Local historian, housing expert, and frequent contributor Peter Williams provides a fascinating account of this unusual building set back from the highway on Dames Road. In it, he references several sources that can aid people who wish to trace the history and backgrounds of their older properties.
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| 89 Dames Road today - author's photo |
The house
at the southern end of today’s Dames Road predates the existence of that
street, as perhaps its location, set back from the road, suggests. The street
was initially called Leyton Road, but the name was changed to Dames Road in
February 1887.
Listed buildings
89 Dames
Road became a listed building in 1981, and its formal designation dates its
construction to around 1840 – “Two storeys, four bays wide with asymmetrically
placed entrance, all under a hipped and slated roof set back from road
frontage” (www.historicengland.org.uk provides details of listed
buildings).
Over the
years, the building has been a substantial family home, business and catering premises
and has housed six self-contained flats for almost 40 years.
Old maps
There may
have been a house on the site before this time, as the 1777 Chapman and
Andre map (www.map-of-essex.uk) shows a row of buildings on the approximate
location of Albert Court, just below “The Lodge” on the map below. This could
have been “Forest Lodge”, the alternative name for 89 Dames Road.
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| Chapman and Andre map - www,map-of-essex.uk |
Newspaper archives
The
earliest occupants we have been able to trace of 89 are the Ward family, who
lived there in the 1860s. We know this through birth announcements in the Chelmsford
Chronicle in May 1863 and January 1869 (address searches through the British
Newspaper Archive—a subscription service can provide similar information – www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk).
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| Chelmsford Chronicle - 22 May 1863 |
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| Chelmsford Chronicle - 29 January 1869 |
Genealogy websites
This clue
opens up access to the census (accessible via www.ancestry.com and www.findmypast.co.uk – both subscription services). According to birth records (also
available via these two sites), the Ward family occupied the house as early as
1858 but did not appear in the 1861 census.
However, they did a decade later.
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| 1871 census |
The head of
the household was Humphrey Ward, a corn miller. This sounds strangely like a farming-related
occupation, but Forest Gate was then a predominantly rural area. Humphrey had
joined many in migrating from the countryside to what we today would consider a
London suburb to seek his fortune. His wife, Hannah, was born in West London
(source: birth records on Ancestry and Find My Past).
Google Books
Humphrey seems to have had business interests in the Anchor Flour Mills, Shad Thames, Wapping (source: contemporary records accessed through Google Books tab, a major source of information, as they have digitised business directories). He would appear to have been involved in local Liberal politics, as shown in this 1873 notice.
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| Essex Times - 12 April 1873 |
Inflation calculators
He died in
1872, aged just 52, leaving his estate to his wife (source: probate records,
also on Ancestry and Find My Past) – it was around £500,000 at current
prices (source: Bank of England inflation calculator -www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator).
The
property’s furniture and effects were put up for sale in 1877. They included three milk cows (one in calf) and a horse and carriage. See below.
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| Stratford Express 24 March 1877 |
Local history websites
Humphrey’s
widow, Hannah, moved to 65 Romford Road by the time of the 1881 census, and
their former house, in what was still Leyton Road, was sold in 1886. (for a
history of Dames Road itself, see www.e7-nowandthen.org/2016/04/the-street-where-you-live-4-dames-road.html
– always a good source for local history!).
The sale notice, see below, describes the house as having stabling and a garden – about half an acre in total. Its proximity to Forest Gate station was a selling point. It contained “a large drawing room, dining and morning rooms, seven bed and dressing rooms, excellent offices and extensive stone basement”. It was a freehold property.
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| Chelmsford Chronicle - 26 March 1886 |
It can be
time-consuming to trace the occupants of a building via censuses if you don’t
have an occupier’s name, but sifting through census files by enumeration
district can locate a house and its occupants.
The 1891
census shows the house occupied by Joseph Merritt, a dock foreman born in
Bethnal Green, and his family. By 1901, he had progressed to become a grain
merchant, a reminder of how crucial commercial trade was in the area; the Royal
Docks were then the largest enclosed docks in the world, and London was the
largest port at the height of the empire.
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| 1901 census |
They were a
prosperous family, as adverts in the local papers in 1895 and 1899 show them
advertising for servants.
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| Barking, East Ham & Ilford Advertiser 30 March 1895 |
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| Barking, East Ham & Ilford Advertiser 18 February 1899 |
Joseph died in 1906 and is buried in Manor Park's City of London cemetery (source: Ancestry and Find My Past). Fortunes could be made, and Joseph seems to have prospered, leaving almost £500,000 (in today’s terms) in his will (see probate and inflation calculation sources above).
Although
census information can be invaluable during house history searches, it is not
infallible, as the 1901 and 1911 censuses show. There is confusion about
whether the Sparrow or Merritt family were the primary occupants – the former
being the daughter and grandchildren of the latter. It takes scrutinising both
documents to piece together the likely story. There can also be transcription
problems with census documents when the enumerator’s handwritten records are misread
by those administering the web sites, as is the case for this house in the 1911
census (see spelling of “Merritt” below).
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| Inaccurate transcription of 1911 census entry (Ancestry) |
It would
appear that one of Jospeh Merritt’s daughters, Mary Jane, had left the family
home by the time of the 1891 census and married George Henry Sparrow. The 1901
census shows her living at 89 Dames Road with her children but no husband. It
is unclear whether this was because of a family break-up.
Mary Jane
and her children still lived on Dames Road at the following census, again minus
her husband – she was not a widow, as this would have been recorded. He could
have been absent on business or at sea – this is not recorded either.
Mary Jane’s
mother, Jane, continued to live at the house and died the following year,
leaving almost £750,000 in today’s terms. This presumably included the value of
the house, which was put on the market three months after her death.
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| Probate entry, from Ancestry, 1912 |
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| Stratford Express 28 September 1912 |
By the time
of the 1921 census, the property’s occupants were the Knight family. Father and
son Alfred were described as ships’ caulkers who worked in shipbuilding to
ensure the vessels were watertight. Alfred snr was born in Tidal Basin, Canning
Town, and their son, Alfred John, seemed to have had a sideline as a musical
impresario – see an advert from the Essex Times below.
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| 1921 census entry - Ancestry |
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| Essex Times 2 November 1918 |
Five years
later, the house was up for sale again.
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| Westminster Gazette 5 May 1927 |
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| West Ham and South Essex Mail, 24 July 1931 |
The Hart
family lived there at the time of the 1939 Register (see: Ancestry and Find My
Past), and the Holmans lived on Romford Road.
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| 1939 Register - Ancestry |
Many press
announcements, articles, and adverts have testified to the use of 89 Dames
hosting weddings, Sunday school events, and social gatherings in a large
function hall, as indicated below.
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| The Stage - 20 November 1958 |
Council archives
Newham
Council Archives has an extensive collection of images currently being catalogued
and digitised in preparation for the opening of the council’s new Heritage
Centre in 2026. They are currently located in the library on The Broadway in
Stratford. Access is usually by appointment only, but the facility is currently
closed, as they prepare for the relocation. Archives can be a valuable resource
for people tracing the history of local buildings. Among Newham’s images are a
number relating to 89 Dames Road.
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| Newham Archives |
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| The house in the 1970s - Newham Archives |
Planning department websites
Mr Holman
of the catering firm died in the late 1970s, and although the business
continued, within a few years, plans were made to convert 89 Dames Rad into six
flats. Council planning department records (www.newham.gov.uk/planning)—both
current and historical—are open for public inspection online and can provide
vital clues about a building’s history and changes in use, shape, and function
over a lengthy period.
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| Newham Planning website, www.Newham.gov.uk |
Property sales websites
89 Dames
Road remains the site of the six flats for which planning permission was given
in the mid-1980s. One was last on the market five years ago for £355,000 (sites like www.rightmove.co.uk and www.zoopla.co.uk are invaluable in tracing recent house sales prices).
Footnote: You can
read some of Peter’s other contributions to this blog here:
The oldest
continuously occupied house in Forest Gate? - https://www.e7-nowandthen.org/2024/02/the-oldest-continuously-occupied-house.html
The
Simpsons – Forest Gate’s jerry builders and slum landlords - https://www.e7-nowandthen.org/2024/05/the-simpsons-forest-gates-jerry.html
Donal
Hunter House, Woodgrange Road: https://www.e7-nowandthen.org/2018/01/donald-hunter-house-woodgrange-road.html
and updated
here: https://www.e7-nowandthen.org/2024/01/woodgrange-road-developments.html
23 Earlham
Grove – an insight into the local housing crisis - https://www.e7-nowandthen.org/2017/11/23-earlham-grove-insight-into-local.html
Forest Gate’s
first £2m house? - https://www.e7-nowandthen.org/2015/11/forest-gates-first-2m-house-224-romford.html
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