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.

Samuel Gurney (1786 - 1856) - Forest Gate's most influential resident

We have written, in passing, frequently about Samuel Gurney - who has probably been Forest Gate's most influential (both locally and nationally) resident. And here we touched on his literal and metaphorical monumental legacy.

This article presents a biography of the man, himself.

He was born on 18 October 1786 in Earlham Hall, Norfolk. The buildings - see photo - now constitute part of the University of East Anglia.

Earlham Hall - the family seat - today,
 as part of the University of East Anglia

The Gurney family can be traced back to the Norman Conquest, when ancestors were given areas of Norfolk as part of William 1's English control and pacification process.

The family had lived in Earlham Hall, as tenants, for over half a century before Samuel was born. Sixteen years before his birth, they established a local Norfolk bank - Gurney's.

As Quakers, the family were denied access to many of the traditional routes of the sons of the rich and famous - university, the army, some professions etc - but not banking. Like the Jewish community, many members were almost forced into the looked-down upon (by the upper class) fields of commerce and banking in order to make a living.

In 1800, aged 14, the young Gurney was placed in the counting house of his brother-in-law, Joseph Fry, in St Mildred's Court, Poultry in the City. Joseph was married to Samuel's older sister, Elizabeth - the prison reformer.  The "favour" by Joseph to Samuel was later returned - see later.

Samuel Gurney (1786 - 1856)

In 1807 Gurney joined the firm of Richardson and Overend, which, over the course of the next few years, became the most significant retail bank in England.

The following year, Samuel married Elizabeth, daughter of James Sheppard of Ham House (which was to become the family seat and provide the grounds 65 years later for West Ham Park - see here). Samuel inherited and moved in to the property on the death of his father-in-law (in the days before the Married Women's Property Act) in 1812.

Samuel and Elizabeth had two children by the time they took possession of Ham House and set about making alterations to it, that made it a Georgian house of distinction. At the time it had about a dozen live-in servants.

Ham House, pre- destruction

In 1809 he borrowed money from his father and father-in-law and bought into the bank in which he was working and had it re-branded as Overend, Gurney and Co.

During the financial crisis of 1825 his bank lent money to a number of other London banks in temporary financial difficulties. For the next 30 years it was to be the largest discounting house in the world. Thus, Gurney became known as 'the bankers' banker' and many firms began to deposit money with his institution in preference to the Bank of England.

Having impressively stamped his mark on the banking world, Gurney devoted much of the rest of his life to his two main passions - land acquisition and disposal in Forest Gate and a variety of (even today) impressively liberal philanthropic endeavours.

Philanthropy

Chronologically, the philanthropic endeavours came first. They are worthy of - and have been recorded in - many histories. For brevity's sake, the more significant of them were:

• Supporting, financially, his sister Elizabeth, the prison reformer and brother-in-law Joseph Fry - who had kick started his career. The Frys were hit in the financial crises of the mid 1820's and were forced to sell their grand house in Plashet - now host to Plashet Park and the borough's registration offices. Gurney rented them Cedar House, next to his own home of Ham House, in Portway. (This later became home to the Territorial Army - ironically for a property owned by pacifist Quakers).

Elizabeth Fry - reading to
prisoners in Newgate Prison

• Supported another brother-in-law, Edward Buxton and his father Fowell Buxton - in the anti-slavery movement. He attended the 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention in 1840 - see picture (in National Portrait Gallery) - below, and was for a while chairman of the organisation.

Gurney, front row, far left at the 1840
 World Anti-Slavery Convention

• Played a significant part in helping to established the African state of Liberia, as a home for slaves freed from Europe and America. Such was his contribution to the establishment to the country, that he had a town named after him there.

• Was a staunch opponent of capital punishment; and was threatened with prosecution himself for refusing to prosecute a man who forged his signature, knowing that the result would be capital punishment for the offender.

• Was patron of two non-conformist British and Foreign Society Schools (see here for details) in Stratford: one for boys and another for girls. He left an annuity of £150 - c£15,000 today - for the future development of the two schools in his will. This passed to West Ham School Board, on its formation - and now rests with Newham Council.

•  Was the national treasurer for the non- conformist British and Foreign Schools Society from 1843, until his death in 1856. He left the Society £5,000 (c £500,000 today), on his death.

Samuel Gurney in 1840

• Although a Quaker, he was non-sectarian in his approach to education. So, he also supported Church of England schools. In 1853 he donated land on the corner of Woodgrange Road and Forest Street to build Emmanuel (later St Saviours) National School.

• Toured Ireland in 1849 and made many donations to those affected by the Potato HUnger of that decade.

• Established the Poplar Hospital for Accidents in 1853, to look after injured dock workers, in the first instant.

• In 1856, his will gifted £800 - c £78,000 today - for the "maintenance and winding up of clocks in public places" in Forest Gate, including one to be erected on Forest Gate Congregational Church. Since 1860 the income has been given to West Ham, now Newham, Council.

Local land acquisition and disposal

Having inherited the area of what is now West Ham Park from his father-in-law in 1812, Gurney was quiet on the local land acquisition front until his effective retirement from his successful banking career.

His transactions and their subsequent disposals, however, have shaped the area, making what is recognisably Forest Gate, today.

in 1851 he bought the 131 acres of Hamfrith Farm/estate for £17,710 - c £2,250,000, at today's prices - from the Greenhill estate. This was roughly the area between Romford Road and Wanstead Flats, to the east of Woodgrange Road, as far as Station Road, Manor Park.

Two years later he bought the 200 acres of the Woodgrange farm - most of the Forest Gate area to the west of Woodgrange Road.

He also acquired about 250 acres in what was then Little Ilford (now Manor Park) and acquired the Lordship of the manors of Woodgrange and Hamfrith.

He promptly resold much of the land he had acquired, to become the West Ham and Jewish cemeteries, as well as the Industrial School on Forest Lane (see here and here, for details).

Ever the astute businessman, he clearly saw the development opportunities with the arrival of the railways into Forest Gate (see here); and in the short period  remaining in his life, began to package some of the land up, with a view to housing development resale.

So, from 1855, development started on the Gurney and Dames estates - to the west and north of Forest Gate station (see here, for details).

He died on 5 June 1856 and was buried in the Friends' burial grounds in Barking. He was survived by 9 children and 40 grandchildren. His oldest son died soon after and the estate subsequently transferred to his grandson, John.

Within 10 years, however, the bank that Samuel Gurney established and built became mired in severe financial difficulties, by diversifying into greedy, risky projects (sound familiar?) and faced bankruptcy. Many shareholders, including members of the Gurney family, lost fortunes and faced financial ruin.

It was this crash that spurred the rapid building boom in Forest Gate, as grandson John disposed of land and property in order to stabilise family finances.

Most notable among the disposals was the sale of the family home, in 1872, to become West Ham Park (see here), for a knocked down price of £15,000 - c £1.5 million, today.

The grounds of Ham House, before being
 turned into West Ham Park, in 1874

Also, in 1872, he sold most of the north side of what had been the Hamfrith estate to the British Land Company, which, in turn sold some to the Manor Park Cemetery Company (see here) and enabled the development of much of which in estate agents-speak is now known as "The Forest Gate Village".

Thomas Corbett acquired much of the south side of the Hamfrith estate and developed it into what is now the Woodgrange estate, between 1877 and 1892 (see here).

The period 1870 - 1890 saw the development of the western end of Forest Gate, from lands that had been part of the Gurney estate. This lead to the construction of Hamfrith, Atherton, Sprowston (see here), Norwich and Clova Roads,. as well as Earlham Grove (see here).

So, Quaker, banker, philanthropist, land-owner, Samuel Gurney stands as the man whose property dealings lay the foundations of Forest Gate, as we know it today.

He is most visibly remembered locally not in Forest Gate, but by the obelisk and drinking fountain in the grounds of St John's church, in Stratford. It is interesting that there should be a monument to a Quaker in the grounds of a prominent CofE church - but such was the regard in which he was held locally.

An 1861 drawing of the Gurney
memorial, soon after its erection

The monument is 40 feet high and made of granite. It was unveiled in 1861, having been designed by Gurney's fellow Norfolk-man, John Bell.

The inscription reads:

In remembrance of Samuel Gurney, who died on 5th of June 1856. Erected by his fellow parishioners and Friends (Quakers) 1861.

When the ear heard him, then it blessed him.

 (ed: this is a paraphrase from the Book of Job) 

One final point. Although the bank that Gurney turned into such a success bombed a decade after his death, its entrails survive as part of what is now Barclays Bank. If only he had been around in 2008 to offer them his counsel, prior to the banking crash of 2008.

Forest Gate Industrial school - The 1890 inquest and background to its 1906 closure

We have written previously about one of the earliest significant institutions to built in Forest Gate: the Industrial School, on Forest Lane. See here for a general history of the school, here for an account of the devastating fire that suffocated 26 boys under the age of 12 on New Year's day, 1890, and here for an account of conditions in the school on Christmas Day, 1897.

This post provides more detail on two key aspects of its history: a brief account and sketch of the early stages of the inquest into the 1890 fire, and a detailed account of the circumstances resulting in its closure - largely through the efforts of some very effective Guardians, who themselves had experienced Industrial School life, and wanted better for future generations.

Site of the former Forest Gate
Industrial School, Forest Lane

The institution was established on former Samuel Gurney land in the mid 1850's, as a school for the children of paupers kept in the Whitechapel workhouse. It later also took in children from Hackney and Poplar workhouses; and at its peak accommodated 600 children, as boarders.

It closed in 1906, became an extension of the Poplar workhouse for a few years, then a general infirmary and ended its public service life as Forest Gate Maternity hospital, from 1930 - 1986.  It is now the Gladys Dimson housing development.

The inquest

We have provided harrowing and graphic contemporary accounts of the 1890 fire in previous posts - see above.

Artist impression of fire at the school, January 1890

We have recently come across a copy of The Graphic, an illustrated weekly newspaper, dated 11 January 1890 offering more details to our understanding of the inquest of the fire - complete with a sketch composed at it.

The Graphic - 11 Jan 1890 'The disastrous
 fire at Forest Gate district school,
 the relatives of the victims at the inquest'

Below is the coverage the paper gave to the inquest, of particular interest is the section that reads:

It seems clear that an over-heated stove pipe was the origin of the mischief. The tragedy is rendered more affecting by the fact that the children, who in such an institution unavoidably lead such monotonous lives, had on the 31st been taken to see the pantomime at the Stratford Theatre, and were looking forward to New Year's Day as an occasion of great festivity.

Our sketch represents the scene at the inquest, which opened on January 2nd by Mr CC Lewis, Coroner of South Essex, in one of the girls' school rooms at the institution. Among the persons present, besides the officials connected with the schools, were twenty or thirty relatives of deceased children.

The principal witness examined on the first day was Mr Charles Duncan, the superintendent of the institution. He endeavoured to put out the flames with a "Fire Queen" (a chemical extinguisher), and partially succeeded. Indeed to his courage and promptitude the preservation of the other parts of the building is due, but he was eventually driven back and almost suffocated by the dense smoke.

Excerpt from The Graphic, 11 Jan 1890

Circumstances and context around its closure

The school survived the fire and continued in service for a further decade and a half.

A good understanding of the reasons for its closure, and relocation to Hutton, Essex, can be gleaned from the memoirs of the chairman of the Board of Guardians at the time of its closure - Will Crooks (From Workhouse to Westminster - the life story of Will Crooks MP, by George Haw 1907).

Crooks was born into poverty in Poplar in 1852. His father was disabled (or "a cripple" as the biography states in the language of the time), unable to work, following an industrial accident and forced onto parish relief.


The family of eight were paid two or three shillings a week (10p - 15p) outdoor relief, by the time Will was eight years old (1860), which barely kept them from starvation. The Poplar Board of Guardians then determined that the family should be sent to the workhouse, down by the Millwall docks for a period.

According to Haw: 

The lad was ravenously hungry all the time he spent in the workhouse. He often felt at times as though he could eat leather; yet every morning when the "skilly" (ed: a very watery porridge/gruel) was served for breakfast, he could not touch it.

For two or three weeks the Crooks children were kept in the workhouse before being taken away in an omnibus with other boys to the Poor Law school at Sutton. Then came the most agonising experience of all to Will. They parted him from his younger brother.

In the great hall of the school he would strain his eyes, hoping to get a glimpse of the lone little fellow among the other lads, but he never set eyes on him again until the afternoon, when they went home together."

The Crooks family, about the time they
 were sent to the workhouse.  Young
 Will is second from the right,
leaning on his father's shoulder

Every day I spent in that school is burned on my soul", he has often declared since.

It was from this house that he saw a bread riot in the winter of 1860, when he got the first of many impressions he was to receive of what a winter of bad trade means to a district of casual labour like Poplar."

Sights like these of his childhood, with the shuddering memories of his own dark days in the workhouse school made him register a vow, little chap though he was at the time, that when he grew up to be a man he would do all he could to make better and brighter the lot of the inmates, especially that of the boys and girls.

This traumatic experience and lasting memory was later to have a profound effect on the future of the Forest Gate Industrial school, on Forest Lane.

Crook's career projectory was dramatic, given his humble origins. As a dock worker, he was a prominent figure in the famous 1889 London Dock Strike (known for its demand to get "The Dockers' Tanner" - an hourly rate of 2.5d per hour).

Crooks, on the way up the social
 scale - from workhouse, to Parliament

In the days before the establishment of the Labour Party, Crooks was elected, under the Progressive banner, as a member of the then London County Council, in 1892.

Within three years, he was elected the first working class member of the Poplar Board of Guardians, where he was soon joined by fellow local progressive politician, George Lansbury. Crooks was appointed chairman of the Guardians in 1897 and set upon a series of dramatic reforms.

He dwelt on his own memorable experiences as a workhouse child to introduce significant changes in the Poplar Union, and at the Forest Gate Industrial school, in particular.

We draw heavily on the Haw biography to explain what Crooks did to change conditions at the Forest Gate - including abolishing uniforms and improving food - and how this eventually lead to its closure and transit to Hutton, in Essex.

The Guardian's school at Forest Gate lay four miles from the Union buildings in Poplar .. with five or six hundred children always under training in the school.

He helped banish all the suggested pauperism from the Forest Gate school. The children were educated and grew up, not like workhouse children, as before, but like the children of working class parents. With what result?

Marked out in their childhood as being "from the workhouse", they often bore the stamp all of their life and ended up as workhouse inmates in their manhood and womanhood.

Under the new system they were made to feel like ordinary working class children. They grew up like them, becoming ordinary working-men and working-women themselves; so the Poor Law knew them no longer.

If I cant appeal to your moral sense, let me appeal to your pocket", Crook once remarked in a Guildhall Poor Law Conference. "Surely it is far cheaper to be generous in training Poor Law children to take their place in life as useful citizens than it is to give the children a niggardly training and a branded career.

This latter way soon leads them to the workhouse again, to be kept out of the rates for the rest of their lives."

How far the principle was carried out at Forest  Gate may be judged from the (undated) report made by Mr Diggard, HM Inspector of Schools, after one visit.  Thus:

"There is very little (if any) of the institution's mark among the children ... Both boys and girls are in a highly satisfactory state, showing increased efficiency with increased intelligence on the part of the children ... They compare very favourably with the best elementary schools."

In all that related to games and healthful recreation Crooks agreed in giving the scholars the fullest facilities. The lads were encouraged to send their football and cricket teams to play other schools. The girls developed under drill and gymnastic training, and became proficient swimmers.

In fact, the scholars at Forest Gate began to count for something. They learned to trust each other and to rely upon themselves. They grew up with hope and courage. The learned to walk honourably before all men. In consequence thousands of them have emerged in the great working world outside, self-respecting men and women.

 I met Crooks looking elated one evening and he told me that he had just come from the Poor Law schools' swimming competition at Westminster Baths.

There were three trophies" he said "The first, the London Shield was for boys. Poplar (i.e. the Forest Gate school) won with 85 marks ... The second was the Portsmouth Shield.. our girls won that with 65 marks. The third was the Whitehall Shield, for the school as a whole with the highest number of marks also won. I feel as pleased as though I had done it myself.

The best administration in an out-of-date building is always hampered. Forest Gate belonged to the old order of Poor Law schools known as barrack buildings. Although the Guardians made the very best of the school, there structural defects that hindered the work seriously.

It was therefore decided to build cottage houses at Shenfield in Essex (the Hutton school), where special effort is being made to train girls as well as boys in rural pursuits in order to keep them out of the over-crowded cities.

This transfer took place in 1906, and lead to the closure of the Forest Lane establishment as a school and transformation to an annexe for the Poplar workhouse.

The new "extrvagently
 designed" school, at Shenfield

By this time, Crooks had become the first working class mayor of Poplar, in 1901, and elected as MP for Woolwich in 1903.

Will Crooks, MP for Woolwich

The improved conditions that Crooks and the other Guardians brought for workhouse children did not go unopposed. They were accused of extravagance and squandering public money - for providing decent food and living conditions at Hutton. Crooks, himself, as an MP, had to face a Parliamentary Committee in 1906 to explain these "extravagances".  He and the Guardians were largely exonerated.

He remained an MP for Woolwich until his death, on 5 June 1921. Unlike other early Labour MP's, he was a jingoistic supported of World War 1.

His legacy, however, will be more defined by the transformation of the lives of workhouse children - many from Forest Gate, that he enabled.  Also, for laying the foundations for the kind of radical defiance that his former colleagues on Poplar council exercised to get major changes to Poor Law funding, from almost the moment of his death, from 1922.

Will Crooks' tombstone,
Tower Hamlets cemetery

The Forest Gate Industrial school story

One of the most popular items on this site has been the reproduction of the Forest Gate Times account of Christmas Day in the (Forest Gate) Workhouse, 1896 - see here, last December.

Newham maternity hospital -
former industrial school - in 1970s

We are following it up, as promised, with a general history of the Forest Lane establishment, and next week will present a very graphic newspaper account of its most tragic moment - a fire on New Year's day 1890 - in which 26 of its pupils were suffocated.

Many uses

The school was erected in 1852-54 by the Whitechapel Board of Guardians, and since that time has undergone several changes of ownership and uses, including as a workhouse, general and then maternity hospital.  It is currently a residential development - Gladys Dimson House.

The building was initially constructed to provide a school for boys some distance from the choked inner districts of East London.  It was used as an Industrial  school from 1854 to 1906, formally becoming part of the Forest Gate School District in 1868.

Children parading outside Lambth's industrial
school, similar to Forest Gate's c 1905

It was converted to  an annex to the Poplar Workhouse between 1908 - 1911, when it was bought by the West Ham Union (Poor Law Guardians), which then reopened it in 1913 as a workhouse infirmary.  The site was  converted, yet again, into the Forest Gate Sick Home between 1913 and 1930, by which time it had 500 beds for maternity, mental and chronic sick cases. An extension with 200 beds was added in 1931. It formally became the Forest Gate Hospital (maternity) from 1929 - 1973.
 
The hospital suffered severe bomb damage in 1940 and new maternity wards were built in 1950.

After a period of disuse, it has been sensitively restored to become residential accommodation, for the last quarter of a century. The principal building still retains its mid Victorian institutional appearance. It is a brick range, 15 bays long, with three storeys
.
The 1890 fire was undoubtedly the most significant event of its century and a half plus history. There had been a number of fires in Industrial Schools throughout England in the 1850's - 1880's, and so, in 1882 the Local Government Board urged local Poor Law Guardians to make proper fire escape provisions.

 Fire

The fire in Forest Gate in on New Year's day 1890, however, when two dormitories were destroyed and 26 boys under the age of 12 were suffocated lead to the government taking more 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.

The disaster caused similar institutions to review fire precautions and stimulated interest in 'scattered home' instead 'barrack' schools. Poplar Poor Law Union continued to maintain the school until 1906, when the children were transferred to a new school at Hutton, Essex.

Bomb damage

The second World War provided more dramatic moments for the establishment (by now a hospital) It was hit directly, or collaterally on five nights/days during the war. These were on 2 October, 1940 (hit by high explosives); 9, October 1940 (suffered collateral damage); 15 October, 1940 (high explosives); 9 December 1940 (incendiary bombs); 3 March 1943 (collateral damage) and 29 Jan 1944(hit by a flying bomb).


Bomb damage to maternity hospital,
9 December 1940

Although there was considerable damage as a result of these actions, thankfully,  they resulted in only one direct death, Elizabeth Sinclair, aged 61 - on 2 October 1940. The photo below shows a limited amount of damage to the hospital (mainly windows) following the bomb two months later, on  9 December 1940.

Although the Forest Lane institution was this area's largest visible connection with Poor Law and workhouse institutions, there were other, notable local facilities.


Dilapidated maternity hospital,
just before conversion into flats

Other local workhouse connections

From 1870 -75 the Forest Gate District School operated a training ship called The Goliath, moored on the Thames.  This provided pauper boys from the District with instruction in all aspects of seamanship to help equip them for entry to the Royal or Merchant Navy. The scheme was highly successful, although,  in another appalling tragedy affecting the Forest Gate workhouse institutions, it was destroyed by fire on 22 December 1875, with the loss of 23 lives.

Its replacement, The Exmouth, was moored off Grays in Essex and continued the role. This, however, was managed by the Metropolitan Asylums Board. It took boys from all over London, and from the 1890s, from beyond the capital. By this time it was training as many young boys for navy life as all other similar institutions in rest of the country, together.

Boys training on HMS Exmouth, photo
undated, but early 20th century

The Forest Gate Industrial school was not the first of its kind in Newham.  The Stepney parish of St George's -in-the East established an industrial school at Plashet in 1851 - 52, at the junction of Shaftesbury Road and Green Street (see figure) for its pauper children.


St George's Industrial School, Plashet

It  accommodated 150 boys and 120 girls and 80 infants. In addition to the school rooms and dormitories it had a wash house and a laundry. Animal husbandry was taught to girls and boys alike in the farm complex on the girls side of the establishment. This included piggeries, a stable and cow-houses. Other detached buildings on the site included a bailiff's house, a porter's lodge and an infirmary.


Undated plans for the Plashet Industrial school

Although in open countryside at the time of its construction, the school became engulfed in urban sprawl by the 1890's, as a result of the rapid population growth in the area. It closed in 1927 and the building was converted into the Carlton, later ABC Cinema and several shops. These closed in 1983 and the site is now a car park.


Carlton Cinema stood in Green Street.
It was built in 1927 on the site of the old
St-George's-in-the-East industrial school
and was built in an exotic "Egyptian" style
using decorative tiles. It stood until the 1980s,
when it was demolished. For a time it was called
the ABC Cinema. The rear of the site is now a
car park although there are still
shops along the Green Street frontage.

St George's was one of three such schools in East Ham. Another was St Nicolas RC school, Gladding Road, Manor Park. It was opened in 1868 in the Manor House (one of the Fry family's homes) and was closed in 1925 and sold to the Co-op. The third East Ham Industrial school was St Edward's RC, opened in 1875 at Green St House (the Boleyn Castle).  It closed in 1906 and is now part of the West Ham FC grounds.


Manor House, Manor Park, 1864. The manor house,
which gave Manor Park its name, stands north of
the Romford Road near Gladding Road and Wanstead
flats.In 1866 the house was purchased by the Roman
Catholic church and converted into the St Nicholas
Industrial School for boys. In 1925 the property
was purchased from the church by the London
Co-operative Society, who used it for offices and a
milk depot. The Co-op funeral service is still located
there. The house itself and some of the site has been
converted into residential accommodation.

Christmas day in the Forest Gate Workhouse

Forest Gate Industrial School was located on site of Woodgrange manor, which was purchased in 1847 by Samuel Gurney , Quaker banker and brother of Elizabeth Fry.  It was located in buildings that largely survive today on Forest Lane, opposite the Forest Gate - Stratford railway line.

The school buildings in the 1970's,
by now a maternity hospital

 In 1852 Gurney gave the land to Whitechapel Board of Guardians who built the Forest Gate School for poor children there in 1854. It was residential, and essentially an outpost of the Whitechapel workhouse, away from the choked inner district from which the children sprang.

The Institution was transferred in March, 1869, to the Board of Management of the Forest Gate School District, which comprises Hackney, Poplar and Whitechapel Unions; and remained as a residential unit for children of the workhouse poor.

It was the scene of a tragedy in 1890, which caused the deaths of 26 children (this will be covered in the future, on this site). It remained a school  until 1906, and was for a short period (1908 - 1911) the site of the Poplar Workhouse, itself.

The site subsequently became the location of Forest Gate Sick Home (1913 - 1930), and more recently  a maternity hospital (1930 - 1986).  It suffered serious bomb damage in 1940.

After the hospital was closed, the buildings were turned into flats and their grounds were turned into Forest Lane Park in 1994.  Several of the original Industrial school buildings survive.

Inspired by Dickens, and popular late nineteenth century poems and tales of Christmas day in the workhouse, the short-lived Forest Gate Weekly News paid the institution a series of visits over the Christmas period 1896.

We reproduce, below, their slightly wordy account of what they saw.  It provides a fascinating insight of life for many of Forest Gate's poor children, 117 years ago.

Meanwhile, Happy Christmas to you all, in 2013!

A world within a world; my visits to the Forest Gate District Schools

Front page of Forest Gate Weekly News,
featuring the article reproduced here
1 January 1897

Most Forest Gate residents are familiar with the large building in Forest Lane. But probably few of such residents are aware of the extent of the complementary buildings which stand to the west and rear of the main block, or of the "world within a world" which is living out its life and acting out its daily scenes on some part or other of those thirteen acres which the great rectangular site covers.

The place is altogether too vast to be grasped or understood at a visit. I have made three separate visits during the past week or so and have finally come away pretty fully informed and greatly interested.

Blacksmith workshop at the St Pancras Industrial
School, 1896. Same time, similar project,
to Forest Gate establishment

My first visit was made prior to Christmas, when Mr. Duncan (who has been Superintendent for eighteen years and an official of the Institution for thirty) received me very pleasantly; explained what was projected in the way of Christmas festivity; and gave me a few peeps at the different departments.

 I saw the scores of plum puddings coming out of the coppers in the great kitchen; I saw boys, fresh from the tailors' or bootmakers' shops having their evening spray bath in the large lavatory; and I ascended stairs and looked with strange interest into the bedroom which was the scene of the deplorably fatal fire of several years ago.

 My second visit was on Christmas Day at noon. The sun was shining brightly as the little fellow at the gates let me in and pioneered me to the entrance hall once more; and in the fine dining hall beyond there was a sight such as does not often greet the eyes of the average man - or even journalist. At forty long tables sat over 500 boys and girls. 

Dining hall in central London Industrial School
at the time of publication of Forest Gate article

The roast beef stage was over and the plum pudding stage had begun. Long strings of the youngsters, indeed, were coming up to the serving tables for "another plateful, please", and presently it was evident that, as with the Cratchits - the poor family of an under-paid clerk in Charles Dickens 'A Christmas Carol' - so with these, "everybody had had enough".

Christmas day in the Whitechapel workhouse,
"parental body" of Forest Gate school, in 1874

 At last a gong sounded, and this produced another spectacle that was pleasant to look upon. Every child rose - from the lad of fourteen, ready for the bigger world outside, to the mites of four or five with, probably, many more years of workhouse life ahead of them. The gong sounded again, and now five hundred pairs of hands were reverently folded. A third time the gong sounded; the notes of a harmonium were also heard; and grace was strongly and clearly chanted by all the children, many of whom closed their eyes and moved their heads as if greatly enjoying.

 The only manager present at this Christmas dinner was Mr. W. Crooks, L.C.C., with whom I had a chat and who seemed to take an intense, and yet keenly practical, interest in the proceedings. Asked by Mr. Duncan to say a few words he responded to the invitation in robust and incisive style. He wished the youngsters every enjoyment; said he was sure the big girls would look after the little ones; and expressed the half-dubious hope that the big boys would be equally thoughtful.

 Next came the distribution of fruit and nuts. At the end of each table was a clothes-basket piled high with paper bags, each containing two oranges and a double handful of crack-nuts and chestnuts. As the children files away from the tables, each was enriched with its modicum of dessert, and to see the tiny ones, especially, hugging those bags against their pinafores as they passed out was to understand quite clearly how much difference every one-pennyworth of fruit administered once in twelve months may make, in a pauper child's life.

 But there was still rarer joy beyond. For had not the editor of "Truth" sent full five hundred toys - although not, as one little girl lamented, one single doll amongst them - and were not new sixpences, from the same bountiful source, to presently become as plentiful almost, as blackberries in September.

 Moving about among the children on this joy-producing Christmas Day there were, besides Mr. and Mrs. Duncan and Miss Kemp, the matron, several ladies and gentlemen who seemed no strangers either to the place or the young inmates. These, I learnt, were Sunday School teachers, who, headed by Mr. A.W. Webster, as superintendent, have done, and are doing, excellent Sabbath afternoon work in the large dining hall, where some 50 or 60 classes of boys and girls assemble. 

Postcard from early 20th century,
illustrating a scene from Christmas
Day in the Workhouse

My third and principal visit was made on Tuesday morning last. A dense fog everywhere prevailed and I was glad that I had seen the place under the more cheerful weather conditions of Christmas Day. Mr. Duncan again kindly pioneered me through, and I cannot speak too highly of the courteous attention paid to me by this gentleman. I recognised from the first that it was not, strictly speaking, a local institution that I was visiting, but if it had been one maintained strictly by and for Forest Gate inhabitants I could not have been accorded a better reception.

There may be readers who would like to know exactly what purpose the Forest Gate District Schools serve, by whom and when they were erected, and by whom they are maintained. In a sense their history is to be found cut in marble on the walls of the large entrance hall. Over the fireplace is a sculptured tablet which states that "this Industrial School was erected in 1854 by the Guardians of the Poor of the Whitechapel Union". But it is an Industrial School no longer; for on an opposite tablet one reads: "This Institution was transferred in March, 1869, to the Board of Management of the Forest Gate School District, which comprises Hackney, Poplar and Whitechapel Unions."

Below are set forth the names of the first managers and officers - nineteen in all - and Mr. Duncan, as he stands beside me says: "That tablet is really a gravestone. Of the nineteen whose names are on it only three are now living. Such are the changes that less than thirty years brings about."

I note that of the managers of 1869 the two survivors are Mr. E.N. Buxton and Sir (then Mr.) Edmund Hay Currie.

As managers have changed so have circumstances. First Whitechapel alone held sway; then Hackney and Poplar joined; next Hackney seceded; and now, so it is whispered, Whitechapel itself may soon withdraw, leaving Poplar in sole possession. But what are these schools? you ask. 

Inmates of Lambeth workhouse school, undated

 They are simply workhouse schools carried on, for reasons of convenience, away from the workhouse. A man tires of the battle of life and goes into the Poplar or the Whitechapel Workhouse, taking his children with him. The latter are sent to Forest Gate. The man tires of workhouse routine and desires to try the battle of life once more. His children are sent to meet him and from the workhouse gates they emerge together.

Out by way of the front doors and away in the fog towards the detached building lying eastwards in the grounds. This is the Infirmary and it has about forty occupants, very few of whom, however, are in bed. When anything is the matter with a child, from a cut or bruise upwards, it is sent off to the infirmary forthwith, and seen by the doctor (Mr. Bell, of Leytonstone) at his next daily round.

The Infirmary is divided into boys' and girls' sides and has its night and day wards like the bigger Institutions of the kind elsewhere for bigger people. There are a few little chaps in bed and they all seem glad of a cheery word from Mr. Duncan. They appear to expect this as he walks around and they are not disappointed. In the playrooms, too, where all the "Truth" toys are still in evidence, the little folk are left all the more cheerful for the visit.

To the rear of the Infirmary - and also - detached - is the Infant School building, which possesses almost as imposing an elevation as that of the main structure seen from Forest Lane. All the rooms, corridors, and staircases here, as elsewhere, are delightfully clean and fresh.

Girls dancing around maypole in
Ongar Industrial School c 1906

It is true that, a few months back (during a fortnight's absence of the entire colony of boys and girls under the Country Holidays Fund scheme) a wholesale renovation of walls, ceilings, and so forth took place, but spotless cleanliness is the absolute rule of the place and no deviation therefrom is, under any circumstances, permitted.

As Mr. Duncan passes round he occasionally stoops and draws his finger across some portion of the polished flooring but fails to bring away with it any trace of dust. His daily pilgrimage through all rooms is a matter of some hours and the irregularity that escapes his eye must be of microscopical dimensions.

An interesting portion of the Infant Department is the Kindergarten School. In the centre a may-pole stands, from which long coloured streamers hang, and the plaiting of these in the dance is an occasional popular interlude with the young scholars. There are well-furnished dolls' houses and numerous cases and cupboards, the contents of which indicate that many clever little fingers have been at work.

More substantial trophies of juvenile skill are the dolls' houses themselves and some of the forms and desks, the handiwork of boys in the carpenters' shop. We visit this place presently and see some good specimens of joining and cabinet making. Near at hand are the bootmakers' and tailors' shops where all the repairing for the Institution is done by the boys.

Boys boot making workshop in Kensington
Industrial School, 1902

Here, however, a point comes in, which Mr. Duncan raises and which I feel bound to emphasise. Children must pass the Fourth Standard in the school before being put to any kind of work. The consequence is that the vast proportion passes out into the world utterly untrained in any sort of handicraft. Education is undoubtedly a good thing, but wage-earning power is surely better.

Dressmaking class at St Pancras Industrial School 1896

Other interesting departments are the wardrobe rooms, where everything is carefully sorted, numbered and "receptacled" - "a place for every child's clothes and every child's clothes in their place" seeming to be the motto that here prevails; and the laundries where machinery and deft handling combine to produce that pleasing effect of snowy whiteness which table and bed linen throughout the Institution display wherever encountered. A smooth-running steam engine works the laundry machinery and in the engine room the mechanic who keeps things generally in order has his work bench and pursues his useful labours.

At the northernmost boundary of the grounds are the playing fields and there are also asphalted playgrounds both covered and open. The boys - in humble imitation of those of the Charterhouse - do not wear caps out of doors and are healthy and hardy in spite of - and, perhaps, by reason of - the exposure. Mr. Duncan has almost a passion in this direction, and he has hit upon an extremely clever device for furthering his ideal.

Finding that it is utterly futile to expect a number of children using ordinary lavatory basins to empty the water after each ablution he has caused rose-nozzles to be fixed at the bottom of each basin, the result of which is a constantly-fresh supply of water in the form of fine spray in which the hands and face can be washed under the most pleasant and effectual conditions.

There is a swimming bath 40 feet by 30 feet and 3 feet deep hard by the laundry, and this is freely used by both boys and girls. The water was so clear on my visit that I almost walked into it. Of course certain times are set apart for the boys to bathe and other times for the girls, and they all enjoy the health-giving exercise immensely.

Swimming bath at Kensington Industrial School 1902
- probably similar to one at Forest Gate

It is sometimes alleged of the lower section of the poor that they have a natural antipathy to water and its resultant cleanliness. If this be true it is gratifying to know that from the Forest Gate District Schools there is constantly issuing a wholesome leaven which may presently work a desirable and beneficial change in matters ablutionary.

I asked a question of Mr. Duncan which, he says, almost every visitor asks. It was whether the massing of children together does not lead to hurtful moral results. His reply was interesting and instructive. "In all my experience here the matter has not once arisen. I believe these children to be perfectly innocent and that there is even less likelihood of mutual contamination than in a large public school where children of the better classes congregate.

Once or twice a new boy has been caught writing objectionable words upon a wall and he has been brought to me by the other boys. I have said: 'What shall I do to him?' and they have said: 'Flog him, sir.' I have replied: 'No, I will leave him to you, only don't hit him.' "

"But," added Mr. Duncan with a twinkle, "I don't think that boy has been caught writing on walls again."