Bow formed a part of the medieval parish of
Stepney until becoming an independent parish in 1719. The parish vestry then undertook this responsibility until a rising population created the need for the Poplar Board of Works in 1855. This was superseded by the
Metropolitan Borough of Poplar in 1900 until it was absorbed into the
London Borough of Tower Hamlets in 1965. The council offices in Poplar High Street became
Poplar Town Hall on the formation of the Metropolitan Borough of Poplar in 1900.
Bridges Stratforde was first recorded as a settlement in 1177, the name derived from its
Old English meaning of
paved way to a ford.
The ford originally lay on a pre-
Roman trackway at
Old Ford about to the north, but when the
Romans decided on
Colchester as the initial capital for their occupation, the road was upgraded to run from the area of
London Bridge, as one of the first paved Roman roads in
Britain. The 'paved way' is likely to refer to the presence of a stone causeway across the marshes, which formed a part of the crossing. In 1110
Matilda, wife of
Henry I, reputedly fell into the water at the ford on her way to
Barking Abbey, and consequently ordered a distinctively
bow-shaped, three-arched bridge to be built over the
River Lea,
The like of which had not been seen before. The area became known variously as
Stradford of the Bow,
Stratford of the Bow,
Stratford the Bow,
Stratforde the Bowe, and
Stratford-atte-Bow (at the Bow) which over time was shortened to Bow to distinguish it from
Stratford Langthorne on the
Essex bank of the Lea. Land and Abbey Mill were given to
Barking Abbey for maintenance of the bridge, who also maintained a
chapel on the bridge dedicated to
St Katherine, occupied until the 15th century by a hermit. This endowment was later administered by
Stratford Langthorne Abbey. By 1549, this route had become known as
The Kings Way, and later became known as the
Great Essex Road. Responsibility for maintenance of the bridge was always in dispute, no more so than with the
Dissolution of the Monasteries, when local landowners who had taken over the Abbey lands were found responsible. The bridge was widened in 1741 and tolls were levied to defray the expense, but litigation over maintenance lasted until 1834, when the bridge needed to be rebuilt and landowners agreed to pay half of the cost, with Essex and Middlesex sharing the other. The bridge was again replaced in 1834, by the
Middlesex and Essex Turnpike Trust, and in 1866
West Ham took responsibility for its upkeep and that of the causeway and smaller bridges that continued the route across the Lea. In 1967 that bridge was replaced by a new modern bridge by the
Greater London Council who also installed a two-lane flyover above it (designed by Andrei Tchernavin, son of Gulag escapee
Vladimir V. Tchernavin A
Green Goose was a young or mid-summer goose, and a slang term for a cuckold or a 'low' woman. In 1630,
John Taylor, a poet, wrote
At Bow, the Thursday after Pentecost, There is a fair of green geese ready rost, Where, as a goose is ever dog-cheap there, The sauce is over somewhat sharp and deare, taking advantage of the double entendre and continuing with other verses describing the drunken rowdy behaviour of the crowds. By the mid-19th century, the authorities had had enough and the fair was suppressed. More recent investigations of documentary and archaeological evidence suggests the concern was to the north of the High Street and across the river.
19th century (pre-1837) Grove Hall Private Lunatic Asylum was established on the plot in 1820. This establishment primarily catered for ex-servicemen and was featured in
Charles Dickens' novel
Nicholas Nickleby (1839). It was replaced after it was shut and turned into Grove Hall Park was opened in 1909 following its purchase by the local authority in an auction in 1906. In 1878 it was the largest asylum in London with capacity for 443 inmates.
Victorian period (1837 to 1901) In 1843 the engineer
William Bridges Adams founded the Fairfield Locomotive Works, where he specialized in light engines, steam railcars (or railmotors) and inspection trolleys, including the
Fairfield steam carriage for the
Bristol and Exeter Railway and the
Enfield for the
Eastern Counties Railway. The business failed and the works closed , later becoming the factory of
Bryant and May. Bow was the headquarters of the
North London Railway, which opened its
locomotive and carriage workshops in 1853. There were two stations,
Old Ford and
Bow. During
World War 2 the North London Railway branch from Dalston to Poplar through Bow was so badly damaged that it was abandoned. Bow station opened in 1850 and was rebuilt in 1870 in a grand style, designed by Edwin Henry Horne and featuring a concert hall that was and . This became
The Bow and Bromley Institute, then in 1887 the
East London Technical College and a
Salvation Army hall in 1911. From the 1930s it was used as the
Embassy Billiard Hall and after the war became the
Bow Palais, but was demolished in 1956 after a fire. The London
E postcode area was formed in 1866, with the E3 sub-division in 1917. A statue of
William Ewart Gladstone stands outside Bow Church. It was donated in 1882 by Theodore H. Bryant, part-owner of the Bryant and May match factory. Bow is also the setting of
The Big Bow Mystery (1892), a detective novel by
Israel Zangwill, which is often cited as an early example of a
“locked-room” mystery in British crime fiction.
Women's rights, the matchgirls' strike, and Emmeline Pankhurst of the Suffragettes In 1888, the ''
matchgirls' strike'' occurred at the
Bryant and May match factory in Fairfield Road. This was a forerunner of the
suffragette movement fight for women's rights and also the trade union movement. The factory was rebuilt in 1911 and the brick entrance includes a depiction of Noah's Ark and the word 'Security' used as a trademark on the matchboxes. Match production ceased in 1979 and the building is now private apartments known as the
Bow Quarter.
Emmeline Pankhurst began the
Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1903 with her daughters
Christabel and
Sylvia. Sylvia became increasingly disillusioned with the
Suffragette movement's inability to engage with the needs of working-class women like the match girls. Sylvia formed a breakaway movement, the
East London Federation of Suffragettes, and based at 198 Bow Road, by the church, in a baker's shop. This was emblazoned with "
Votes for Women" in large gold letters and opened in October 1912. The local Member of
Parliament,
George Lansbury, resigned his seat to stand on a platform of women's enfranchisement. Sylvia supported him and Bow Road became the campaign office, culminating in a huge rally in nearby
Victoria Park, but Lansbury was narrowly defeated and support for the project in the
East End was withdrawn. Sylvia refocused her efforts from Bow, and with the outbreak of
World War I began a nursery, clinic and cost price canteen for the poor at the bakery. A paper, the
Women's Dreadnought, was published to bring her campaign to a wider audience. At the close of war, the
Representation of the People (Amendment) Act 1918 gave limited voting rights to property-owning women over the age of 30, and equal rights were finally achieved ten years later. Pankhurst spent 12 years in Bow fighting for women's rights. She risked constant arrest and spent a lot of time in
Holloway Prison, often on hunger strike. She finally achieved her aim, and along the way had alleviated some of the poverty and misery and improved social conditions for all in the East End.
20th century (1901 to 1999) Poplar Town Hall was built for the
Metropolitan Borough of Poplar (which was formed from
Poplar, Bow and Bromley-by Bow) in the mid-1930s at the corner of Bow Road and Fairfield Road; it is now used as commercial offices. It contains the
Poplar Assembly Rooms, now no longer used.
The Builders, by sculptor David Evans is a frieze on the face of the building, unveiled by
George Lansbury,
MP for
Bow and Bromley, on 10 December 1938: the Portland Stone panels commemorate the trades constructing the Town Hall and symbolise the borough's relationship with the
River Thames and the youth of Poplar. A memorial to Lansbury stands on the corner of Bow Road and Harley Grove, near 39 Bow Road which was his family home in the constituency until it was destroyed in
the Blitz. It describes him as "A great servant of the people". Lansbury was twice Mayor of Poplar and
MP for
Bromley and Bow. In 1921, he led the
Poplar Rates Rebellion. His daughter-in-law, Minnie Lansbury, was one of the 30 Poplar councillors sent to prison, and died six weeks after leaving prison. A memorial clock to her is over a row of shops on Bow Road, near the junction with Alfred Street. , platform level, looking eastward towards Essex (1961) Ownership of
Bow Road railway station passed from
British Rail to the
London Transport Executive in 1950. The station building was placed as a Grade II listed building on 27 September 1973. The
Metropolitan Borough of Poplar was absorbed along with the boroughs of Stepney and Poplar into the
London Borough of Tower Hamlets in 1965 as part of the newly formed
Greater London. In 1975, the Baroness Burdett Coutts Drinking Fountain was given
Grade II* listed status by
Historic England.
Bromley Public Hall, the old
vestry hall for neighbouring
Bromley-by-Bow (St Leonard's Parish), can be seen on the south side of the
Bow Road boundary, near the DLR station. It continues in use for registrations of births and marriages. , Tredegar Road, 4 June 2004 In 1986 the
Greater London Council transferred responsibility for the park to the London borough of Tower Hamlets and the
London Borough of Hackney, through a joint management board. Since 1994 Tower Hamlets has run the park alone. Between 1986 and 1992 the name
Bow applied to one of seven neighbourhoods to whom power was devolved from the council. This resulted in replacement of much of the street signage. Bow West and Bow East are two wards formed in 2002 that incorporate
Old Ford and parts of Bethnal Green and Mile End. In 1991,
St Paul's, Old Ford was closed due to poor maintenance and safety concerns. This led to a successful campaign to raise more than £3,000,000 to renovate the church, so that it could continue to be used as a church, and also to better serve the local community.
Channel 4’s
The Big Breakfast was broadcast live from a former lockkeeper's cottages located on Fish Island, in Old Ford, from 28 September 1992 until 29 March 2002.
Rachel Whiteread's temporary public sculpture "
House" was created on Grove Road, being completed on 25 October 1993 and demolished eleven weeks later on 11 January 1994. The work won her the
Turner Prize and
K Foundation art award in November 1993. Bow Arts was set up in 1994 by Marcel Baettig and Marc Schimmel, the owner of the then new premises. It became an artist studio supporting over 100 working artists. In 1995, the Trust became a registered arts and education charity. In 1996, after an Arts Council England grant, they were able to build the Nunnery Gallery on Bow Road.
21st century (from 2000) An annual fête and music festival held on Wennington Green in
Mile End Park initiated by the vicar of
St Barnabas Bethnal Green and called the
St Barnabas Community Fete (or Bowstock) ran from 2003 to 2010, with the 2007 fete being part of a case study in the 'Community' section of the
Living Britain report published by
Zurich and The Future Laboratory. In 2003,
H. Forman and Son learned of London's bid to host the
2012 Summer Olympics. The company would have had to relocate from Stratford following a Compulsory Purchase Order. Then
Mayor of London,
Boris Johnson, officially opened the newly finished smokehouse in Old Ford in 2009. Following the compulsory purchase, the company rebuilt its premises near to the Olympic Park, on the banks of the River Lee. In 2010 the National Lottery
Big Lottery Fund awarded the London Borough of Tower Hamlets a £4.5 million grant towards a £12 million programme of major improvements to Victoria Park. in
Stratford is seen in the background). Fish Island has a long history as a home to artists and art spaces, having one of the highest densities of fine artists, designers and artisans in Europe according to a 2009 study which found around 600 artists' studios. In September 2014
Bow School moved from the old site off Fairfield Road to a new site in
Bromley-by-Bow 1 mile to the south-east by
Bow Locks, in a new building designed by
van Heyningen and Haward Architects. In 2014 local residents organized the first Roman Road Festival, a celebration of local life, business, and art. This grew to encompass dozens of events and hundreds of volunteers and led to the creation of the Roman Road Trust. In 2015, Roman Road was a top three finalist within the London category of for that year's
Great British High Street awards.
Cycle Superhighway 2 was upgraded between Bow and Aldgate and was completed in April 2016, with separated cycle tracks replacing cycle lanes along the majority of the route. A street party was held on Roman Road to mark the Queen Official Birthday on 11 June 2016, all profits from the stalls sales being shared with Bow Foodbank. An orchard project was designed to celebrate the public green spaces in the Old Ford Estate in 2017, it was launched in response to feedback from local residents who wished to make better use of green space.
The Palm Tree pub building was
Grade II listed in 2015 by
Historic England. As part of the Bow town centre scheme, it was announced in 2019 that money had been given to Tower Hamlets Council as part of GLA liveable neighbourhoods programme. ==Geography==