Forest Gate

andywhoSat 17/05/08 00:54

At the request of the lovely Curve, I have started a thread about Forest Gate, London E7.

Forest Gate got its name after a gate that used to be on Woodgrange Road by the Eagle and child pub, supposedly to stop cattle and other animals from straying from the edge of Epping Forest (local area known as Wanstead Flats) and causing havoc in the 'village'.

Forest Gate (for Upton) train station was opened by the Eastern Counties Railway on its line from London to East Anglia in 1840. It closed due to laqck of patronage in 1843 but local protests saw it re-open in 1846. 1894 saw the opening of the 'Tottenham and Forest Gate Joint Railway, a station being provided named Wanstead Park.

Wanstead Flats hosts a fun fair three times a year. The biggest is at Easter, then Whitsun and the smallest is at the weekend of August Bank Holiday. There is a ring of trees at the corner of Woodford Road and Capel Road near the duck pond which used to surround a band stand. This was a casualty of WW2.

The parade of shops on Woodgrange Road from Earlham Grove to the Princess Alice pub were fronted by glass awnings, so ladies could be seen parading under their parasols...

My Dad (Doctor Nicholas Nash) was one of the Doctors to over see the opening of the Lord Lister Health Centre in 1975. Previously his surgery occupied the two front rooms of our house at 50 Capel Road. He was diagnosed with Lieukeamia shortly after the Centre opened. He died at the end of 1978. My Mum lived in the same house from 1946 until her death in 2000 aged 81 3/4!

My Mum Sylvia Kahan, her Brother Sidney, my four brothers and I all attended Stratford Grammar School, each with diminishing accademic attainment, ofcourse I was the last memeber of the family go there! :). My brothers and I all went to Godwin Road Infants and Juniors.

The shops between Tylney Road and Ridley Road are known as 'The Village' I rember in the 60's there were three grocery shops (Bowers, The Spa shop and Wavy Line on the corner). A Green Grocer, Newsagent, Sub-Post Office/Woolshop. Chip shop, Hairdressers, Cobblers and Book-maker, On the corner opposite the Wavy Line is the Forest Gate pub, that used to have an off licence too but that like most of the shops is long gone.

I hope some of this is interesting. Please feel free to add your facts about this lively area :)

daven8Sat 17/05/08 06:39

Thanks for that. I love hearing about local history.

One of the reasons I chose to move to Wood Green was that, through researching my family history, I'd found a lot of family connections with the area. My dad was born 5 doors down the road from my local pub, one set of great grandparents lived on he street which runs parallel to mine, the other great grandparents lived on the street parallel to that, and my great-great-grandmother lived a 5 minute walk from me: nearly 120 years of family history in a half mile area. I often wonder what the area was like back in the 1890s, when Anna Maria came here with her children.