East Ham

[John Chanin]

The most remarkable thing about East Ham is that it is probably the most cosmopolitan constituency in the country. Not only does it have the lowest white proportion (less than a quarter), but the ethnic minorities are vary varied. South Asian households account for about half the population but are very evenly split between those of Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi origin. The constituency has the 4th largest Bangladeshi percentage, the 10th largest Indian, and the 15th largest Pakistani. It also has the 11th largest “other asian”, which includes some from the Indian subcontinent who choose to self-classify differently from the census categories, but also exotic communities of Sri Lankan Tamils and Filipinos, not to speak of people from the middle east. Those classifying as of African origin are of similar size to the south Asian communities, and there are significant numbers of people from the older settled Caribbean communities.

Geographically the constituency can be divided into 3 parts. In the north is Manor Park, on the west bank of the Roding and bordering Wanstead Flats, the southernmost manifestation of Epping Forest. This consists of long leafy streets of late Victorian and Edwardian terraced houses. There is also a large council estate in Little Ilford, and a third of residents are social housing tenants. In the centre is East Ham proper. Three-quarters of the population here is Asian, clustered around Green Street (which forms the boundary with West Ham, and is a real little India in its thriving shopping centre. West Ham FC’s old Boleyn Ground sat on the East Ham side of Green Street, but is now being redeveloped into 800 mostly private homes. East Ham High Street is not too different, but there is more ethnic variety in the east and south of this area. The housing is mainly smaller than in Manor Park but of a similar vintage, although there are more recent council estates interspersed , including the large Hathaway Crescent estate by the Roding. South of the A13 Newham way though is a completely different world. This is the “new town” of Beckton, developed in the 1980s and 1990s on derelict industrial land north of the docks. This was originally planned by the London Docklands Development Corporation as private housing, but the recession of the early 1990s led to a majority of the housing here being social housing. The area also contains a retail park at Gallions Reach, (once the site of the “Beckton Alps”, an artificial ski slope), which sits between Beckton and the great sewage works at the terminus of the Northern Outfall Sewer - a sewer so large that it sticks up above the landscape, and forms a linear park known as the Greenway, which snakes through the borough of Newham. Beckton is separated from the Thames by the Royal Docks, no longer functioning as such. In the middle of the docks sits the London City Airport. South of the docks is North Woolwich - an area that was bombed flat in the second world war, and redeveloped as council housing afterwards. A curiosity is that it formed part of Woolwich Borough until the reorganization of London government in 1965. The Woolwich Ferry still runs across the river here (and there is a foot tunnel). Further upstream, past the derelict Tate & Lyle factory, is the Thames Barrier, on the other side of which is Silvertown. There is industry alongside the river, but inland a lot of smart and expensive modern housing has been developed in the 1990s and 2000s overlooking the Victoria Dock. The Royal Docks ward is therefore surprisingly schizophrenic.

One other major feature of the seat is the high level of private renting - the 9th highest in the country. Nowhere is owner-occupation more than half households. The older housing in the north and the new housing in the south have equally high renting figures. In the north many fewer homes are owner-occupied than they used to be, as this is an area where much of the private housing has been snapped up by landlords over the years - as many households rent privately as own their property and overcrowding is rife. A surprising amount of the new housing in the south has also been acquired by private landlords, and the balance between renting and owning is even higher in favour of the former. As elsewhere in the inner city, right to buy has had less effect on the number of council homes, and all of the more recent development is housing association. Social renting remains high. Economically this is a very working class seat, with low managerial and high routine workers for London.

Put all this together and you have a recipe for a very safe Labour seat, and indeed until 2019, when Labour slipped a bit, it was the safest Labour seat outside Merseyside. Locally all the wards are safe for Labour. It is also a very large seat, a combination of new development and cramming of poorer households. The MP here is Stephen Timms, first elected at a by-election in 1994 prior to which he was leader of Newham Council. He was a senior minister under the last Labour government.

Census data: owner-occupied 39% (547/573 in England & Wales), private rented 35% (9th), social rented 25% (88th).
                      :White 23%, Black 16%, Sth Asian 45%, Mixed 4%, Other 12%
                      : Managerial & professional 29% (447th), Routine & Semi-routine 34% (169th)

	2010	%	2015	%	2017	%	2019	%
Labour	35,471	70.4%	40,563	77.6%	47,124	83.2%	41,703	76.3%
Conservative	7,645	15.2%	6,311	12.1%	7,241	12.8%	8,527	15.6%
Liberal Democrat	5,849	11.6%	856	1.6%	656	1.2%	2,158	4.0%
UKIP/Brexit			2,622	5.0%	697	1.2%	1,107	2.0%
Green	586	1.2%	1,299	2.5%	474	0.8%	883	1.6%
Others	822	1.6%	639	1.2%	451	0.8%	250	0.5%
Majority	27,826	55.2%	34,252	65.5%	39,883	70.4%	33,176	60.7%

[John Chanin]

Apr 4, 2020 16:59:05 GMT @barnabymarder said:

I used to live in this constituency, and am still a frequent visitor (present conditions excepted) because I still have in-laws here. I don't regard Green Street as East Ham proper, although though it is the most heavily Asian part of the constituency of all (my wife is Indian), and indeed it doesn't have the E6 East Ham postcode, but instead it has the E7 Forest Gate code. And it forms the boundary, as it always has no matter what name is used, with the constituency currently called West Ham. Other than that a charactistically good write-up.

Amusingly timrollpickering has complained on the West Ham write-up, that I have distinguished Green Street from Forest Gate.  I am unapologetic about this, as postcodes don’t determine the feel of an area.  I agree that Green Street does have a different feel to central East Ham, but the difference is fairly small, and in short portraits of an area some simplification is necessary.

[timrollpickering]

I live on a road just off Green Street in West Ham and certainly it's the case there's still a lot of Forest Gate here and even more so in other roads off it. As you go further down Green Street itself you see its distinct features come more to the fore, especially once you're in the E13 postcode.

I'm another who'd agree that Green Street and the high streety bit of East Ham (*) do feel distinctly different; the latter has a more traditional high street feel to it with far more chains.

The Beckton Alps ski slope closed some years ago and there's been an expansion of retail and industrial estates in that area with the Gateway Retail Park to the north west of Gallions Reach (the route between the two is not pedestrian friendly) competing for visitors and parking.

Beckton was once swamp land and there is a lot of subsidence on the estate which makes for fun campaigning.

(* For those from outside, "High Street" is the name of two very long roads that link Romford Road in the north with the A13, with a North/South split at Barking Road by the Town Hall; this was once part of the North Circular before the A406 was extended down the extreme east of the borough.)

[Deleted]

The wards of Forest Gate, Little Ilford and Manor Park in this seat elected non-Labour Councillors back in 1968.

Newham was one of four boroughs not to be won by the Tories that year.

[timrollpickering]

The old Forest Gate ward was all in what's now West Ham and Little Ilford returned Ratepayers & Residents (along with most of East Ham bar the misleadingly named "South" ward - basically Beckton and North Woolwich).

[Deleted]

Apr 4, 2020 21:27:24 GMT timrollpickering said:

The old Forest Gate ward was all in what's now West Ham and Little Ilford returned Ratepayers & Residents (along with most of East Ham bar the misleadingly named "South" ward - basically Beckton and North Woolwich).

That's interesting. What about Manor Park?

[timrollpickering]

It returned Conservatives.

[Deleted]

Apr 4, 2020 21:05:51 GMT @conservativeestimate said:

The wards of Forest Gate, Little Ilford and Manor Park in this seat elected non-Labour Councillors back in 1968.

Newham was one of four boroughs not to be won by the Tories that year.

Greatfield elected two Conservatives rather more recently than that, in 1990, and they held one seat in a by-election in 1992, following the resignation of one of their councillors. Both were lost decisively in 1994. 

The Conservatives also gained a seat in a by-election in Bemersyde Ward in 1991. This was also lost in 1994.

[John Chanin]

Apr 4, 2020 20:33:44 GMT timrollpickering said:

I live on a road just off Green Street in West Ham and certainly it's the case there's still a lot of Forest Gate here and even more so in other roads off it. As you go further down Green Street itself you see its distinct features come more to the fore, especially once you're in the E13 postcode.

I'm another who'd agree that Green Street and the high streety bit of East Ham (*) do feel distinctly different; the latter has a more traditional high street feel to it with far more chains.

The Beckton Alps ski slope closed some years ago and there's been an expansion of retail and industrial estates in that area with the Gateway Retail Park to the north east of Gallions Reach (the route between the two is not pedestrian friendly) competing for visitors and parking.

Beckton was once swamp land and there is a lot of subsidence on the estate which makes for fun campaigning.

(* For those from outside, "High Street" is the name of two very long roads that link Romford Road in the north with the A13, with a North/South split at Barking Road by the Town Hall; this was once part of the North Circular before the A406 was extended down the extreme east of the borough.)

London is, as well described in Jerry White's excellent history books, infinitely mutable. 

[The Bishop]

IIRC the land on which modern Beckton was built lay "fallow" for so long as it was set aside for another London dock that was never actually created.

(and the "Beckton" ward that existed until 1998 bore little resemblance to the present "new town", whose once relatively few electors then fell within South ward)

[timrollpickering]

The pre 2002 "Beckton" ward was in West Ham and the name was probably inherited from the separate borough council (which would also explain "South" instead of "South East"). I can't find a map that shows the ward boundaries overlaid on the streets but it would appear to have been based around the western end of Beckton Road, which then was much longer, taking in the current stub of Beckton Road, Tollgate Road and a section of what's now the A13/Newham Way in between. Canning Town Recreation Ground was originally called "Beckton Park".

[jonnysaintsfan]

The pre 2002 Beckton Ward was a geographically small 2 member ward wholly south of the A13 (which formed the northern boundary) and was located between Freemasons Road and Prince Regent Lane. There was a by-election there in the 1986 to 1990 Council where the BNP came within about 70 votes of gaining a seat, the closest the extreme right ever came in Newham. Doris Maxwell was the successful Labour candidate but mysteriously there is no result on the Newham website, even though results of other by-elections of that period are available.

[jonnysaintsfan]

I should of course of added that it would therefore belong in the current West Ham rather than East Ham, although at the time it was in Newham South. Interestingly in the Boundary Commissions' original proposals in the early 1990's much of Newham South would have been included in an extremely long and narrow Docklands seat stretching from the Tower of London to Beckton sewage works. Newham and Tower Hamlets Councils combined to oppose this ridiculous attempt to create a potential Tory seat which is when the old East Ham and West Ham names were resurrected.

[The Bishop]

Apr 21, 2020 20:33:17 GMT jonnysaintsfan said:

The pre 2002 Beckton Ward was a geographically small 2 member ward wholly south of the A13 (which formed the northern boundary) and was located between Freemasons Road and Prince Regent Lane. There was a by-election there in the 1986 to 1990 Council where the BNP came within about 70 votes of gaining a seat, the closest the extreme right ever came in Newham. Doris Maxwell was the successful Labour candidate but mysteriously there is no result on the Newham website, even though results of other by-elections of that period are available.

Tbh pretty convinced that you are misremembering here. The BNP did not start taking electoral politics seriously until after the regular 1990 elections (when they fielded zero candidates in Newham) beginning with polling non-negligibly in a Tower Hamlets byelection (not Millwall btw) later that year.

They were indeed close to winning a Beckton seat in the all-out 1994 election, frustratingly all this was just before the "real" beginning of the internet era but I definitely recall anecdotal accounts that Labour - preoccupied with what was going on in TH - only woke up to what was happening in Newham fairly late on.

[bjornhattan]

Apr 21, 2020 20:39:30 GMT jonnysaintsfan said:

I should of course of added that it would therefore belong in the current West Ham rather than East Ham, although at the time it was in Newham South. Interestingly in the Boundary Commissions' original proposals in the early 1990's much of Newham South would have been included in an extremely long and narrow Docklands seat stretching from the Tower of London to Beckton sewage works. Newham and Tower Hamlets Councils combined to oppose this ridiculous attempt to create a potential Tory seat which is when the old East Ham and West Ham names were resurrected.

While that would have been an awful seat in geographical terms, it's not that bad in practical terms. Most of the riverside wards (both here and in Tower Hamlets) are very different from the residential areas immediately to their north. And any Docklands seat would also have strong internal ties thanks to the DLR. The "Wapping and Royal Docks" seat would be pretty awful but do the luxury flats around Canary Wharf and the deprived Lansbury estate really have very much in common?

[timrollpickering]

Apr 22, 2020 12:23:57 GMT The Bishop said:

Apr 21, 2020 20:33:17 GMT jonnysaintsfan said:

The pre 2002 Beckton Ward was a geographically small 2 member ward wholly south of the A13 (which formed the northern boundary) and was located between Freemasons Road and Prince Regent Lane. There was a by-election there in the 1986 to 1990 Council where the BNP came within about 70 votes of gaining a seat, the closest the extreme right ever came in Newham. Doris Maxwell was the successful Labour candidate but mysteriously there is no result on the Newham website, even though results of other by-elections of that period are available.

Tbh pretty convinced that you are misremembering here. The BNP did not start taking electoral politics seriously until after the regular 1990 elections (when they fielded zero candidates in Newham) beginning with polling non-negligibly in a Tower Hamlets byelection (not Millwall btw) later that year.

They were indeed close to winning a Beckton seat in the all-out 1994 election, frustratingly all this was just before the "real" beginning of the internet era but I definitely recall anecdotal accounts that Labour - preoccupied with what was going on in TH - only woke up to what was happening in Newham fairly late on.

Which is surprising given that southern Newham was historically one of the strongest areas for the successive National Fronts. The original were previously active in southern Newham from 1968 onwards but mostly dropped away after 1978 apart from a brief showing in 1986. In the 1990s Newham was at the centre of a split in the next incarnation of the National Front with the leader (who lived in the borough) turning it into the "National Democrats" who eventually fizzled out whilst an anti-leadership breakaway picked up the name. The National Democrats did show up in 1998.

[pl]

Apr 22, 2020 12:43:44 GMT bjornhattan said:

Apr 21, 2020 20:39:30 GMT jonnysaintsfan said:

I should of course of added that it would therefore belong in the current West Ham rather than East Ham, although at the time it was in Newham South. Interestingly in the Boundary Commissions' original proposals in the early 1990's much of Newham South would have been included in an extremely long and narrow Docklands seat stretching from the Tower of London to Beckton sewage works. Newham and Tower Hamlets Councils combined to oppose this ridiculous attempt to create a potential Tory seat which is when the old East Ham and West Ham names were resurrected.

While that would have been an awful seat in geographical terms, it's not that bad in practical terms. Most of the riverside wards (both here and in Tower Hamlets) are very different from the residential areas immediately to their north. And any Docklands seat would also have strong internal ties thanks to the DLR. The "Wapping and Royal Docks" seat would be pretty awful but do the luxury flats around Canary Wharf and the deprived Lansbury estate really have very much in common?

Lots of the people in the gated blocks in the Canary Wharf area have a very different sense of "place". When I used to deliver and canvass there people would say things like "I don't live in Tower Hamlets, I live in Canary Wharf/Docklands". The old Ward name for the Western half of the Isle of Dogs was Millwall. This had very limited name recognition amongst those who lived in the gated blocks, who would frequently tell you that Millwall was south of the river. It was a different story with the Council estate/private home owners who were of much longer tenure and had a more traditional sense of place.

[sirbenjamin]

When did the Beckton Alps go? That it was ever a thing was one of my favourite things ever. (On a par with the moment Gazza turned up with chicken and lager at the Raoul Moat standoff).

We considered moving to Beckton in 2010 when we urgently needed a place to live and an FSA employee had a vacant flat there. In retrospect I'm quite glad we didn't take it. There's literally *nothing* there. Apart from the Alps, obviously.

[finsobruce]

Feb 22, 2021 8:43:09 GMT sirbenjamin said:

When did the Beckton Alps go? That it was ever a thing was one of my favourite things ever. (On a par with the moment Gazza turned up with chicken and lager at the Raoul Moat standoff).

We considered moving to Beckton in 2010 when we urgently needed a place to live and an FSA employee had a vacant flat there. In retrospect I'm quite glad we didn't take it. There's literally *nothing* there. Apart from the Alps, obviously.

2001, but not before Franz Klammer had popped in to give advice : londonist.com/london/history/when-londoners-went-skiing-on-a-toxic-spill-heap

As the article says, Beckton was named after a man called Beck who headed up the Gas and Coke works at its inception.

[sirbenjamin]

Feb 22, 2021 8:54:50 GMT finsobruce said:

Feb 22, 2021 8:43:09 GMT sirbenjamin said:

When did the Beckton Alps go? That it was ever a thing was one of my favourite things ever. (On a par with the moment Gazza turned up with chicken and lager at the Raoul Moat standoff).

We considered moving to Beckton in 2010 when we urgently needed a place to live and an FSA employee had a vacant flat there. In retrospect I'm quite glad we didn't take it. There's literally *nothing* there. Apart from the Alps, obviously.

2001, but not before Franz Klammer had popped in to give advice : londonist.com/london/history/when-londoners-went-skiing-on-a-toxic-spill-heap

As the article says, Beckton was named after a man called Beck who headed up the Gas and Coke works at its inception.

I had assumed it was named after Derek Beackon but his illiteracy caused him to fuck up the spelling.