East Ham Things to Do

East Ham was a local government district in the far south west of Essex from 1878 to 1965. It extended from Wanstead Flats in the north to the River Thames in the south and from Green Street in the west to Barking Creek in the east. It was part of the London postal district and Metropolitan Police District.

East Ham Local Government District was created in 1878, when the parish of East Ham adopted the Local Government Act 1858, and formed a local board of nine members to govern the area. In 1886 the local government district was extended to include the civil parish of Little Ilford, and the board was increased to 12 in number. The Local Government Act 1894 reconstituted the area as an urban district, with an elected urban district council of 15 members replacing the board. In 1900 Little Ilford parish was abolished and its area absorbed into an enlarged East Ham. In 1904 the district was incorporated as a municipal borough, with a borough council consisting of a mayor, six aldermen and eighteen councillors replacing the urban district council. In 1915 the borough gained independence from county administration as a county borough, against the objections of Essex County Council. The size of the borough council was increased to ten alderman and thirty councillors, representing ten wards in 1919.

The borough included most of the current-day London Borough of Newham east of Green Street including Little Ilford, Manor Park, East Ham and Beckton. It excluded North Woolwich, as historically this was part of the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich, in the County of London. The borough ran its own tram services until they became the responsibility of the London Passenger Transport Board in 1933. The borough ran its own fire brigade which was absorbed into the London Fire Brigade in 1965. East Ham's Town Hall now serves as Newham Town Hall.

The county borough, along with the County Borough of West Ham, was abolished and became part of the London Borough of Newham in 1965 when Greater London was created. For the benefit of historians it should be noted that, although the County Borough was administratively independent from Essex, it did form part of the county, and so like the other Essex authorities incorporated into Greater London, the majority of its public records up to 1965 are held in the Essex County Record Office in Chelmsford. Discussions are continuing between county and London Borough archivists which may lead to the return of records to their originating districts.

A small stained glass window on the library's second floor features Newham's coat of Latin motto, translated as 'progress with the people.' A rising sun on the arms also represents the borough's strong socialist roots. The library had been built with funding from Andrew Carnegie, a famous philanthropist who had made a fortune by starting a major steel company in America at the dawn of industrialisation.

Carnegie had funded many libraries and universities throughout the world.

East Ham library still contains many of its original features, including high Jacobean-style ceilings, fireplaces and large, multi-coloured painted windows.

In 1930 it was rebuilt and a huge new children’s library was added. Today, it is the borough’s biggest issuing library with a wide range of books in different languages from Urdu to Russian.
Services at East Ham Library:

Fiction, non-fiction and focus collection books
Books in English and community languages
DVDs, videos and music
Audiobooks
Large print books
Skills for Life materials
Children's collections
Babies and preschool area
Homework area
Teen Zone, including computers and study space
Graphic novels
Newspapers and magazines
Free internet access
Legal and public information
Careers information
Reference and information service
Computer printing
Photocopying

Activities at East Ham Library

Storytelling - Every Wednesday 2pm - 3pm. Stories, rhyme and crafts for children under five and their parents/carers

Toy Library - Every Tuesday 10am - 12 noon and every Thursday 10am - 12 noon. Open to children under five with their parents/carers

Imaginative Play - Every Friday 10.30am - 11.30am. Open to children under five with their parents/carers

Homework Club - Mondays during school term 4pm - 6pm for seven to 14 year olds. Bring your homework along for support and advice

Games Club - Every Tuesday 3.30pm - 5.30pm. PS2 and Xbox games, music, board games and many more activities for eight to 13 year olds

Adult Reading Group - Third Monday of the month 6.15pm - 7.45pm. Explore the pleasure of reading in a friendly environment

Tamil Reading Group - Second Wednesday of the month 11am - 1pm. Discover more about the range of books available in the Tamil language

Click-On - Friday every four weeks 10am - 12 noon and 2pm - 4pm. Free introduction to computers for the over 50s

ICT Surgeries - Friday every four weeks 10am - 12 noon and 2pm - 4pm. Book in advance and have your computer-related doubts solved

There is a "Champions" statue in Barking Road, opposite The Boleyn pub, commemorating West Ham's three sons who helped win the 1966 World Cup: Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters. Also included on the statue is Everton's Ray Wilson.

The ancient parish church of St Mary Magdalene indicates where the medieval settlement was centred; however it is near the site of a Roman cemetery discovered in 1864. The church was built in 1130 and is one of the oldest in the country. Numerous building materials were used in its construction including Roman tiles, Kentish rag, flints and chalk, and Norfolk pudding-stone; the original Norman timber roof over the apse remains, held together by wooden pegs. A tower was added in the C13th, although the tower today dates from the 16th century. It once housed five bells, of which only one remains, 'Gabriel', the oldest bell in London which was cast in 1380 at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. In the church are two church-wardens 'prickers' of 1805 which were used to wake those who slept during the sermon. There is an anchorite's cell in the north side of the chancel, and the church has a number of monuments and brasses dating from the 16th and 17th centuries including a large Jacobean monument to Lord Mortimer, his wife and 7 children, and a marble and onyx monument to Giles Breame and his wife. Breame's father was granted the patronage of the living of East Ham after the Abbey of Stratford Langthorne was dissolved in 1532.

Among the many graves and tombs in the churchyard is a memorial for two of the crew of the S.S. Titanic; a relative of Fletcher Christian is buried here, as is William Stukely who surveyed and recorded Stonehenge, in the 18th century. The churchyard was officially closed for burials in 1974 and was a wilderness until its value as a wildlife reserve was realised in 1977.

Lennox Lewis started his journey towards being World Heavyweight Boxing Champion at Hartley Primary School.