Ilford Historical Society

Black and white photo of a 150-foot chimney coming down, with spectators viewing from across the yard.

Extract from the Essex Guardian newsletter, 3 June 1905, titled ‘What Ilford People Think: The Cost of a Dust Destructor’

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.

An early 20th century school report card showing marks for each subject with handwritten notes by a teacher

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?

Mine was always 'lacks concentration' or something like that - I've improved since then...

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

https://www.history.ac.uk/news-events/events/keene-london-lecture-26-black-death-london

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...

Black and white photograph of a boy playing a French Horn

Black and white close-up photograph of boys singing in a choir

Black and white photograph of school children singing in a choir

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

We had a mobile library that parked in Falmouth Gardens just round the corner of us when I was growing up - I would be there as soon as it arrived on Friday afternoon!

Black and white photo of a very long queue of people waiting outside Fullwell Cross Library

Black and white photo of people standing around a table laden with books

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.

Photo of a hardcover book with a black and white photograph of a woman walking across a cobbled road in the rain on the dustjacket.

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.

Ilford Historical Society Meeting 9th March 2026, 7 for 7:30pm.

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.

Black and white photo of a group of men walking around a library reading room

Black and white photo of a group of men by the stained glass window at Redbridge Central Library

Black and white photo of a group of men walking around the library

Black and white photo of people sat in the Gloucester Room at Redbridge Central Library for the unveiling of a plaque and speeches

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...

Photo of a cream-coloured greetings card with an embossed border and hand-embroidered with flowers and the Union Jack flag. A separate, smaller piece of card is printed with a sprig of clovers and the words ‘Un Baiser De’, with the words ‘To Girlie / From Boy’ hand-written in pencil above and below the message.

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”.

...Building Society and the Balfour Group of companies including J.W. Hobbs & Co were being wound up in 1893.

This left the Ilford Lodge Estate largely unfinished and work only restarted in 1896.

Thus, the name of Balfour would have been a sore point with the Local Board in 1894!

And so the suggestion in the Local Board meeting was to name it after their chairman Edmund Beal - hence Beal Road. He reluctantly agreed but look at the last line - "One thing, it was not worse than Balfour Road."

The swindler Jabez Balfour had fled to Argentina on the collapse of the Liberator...

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.

🧵

Redbridge Museum | Vision RCL Redbridge Museum & Heritage Centre is the local museum and archive service for the London Borough of Redbridge.

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

X-ray image of a person’s chest showing healthy lungs

X-ray image of a person’s chest showing a lung infected with tuberculosis

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.

Black and white portrait of a woman with dark hair

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! ⬇️

Black and white photo of Victorian men and women skating on a frozen lake with trees in the background

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.

Jef Page on Redbridge Street Names All Saints Church Inmans Row, Woodford Wells Thursday 12th Feb 2:30pm

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/...

Black and white photo of an indoor swimming pool under construction

Black and white photo of the exterior of Ilford Swimming Baths under construction

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? 🏊

Photo of a wooden grave-marker in the shape of a cross inscribed with the words: “R.I.P. / 2nd LIEUT. H. M. BECK / R.F.C. / KILLED / IN ACTION / 22.1.18 / PER / ARDUA / AD / ASTRA

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