Aaron Hill Road is the first street alphabetically within the M25.
Aaron Hill Road was built over the site of Beckton’s Tar and Liquor Works which existed north of Windor Terrace.
The coal tar and ammonia by-products industry started in the late 19th century. It was discovered that numerous organic and inorganic chemicals could be obtained when purifying coal gas.
By 1876, the Burt, Boulton and Haywood company was distilling 55,000 cubic metres of coal tar annually to manufacture ingredients for dyes, disinfectants, road tar and insecticides. It provided sulphur to local companies for such products as fertilisers.
A purpose-built chemical works, Beckton Products Works, was constructed in 1879 and was reputed to be the largest tar and ammonia by-products works in the world. Since the works was dependent on by-products of coal gas, it could not long survive the introduction of natural gas and closed in 1970.
In 1981 the London Docklands Development Corporation started transforming the site of the works into a large housing estate.
Most of the area dates from the 1980s but Aaron Hill Road along with its neighbour Angelica Drive was not built until 1999.
Aaron Hill himself was a poet and dramatist, renowned for his adaptations of Voltaire. Later in life he lived in nearby Plaistow.
The Underground Map project is creating street histories for the areas of London and surrounding counties lying within the M25.
The aim of the project is to find the location every street in London, whether past or present, and tell its story. This project aims to be a service to historians, genealogists and those with an interest in urban design.
The website features a series of maps from the 1750s until the 1950s. You can see how London grows over the decades. |
Aaron Hill Road is the first street alphabetically within the M25.
