A survivor's tale - 1889 Forest Gate Industrial School Fire

It is always a great delight to get feedback on articles that appear on this website - particularly from families of people whose stories are affected. It is even more so, when the responses move the story on a little and add further detail to it.

What follows below is an account by one of the great-grandchildren of a resident of the Industrial School on Forest Lane, who was a hero on the night of the tragic fire that killed the 26 boys on the night of New Year's Eve, 1889.

We have written of that fire before, see here, here and here.

The Industrial school ablaze, New Year's eve 1889

Reader, Peter Norton, contacted this website, and said:

Below is an excerpt from a short essay I wrote about my great-grandfather, for my great grandmother, who mourned his death from 1918, until she died in the mid 1960's.

"Charles George Hipkins was born in 1877 in Poplar, to Joseph Hipkins and Sarah Creamer. Joseph was born in the Midlands and by the time Charles was born, he was a boiler maker in London.

Unfortunately, he died when Charles was 10 and the family fell apart, with no money and ended up in workhouses and schools for the poor.

At the age of 12 Charles Hipkins was a boarder at the Forest Gate District School, – the parish charity school for the poor of the Whitechapel and Poplar Union.  He was there when a fire burnt the building down on the night of the 31 Dec 1889.

Fire in the dormitory - source
Illustrated London News

 According to the Illustrated London News 26 boys aged between 7 and 12 died and 58 were rescued from 2 locked dormitories.  There were 636 children in the school that night. 

Memorial to the 26 fire victims,
West Ham cemetery

Charles was awarded a Silver Medal from The Royal Society for the Saving of Life from Fire and was given 5 guineas.  Only 4 others got this highest award for that incident and they were all adult workers at the school.  Already Charles was proving his bravery! 

The silver medal Charles was awarded
for his bravery on the night of the fire

The fire in Forest Gate lead to the government taking urgent action.

It issued a binding circular to all Boards of Guardians urging the importance of leaving dormitory doors unlocked at night, conducting fire drills and establishing voluntary workhouse fire brigades, maintaining telephonic communications with fire stations wherever possible and providing fire escapes.

A second illustration of destruction in the
dormitories - from the Illustrated London News

By the 1891 census Charles Hipkins was a Houseboy at ‘The Brigade Institution’,  147-153 Ebury Street, St Georges Square – another charity school. 

He worked as a coachman and aged 17 he joined the Army Service Corps working as a driver in the 5^th Battalion East Surrey ‘Queens’ Regiment.    He married Edith Croxson in 1899 in West Ham. How they met, as she was from  Kirton in Suffolk, I do not know.  

They then lived in South Wimbledon and had a son Charles William George Hipkins, in 1900. Just one month before his son was born Charles senior went to South Africa with his Regiment for two years for the 2^nd Boer War (where was awarded the South African campaign medal).  When he returned Charles and Edith had their second and final child Edith Hipkins (ed: author, Paul Norton's grandmother) in 1903.  

Charles was working as a house painter when the Great War started and voluntarily re-enlisted ‘for the duration of the war’ on the 29 September 1915.  The attached photo shows him in the East Surrey’s uniform proudly showing his Forest Gate and South African Medals.  On the back of the photo, he wrote ‘ for mum’.

Charles, proudly wearing the medal,
twenty five years later, when he
re-enlisted into the army, to fight in WW1

I  (ed: Paul Norton) have also researched the others who won awards that night but still cannot find out exactly what Charles did. He was certainly the only boy to be awarded the highest award - the silver medal.

The London papers listed all the awardees, they, their status and award are listed, below.

Distraught parents at the inquest into the
Industrial School fire-deaths - source: The Graphic

The lists shows: Name of recipient (details about the person) - nature of award:

 Charles Hipkins (12 year old pupil) - Silver Medal

 Thomas Jones Oakley (Neighbour to school, who helped in the rescue) - Silver Medal

 Henry Elliot (Yardman* , staff) - Silver Medal

 George Hare (Assistant yardman*, staff, aged 22) - Silver Medal

 Charles Duncan (Superintendant of school) - Illuminated Testimonial

 Miss Maria Julia Bloomfield (Wardrobe woman) - Illuminated Testimonial

 Herbert John Roe (Staff?) - Illuminated Testimonial

 Miss Laura Terry (Head sewing mistress) - Certificate

 Mrs Eliza Roe (Staff ?) - Certificate

John Malcolm (Neighbour to school, who helped in the rescue) - Certificate

 Walter Edmond Crisp (Unknown) - Certificate

Frederick William Roe (Staff ?) - Certificate

John Blagdon (Police constable) - Certificate

* N.B., Yardsmen slept in the dormitories, with the boys." We would like to thank Peter for his contribution, and as ever, would be delighted to hear from other descendants of survivors who could provide further details to the tragic story of the fire and its aftermath for the individuals concerned.

We would be delighted to hear other stories of survivors from the fire that night, or indeed any details of any residents of the Industrial School.

Forest Gate Industrial School Fire - New Year's day 1890

 
This is the Stratford Express report fire that suffocated 26 pupils at Forest Gate Industrial School on New Year's day 1890.  This was in the pre-tabloid press era, so there was a lack of sensationalism in the reporting, and the account was very detailed.  It is most moving, and well worth the lengthy read involved.

There were no photographs of the fire, or related matters in the newspapers at the time - the technology would not allow it.  This was, however, a massive story, by any standards.  Clippings from other local newspapers that sprinkle the text show the measure, non-hysterical and populist way in which this tragedy was reported locally.


A 1970s photograph of the Forest Gate
Industrial School. A maternity hospital at the time
of the photo, and now a residential development

Among the photographs produced below are those of the memorial to the deceased, which stands in West Ham cemetery, almost behind the site of the school, and the inscription on the base of that memorial.  There is also a reproduction of a memorial card, which would have been produced as a fund raising activity, to support the relatives of the deceased.

Awful calamity at the Forest Gate Schools

26 lives lost

Introduction to Stratford
Express article, from which
this account is taken
- 4 January 1890

The Forest Gate School Buildings, situate in the middle of Forest Lane, will be familiar to all our readers. They are occupied by children belonging to the Whitechapel Union. On Tuesday midnight these were the scene of a fearful calamity - unprecedented in the history of West Ham.

About twenty minutes past twelve o'clock a fire was discovered raging in a building consisting of three floors, measuring 90ft. by 40ft., by Miss Julia Bloomfield. The lower floor is occupied as a sewing room and wardrobe, and the two upper floors as boys' dormitories and in these 84 children were sleeping. Immediately on the discovery of the fire she gave an alarm to the superintendent, Mr. Duncan, who dispatched messengers to the Forest Gate fire station and the hose reel and escape were in attendance at 12.47.

Mr. Duncan, in the meanwhile, got a hydrant to work and succeeded to some extent in subduing the flames. Messages were also sent to the other West Ham fire brigade stations, and three steamers were quickly on the spot. The Forest Gate escape was put up to the dormitory windows, but the heat and smoke were so intense that it was impossible to effect an entrance. On the arrival of Superintendent Smith, Mr. Duncan handed the hose to him, and the steamers then got to work.

Mr. Smith went inside the building with the hose, and eventually succeeded, with the aid of the steamers, in subduing the flames. It was then found that no less than twenty-six children had perished. On Mr. Duncan and Mr. Smith going round the dormitories they found the whole of the doors locked on the outside.

Enquiries made on the spot later in the morning showed that the early accounts of the calamity did not exaggerate its awful particulars, and though nothing positive can be ascertained as to how the fire originated, nearly everybody agrees it must have been due to some defect in the stovepipe of the needle room. That room is warmed by a stove in the middle. 

The pipe from it goes up about ten feet, and then is taken at right angles through a wooden partition into the wardrobe room, where it enters the chimney. It had been swept the day before, and it is conjectured that some ignited soot must have escaped from a defective place in the pipe, and that falling upon the clothing, it smoldered for hours before breaking out into a fiercer conflagration.

About half-past twelve o'clock a railway guard named James Larter was walking down Forest Lane when he observed one of the chimneys apparently on fire, and seeing that the flames burnt fiercely and threatened to attack the roof, he blew his whistle loudly with the object of attracting the attention of the police. Without waiting to see whether or not his signal was attended to, and having failed to arouse the gate porter, he scaled the garden fence and ran up to the house. 

He then found that the fire had already been noticed, and that the inmates were aroused, and he joined with them in rescuing the sleeping children from their perilous position in the dormitories above the burning room.

West Ham Guardian - 4 Jan 1890

About the same time that Larter had noticed the fire from the outside Miss Bloomfield, who has the charge of the wardrobe room, and was in her bedroom which adjoins the boys' dormitory on the first floor, was alarmed by a strong smell of smoke. Going downstairs she was startled to find that the partition, which divides the wardrobe room from the needle room, was on fire. She immediately ran back and aroused Miss Terry, who was sleeping near her room, and having obtained possession of her keys, she at once went and alarmed Mr. Duncan, the superintendent.

The officers in charge of the dormitories, who alone, with the exception of the superintendent, had keys which will open the various sleeping rooms and wards, were appraised of their danger, and the work of rescuing the children commenced. In the meantime, however, the fire was making dangerous progress amongst the clothes and stores with which the shelves of the wardrobe room were packed, and already the woodwork and fittings were well alight.

A dense suffocating fire arose from the fire smouldering in the blankets and woollen clothes, and to it most of the fatalities are to be attributed, for out of the 26 children whose deaths it is our melancholy duty to report, 24 were suffocated. Mr. Duncan on being aroused by the alarm of fire seized one of those small portable fire engines called the "Fire Queen," and made the first assault upon the flames. He attempted to ascend a staircase leading to one of the dormitories but was baffled for a time by a dense cloud of smoke which every moment increased in volume.

Introduction to Barking, East Ham and Ilford
Advertiser account of the fire, 4 Jan 1890

By crawling on his hands and knees he reached the door of dormitory No. 9. He shouted to the boys but received no answer, and then overcome by the smoke he fell down the stairs. Quickly recovering himself, however, he again attempted the extinction of the flames. By his directions a hydrant was fixed, and in this way a check was kept on the flames until the arrival of the fire engine. The fire itself was not very extensive and was confined to the building in which it broke out, this an annexe at the back of the school which comprises the wardrobe room and the needle room on the ground floor.

Over these rooms were dormitories with cots for 84 boys; 42 were accommodated on the second floor, and 42 on the floor above. The fire burnt through the ceiling of the first floor, and in this room thirteen of the lads were suffocated by the smoke which came from below; on the next floor 13 are said to have died, asphyxiated by the smoke, but 58 of the lads were safely rescued and lodged in other parts of the building.

The work of rescue was both a dangerous and laborious one. Access can be had to these dormitories by an outside staircase but the door of it was locked. The lock, however, was forced and a large number of the children were safely carried down it, through the blinding smoke. Ladders were procured and some were taken out of the windows in that way.

One of the attendants (Mrs. Hills), who was sleeping on the third floor, became much excited, and in her trepidation got out of a small window, and slid to the ground down a water pipe at the imminent hazard of her life. She, however, escaped in safety.

Mrs. Day, another attendant who was sleeping in the same room as Mrs. Hills, jumped from the bedroom window on to the roof of the dining room, a dozen feet below, and in so doing rather seriously injured her ankle. She was assisted down from the roof to the yard below and reached the ground in safety.

During the morning the schools were visited by Mr. H. J. Cook, the chairman of the Committee of Management, and Mr. W. Vallance, the clerk of the Committee. Several members of the Corporation also visited the spot, as well as Mr. Angell, borough engineer.

The following are the names of those children who are known to be suffocated:

Augustus Flowers, aged 10, of 1, Laura Cottages, Millwall ; Theophilus Flowers, aged 9, 1, Laura Cottages, Millwall; John Jones, aged 7,  4, Island Street, Brunswick Road, Poplar; John Taylor, aged 7,  3, Amiel Street, Bromley; Michael Vassum, aged 8, mother in Whitechapel Workhouse; Frederick Smith, aged 9, 50, Church Street, Whitechapel; Edward Kilburn, aged 9, mother inmate in Poplar Workhouse; John Joyce, aged 10, 61, Apperion Road, Bow; Richard Page, aged 7, 45, Vanne Street, Bromley; James Potts, aged 10, 4, Newham Buildings, Pelham Street, Whitechapel; William Hume, aged 9, 52, Railway Street, Bromley ; Frank Chalk, aged 7, of Whitechapel; Herbert Russell, aged 10, mother in Croydon Workhouse; James Rolfe, aged 8,  61, Milton Road, Bow; Thomas North, aged 12, of Poplar Union; Walter Searle, aged 9, an orphan, from Poplar; Charles Biddick, aged 12,  4, Medway Road, Mile End; Frederick Scott, aged 7, 9, Oliver's Court, Bow Road; Henry Sowerbutts, aged 10, mother in Poplar Workhouse; Gilbert Allison, aged 10, 3, Charles Street, Millwall; Thomas Hughes, aged 11, father in Poplar Workhouse; William Dawson, aged 7, mother in Bow Infirmary; Frederick Wigmore, aged 8, mother in Croydon Workhouse; William Sillitoe, aged 9, father in Whitechapel Infirmary; Arthur Pigeon, aged 9, 31, Burdett Road, Bow; Albert Smith, aged 12, 14, Mansfield Road, Millwall.

Memorial obelisk to tragedy victims,
West Ham cemetery -
just behind the site of the school

By noon 14 out of the 26 bodies had been identified by the official of the school, but only the bodies of the brothers Flowers had been identified by their brother William. The dead bodies of the unfortunate boys lay in two rows along the sides of one of the sick wards of the schools. Parents or friends having boys in the home, and naturally apprehensive as to the fate of their offspring were continually arriving, and within the four walls of this impromptu mortuary sorrowful scenes were enacted  men and women scanning with well-nigh unnatural eagerness the faces of the small, cold forms around.

Dedication message at base of memorial obelisk

The children lay wrapped in blankets, with the faces only exposed, and a glance at the features was enough to show that in 25 of the 26 cases death was due purely to suffocation; the expressions upon the faces are in most cases those of children "caught in sleep." One poor bairn lay face on hand, others had the mouth open indicating the sound sleep of childhood, while scarcely upon one of those cold, upturned faces was there a feature distorted by agony. The body which is burned is reduced almost to a cinder, and its identification will be a matter of great difficulty.

Woodcut memorial of the fire

Much assistance was rendered to the school officials by Mr. Thomas Oakley, of 24, Tower Hamlets Street, Mr. W. George Oakley, his son, and Mr. John Malcolm and his son, who live next door. The yards of the house occupied by Messrs. Oakley and Malcolm adjoin the outer wall of the school premises. Young Mr. Oakley's parents had retired, but he was sitting up awaiting the return of his sister from a watch night service.

He heard cries of fire, and went into the yard, when he saw smoke proceeding from the schools. He at once aroused his father, and Mr. Malcolm and his son were also called. All four climbed the boundary wall of the school premises, and assisted the yardsmen to remove the boys. The smoke was so thick that they could not see the boys, but they could hear their cries. They helped Mrs. Hill and Mrs. Davy to alight from the roof of the dining hall.

Miss Julia Bloomfield, mistress of the wardrobe room, who was nearly overcome by the smoke, has made the following statement:

I was in bed, though not quite asleep, when I smelt a strange odour. I went downstairs, and then saw flames at the top of the partition between the wardrobe-room and the needle-room. I went back and called Miss Terry. I rang the bell on the staircase, and called up all the other officers. This was about 20 minutes past 12. Miss Terry ran up and got the keys from the officer who kept them, while I rang the bell. Then we both ran downstairs, and unlocked the dining-hall door. She ran to wake the matron, while I ran across the dining-hall and went to Miss Collyer's room. By the time I got back all the officers were aroused.

 Mr. Duncan, the superintendent, with the 'Fire Queen' machine on his back, began to play upon the flames. By this time the smoke had become so dense that I was nearly overcome, and had not Miss Terry caught hold of me I must have fallen. How Mr. Duncan remained so long as he did in the smoke I don't know, but he stayed there playing on the flames with the 'Fire Queen' until the arrival of the firemen. Meanwhile the other officers - Mr. Elliott, Mr. Hare and Mr. O'Brien - were getting the boys out, and they rescued all who were saved. Those who lost their lives were apparently suffocated, for only one body appears to have been burnt.

Every officer in the building came on the scene within a few moments of the alarm being given. Nothing more could have been done, and the utmost was done to save the boys. We have passed through a dreadful night, and one which we shall never forget so long as we live.

Miss Terry, head sewing mistress, corroborated Miss Bloomfield's statement. She adds that she herself had the presence of mind to place a thick cloak across her mouth, and thus, being not so much affected by the smoke as Miss Bloomfield, was enabled to assist her at the time she needed help. She went through the wardrobe-room with Miss Bloomfield between ten and eleven o'clock to see that all the fires and lights were out, and to lock up.

Memorial card, used as a fund raiser to help
relatives, and pay for memorial obelisk

Miss Bloomfield's room is the first room on the first floor, and as she usually sleeps with her door open, the smoke gained easy access to the room. She had only just retired, and consequently was on the alert in a moment. Miss Terry was unable to give an opinion as to the cause of the fire, but stated that the heating pipe had been swept at five o'clock the previous afternoon, and the sweep had requested that the fire should be lighted in order to see whether it burned all right. This was done with apparently satisfactory results.

The wardrobe-room was fitted up with little square racks, in which the children placed their clothes. The insurance company had insisted upon a large space being left around this pipe, and this was done. While the school authorities had not placed any of the clothes' racks near the pipe, they had never known the pipe to become overheated before, and had no reason to suppose it was overheated on the present occasion.

George Hare, a young fellow, aged 22, who is engaged as yardsman and slept on the top floor on the dormitory, says that he was first awakened at about twenty-five minutes to twelve o'clock by the boys calling out. The gas had been put out at eight o'clock, and he went to bed at half-past nine. When he awoke the top dormitory was full of smoke, and he could hardly see any of the lads. He rushed first to the door leading down to the dining hall, but the smoke on the landing was so dense that he had to turn back. He then rushed to the external staircase, calling to the boys to follow him, and driving some on in front.

As he passed the dormitory beneath he found that also full of dense and pungent smoke. He helped some of the lads out and when he reached the bottom of the stone staircase he found that the outer door had already been forced open from the outside by Mr. Elliott, one of the officials of the receiving ward. Eyre and Elliott afterwards groped their way upstairs, and brought several lads down, and Eyre went up a second time and brought out a boy who stood on a staircase perfectly motionless. He brought him out, and then essayed to return but the smoke was too dense, and suffocating.

Then Mrs. Hill, one of the scullery maids, got out of one of the top floor windows, and went down a water pipe. In the same room was Mrs. Davies, a bread-room maid. She jumped through the window on to an outhouse, and was rescued by the men. This was an extraordinary leap. The distance must have been fully 12 feet, and was in a slanting direction - to the right - from the bedroom window to the roof, where the slates are broken by the force of Mrs. Davies' fall. How she escaped serious injury is a marvel.

The sewing-room and wardrobe-room are completely wrecked by the fire, and in the dormitory immediately above (No. 9 dormitory) the damage done by the flames is also very considerable, but in the top-room (No. 10 dormitory), the damage is comparatively slight. And yet in the topmost dormitory the number of dead was as great, if not greater than in the room below, plainly showing that death was by suffocation.

The number of children now in the institution is nearly 550. The clothing in the wardrobe room was that of the girls with the underclothing of the boys.

At the further end of No. 10 dormitory - the end opposite to that by which access is usually gained - there is a second staircase (we believe, of wood) which is considerably scorched, whilst outside the window another means of escape in case of emergency has been provided. The window had only to be opened and the children could drop onto a lead-covered platform, from which, by easy stages, they might slide down to the ground.

We are informed that the West Ham Cemetery officials have offered ground for the internments.

The fifty-eight lads who were so happily saved are now none the worse for their peril. Their memories of their awakening are, however, confused. Some were aroused by the coughing of a comrade, and jumped out of bed. Many not realising what was happening, and half asleep, returned to the warm bed clothes again, and now lie in blankets on the infirmary floor. Even one of the men is said, when told of the fire, to have answered, "Nonsense; they are only getting the fire ready for the pudding." One or two boys in the lower dormitory jumped out upon the window ledges. Others were dragged out by their brothers or companions.

One lad told how he heard Elliott (who was the first to enter No. 10) shouting through the smoke, "Come out, boys!" Did he know Elliott's voice? "Certain, 'twas Elliott that was sent to hunt 'em up when they ran away." Jones, a smart boy, heard another boy cough, leaped out of bed and went to look for his little brother. Little brother insisted upon putting on his socks before he left the ward, and fell down on the floor never to rise again. Jones began to choke too, but was hauled out by Elliott into the fresh air.

A small chap now broke in, pointing to a still smaller, a child of seven, who had to be collared before he would escape, and the brothers now stood side by side to tell the story the youngest laughing as he confessed, "He hiked me out by the braces, sir." A shock-headed youth, who kept in the background, was strongly suspected of having rescued a comrade by thrashing him into movement.

Harrison, sturdy, but not big, came out of the smoke dragging an urchin in each hand. "And I heard Jack say he'd go back for Tommy. He said, 'I'm a goin' to give my life up. I am agoin' back,' " was the statement of yet another, who knew by this time that Jack, alas, was amongst those silent ones in the infirmary.

Through the courtesy of the Rev. Deans Cowan, the acting chaplain, a Press representative had the opportunity of seeing the boys who so narrowly escaped. Seated round a fire in one of the wards of the receiving-house were a couple of dozen lads, who stood up to greet their chaplain as he entered.

These boys were all sleeping in the upper ward, the one in which most deaths occurred. Fourteen boys succumbed in the upper ward from suffocation purely, as no flame whatever reached this room, while, strange to say, only 12 deaths occurred in the lower ward, which was nearer the fire, Henry Barbington, a bright-eyed little fellow of 12, told a graphic and intelligent story of his experiences.:

"The first thing I knew was I woke with the screaming. Mr. Hare, the yardsman, sleeps on our floor, and I heard a lot of the boys calling Mr. Hare. We could not wake him, he was so sound. Then I heard Mrs. Hills knocking at the door with all her might."

For the Forest Gate Times account of Christmas Day in this workhouse institution, see here.  Last week we provided a general history of the buildings of the old industrial school, and other local Poor Law schools of the time.  See here

Post Script

In November 2014 we added the following post script to this story:


Illustrated London News 11 Jan 1890,
Industrial school fire, dormitory
where children suffocated (1)

We have recently come across a copy of the Illustrated London News of 11 January 1890. This included sketches of the fire at the Forest Gate Industrial School, on the previous New Year's Eve.

We reproduce these, below, which should be viewed in conjunction with our article on the fire, in May of this year.



Illustrated London News 11 Jan 1890,
Industrial school fire, general view of building

The original story, with the sketches added as postscripts, can be accessed here. 

Fire Guts Famous Gym

Fire gutted the site of Wag Bennett's gym - 'Muscle Mansion' - on Romford Road in the early hours of 13 April this year. The photo shows firefighters at work trying to salvage this famous Forest Gate landmark. 



Fire fighters attending the Romford
 Road blaze on 13 April 2013

Bennett was a Newham boy, born in Canning Town in 1930, who died in Forest Gate in 2008. He was famous in his own right in the body-building community, but is perhaps best known as the man who "spotted" Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1966 and helped launch his career as a bodybuilder, before AS became a Hollywood star and latterly governor of California.

Wag was one of the judges at the Mr Universe competition in 1966 when Schwarzenegger, aged 19, was beaten into second place.  Something about the young Austrian impressed Bennett and his wife, Dianne, and they invited him to live with them and their six children in their flat above the Romford Road gym.  Wag trained him and took him to see his first ever movie, at the Mile End Odeon, while Dianne taught him English.

  

Arnold stayed with the Bennetts, whom he called his "British parents", between 1966 and 1968, during which time he became Mr Universe for the first time.

By a bizarre co-incidence this covered the very time when Jimi Hendrix appeared at the Upper Cut club, just around the corner in Woodgrange Road and where he composed the iconic Purple Haze, on Boxing Day 1966.  This incident will be a feature in a future E7 Now And Then post. We do not know whether Schwarzenegger and Hendrix met then, or, indeed, subsequently.

Schwarzenegger, with Wag and Dianne Bennett and
some of their children, during his stay in Forest Gate

Schwarzenegger and Bennett outside
 335, Romford Road c 1967

Schwarzenegger was not the Bennetts' only claim to fame.  Dianne coached a troupe of muscle-women 'Dianne Bennett's Glamour Girls' in her gym on the corner of Green Street and Romford Road.  Wag trained a number of other muscle-men, including Mr Universe title holders Reg Park and Robby Robinson, as well as the Incredible Hulk, Lou Ferrigno.

The gym became almost a shrine to British bodybuilders and much of its interior, during its prime, displayed more than passing references to religious imagery, as some of the archive photos, below, show.

It remained a working gym well into the 21st century, as a couple of photographs illustrate.

Schwarzenegger kept in touch with Bennett for over 40 years, as the photos below indicate.  Arniold sent a memorial message to Wag's funeral in 2008.

  

  

The gym from the outside seemed like the small church hall that it had originally been, next to just one more of the triple-fronted houses on Romford Road, until it was put up for sale, following Bennett's death in 2008.

Perhaps the only external sign of its bodybuilding-gym-role came in the form of the lamp post that illuminated the front doorway to the now-damaged house.

Some of the internal shots of the gym, before it closed, won't be to everyone's taste. The images have more religious overtones, in their dedication worship of 'the body beautiful'. 

Given the almost religious nature of many of the displays in the gym, it is perhaps fitting that the building has reverted to its original purpose since its sale by the Bennett estate.  It is now the home of the Destiny Apostolic Church International.

Our thanks to the body building community, and Neil Beaumont for use of many of the images on this page.

More details and photos can be found on: A tribute to Wag Bennett

Story: Lloyd Jeans and John Walker, April 2013

Post script

In November 2014 we added the following post script to this article:

One of the most viewed articles on this site was the first (it's been all downhill since!), on the fire at Wag Bennett's gym, on Romford Road in April 2013.


Wag's house and gym (1), November 2014

The post has been viewed by a large number of both body builders and Arnold's fans, as far as we have been aware. Not all of them will pass the sorry state that is the building, eighteen months after the fire.

The building has been squatted and vandalised, but has more recently been boarded up and secured. Quite how effective this will prove to be, without a roof(!), remains to be seen.


Wag's house and gym (2), November 2014

So we are producing a two photos taken a couple of days ago, primarily for the benefit of blog visitors from beyond our local boundaries.

The original article, with these photos as a postscript can be accessed here.