here called the White Horse since 1690 or earlier.
The pub’s claim to fame was that in the mid-eighteenth century the licensee was a woman, Mary East (1715-1780), who lived as a man called James Howes and lived “as man and wife” with a woman friend.
The pub was pulled down a few years ago to make way for a housing development. However the remarkable inn sign in the form of a horse made from lead on a post thought to date from the early to mid eighteenth century survives.
Pictures of the Month
20/06/11 03:50
The (future) King's Speech
Image courtesy of Tower Hamlets Idea Store
This picture shows HRH The Duke of York (later King George VI) at the opening of York Hall (named after him) in Bethnal Green in November 1929.
The new Public Baths and Washhouses in Old Ford Road cost about £125,000 and were among the best-equipped and most up-to-date in the country.
The Duke concluded his speech by saying, “We shall always retain very happy memories of our visit here today. We hope we may on some future occasion be able to come here and see you again”.
His subsequent visits to the East End as King George VI were as morale-boosting exercises during World War II.
In the centre of the picture is the Mayor of Bethnal Green, Councillor Wesley Clark Chandler J.P., and to his left the Duchess of York, later Queen Elizabeth.
© Image courtesy of Tower Hamlets Idea Store
Mile End Road showing the Peoples' Palace and St. Benet's church, c 1904.
The only structure still standing from this postcard view, partially hidden by trees, is the clock tower of the People’s Palace, now Queen Mary University of London.
The rather grand middle-class housing known as St Helen’s Terrace, dating from the late 1860s was demolished in the 1930s to make way for the new People’s Palace.
On the right is St Benet’s church, built in 1871-2, to the designs of Ewan Christian in the 13th century style. The church was badly damaged by enemy action in August 1940.
Deemed unnecessary under post-war reorganisation, it was demolished in 1950. The college chapel occupies part of its site.
Image courtesy of Tower Hamlets Idea Store
This picture shows HRH The Duke of York (later King George VI) at the opening of York Hall (named after him) in Bethnal Green in November 1929.
The new Public Baths and Washhouses in Old Ford Road cost about £125,000 and were among the best-equipped and most up-to-date in the country.
The Duke concluded his speech by saying, “We shall always retain very happy memories of our visit here today. We hope we may on some future occasion be able to come here and see you again”.
His subsequent visits to the East End as King George VI were as morale-boosting exercises during World War II.
In the centre of the picture is the Mayor of Bethnal Green, Councillor Wesley Clark Chandler J.P., and to his left the Duchess of York, later Queen Elizabeth.
© Image courtesy of Tower Hamlets Idea Store
Mile End Road showing the Peoples' Palace and St. Benet's church, c 1904.
The only structure still standing from this postcard view, partially hidden by trees, is the clock tower of the People’s Palace, now Queen Mary University of London.
The rather grand middle-class housing known as St Helen’s Terrace, dating from the late 1860s was demolished in the 1930s to make way for the new People’s Palace.
On the right is St Benet’s church, built in 1871-2, to the designs of Ewan Christian in the 13th century style. The church was badly damaged by enemy action in August 1940.
Deemed unnecessary under post-war reorganisation, it was demolished in 1950. The college chapel occupies part of its site.
Picture of the Month
13/09/10 16:44
Although there had been sporadic raids prior to this, it was the first time that the capital, and in particular, the East End experienced the intensity of a massed air attack.
The picture shows the damage inflicted on the church of St Matthew, Bethnal Green. The church, which was built in 1743-6, had already witnessed partial destruction in the middle of the nineteenth century following a fire in 1859.
The west end of the church was repaired in 1955 and the rest reconstructed in 1958-1961.
Image courtesy of the Tower Hamlets Idea Store
Picture of the month
23/07/10 08:00
East India Dock Road 1904 courtesy of Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives
East India Dock Road was laid out in 1806-1812 as a “branch” of the Commercial Road (made between 1802 and 1804) to give traffic from the newly completed East India Docks a straight run to London, bypassing Poplar High Street. A forest of masts in the docks can be seen in the distance.
The picture is dominated by the United Methodist Free Church, built 1866-8 in a “modern Italian” style to accommodate 1,500 people. In 1919 it was taken over by the nearby Poplar Methodist Mission and renamed King George’s Hall and was used as a men’s club, Sunday school and concert hall. It was badly damaged in the Second World War.
In the distance can be seen Poplar Railway station (the site of the present All Saints DLR station). This was built for the North London Railway in 1865-6 to replace the former station in Poplar High Street.
Picture of the month
30/06/10 10:00
Angel Lane, Stratford, 1959.
The white covered portico in the middle of the photograph is the entrance to the Theatre Royal. The poster outside the theatre advertises the Joan Littlewood production of the musical "Make Me An Offer" which opened at the Theatre Royal in October 1959.
Picture of the month
04/05/10 17:20
It shows an intriguing mix of motorised and horse-drawn traffic.
The left half of the picture is dominated by eighteenth- century buildings with shop fronts, destroyed by enemy action in the Second World War.
Behind the lorry laden with timber, at the corner of Leman Street is the Eastern Dispensary built in 1858, now a public house.
The Dispensary had been founded in 1782 to provide free medical and surgical relief to the poor.
Beyond this building are silhouetted the chimneys of the former St George’s German Lutheran School.
Image courtesy of TOWER HAMLETS LOCAL HISTORY LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES
Picture of the month
02/03/10 18:59
This picture shows some typical weavers cottages which at one time were very prevalent in Bethnal Green. They are typified by the larger-than-normal windows on the first floor to illuminate the room where the weaving took
place.
Crossland Square was just south of Derbyshire Street. The houses had just been compulsorily purchased by the London County Council as part of the process of creating the appropriately named open space – Weavers Fields.
© Courtesy of Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives www.ideastore.co.uk