Cambridge Heath Road, E2

Road in/near Bethnal Green, existing between 1580 and now.

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(51.52894 -0.05576, 51.528 -0.055) 
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Road · * · E2 ·
MAY
19
2021
The route of Cambridge Heath Road, passing through Bethnal Green as a broad stretch of waste, was mentioned in the 1580s as the highway from Mile End to Hackney.

The name of Cambridge Heath Road had changed from Cambridge Road in 1938. The road was widened in 1862, 1905 and 1926.

The route from Essex to Smithfield market passed from Mile End along Cambridge (Heath) Road and then along Hackney Road to Shoreditch, bringing ’vast numbers of cattle and many heavy carriages’ which left the roads beyond the ability of Bethnal Green to keep in repair.

Leases of waste along the road in the 16th century included covenants to ’keep the footway well gravelled’. In 1654 Bethnal Green’s highway surveyors were ordered to fill up a gravel pit which they had made in the green.

Bethnal Green was rated with other Stepney hamlets in 1671 to repair the highways and causeways ’in great decay’. By 1671 it was generally accepted that roads built up on both sides should be paved. Paving with stone and gravel was the responsibility of the houses lining the roads - Thomas Street being singled out in 1734.

In 1696 Bethnal Green highway surveyors petitioned that Spitalfields, being small but populous, should contribute towards Bethnal Green’s highways. In 1772 Bethnal Green parish opposed an attempt by Spitalfields to obtain an Act to pave and clean streets in its own and neighbouring parishes, including Brick Lane. By 1848, of more than 400 roads in Bethnal Green, only 14 per cent were classed as granite roadways and 40 per cent had paved footpaths. By 1905 there were 40 miles of streets in the borough. Some of the narrow, cobbled streets, probably late 18th- and early 19th-century were listed by British History Online as remaining in 1988.

In 1738 an Act included the route of Cambridge Road among those administered by the new Hackney turnpike trustees. A turnpike gate was added at Cambridge Heath, at the junction with Hackney Road. The trust’s term and powers were extended in 1753, 1756, 1782, 1802, when tolls were adjusted to cope with the increasing traffic of carts loaded with bricks, and 1821. In 1788, Cambridge Road was still listed as ’dangerous, with the pathways broken and heaps of filth ... every 10 or 20 yards’.

In 1826 an Act replaced the trusts with the metropolitan turnpike roads commissioners, whose responsibilities from the start included Cambridge Road. Tollgates were generally closed when the commissioners were abolished in 1863 and responsibility for all roads passed to the local authorities and the Metropolitan Board of Works.




Main source: A History of the County of Middlesex | British History Online
Further citations and sources


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CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE LOCALITY

Born here
Jacqueline Mico   
Added: 14 Jan 2024 07:29 GMT   

Robert Bolam
This is where my grandad was born, he went on to be a beautiful man, he became a shop owner, a father, and grandfather, he lost a leg when he was a milkman and the horse kicked him, then opened a shop in New Cross and then moved to Lewisham where he had a Newsagents and tobacconists.

Reply

   
Added: 15 Jan 2023 09:49 GMT   

The Bombing of Nant Street WW2
My uncle with his young son and baby daughter were killed in the bombing of Nant Street in WW2. His wife had gone to be with her mother whilst the bombing of the area was taking place, and so survived. Cannot imagine how she felt when she returned to see her home flattened and to be told of the death of her husband and children.


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Jen Williams   
Added: 20 May 2023 17:27 GMT   

Corfield Street, E2
My mother was born in 193 Corfield Street in 1920.Her father was a policeman.

Reply

LATEST LONDON-WIDE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PROJECT

Comment
Wendy    
Added: 22 Mar 2024 15:33 GMT   

Polygon Buildings
Following the demolition of the Polygon, and prior to the construction of Oakshott Court in 1974, 4 tenement type blocks of flats were built on the site at Clarendon Sq/Phoenix Rd called Polygon Buildings. These were primarily for people working for the Midland Railway and subsequently British Rail. My family lived for 5 years in Block C in the 1950s. It seems that very few photos exist of these buildings.

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Steve   
Added: 19 Mar 2024 08:42 GMT   

Road construction and houses completed
New Charleville Circus road layout shown on Stanford’s Library Map Of London And Its Suburbs 1879 with access via West Hill only.

Plans showing street numbering were recorded in 1888 so we can concluded the houses in Charleville Circus were built by this date.

Source: Charleville Circus, Sydenham, London

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Comment
Steve   
Added: 19 Mar 2024 08:04 GMT   

Charleville Circus, Sydenham: One Place Study (OPS)
One Place Study’s (OPS) are a recent innovation to research and record historical facts/events/people focused on a single place �’ building, street, town etc.

I have created an open access OPS of Charleville Circus on WikiTree that has over a million members across the globe working on a single family tree for everyone to enjoy, for free, forever.

Source: Charleville Circus, Sydenham, London

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Comment
Charles   
Added: 8 Mar 2024 20:45 GMT   

My House
I want to know who lived in my house in the 1860’s.

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NH   
Added: 7 Mar 2024 11:41 GMT   

Telephone House
Donald Hunter House, formerly Telephone House, was the BT Offices closed in 2000

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Comment
Paul Cox   
Added: 5 Mar 2024 22:18 GMT   

War damage reinstatement plans of No’s 11 & 13 Aldine Street
Whilst clearing my elderly Mothers house of general detritus, I’ve come across original plans (one on acetate) of No’s 11 & 13 Aldine Street. Might they be of interest or should I just dispose of them? There are 4 copies seemingly from the one single acetate example. Seems a shame to just junk them as the level of detail is exquisite. No worries if of no interest, but thought I’d put it out there.

Reply
Comment
Diana   
Added: 28 Feb 2024 13:52 GMT   

New Inn Yard, E1
My great grandparents x 6 lived in New Inn Yard. On this date, their son was baptised in nearby St Leonard’s Church, Shoreditch

Source: BDM London, Cripplegate and Shoreditch registers written by church clerk.

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Comment
Vic Stanley   
Added: 24 Feb 2024 17:38 GMT   

Postcose
The postcode is SE15, NOT SE1

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LOCAL PHOTOS
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The original Black Boy pub.
TUM image id: 1530023663
Licence: CC BY 2.0
Buck's Row (Durward Street) in 1938.
TUM image id: 1490922288
Licence: CC BY 2.0
Pollard Row (1939)
TUM image id: 1574859171
Licence: CC BY 2.0
The Hare in Cambridge Heath Road
TUM image id: 1658757525
Licence: CC BY 2.0
Winthrop Street looking east, c.1970.
TUM image id: 1490921196
Licence: CC BY 2.0

In the neighbourhood...

Click an image below for a better view...
Bethnal Green railway station entrance, some distance away from its namesake Central line tube station. The photo was taken on 25 October 2008
Credit: Wiki Commons/Sunil060902
Licence: CC BY 2.0


17-21 Old Ford Road, Bethnal Green (2019) Built in 1753 by Anthony Natt Senior, No 21 to the right had, by 1815, become a girls school for Promoting Christianity among the Jews, by 1873 it was an asylum for "fallen women". Since 1900 it has been occupied by St Margaret’s House a womens Settlement associated with Oxford House.
Credit: Wiki Commons/Reading Tom
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Rear of buildings in Wilmot Street, Bethnal Green (c.1869). These are possibly under construction judging by the scaffolding. This photograph taken from what is now Finnis Street. Photo info from www.wilmotst.com
Credit: Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives
Licence:


The Hare in Cambridge Heath Road
Licence: CC BY 2.0


Corfield Street
Licence: CC BY 2.0


Little Collingwood Street c1900. This street vanished underneath the Collingwood Estate.
Licence:


Palestine Place, led east from Cambridge Heath Road and featured the Episcopal Jews’ chapel. The chapel was built by the ’London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews’. The site was later the Bethnal Green Infirmary.
Licence: CC BY 2.0


The Dinmont Estate was designed by G. Topham Forrest for the LCC and completed in 1935-6.
Credit: Wiki Commons
Licence: CC BY 2.0


Seabright Street, Bethnal Green The houses which formerly lined the road were old Weavers Houses - you can tell by the wide upstairs windows. They let in more light for the weavers to work. There is now a park where these houses stood.
Old London postcard
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Weavers Fields and the former Hague Street School Hague Street School moved out of this building in the 1960s, when Weavers Fields park was expanded and numerous streets that had provided children to the school were curtailed or obliterated.
Credit: Geograph/Christopher Hilton
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