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| Forest Lane Park |
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This new park is on the site of Wood Grange Manor, which was purchased in 1847 by Quaker banker and philanthropist, Samuel Gurney, brother of Elizabeth Fry; he is remembered by an obelisk at Stratford Broadway, which was put up in 1861. Gurney gave the land to the Whitechapel Board of Guardians in 1852 who built the Forest Gate Hospital Industrial School for poor children here in 1854. The area's name of Forest Gate derives from a gate erected in the 17th century to stop cattle straying onto Romford Road from Wanstead Flats; this gate existed until 1883. The school remained until 1906, and was the scene of a tragedy in 1890 when a fire caused the deaths of 26 children. In 1908 it became the branch workhouse of Poplar Union, and in 1911 it was purchased by West Ham Union who re-opened it as a workhouse infirmary in 1913. It remained as a hospital and was expanded in 1931 and 1950 although the main Victorian building remained. Forest Gate Hospital finally became redundant in 1984 when the new Newham General Hospital opened, and it closed in 1985. Afterwards part of the back of the original main building was knocked down and houses built on the site, and most of the rest of the building was demolished in 1993. However, the front was retained and the southern and central part of the grounds remained. Forest Lane Park was developed by the Borough Council from 1991. |
