Emmanuel church (2) - rapid rise and fall of the Church of England in Forest Gate

This is the second of a two part article on the Church of England in Forest Gate.  The first, immediately above, traces the story from the establishment of Emmanuel church in 1852 until the 1880's when church building expanded rapidly in the area.

Emmanuel Church, in 1907

Rapid population expansion, from the 1880's lead to the building of three "daughter" churches to Emmanuel in Forest Gate: St James;' in 1882, St Saviour's, in 1884 and All Saints in 1886 - although All Saints had started life as an "iron church" on the site - donated by the local MP - six years earlier.

St James' church, completed 1882

The original St Saviour's, on
Macdonald Road, completed 1884

All Saints, built in 1886

A fourth - St Mark's - began life in a cattle shed, now 65-67 Tylney Road, before becoming an established church building, in its own right, in 1894.

St Mark's church, completed 1894
Before then the congregation met in
a former cattle shed in Tylney Road

These were days of a religious boom that scarcely seems conceivable today. The Congregationalist church (now the Azhar Academy) on Romford Road was completed in 1880 and its Sebert Road counterpart, later that decade. 

Romford Road Congregational
 church, built in 1880

Woodgrange Baptist church, on Romford Road was built in 1882 and the original Methodist church on Woodgrange Road, the same year. St Antony's of Padua Catholic church was completed, in Upton in 1891.

St Antony's - built 1891

Further extensions were built to Emmanuel, itself - increasing its capacity to a little over 800 - and finished in 1891.

At around this time the "high church"/"low church" tensions previously referred to came to a head and wrought havoc and division within the parish.

The "low church" attacks on the high church incumbents of Emmanuel were lead by M GG Poupard - supported by the Sunday school teachers and pupils. They left Emmanuel and built an "iron church" (iron framed, with corrugated iron walls and roof), Christ Church, the Free Church of England in Earlham Grove (see photo). It cost £4,000 to build and seated 450 people.

Another dissenter, Mr Haslet built another rival church, Ridley Hall, in Upton Lane, see photo - which still exists as the Ridley Christian Centre.

The Earlham Grove breakaway tried, but failed, to get Church of England recognition: instead it was accused of having committed a schism. The breakaway fizzled out and in 1911 the iron church was bought by the parish of St James' in Southampton for £225 - and moved, girder by girder, to be rechristened St John's, where it remained, until demolished in 1950.

St John's, Shirley, Southampton - which
previously had been Christ Church, in
Earlham Grove - an early 20th century
break-away from Emmanuel

Meanwhile - back in Forest Gate - the population continued to expand and in 1892 work began on the construction of St Peter's Upton Cross, in the grounds of Upton House (see photo), which had been bought by the Diocese of St Albans in 1885.

Interior of St Peter's, Upton Park

Upton House, itself, the one time home of Lord Lister, (see photo below), became the vicarage and parish rooms of St Peter's. And still demand for church space in Forest Gate grew.

Upton House - former home of Lord Lister -
became the vicarage of St Peter's Upton
Cross, the church, itself,  was built in its grounds.

In 1906 and iron Mission Hall, belonging to St Peter's was built on the junction of Plashet Road and Gwendoline Avenue, for £360, and remained (see photo), until bombed during WW2.

Partially obscured by the tree in the front
 left, the iron mission hall built on the
corner of Gwendoline Avenue and Plashet Road

And the flats that have replaced it

The last church to be built in the Emmanuel family was St Edmunds, on Katherine Road - which became a parish in its own right in 1901. This was probably the high point of Church of England significance in Forest Gate's history.

St Edmunds,
Katherine/Halley Roads

There are scant surviving records for the Emmanuel church for the early decades of the twentieth century, other than the fact that electricity was installed within it, at a cost of about £250, in 1929.

The 1930's saw another outbreak of "high church"/"low church" disputes and by the middle of the decade the church's congregation had declined to about 170 - considerably fewer than the 800+ attendees of the 1890's.

Joost (pronounced Yoast)de Blank was Emmanuel's shortest-serving, but probably most prominent, vicar. He was only there from 1937 - 1940.  Born in Holland, he moved to England aged six months. After university, at Cambridge, he had a couple of minor ecclesiastical appointments, before moving to Emmanuel.

He was a dynamic priest. For example, he hired the near-by Odeon Cinema (now the Idara Minhaj-ul-Quran mosque) on Romford Road, for recruiting purposes. He soon attracted national, as well as local attention.

Originally a pacifist, he changed his opinions and joined the war effort as an enthusiastic army Chaplin/captain, in 1940. He was posted to Egypt the following year, which effectively ended his incumbency at Emmanuel.

de Blank returned to London at the end of WW2 and was appointed Bishop of Stepney in 1952. Five year's alter he became Archbishop of Cape Town, where he became a leading Anti-Apartheid campaigner.

Joost de Blank, as the Bishop of Stepney, in
the early 1950's.  To his right, the late Queen Mother

Emmanuel, itself, was bombed during WW2 - but did not suffer the destruction of the near-by Princess Alice, Queen's cinema or Woodgrange Methodist church. Its roof was damaged, windows blown out and the spire lost its then-famous striped tiles.

Congregations dropped to around 100. The church shored up its ailing finances by letting out its Institute - opposite - to the emerging local authority Youth Service.

Post war activity focused on physical reconstruction and building its own youth groups. Central heating was installed at Emmanuel in 1949.

The old vicarage in Earlham Grove was in bad repair and sold in 1950 for £2,600. A replacement, 2b Margery Park Road (see below), was purchased for £100 more.

The Margery Park Road vicarage, that
replaced the Earlham Grove one in 1950

A declining local population and congregation meant contraction and changes for the Church of England in Forest Gate. In 1962 the parishes of Emmanuel and St Peter's (see above) were merged.

The first physical casualty was the splendid vicarage of St Peter's. The Archdeacon of West Ham challenged a preservation order on the building and the site was sold for £17,000. It was demolished and is now occupied by Joseph Lister Court (see below).

St Peter's Hall, in Neville Road was next to go. It was sold for £6,750 in 1971 to the local Sikh community, and is currently the Ramgharia Gurdwara.

Next - St Peter's, itself. This was demolished in 1972 and the site sold for £15,000. The intention was to rebuild it on the site of the old Gwendoline Avenue Mission hut (see above) - but money was too short. That land, too was sold - in 1980 - for £35,000.

St Peter's Hall, Neville Road,
now a Sikh temple

St Peter's was merged with Emmanuel and the combined congregation had slumped to a mere 50, by 1982.

One response by the local clergy was greater ecumenicalism - with more joint ventures launched between Emmanuel and the nearby Baptist and (rebuilt) Methodist churches.

There were discussions of the also declining St James' church merging with Emmanuel, but in the event, it merged with St John's in Stratford.

The interior of Emmanuel church was reshaped in 1980, to take account of the declining congregation, and changing church lay-out fashion - at a cost of £83,500. These changes made the Institute - opposite - redundant and it was sold to Wag Bennett as a gym in 1982 for £60,000 (see here for details of the use he made of it).

Further consolidation continued in 1989, with the establishment of the Forest Gate ministry - a closer grouping of the remaining local Forest Gate churches - Emmanuel, St Mark's, All Saints and St Edmunds. The church yard and graves were re-landscaped in 1991.

The church was given Grade 11 listed building status by English Heritage in 1984.

All in all, a fairly spectacular rise and fall in Forest Gate of an institution that was once the backbone of English civic society.

The church has moved on to serve the community in different ways this century. It hosts Faithful Friends - a forum for understanding other faiths - not aimed at conversion. A breakfast club for homeless people is hosted and the church sponsors a group supporting people with mental; health issues.

Footnote: This article is almost wholly based on a now out of print booklet That big church on the corner - a history of Emmanuel church, Forest Gate, by Andrew Wilson (then assistant curate, now rector of St John of Jerusalem church, Hackney), 1995, to whom we are most grateful.

Emmanuel church (1) - origins of the Church of England in Forest Gate

This is the first of a two part article on the history of Emmanuel Church and of the CofE in Forest Gate. The second half, on the rise and fall of the Church of England locally will appear next.

There have been literally dozens of churches and religious buildings in Forest Gate over the last 170 years of its existence as a significant community. None is probably better known, or more familiar to today's residents, than Emmanuel church, sitting as it does on the key cross roads of Forest Gate - the junction of Upton Lane with Romford and Woodgrange roads.

This is its story, told in two parts - and we are totally indebted to a one-time curate of the church, Andrew Wilson, for being able to retell it. (see footnote for details).

John Fothergill, the Forest Gate botanist (see here for details), planted an acorn on the site of the church, during his residence at Ham House (now West Ham park). It grew into a fine oak, and was mentioned in the Katharine Fry/Gustav Pagenstecker history of West Ham (see here for details).

John Fothergill, whose acorn was
 planted on the site of Emmanuel church

The tree gave Upton Lane the nickname of One Tree Lane at the turn of the 19th/20th centuries.

The coming of the railway to Forest Gate in 1840 lead to the beginnings of its rapid population growth. A decade later a decision was made to build a Church of England church in the area, to service its burgeoning community.

It was originally conceived as a chapel of ease (a sub-church, for those who were unable to reach a more established church - in this case, West Ham parish church) and it was consecrated on 22 May 1852.

The area to be served by it was from land half in the then parish of West Ham and half in the old East Ham parish. The existing dividing line between the two parishes was along roughly what is Green Street, today.

The area covered by Emmanuel church's parish.
The dotted line is what is now Green Street,
and the boundary between the old
West and East Ham parishes

The two parishes paid £50 each towards the establishment of this hybrid church, which was referred to as being a "consolidated chapelry" (because it was carved out of two existing parishes).

The right to nominate a vicar of Emmanuel alternated between East and West Ham parishes until 1962 - when the church, itself, joined to form a new parish, by merging with St Peter's of Upton Cross (see later for details). Nomination rights for selecting the vicar then transferred to the Bishop of Chelmsford.

The alternating of vicar nominations process caused problems during most of the 110 years the arrangement operated. Broadly, West Ham church has a "low" church tradition, and East Ham, a more formal "high" church tradition. So, the seeds of the on-going conflict soon became apparent.

The territory assigned to the Emmanuel parish (see map) was considerable. Rapid population growth in Forest Gate led the church, itself,  later to spawn "daughter" churches within the parish, to cope with speedily growing parishioner numbers.

The Emmanuel parish boundaries extended roughly from Wanstead Flats in the north, to Plashet Road in the south and from Water Lane in the west to High Street North, in the east. Unsurprisingly, pretty much the area we know today as Forest Gate!

The "daughter" churches - some of which have not survived - included St Saviour's, St Marks, All Saints and parts of St Edmunds, St James' and St Peter's Upton Cross (see later for details).

The original Emmanuel church building cost £4,235 to construct - the bulk coming from the pocket of the Rev Tuile Cornthwaite of Walthamstow. The Church of England Commissioners only supplied £150.

The eminent church architect George Gilbert Scott designed the building. It was of an early English decorative style, built with Kentish rag stone and York stone.

Architect, Giles Gilbert Scott, signs
off the construction of the church

The original church (it has been subsequently much altered) was built to accommodate a congregation of 500 (see illustration). The titles on the steeple were in two colours - with 'V' shapes. The stripped steeple lead to Emmanuel colloquially being referred to as the 'Harlequin church'.

As well as a church, a new school was planned (see here for article on early education in Forest Gate). Samuel Gurney (see here) gave land on the corner of Woodgrange Road and Forest Street for the Emmanuel National school (see here). An infant's school followed in 1864.

The vicar and wardens of Emmanuel were the school's first trustees - until they passed responsibility on to St Saviours (one of the daughter churches) in 1888. By this time, the school's numbers were in decline, as state run School Board schools proved to be more popular. The Emmanuel school closed in 1894.

The Gurney family (Quakers) again gave land for a vicarage for Emmanuel, in 1876. It was built three years later, at a cost of £2,480. It was located on the site, currently being redeveloped by Mura estates on Earlham Grove, next to the Community Garden. See photo, below. It remained the parish vicarage until 1950.

The Earlham Grove vicarage, built in 1876

On completion, the vicarage was immediately deployed as a soup kitchen, during a particularly severe winter. This early version of a food bank gave out soup at 1d per quart, together with sacks of donated coal to poor local parishioners.

The soup kitchen was later moved to the grounds of Emmanuel school, and was in operation until 1883. This was the time of maximum housing development in Forest Gate.

By the 1880's the 500 seater church, designed by Gilbert Scott, was proving to be too small for the rapidly expanding congregation - and it was extended. - adding a further third to its eating capacity in 1886. Further expansions were objected to locally, as they would have meant disturbing the occupants of the graveyard!

The extended church, post 1886 - with a
perpendicular extension, adding another
200 to the seating capacity

The Emmanuel Institute - the building on Romford Road, facing the church - was built in 1882, as a Sunday school and remained as a location for church events for 80 years before being rented, then sold, to Wag Bennett, as the weightlifting/bodybuilding gym, for which it subsequently became famous (see here and here for details).

Emmanuel Institute, built 1882 -
later to become Wag Bennett's gym

Forest Gate Nurseries in 1996, land
owned by Emmanuel church for expansion
that did not occur - now Ralph Jackson
House, on Romford Road

As a Sunday school, the building regularly attracted over 500 pupils, with 35 staff, in the 1880's. The land next to the Institute, also belonged to Emmanuel, which had unfulfilled plans to turn it into a library and a reading room. They didn't materialise, and for many years the space was occupied by a small garden centre and is now Ralph Jackson Court, a block of flats.

Footnote: This article is almost wholly based on a now out of print booklet That big church on the corner - a history of Emmanuel church, Forest Gate, by Andrew Wilson (then assistant curate, now rector of St John of Jerusalem church, Hackney), 1995, to whom we are most grateful.

George Tutill: Forest Gate resident and Trade Union banner manufacturer

In our recent article on Forest Gate's listed buildings we mentioned (here) that the Red House, in Upton Lane, was, for a while, home to Mr Tutill, a prominent trade union banner manufacturer.

Early 20th century photo of the Red
House, Tutill residence 1871 - 1887

This was very much an understatement of Tutill's role and importance. Distinguished labour historian Gwyn A Williams wrote this of George Tutill in his introduction to John Gorman's definitive history of trade union banners, Banner Bright:

During the 1840's union banners began to be made in the general style which remained in favour for a hundred years: lavishly illustrated on both sides of silk panels, highly ornamental and trimmed up to sixteen feet by twelve feet in size to be paraded in public, stately and striking.  The uniformity, which extended to designs as well as materials was due largely to one man, George Tutill, who set up in banner making in 1837 and over the next fifty years earned for his business a virtual commercial monopoly and a world-wide market.

George Tutill lived in Upton Lane's Red House (illustrated above) between 1871 and till his death in 1887. This post is his story.

George Tutill, posing in the
 regalia of Grand Templars
 - produced by his firm 

He was born in the Yorkshire village of Howden in 1817, two years after the defeat of Napoleon and two years before the significant Peterloo massacre. His father was an illiterate miller. In 1837 the twenty year-old Tutill established the company which was to manufacture more trade union banners than any other in the world- more than three-quarters ever commercially manufactured.

Details of his life before 1837 are obscure, but the company he established in that year still survives and is now based in Chesham, Bucks.

Advert for Tutill's banner makers

The story of how Tutill came to be recognised as the 'universal provider' of trade union regalia was related to Gorman by Ronald Caffyn, whose family had a long tradition in working for Tutill's and whose father had worked with George, the founder:

George Tutill began his life as a travelling fairground showman. In those days ... it was common practice for a showman to decorate his own sideshow, caravan or roundabout, embellishing it with ornate lettering and design, which Tutill did with great style. ...Tutill first met trade unionists during his regular visits to public houses (where the union's held their meetings). He also met with the friendly societies for whom he was to produce so much in the years to come. ... On one occasion ... he was asked if he would paint a banner for a union, which held its meetings at the inn. He accepted and the members were delighted with the result.

And so began his career as a banner maker. Details of his career over the next few years are patchy.  But, as an indication of his artistic talents, a painting of his, entitled Scarborough Castle (a few miles from his native village), was exhibited at the Royal Academy.

Front cover of 1896 Tutill catalogue
 - showing various aspects of banner
 making at City Road workshop

By 1857 he was living in Islington and soon after he established his business at 83 City Road, in a purpose built workshop.. By 1860 he moved house to Canonbury, a more up-market part of Islington, a sign of his increased success and prosperity. A key to his success was moving banner-making on from a simple artisan workshop activity to an almost production-line process.

All of his banners were made from pure silk, and he built on the East London, Huguenot-influenced, tradition of silk weaving in Spitalfields and Bethnal Green.

Tutill banner from 1890's

In 1861 he took out a patent for "treating materials for the manufacture of banners and flags". It was designed to give flexibility and durability to the materials he used in the manufacture of flags, where paint and oils were mixed and then covered with a small film of india rubber, to create and preserve the pictures in the centres of his trade mark banners. The formula was so successful that some of his early banners survive today (130 years on) - images intact.

One of the brass name discs used to
 secure lead tapes to Tutill's banners

Tutill's activities at City Road were not confined to trade union banners. Regalia for Oddfellows, Masons, church Sunday schools, Bands of Hope, temperance societies, Rechabites, Orange orders and every kind of friendly society were made, to order. According to Gorman:

Satin sashes, printed emblems, aprons, collars, regalia cases, caps certificates, medals, chains, horns, girdles and even robes and false beards for the Ancient Order of Druids supplied insatiable demand.

With business flourishing, Tutill continued to prosper and in 1871 moved into the Red House, on Upton Lane.

Tutill banner from 1899

The house, itself had been built shortly before 1762 and had been inhabited by Isaac Blijdesteijn (who became and elder in the Dutch church at Austin Friars, in the City, in 1803), son of a Dutch merchant.

Tutill was to live there with his wife, Elizabeth, and their only surviving child, daughter Georgina, until his death in 1887. Elizabeth died in December 1884 and is buried in the near-by Emmanuel Churchyard, in Upton Lane.

Tutill was not one to let the grass grow under his feet, in the business world. In 1881 he installed the largest Jacquard loom in the world in his City Road premises, in order to weave the ever larger banners in a single piece.

Largest Jacquard loom in the world, installed
 at Tutill's City Road. The punch cards which
 programme the machine can be
 seen in the foreground

Tutill seems to have embraced all the elements of a successful Victorian businessman, according to Gorman. He was self-made, creative, inventive and boldly kept pace with the expansion of industrial capitalism, at home and abroad.

He soon cultivated a successful export business. In the firm's catalogue of 1896 (after his death), it stated the firm was exporting banners to Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada and "to the remotest parts of the civilised world"!

Banner believed to have been
 designed by George Tutill, himself

Tutill, himself, was presented with the highest award, a gold medal, and a special commendation at the Sydney International Exhibition of 1879. He also took prizes at exhibitions in Brisbane in 1880, Melbourne in 1881 and Adelaide in 1882. He sailed to Melbourne to pick up his award in person.

Although, over fifty years, Tutill made more trade union banners than anybody else, he did not share the political or economic sympathies of his clients. He ran a non-union company, which remained so until well after his death, in 1935.

Design from 1890's

He also obtained a great deal of business from the temperance movement, but that did not affect his fairly notorious drinking habits. He is said to have kept two barrels in his office - one filled with whisky for the drinkers and one filled with port for the non drinkers!

Tutill was a meticulous artist and business administrator and kept long-hand records of all his correspondence from 1840 onwards. Later he kept photographs of every banner the company produced. The entire collection, however (with the exception of three boxes of negatives from the 1920's) was destroyed in the blitz of 1940.

The giant Jacquard loom was removed to Braintree for the duration of the war, to preserve it, but as technology moved on, it became redundant in 1965.  It was offered to the Science Museum, who declined, and so it was broken up, for parts.

Design c 1895

The company itself, transferred to Chesham in Buckinghamshire, following the destruction of its City Road premises, after the Second World War.

Back to Tutill, himself. He died on 17 February 1887 at home, in the Red House. A large decorated stained glass memorial window was subsequently constructed at the south west end of Howden Minster. The inscription along the base of the window reads:- "To the glory of God, and in affectionate remembrance of George Tutill, Esq. Born April 16th 1817. Died Feb. 17th 1887. J B Capronnier, Bruxellensis, Fecit 1888."

The business passed to his daughter and son-in-law. Thus business continued and prospered in the boom decade on the 1890's. In the twentieth century demand for banners declined until after the First World War, when there was an upsurge in trade union banner making. Following the General Strike of 1926, demand dropped off again, until 1947, when it prospered with post war confidence (and major nationalisations).

The demand dwindled again until 1967, a year in which the firm of Tutill's did not make a single trade union banner for the first time for 130 years.

As far as the Red House was concerned, soon after Tutill's death, it was occupied by the local MP Major George Banes, who served the area until 1900. According to a certificate inside the building, by 1907 it became a local gentleman/workingman's club apparently a gift to the area by a former resident. It is not clear whether this was Banes or not. The English Heritage's version of its 20th century history is somewhat at variance with this.

Footnote: We are deeply indebted to John Gorman's 1975 book: Banner Bright (pub Allen Lane) for much of the information in this post, and also to Roger Logan's account of Tutill's roles in producing banners for friendly society's, available here 

Forest Gate's listed buildings (1)

In our recent feature on what may become Forest Gate's first £2m house (here) we noted that it was "listed", by English Heritage and gave the grounds for its status.

There are, in fact ten "listed" buildings in Forest Gate. We feature the other nine in a two-part series, of which this is the first.

The borough of Newham boasts 116 such buildings, many associated with the former Docks, Tide Mill in Stratford, Abbey Mills pumping station, churches or cemeteries. Three have Grade 1 listing (All Saints, Strafford, Tide Mill, itself, and St Mary's the Virgin, East Ham). The other 113 are Grade 11 listed.

"Listing", in lay terms, means that the conservation body English Heritage recognises that the building has features of architectural interest which are worthy of preservation. These are highlighted in the citation for listing and are included, in each case, in this article.

Local authorities have a responsibility to ensure that, as far as possible, these features are preserved and will not, under normal circumstances, give planning permission to attempts to disrupt them. 

For their owners this can be a double edged sword: kudos of owning a listed building, but often real difficulty in changing its design or appearance which can cause difficulties if looking to sell - presumable an issue for the owners of ex-pubs the Spotted Dog and Earl of Essex - see next episode.

The text below is (slightly) edited from the English Heritage website and can, in places, be very architecturally technical. But even a lay reader can get the drift of what is being appreciated by those responsible for the listings, from their citations.

89 Dames Road - listed 1981

House probably circa 1840. Two storeys, four bays wide with asymmetrically placed entrance, all under hipped and slated roof set back from road frontage. Of stock brick, double fronted with additional bay to north.

89 Dames Road

Segmental headed ground floor sashes set in recessed semicircular stucco arched surround tied together at window head level by a profiled stucco string. First floor segmental headed sash windows lie below closed overhanging roof eaves.

Main entrance accentuated by entablature supported by Doric columns. Interior not seen.

In the 1950's it was run as a wedding venue by a company called Hart and Holman. They had a huge function hall, which embraced, among other things church and Sunday School events, from the Christian Israelite church, almost opposite. One local attendee described events there as being "the highlight of our year".  

Now residential flats.

Church of St Antony and Monastery, St Antony's Road - listed 1984

Church and Monastery 1884 (foundation stone) finished in 1891. Architects Pugin & Pugin (Of Houses of Parliament fame). Early English and Geometrical Gothic Church. Yellow stock brick with ashlar dressings. Slated roofs.

 Austere. 7-bay nave with tall clerestory. Lean-to aisle roofs, double to (liturgical) south, to incorporate confessionals. Gabled chapel to south. South-eastern apsed chapel. Rose window over High Altar. 6 light traceried window to west end above gabled entrance. Cuspless three-light clerestory windows. Lancets to confessionals.

Church and monastery of St Antony

Monastery 2-storeyed with transverse gable to left and smaller gables to centre and right. Similar materials to church, but blue, chamfered engineering bricks to window openings. Lower windows paired lancets with leaded lights.

Beneath gables three light tracery windows, pointed head to left, the others with stepped, square, heads. Walls buttressed. Building linked to church. Gabled entrance, porch to left, with Mother & Child statue in canopied niche above.

Duke of Fife public house, Stafford/Katherine Roads - listed 1984

Public house circa 1895. Frederick W Ashton. A richly ornamented corner public house. 2 storeys with slated mansard and attic storey. Yellow stock brick with painted stone or stucco dressings. Jacobean motifs. Balancing elevations to Katherine Road front and to Stafford Road flank with 2-storey wing on flank.

Front has two segmental arches to ground floor, two 3-light windows to first floor, and balustraded with buttresses gabled dormers above. Ornamental panels above and below first floor windows with panelled pilasters between. Octagonal corner turret, (dome now missing) with linked female caryatids to drum.

Duke of Fife, ex-pub, now 
restaurant and banqueting hall

Arched entrances between ground floor, windows and to corner, with carytid-ornament above. Chimney stacks have pilaster ornament, and those on south side are gabled and buttressed like attic window. Similar gabled window to slated wing. Later single-storey wing at back. Interior not seen.

Now Asian restaurant.

Emmanuel Church, Vale Road - listed 1984

Church 1852. Sir George Gilbert Scott. Decorated Gothic style. Kentish ragstone. Tiled roof to eaves. No clerestory.

Emmanuel church, 1907

Perpendicular north aisle of 1890, the same height and width as original nave. Short tiled broach spire over chancel arch. Lady Chapel to south side balances organ chamber to north. Lean-to south aisle. South porch. Aisles are buttressed. Low turretted north transept. Vigourously foliated columns to 6-bay nave arcading.

Former Congregational church (now Azhar Academy), Romford Road - listed 1984

Former Congregational Church of 1880 by T Lewis Banks with church hall of 1883. Later known as United Reformed Church. Converted in 2002-3 to a school, the Azhar Academy Girl's School. 

Materials: Knapped flint with red stone and red brick dressings, tiled roof.

Exterior: Early English Gothic style. Externally the former church is largely as constructed, having an nave with lean-to aisles, south-eastern vestry and 3-stage buttressed and pinnacled tower with short spire to the south-west; the former church hall abuts the church's east end.

Former Congregational church,
 now Azhar Academy

The tower has triple arcading to top stage with a gabled centre panel of louvres and blind arcading below. To Romford Road, the west end has two gabled, porched entrances with arcades between on the ground floor above which are three lancets with brick mullions flanked by trefoil arches and single lancets; the uppermost portion of the gable has triple lancets, flanked by blind single lancets, and a decorative cross set into panel of red stone at the apex, the pinnacle of which is missing.

To the right of the entrance is a projecting vestry, which resembles a short tower at the lower levels with arcading to ground floor and buttresses to corners, triple mullioned windows to first floor, and parapet above. It is surmounted by a steeply pitched, curved-hipped, tiled structure, almost semi-circular, with continuous timber mullioned glazing with leaded lights. Twin gabled transepts project to either side of the nave with round-arched, stepped lancet windows, moulded brick mullions and stone pilasters.

The two-storey, gabled former church hall to the rear of the building has gabled porches facing west. The lancet windows to the west and north have all been infilled with breezeblocks. The single bay joining the former church to the hall has been converted into a stair and heightened with glazed clerestory and a modern roof.

A two-storey former clergy house with gables to north and south abuts the rear of the hall to the east. It is of flint with brick quoins, chimney stacks and window dressings, and the gable to the north is rendered. The window to ground floor has been blocked which is adjacent to a small brick porch with pitched roof. 

Interior: None of the original fixtures and fittings remain. Classrooms and offices have been inserted into the former nave, arranged across two mezzanines, fronted with glass to the central hall areas. The upper floors are reached by a stair and lift in the tower and the stair at the rear between the school and old hall.

The nave arcading - large sandstone pillars - and aisle and clerestory window mouldings remain exposed and the contrast between modern and historic materials means the old arrangement is roughly readable, assisted by the use of glass partitions. The windows have red brick and red stone arched dressings with red stone pilasters and moulded motifs, some have stained glass in the upper sections.

At first floor the timber wall posts, hammer beams and arched braces on stone corbels are visible in the modern classrooms. A floor inserted at the impost level of the roof vault has created a large prayer hall in the roof space where the impressive original hammer-beam roof is visible.

A second prayer hall is accommodated in the former church hall to the rear; a suspended ceiling has been inserted here but window openings and wall posts to the roof structure are visible. The former clergy house is used for utilities.

History: The building was constructed in 1883 to designs by T Lewis Banks for the Congregational Church. The foundation stone was laid by Henry Wright Esq JP, and the builder was Charles Sharpe. It abutted a church hall, built by the same congregation and architect, dating from 1880 which survives to the rear of the former church.

The building became known as the United Reformed Church in the second half of the C20 and in 2002, having become redundant as a church, was granted listed building consent for conversion to a school. The Azhar Academy Girl's School opened in 2003. 

Reasons for designation: The former Congregational Church is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* it is a landmark on Romford Road, in particular its impressive tower with pinnacled buttresses and short spire;
* good composition and detailing in the Early English style;
* the use of materials is good, including knapped flint, sandstone and red brick dressings (the former untypical in this area);
* an interesting ensemble of buildings, as was common in non-conformist churches, including a slightly earlier church hall of 1880 and a clergy house.

Carnegie Library, Plashet Grove (in Plashet Park) - listed 1994

Public library, now Newham's registry office. 1898-9 by Silvanus Trevail. Red brick with stone dressings, slate roof with three-stage cupola bearing clock. Two storeys, with gabled attic over entrance bay.

Three bays, the outer bays with five-light mullion and transom windows under parapets sporting trefoil headed panels. Central entrance composed like a Diocletian window, pair of blue marble Ionic columns carrying arch, spandrels with bas-reliefs of seated figures with scroll and book. Aprons of first-floor windows inscribed in raised letters 'Passmore Edwards Public Library'.

Carnegie Library, Plashet Park

Gabled two-storey returns with windows at first and attic storey. Lower rear section contains reading room (low projecting bay on east side originally contained the ladies' bay). Interior contains a hammer-beam roof to rear reading room. The first and attic storeys originally housed the chief librarian. 
Opened by Herbert Gladstone, MP, 30 November 1899. Largely paid for by John Passmore Edwards, philanthropist and proprietor of the Building News, who promoted libraries in the poorer parts of London. This is an uncommonly richly decorated example of his patronage in a suburban area.

Source: Building News, 11 November 1898.

We are deeply indebted to English Heritage for their efforts in attempting to preserve key aspects of our architectural history.  We acknowledge and are most grateful for their Listed Buildings website (here), from which we have taken most of the material (though not the photos) in this article.  We recognise their copyright of the material.