Becontree Heath

Coordinates: 51°33′49″N 0°09′09″E / 51.563595°N 0.152614°E / 51.563595; 0.152614

Becontree Heath (also spelt Beacontree Heath) is an open space in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. The name has also been applied to the local area, in particular to the RM8 postal district.

History

Becontree Heath functioned as the ancient meeting place for Becontree hundred, which covered much of what is now East London. In 1465, the hundred lost territory in the east and the meeting place became located on its fringe. When it was still a rural parish, Becontree Heath was a hamlet in Dagenham.

Geography

It is the location, at the corner of Rainham Road North and Wood Lane of Barking and Dagenham Civic Centre, an imposing Grade II listed 1930s art deco building designed by Ernest Berry Webber and the former town hall of Dagenham Borough Council.

It is the location of the high density Becontree Heath Estate, built by Barking London Borough Council from 1966 to 1970.

It is the location of a London Buses bus station with services to Chigwell, Canning Town, Romford, Beckton, Dagenham, Rainham, Chadwell Heath and Gallows Corner. Crowlands Heath Golf Club and Becontree Heath Leisure Centre are located here.

Becontree

Coordinates: 51°32′55″N 0°08′34″E / 51.5487°N 0.1427°E / 51.5487; 0.1427

Becontree /ˈbɛkəntriː/ is a large housing estate of approximately 4 square miles (10 km²) in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham in East London, England. It is located 11 miles (17.7 km) east-northeast of Charing Cross and was constructed in the interwar period as the largest public housing estate in the world. The Housing Act 1919 permitted the London County Council to build housing outside the County of London and Becontree was constructed between 1921 and 1935 to cottage estate principles in the parishes of Barking, Dagenham and Ilford in Essex. The official completion of the estate was celebrated in 1935 with a population of around 100,000 people in 26,000 homes. The building of the estate caused a huge increase in population density which led to demands on services and reforms of local government. An additional 1,000 houses were added in later phases. The estate initially had no industrial and very little commercial development until the May & Baker and Ford Dagenham sites opened nearby, and a shopping area was built at Heathway. The estate has formed part of Greater London since 1965, when the Barking section was combined with Dagenham, and has been within a single London borough since the Ilford section was transferred to Barking and Dagenham in 1994.

Becontree (disambiguation)

Becontree is a housing estate of around 100,000 people in East London

Becontree can also refer to:

Becontree Hundred

Becontree was an ancient hundred in the south west of the county of Essex, England. Its area has been entirely absorbed by the growth of London; with its name reused in 1921 for the large Becontree estate of the London County Council. Its former area now corresponds to the London Borough of Newham, the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham and parts of the London Borough of Waltham Forest and the London Borough of Redbridge. Its early extent also included parts of what is now the London Borough of Havering.

History

The name is first recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book as Beuentreu, meaning tree of a man called Beohha. The original tree, at Becontree Heath, was the location that early hundred meetings took place. Before 1465 it included the area of Havering liberty, which comprised the parishes of Hornchurch, Romford and Havering-atte-Bower, and thus the hundred meeting place was not originally located on the fringe of the area. After the area of the liberty was removed, the hundred contained the parishes of Barking, Dagenham, East Ham, Ilford (also known as Great Ilford), Leyton, Little Ilford, Walthamstow, Wanstead and West Ham.