NOTES ON NEWHAM
THE PLACE
The London Borough of Newham [LBN} was formed in 1965 from the old County Boroughs of
West Ham and East Ham. ‘Progress with the People’ replaced the old West Ham ‘Deo
Confidemus’ as Borough motto. It was the host-borough for the 2012 Olympics and home of
West Ham Football Club, Excel Exhibition Centre and London City Airport.
The Borough is framed on three sides by the rivers Thames, Lea and Roding-and fringed to the north by the remnants of Epping Forest. Poised between London and Essex the marsh lands
[Hamme] of West and East Ham had a small population, 7735 in 1801, until the Industrial
Revolution of the 19 th Century brought the docks to the south, railway works to the north and a variety of factories alongside all the rivers. West Ham elected the first UK Labour MP in Keir
Hardie in 1892 and the first ever Labour Borough Council in 1898. The population jumped from
19, 554 in 1851 to 422,517 in 1911, reached its height in the 1930s with 431,672 and then fell after the 1939-45 war to 291, 829 in 1951 and 263,049 by 1961.
Several waves of immigration from the 1950s has changed the constituency-now 70% black and with the highest birth-rate in the UK-and lifted the population figures to 300,00. Underlying social problems of unemployment, poverty and a transient population persist. Religious affiliation has dramatically shifted as black churches and Muslims numerically vie with the
Roman Catholics in a multi-faith and multi-racial area. Established churches have known decline and closure, adaptation and new patterns, experiments in ministry and mission and have struggled to survive within almost constant change.
FAITH IN NEWHAM
Stratford Langthorne Abbey was the first Christian presence. Founded by the Cistercian order in 1135 and closed by King Henry VIII in 1535 the Abbey dominated the area. The three 12 th
Century Anglican parish churches in West Ham, East Ham and Little Ilford were the ‘mother churches’ of the expansion of parishes from the mid-1800s. The first Dissenters were the
Congregationalists with Brickfield Chapel in 1662 followed by the Quakers or Friends in 1671,
Methodists in 1780s, Unitarians 1823, Baptists 1852 and Presbyterians in 1864. Roman
Catholics returned in 1770. Jewish synagogues have come and gone, leaving three cemeteries.
The Christian mix persisted with fluctuations until immigration and globalization brought about a spiritual renaissance from the 1960s as Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists created an inter-faith landscape as the population began to grow again. There are now also over 200 new churches, mainly Pentecostal and black, alongside the mosques, gurdwaras and temples.
Contemporary details are in the 2012 Newham Faith Directory- now on-line.
Colin Marchant ‘Faith flows in Newham’ 2012

BAPTIST CHURCHES ESTABLISHED IN NEWHAM
In chronological order, with original name and membership figures since 1941.
[ ] indicates closure with date
FIRST WAVE 1852-1908
1941 1951 1961 1971 1981 1991 2001 2011
1852 STRATFORD GROVE/CENTRAL E15 139 52 47 41 79 63 85
[1870 STRATFORD TABERNACLE E15 1917]
1871 BARKING ROAD TABERNACLE E13 1087 886 486 284 174 94 58 100 then WEST HAM CENTRAL MISSION, MEMORIAL BAPTIST PLAISTOW, MEMORIAL COMMUNITY CHURCH
1880 WOODGRANGE E7 178 195 161 150 77 112 127 94
[1883 UPTON CROSS E7 1976] 52 42 28
1885 MAJOR ROAD STRATFORD E15 34 42 25 26 24
Formerly NEWTOWN
[1887 WYTHES ROAD,SILVERTOWN E16 1974]
[1888 NEW BECKTON E6 1978] 25 28
1889 LITTLE ILFORD E12 31 17
1889 MANOR PARK TABERNACLE E12 310 114 146 104 45 120 196 249 now MANOR PARK CHRISTIAN CENTRE
1895 EAST HAM TABERNACLE E6 228 73 49 49 96 100 105 105
[1900 GRANTHAM GOSPEL E12 2001] 18 7 5 taken over by ALL NATIONS
[1903 WEST SILVERTOWN E16 1939]
1906 CUSTOM HOUSE E16 100 55 9 24 11 70 104
1908 BONNY DOWNS E6 35 25 26 27 35 84 89
SECOND WAVE 1994 on
2001 2011
1994 CALVARY CHARISMATIC E13 2 branches remain in Newham 1307 1876
after HQ moved to Tower Hamlets in 2008-one in E7 and E13
[1997 VICTORY LIFE E7 in Forest Gate Methodist then moved to Tower Hamlets in 2005]
1998 ROYAL DOCKS COMMUNITY CHURCH E16 14 11
2001 ALL NATIONS E12 in former Grantham Gospel Mission 76 73
[2001 HARVEST ROCK E7 closed in 2007 with 43 members]
2003 VICTORY E7 at Woodgrange, then Canning Town E16 18 40
2006 BISERICA ROMANA at Stratford Central 24
2008 I HOPE- International House of Prayer and Encouragement E7 ?
Colin Marchant Faith flows in Newham 2012