defences of London. Whatever its origins, the splayed Lea provided extensive wharfage, ample supplies of pure water and motive power – the benefits of which were fully exploited by the diverse industries that sprang up. Tidal mills were important at the time of Domesday, and textiles, paper making and distilling featured prominently. The founding of Stratford Langthorne Abbey in 1135 testified to the growing economic and political importance of the town. The original Roman road eastwards


(remembered today by Roman Road market), probably crossed the Lea at Old Ford but in the early 12th century Queen Maud, wife of Henry I, built Bow Bridge a kilometre to the south. Thus, in the following centuries, Stratford became a vital staging post along the great highway linking the eastern counties to London. In 1839 daytime coaches and omnibuses


between Stratford and London ran four times an hour, and coaches to and from the eastern counties stopped at Stratford hourly. Such regular services enabled London merchants to find in Stratford a convenient retreat from the dirt and bustle of the city, and along Stratford High Street and Romford Road numerous hostelries of various descriptions catered for the needs of a large and constant body of travellers. In the late 1830s Stratford took a decisive leap


4. Stratford Central Junction, 1922


into the modern industrial age. Communication was, again, to play a vital role. The Eastern Counties Railway (ECR) company was founded with the intention of opening up the eastern counties to London by more efficient transport


links. The proposal published in 1834 was to build a line – following, in part, the course of the ancient highway – from London to Norwich, passing through Stratford, Colchester and Ipswich. With financial backing from cotton magnates, and despite opposition from many local landowners, the line was completed in 1839. The line immediately strengthened Stratford’s


strategic links with London and the eastern counties, and it was these that were to prompt the next decisive developments. In 1846, a 4km line was constructed from Stratford to the Thames at Bow Creek, where a wharf had been built to unload seaborne coal from the north-eastern coal fields, and another was planned to unload grain. The line was financed by the ECR and leased to the contractors and prominent railway developers, Messrs Kennard, Brassey and Peto, who proceeded to open up the marshlands of south West Ham by constructing another line to North Woolwich. Immediately afterwards they set about planning the construction of what was to become the vast Victoria Docks; this set in motion the extraordinary industrialisation of West Ham. The locational advantages of Stratford were


also evident in the first stages of its own industrial growth. By the 1850s, the line of housing along Mile End Road – extending as part of the eastwards growth of East London – had reached Stratford, and the silk-weaving and calico-printing industries that were established by the Lea survived into the 1860s. Of greater and more enduring importance, however, was the chemical industry. Small chemical firms were also able to exploit the river


13


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