Ilford Town Hall (Ilford)

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  arif40uk

  Ilford was a village and later ward in the ancient Barking parish, in the Becontree hundred of Essex. Ilford formed a civil parish from 1888, with a local board created in 1890, and it became an urban district of Essex from 1894. The council offices were at first in rooms above a shop in Cranbrook Road and, from 1898, council meetings were held in a hired schoolroom in Ilford Hall, High Road, but in 1901 a large town hall, also in the High Road, was completed at a cost of about £30,000. This was designed by B. Woollard in an ornate Renaissance style; it was enlarged in 1927 and 1933. Successive acts provided the council with increased powers and they used these to embark on an expansion of public services, providing sewerage, public baths, an isolation hospital, a fire station, an electricity and tramway undertaking, and several public parks – including Valentine's Park, opened as Central Park in 1898. In 1904, the council also took over the responsibilities of the school board. In 1926, Ilford was incorporated as the Municipal Borough of Ilford. In the succeeding years, Ilford Corporation made several failed attempts to gain county borough status, which would have given independence from Essex County Council. In 1965 the municipal borough was abolished and its former area was transferred to Greater London to form part of the London Borough of Redbridge. In 1914, the parish of Barking was transferred from the Diocese of St Albans to a new Diocese of Chelmsford, reflecting the increase in population to the east of London.

  17 years ago | reply | hide comment
• 
  arif40uk

  The only complete skull of a mammoth discovered in the United Kingdom was unearthed in 1860 at the site where Boots the Chemist (there are two Boots there, this is the very close to the town hall) now stands in the High Road. The skull can now be seen in the Natural History Museum. Redevelopment has destroyed much of the evidence for early Ilford, but the oldest evidence for human occupation is the 1st and 2nd century BC Iron Age earthwork known as Uphall Camp. This was situated between the Roding and Ilford Lane and is recorded in 18th century plans. Roman finds have also been made in the vicinity. A nearby mound called Lavender Mount existed into the 1960s, when it was removed during building work at Howards chemical works. Excavation has shown that the latter may have been a 16th century 'beacon-mound'. Ilford straddled the important road from London to Colchester, again likely to be of Roman origin, and also (in historic times) was the main crossing point of the marshes, providing the only land access from London to Barking and Tilbury. Barking was the site of Barking Abbey, an important Christian centre from 666AD, and a major fishing port from the Middle Ages. Tilbury achieved importance in the Tudor era as a fort, and later as a port. The Middlesex and Essex Turnpike Trust controlled and maintained this road from 1721. The River Roding was also made navigable for barges as far as Ilford Bridge from 1737.

  17 years ago | reply | hide comment