Documenting the history of the Waterlow Estate in Bethnal Green, East London. Comprising Wilmot, Corfield, Ainsley and Finnis Street the Waterlow Estate was built by the Improved Industrial Dwellings Company starting in 1869.
There are three parts to this post, the first deals with the history of the area up until 1938, the second the clearing, demolition and eventual development of the park and the third and final part details each street in turn.
There are three parts to this post, the first deals with the history of the area up until 1938, the second the clearing, demolition and eventual development of the park and the third and final part details each street in turn.
“The whole of western Bethnal Green was scheduled for redevelopment under a 5-year plan for 1962-7, the southern part for industry, relieved by an open space called Weavers’ Fields around Mapes Street”
(from British History Online)
The Tower Hamlets archive holds a number of files filled with correspondence and drawings detailing the clearing and development of Weavers Fields. Much the information here is drawn from those files.
These are fascinating documents, filled with personal notes, annotations and asides. To recapture this era of local authority bureaucracy and drawing offices I’ve reproduced some of the actual documents. You can almost smell the tobacco filled council offices.
Continue readingSince I started researching the Waterlow Estate I’ve unearthed lots of historical details and photographs of neighbouring Weavers Fields Park and the streets that are now buried beneath the grass.
There are three parts to this post, the first deals with the history of the area up until 1938, the second the clearing, demolition and eventual development of the park and the third and final part details each street in turn.
Much of the information I present here has been gathered over the past ten years from the web, oral histories from various people I’ve spoken to, along with visits to a number of archives. One of the most fascinating sources has been the Tower Hamlets Archive which holds many of the original County Council documents detailing the demolition of the houses and the conversion into a park.
Continue readingA few weeks ago I was contacted by reader Peter Gasson who mentioned that he had a photographic slide he had taken many years ago. I was very keen to see the photograph and so dropped him a line.
Peter said: “As promised, here is a copy of the colour slide of Waterlow Buildings. The date on the slide is September 1965; this would be the date it was processed, but it would have been taken not more than a month or so earlier”
Photograph of Waterlow Estate taken in 1965 by Peter Gasson
Many who live in London’s East End will have had the experience of black cab drivers regaling them with stories of growing up in the area, usually followed by an explanation that they moved out to Essex long ago.
Living on Wilmot Street is no different, many drivers know the street due to its proximity to the black cab repair businesses on Three Colts Lane or will know due to it featuring in a gotcha question in The Knowledge (apparently as you’re not able to take a right turn out onto Bethnal Green Road, or so I’ve been told). A more uncommon story that I had heard from at least three taxi drivers over the years was of a guy who lived on Wilmot Street in the sixties who won the pools and paid his neighbours rent with the winnings.
There is something about this story that has held my attention over the years. I had tried many times to find a record or a name but with no luck. So much so that I started to assume he was an urban legend.
Many years passed, with many an idle evening spent chasing links on the internet trying to find even a scrap of information without any luck. This all changed last year when I started posting on Facebook and found the Waterlow Estate group. I asked members of the group and immediately everyone agreed that he did indeed exist and that he had paid his neighbours rent. Although it seemed everyone had their own slightly different take on the story.
I’ve always been fascinated by the old corner shop on Wilmot and Ainsley Street, especially as there did seem to be a business in there but they never seemed to be open. I had managed to find the planning application to switch the premises from use as a shop to an office back in 1998, but other than that the current occupier was a mystery. It was a great coincidence that I took a taxi a few months ago and got talking to the driver, it turned out that his brother was the current tenant running a sports shoe business.
1a Ainsley Street today. Photograph from John Mossell
This is the second of three blog posts based on my email conversations with John Mossell of The Streets of Waterlow Estate and Bethnal Green Facebook group. The first post detailing his memories of the estate can be found here.
John has many memories of the Greencoats Tenants Association, an organisation I’d previously only known in relation to the rent strike in the early 1960s. The community spirit evident in the wide range of activities was forged in the residents struggle with their landlords Greencoat Properties Limited.
Before we get to John’s recollections I thought it’d be useful to detail the events of the strike which was held in response to the state of the buildings and the ever rising rent demands.
Having a (very) niche obsession such as the Waterlow Estate means months of trawling the internet finding very little and then once in a while hitting the jackpot. It was in this vein that I recently happened across The Streets of Waterlow Estate and Bethnal Green Facebook group. I’m not sure why I’d never tried searching Facebook before but this group has proved to be a treasure trove of memories and photographs of the Estate.
A particular highlight was a link to a clip from Thames News in 1982 detailing the state of disrepair the buildings had fallen into by this time. You can see the clip here.
A few months ago I received message from a gentleman named Bernard. He outlined his long relationship with the estate which went all the way back to his birth on Finnis St (No 21) …
“..In 1928 , and in time went to Wilmot St. school. We then moved to Wilmot St.(No22) and I went to Stuart Headlam school, through the arch across Three Colts Lane,on the right hand side, opposite Barnsley St. From there I was evacuated to Suffolk until after the bombing stopped. That’s another story. After the war my wife and I lived in No.327 Corfield St. for a time”
He also responded to my post about a photograph I’d found of Wilmot St before or during WW2. His Message:
“A bomb did fall in Wilmot Street and although I was evacuated at the time, my mother told me about it.The bomb landed in the backyard and went under my parents bedroom at number 22. Fortunately, it didn’t explode. After this everybody had to leave. After a few days and before the Bomb Disposable people arrived my mother went back in she said ”to get the insurance books”. The air raid warden saw her and she got a severe ticking off ”Don’t you know that walking on that floor could have set that bomb off”
I dropped Benard a line and he very kindly agreed to talk further with me about his memories of the Waterlow Estate.
Two more images from the treasure trove at the Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archive, this time showing the interior of the Ainsley Street flats in the 1960s. On the back of the photographs it says ‘Waterlow Estate – Ainsley Street, converted flats’.
They are dated 1963 which is when the Local Authority took over from Greencoat properties, so I’m guessing these images are some sort of promotional material.
These images are reproduced with the permission of The Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives.
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