Forest Gate

Forest Gate
Forest Gate  Forest Gate shown within Greater London
OS grid reference	TQ405855
London borough	Newham
Ceremonial county	Greater London
Region	London
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	LONDON
Postcode district	E7
Dialling code	020
Police	Metropolitan
Fire	London
Ambulance	London
EU Parliament	London
UK Parliament	West Ham
London Assembly	City and East
List of places: UK • England • London

Forest Gate is a residential area in the London Borough of Newham, 7 miles northeast of Charing Cross. It is bordered by Manor Park to the east and and to the west lies Stratford town centre. The northern half of the busy Green Street runs through it.

History

Its name is derived from a southern gate of Epping Forest which once stretched continuously down from Epping. Fragments of the forest remain throughout north east London and the heathland of Wanstead Flats, which borders Forest Gate, is an example.

Residential areas

The Woodgrange estate is a residential conservation area in Forest Gate with predominantly double fronted Victorian houses. The Woodgrange estate consists of four roads, Windsor, Claremont, Osborne and Hampton; all of which link to Woodgrange Road. There are blocks of flats at the ends of most of these roads replacing houses which were bombed during World War II. Nearby Godwin Junior School in Forest Gate recently picked up a British Council’s International School Award.^{[citation needed]}

Wanstead Flats, bordering Forest Gate

Leisure

Forest Gate also houses West Ham Park, providing a place for sports to be played and a contrast to the otherwise urban environment.

Transport

Forest Gate railway station is the main station in the area, with regular services to London Liverpool Street via Stratford. Other stations in the area include Wanstead Park railway station, which is on the Gospel Oak to Barking Line in Zone 3.

Music

Forest Gate has various associations with music and acting; it was for many years the home of the Tonic Sol-fa College of John Curwen, which taught large numbers of people to play music without learning conventional notation. In December 1966 Jimi Hendrix wrote Purple Haze in the Upper Cut Club, owned by Douglas Bayle and George and Billy Walker, it had been opened by The Who, and had The Small Faces as the house band, for a while. It later became the Ace of Clubs in Woodgrange Road. The Newham Generals (D Double E & Footsie) are also from Forest Gate, and the video for their song 'Frontline' was filmed at Forest Gate railway station.

Forest Gate formed part of the County Borough of West Ham since its creation (initially as a municipal borough) in 1886. The county borough was abolished to form part of the present-day London Borough of Newham in 1965.

Sport

Forest Gate is home to Clapton Football Club.

Notable people associated with Forest Gate

Business and politics

• Sam Alper - caravan designer and founder of Little Chef
• Tony Banks, Baron Stratford - Labour MP
• David Amess - Conservative MP
• Dawn Butler - Labour MP

Arts and entertainment

Footballers associated with Forest Gate include Alan Curbishley, former manager of West Ham United Football Club and Ted Fenton manager of West Ham between 1950 and 1961, Simon Royce, Jason Lee, Ken Brown, Linvoy Primus and Jay-Emmanuel Thomas, who currently plays for Arsenal FC.

Other sportsmen and women connected with Forest Gate include Lennox Lewis, heavyweight boxing champion, Molly Samuel , 7 times world karate champion. The cricketer Ronnie Bopara, sprinter Damien Greaves, and Olympic fencer Linda Strachan all are associated with the area.

Arnold Schwarzenegger was known to have lived in Forest Gate and weight trained at Wag Bennett's gymnasium in Romford Road before he achieved fame. Another is the actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, born in Forest Gate in July 1974, who has had significant roles in films such as American Gangster and Amistad.

Actors associated with the area include The Wire star Idris Elba, Terrence Hardiman, and Ricky Norwood. Dame Anna Neagle was born in the area in 1905, and has a road named after her off Dames Road.

As well as Jimi Hendrix, who is noted for composing "Purple Haze" in a club on Romford Road,^{[citation needed]} musicians from Forest Gate include biographer, composer and pianist Norman Charles Suckling, John Ashton and Kele Le Roc. Although born in Plaistow, Ronnie Lane of the Small Faces spent his childhood and early adulthood in Forest Gate, living at 385 Romford Road, while members Steve Marriott and Jimmy Winston lived nearby in Manor Park. Roy Carter, a rhythm guitarist with 70s hit funk band Heatwave, was raised in Forest Gate.

Many current British Hip Hop artists are associated with the area including Tempa T and Sarah Jezebel Deva. Two of the top-selling Grime artists are from Forest Gate; Kano, whose debut album 'Home Sweet Home' made number one in the urban charts, and rapper Plan B, whose song Raking the Dead refers to a friend who discovered a body on Wanstead Flats.

Artists from Forest Gate include Betsy Schneider, John Bowstead, Walter Westley Russell and Barry Windsor-Smith. Furthermore, Benjamin Zephaniah and John Hegley, both poets also hail from the area, as well as writer Mary Renault

Other

• Elizabeth Fry - prison reformer
• Christopher Charles Dalliston - Dean of Newcastle
• Claude Scudamore Jarvis - General
• John Grahl - economist
• Jane Rebecca Yorke - the last person convicted under the Witchcraft Act of 1735.
• Joseph McCabe - writer and speaker on freethought
• Edward Whymper Climber, who married at Emmanuel Church, 1906
• Mark Stephens (solicitor) - Lawyer, Mediator, Writer & Broadcaster lived on the Woodgrange Estate and also on Capel Road

See also

• Forest Gate railway station
• London Borough of Newham
• Stratford
• 2 June 2006 Forest Gate raid