UPTON PARK

The pretty rural hamlet of Upton is a little more than a mile northeast of West Ham church, towards the Romford road, along which extends Upton Place, the northern end of the hamlet. Upton Manor House is a good red-brick Jacobean mansion, recently restored. More widely known was Ham House and Park, lying between Ham Lane and Upton Lane. Ham House was for many years, and till his death, the residence of Samuel Gurney, and the centre of the great philanthropic measures in which he and Mrs. Fry (who lived in a house in Upton Lane close by) were the prime movers. The house, which was only interesting from its associations and the many eminent persons, foreign as well as native, who visited it during Mr. Gurney's life, was taken down some few years after his decease, and an offer was made to purchase the park for building on. Happily it was proposed to secure it as a public park for the crowded poor of West Ham. Mr. John Gurney met the proposal by offering it at the sum the building society had bid for it, £25,000 -towards which the Gurney family would contribute £10,000. Local efforts could only raise £5000, when the Corporation of the City of London generously voted the other £10,000, and undertook to keep the park in order. It was accordingly purchased, vested in the Corporation, and formally opened for public use by the Lord Mayor, on the 20th of July, 1874.

[Handbook to The Environs of London : James Thorne 1876]

Church Records:

• St. Alban, Wakefield St
  Baptisms and Marriages 1903-1967 : ERO
• St. Peter, Upton Lane
  Baptisms 1884-1971,
  Marriages 1894-1971 : ERO
• St. Stephen, Green St
  Baptisms 1882-1953,
  Marriages 1888-1953 : ERO
• Our Lady of Compassion (Roman Catholic), Green St
  Baptisms 1901- date,
  Marriages 1902- date : Not deposited
• Primitive Methodist Chapel, Plashet Grove
  Marriages 1913-1932 : ERO
• Primitive Methodist Circuit
  Baptisms 1887-1923 : ERO
• Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, Green St
  Baptisms 1883-1970,
  Marriages 1899-1965 : ERO