Churches of the British Isles

Jireh Lodge (Seventh-Day Adventists) was at 133 Sebert Road Stratford. The Seventh-Day Adventists registered a church here in 1929. Seemingly it flourished but by 2009 the building was clearly abandoned, after which partial demolition took place by March 2011. Nothing had changed by 2022. Also at Forest Gate was the Ethical Church (or the Emerson Ethical Brotherhood) meeting at the Earlham Hall, Earlham Grove, about 1902-1922, the building now fully gone.

St Mark's Church Forest Gate is on the east side of Lorne Road, eighty metres or so south of Godwin Road. It originated in 1886 as a mission for Emmanuel Church (see links) to serve the area between Romford Road and Wanstead Flats. Services were first held in a rented cow shed on the site of 65-67 Tylney Road. The present site was bought in 1888 and an Early English church was built in three stages between 1893-1898. Today's replacement was finished in 1986.

Jireh Chapel is on the southern side of Sebert Road, at the very entrance to Manor Park Cemetery (see below). The chapel originated in 1888, when a Mr Allen began to hold meetings in the small building which was attached to Jireh Lodge (see above). This chapel was built in 1921, at 244 Sebert Road, and with materials from a demolished chapel at Woburn Sands in Bedfordshire. Chapel membership had collapsed by 1965. so the building was sold to a builder.

Manor Park Cemetery & Crematorium Chapel is accessed via grand gates at the east end of Sebert Road in Manor Park. The former Jireh Chapel building sits directly outside the gates (above). The site was was founded in 1874 and is still run by scions of the same family which originally dedicated the land. The very first interment along Centre Drive on 25 March 1875 was for Mr William Nesbitt. There is also a memorial to Annie Chapman, Jack the Ripper's second victim.

All Saints Anglican Parish Church is at the north-east corner of the junction between Romford Road and Hampton Road. Around 1880 the development of the Woodgrange estate at Forest Gate meant the erection of an iron mission church on this site. The present permanent building replaced it in 1886, with it gaining its own parish in the same year from Emmanuel Church (see links). It is a cruciform building of flint in the Early English style, with crossing turret.

Woodgrange Park Cemetery sits on Tenbury Close, south of Romford Road, about sixty metres west of All Saints (above). It opened in 1889 on agricultural land. It has its own 1993 act of parliament, granted over site owners Badgehurst Ltd which wanted to sell the land for already-started property development. Children set alight the chapel in 2008, with damage so extensive that even the brickwork was unsafe. Rubble occupied the site for many years afterwards.

Romford Road Brethren Meeting Hall sat at the south-east corner of Romford Road and Salisbury Road. In 1903 a group of Brethren were meeting in this building, the 'Recreation Hall', before they moved to the Assembly Hall on Barking Road (see links), which was registered for worship between 1907-1940. The former recreation hall became home to a bar, club, and restaurant, but the building was demolished early in 2011 for the new-build Matrix House.

Manor Park Congregational Church is on the west side of the top end of Manor Park Road, about forty metres away from Durham Road. A nonconformist meeting seems not to have formed in the area until about 1860 (but see Strone Road in the links), when Little Ilford Chapel was registered (again, see links). Members there in 1890 moved to this area, building the present chapel in 1895. It closed about 1914, and today the building provides a home to the Church of God UK.

St Nicholas Catholic Church is on the western side of Gladding Road, to the north of Manor Park station. The Catholic industrial school, Manor Park, opened in 1868. This contained the chapel itself, which was open to the public. It was attached to St Peter & St Paul Ilford (see links) between 1899-1918, when it became the church of the new parish of Manor Park. When St Stephen's Church was rebuilt in 1959 (see links), St Nicolas was attached to it as a chapel.

Eight photos on this page by P L Kessler (from 2010-2011), and one each from Multimap and Google.