*** New from the IHS *** Our December Newsletter is now available to be read & downloaded on our website. Lots of great articles on Newbury Park bus shelter, HMS Wager, South Park, Dame Maggie Smith and more. ilfordhistoricalsociety.weebly.com/uploads/1/1/...

Our next talk with be given by IHS Secretary Janet Seward on 1000 years of Ilford in Fact and Fiction. 7:00 for 7:30pm on Monday 13th April in the Gloucester Room, Redbridge Central Library.

Fancy a Spring walk around Mayfair? 11am on Saturday 18th April. Meet just round the corner from Bond Street Tube Station in South Moulton Street. Cost? A mere £3.

Ilford Police Station was first built on Ilford Hill in 1860 (📸: 1880). In 1906 it was replaced with a new building (📸: 1980) on the same site. The station on Ilford Hill was closed in 1995 when the current one (📸: 2001) opened on the High Road. #EYACrime @exploreyourarchive.bsky.social

Debden war memorial tablet. St. Mary the Virgin and All Saints Church, Debden, Essex. First and Second World Wars. #LestWeForget

Wandering around the back alleys in the City this morning I stumbled across the plaque marking where Garraway's Coffee House was sited in Change Alley. Not only a coffee house, it was used for property auctions and I know of at least 7 auctions held in the early 1800s for property in Ilford. 1/2

Our next talk with be given by IHS Secretary Janet Seward on 1000 years of Ilford in Fact and Fiction. 7:00 for 7:30pm on Monday 13th April in the Gloucester Room, Redbridge Central Library.

To find out more about Sylvia Pankhurst, visit our website about her life ➡️ sylviapankhurst.com or visit our display at Redbridge Museum.

The River Roding Trust has completed its biggest river restoration project to date, bringing 280 metres of river back to life on the Alders Brook. Paul Powlesland reports https://wansteadvillagedirectory.com/?p=15651

Harbrow were responsible for both the early church in Grosvenor Road before The Vine Congregational Church was built later, and the Mission Room in Beehive Lane funded by Mrs Ingleby of Valentines.

Meanwhile, for listings of local history societies in the UK, @balhnews.bsky.social has this helpful guide: www.balh.org.uk/societies-az #Skystorians

Mrs Sarah Raymond #1760costume is in the building! Big thanks to Pawel & Jean for sharing her for #WomenInHistory @Valentines 22Mar 12-5 What was her daughter’s connection with LordMansfield #KenwoodHouse? Timed talks 12, 1.30 2.30 3.30 dancing fun creative crafts Oh! artists’ studios are open too!

Happy Mother’s Day! 👩‍👧‍👦 Here are two happy mums with their newborns at the Ilford Maternity Hospital (later part of King George Hospital), Newbury Park, about 1952.

The chimney of Ilford’s Dust Destructor comes down in this picture taken on 14 March 1957. The Dust Destructor, based on Suffolk Road in Newbury Park, was an incinerator for household waste and was built in 1916, not without controversy amongst locals.

On School Archives Day, here’s a peek at Ida Watson’s school report for the Autumn Term 1908 at Aldersbrook Girls’ School, Wanstead. Ida’s teacher remarked that her personal conduct in class was “fairly good” but that “fidgeting [was] the chief fault”! Can anyone relate?

The Friends of the River Roding’s Wanstead and Woodford local group are on a mission to restore the river and its tributaries, one bag of rubbish and one forgotten stream at a time. Derek Seume reports wansteadvillagedirectory.com/?p=15293

The Derek Keene #London #Lecture 2026 is open for (free) booking! Join us on Weds 24 June to hear Thomas Asbridge on the #BlackDeath in London, drawing on his new book. The lecture forms a focal point of our annual @ihr.bsky.social #SummerSchool, this year focused on #London 'Sickness & Health'.

Dear everyone, As per the post from the Bodleian librarian below, AI bots and scrapers are putting just about every website under great pressure, British History Online included. A lot of excellent tech staff are working hard to keep everything working, but outages and siruptions are inevitable.

Tonight!

Looking in the British Newspaper Archive in connection with a Facebook post, I found the advert proclaiming the opening of what appears to be the first branch of J. Sainsbury in Ilford in Sept 1897 next to the Methodist Church in the High Road. Photos - www.sainsburyarchive.org.uk/catalogue/se...

Local schoolchildren perform in the Redbridge Choral Festival at the Royal Albert Hall, March 1976.

That’s what we like to see – readers of all ages ready for a good book sale at Fullwell Cross Library, 1977. Happy World Book Day! 📚

‘A Dirty History of Photography’ is now available to read at Redbridge Heritage Centre. Please book a research session to view the Ilford Limited archive.

We were pleased to receive @michellehenning.bsky.social’s exciting new book ‘A Dirty History of Photography: Chemistry, Fog and Empire’, largely based on research into the Ilford Limited archive held at Redbridge Heritage Centre.

Next up in our series of talks we have Gary Lewis on the subject of Blue Plaques in the East End. 7 for 7:30pm next Monday 9th March in the Gloucester Room, Redbridge Central Library.

Today marks 40 years since the new Redbridge Central Library opened on Clements Road, Ilford. Can you name some of the ways the Library interior has changed or stayed the same since these pictures were taken in 1986?

I would imagine those of a certain age can still convert from this new-fangled thing to real money quite easily...

Happy Valentines Day! 💝 This anonymous hand-embroidered card was sent to the sweetheart of a soldier fighting in Europe during the First World War. The smaller piece of card reads ‘Un baiser de’ – ‘a kiss from’ – and is addressed “To Girlie / From Boy”.

Our Chairman gave a talk yesterday up in Woodford on the origins of Redbridge street names, and I was reminded of this from a newspaper in 1894. Cameron Corbett was busily laying out the Grange Estate north of the station (York Road to Northbrook) but needed another road. 🧵

With her ground-breaking achievements, Kitty Clark may have inspired many more #WomenInSTEM during her time at Ilford Limited! Find out more about the company at Redbridge Museum: visionrcl.org.uk/museum

Kitty was also a pioneer in developing mass miniature radiography, a technique used to screen for the deadly lung disease tuberculosis. 🫁 She received an MBE for her work on this in 1945.

To celebrate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, here’s a mini thread dedicated to Kathleen ‘Kitty’ Clara Clark (1896-1986), a scientist who worked for local photographic company Ilford Limited. 🧵 Open this thread to read on! ⬇️

More archive than art but we’ll take part in today’s @artukdotorg.bsky.social #OnlineArtExchange anyway with this photograph from our collection of Victorian skaters on the frozen lake at Wanstead Park, February 1895 ⛸️

Our next talk is by one of our own Committee members, Lynn Haseldine-Jones, who looks at Woodford in Old Postcards. Next Monday 9th Feb in the Gloucester Room - 7 for 7:30pm.

Ilford HS president Jef Page is speaking to the Woodford Historical Society about the origins of Redbridge street names on Thursday 12th Feb @ 2:30pm up at All Saints, Inmans Row in Woodford Wells. I wonder if he'll cover Inmans Row itself?

A little added extra to our map - the difference a few short decades bring! This publication has two maps about 25 years apart, it's utterly incredible how profound a change the railways made to the UK landscape! www.alangodfreymaps.co.uk/london803.htm

1925 was a pretty key year for The Area Formerly Known as Redbridge* with the sale of both Shackman's & St Swithin's farms - and you can read about it here: *by those of us of a certain age... ilfordhistoricalsociety.weebly.com/uploads/1/1/...

The Ilford Swimming Baths opened on the High Road on this day in 1931. These photos from our collection show the baths under construction on 18 September 1930. Do you remember going there to swim? 🏊

2nd Lt. Herbert Musgrove Beck of Ilford was killed in a flying accident on this day in 1918. Now on display at Redbridge Museum, this wooden cross originally marked his grave in the Military Cemetery in Amiens, France. Discover the journey of the Beck cross on our #WW1 website: vrcl.uk/4sNCeJf

Tomorrow!

It's been a very cold week for us! This diary entry by John Hanson of Woodford recorded similar weather on this day in 1820 ❄️ If Hanson's Fahrenheit thermometer read 30° below freezing, and the freezing temperature is 32°F, can you figure out how cold it would have been on a Celsius thermometer? 🌡️

Our first talk for 2026 is one on Famous Quakers of West Ham given by Mark Gorman and Peter Williams. 7 for 7:30pm on Monday 12th Jan in the Gloucester Room, Redbridge Central Library.

Our first acquisition of the New Year – this 1980 pen and watercolour work by Essex artist Frank Alwin showing the Ilford Playhouse on Cranbrook Road, Ilford, a former Grade II listed church building. (1/2)

Happy New Year from Redbridge Museum! 🥳

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas to all from Redbridge Museum! 🎄

Happy Christmas from all at the Ilford Historical Society!

#Santa takes a break on Christmas Eve with a quick concert in this cover of photographic company Ilford Limited’s ‘Between Ourselves’ staff magazine for Christmas 1960 🎅 #ArchiveAdventCalendar @arascot.bsky.social

With nothing drastically urgent that needs doing, I'm wandering around the British Newspaper Archive, and came across this piece about a temperance meeting in Ilford for juveniles. I'm now intrigued by a...poem?..called "Farewell, broken chairs and tables".