"The arrival of the railways together with the development of the Royal Docks from 1850 onwards, spurred on a further massive growth of West Ham's industrial capability. The Thames side marshes were transformed into a huge manufacturing and engineering complex which rivalled the great northern cities. Housing sprang up with great speed to attempt to meet the needs of the growing workforce. Many of the new terrace houses that were built had no connection to mains water or sewage supply, and infectious diseases rampaged freely. Many people flocked into the area in search of jobs and a better life. Despite the many industries and factories work was still not that easy to find and for many the only reward was poverty and harsh living conditions.
"The story of the late Victorian and early twentieth century West Ham was one of stuggle to cope with the social consequences of this immense population crammed into one area.
"All the houses had two families living in them, one upstairs one down below in three rooms. In our house there was ten of us in three rooms, outside toilet, two bedrooms and a kitchen where we ate our food and also lived in. I was in a bedroom with my five sisters, the old man and the old lady was in the front room."
- AB
"Two families would live in one property and in some cases there was not enough homes for people. The war years had destroyed a lot of homes, Silvertown was very badly damaged by the Blitz."
- BD
"When we first got married we moved in with my wife's uncle, who had his mate living with him, my wife's gran, who looked after her eldest son who was unmarried and his mate who was also unmarried. Unfortunately my wife's gran died a few weeks before we got married, so we actually moved into the front room of the house. Which was good as we had everything going for us including the fireplace, so you could get dressed and undressed in the winter, in front of the fire it was marvellous. And then of course the wife got pregnant and all of a sudden the room got very, very small. But then unfortunately Uncle Joe's mate died and we got another room and later Uncle Joe died and we took over the full house. And we were in that house for thirty-five years."
- Interview in Cundys
"Since the War there was plenty of work until the docks closed. What happened here was one of the inevitable things that had to happen, if you've got a community where there is two or three families living together along with all the houses that were destroyed during the war, there is a real shortage, and so you've got to move people, Greenwood, who was the Housing Minister in Wilson's cabinet, came up with the idea, not only for us, it applied to most major towns to reduce the housing pressure people would have to move. That's how the new towns were created, Milton Keynes, and various other places.
"It was no good moving a lot of the population if there was nothing for them to do so then they raided the gold mile which was the area from Canning Town to North Woolwich, it was not only here but in all manufacturing areas, and the government enticed people to move - by this time I was on the Local Authority and up to my neck in the Labour Party. The idea was brilliant they came along and said that a lot of the industry here was built prior to the 1880's. Nothing had been updated, factories and industry were offered cheap land, a peppercorn rent, and given cash grants to move and update with new equipment and modernise. In one big bang the whole of the industry left the area, suddenly over a few years leaving only Tate & Lyle and the Paintworks.
"I remember standing up at one meeting and saying,"Well look no-one is going to criticise the goverment for de-crowding properties and creating new towns, giving people new houses and space, but you've left behind a big void". They should have allowed only a percentage of industry to leave, on top of that the docks started to decline and employment went.
- BD
