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Local Heroes - Your streets were their streets Local Heroes - Your streets were their streets

The names of 197 local men who lost their lives in World War I are
inscribed on the bells of the Memorial Community Church in Plaistow. They are our local heroes

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Plaistow

What did Plaistow look like in the years after the Great War? This photo from the WHCM archives looks like one of the “Peace Teas” that celebrated the

A “Peace Tea”?

end of the war in 1918.

 

The next two photos are from 1930 – five years after the bells were installed – when crowds lined Barking Road for a royal visit to the church.

 

In the photo on the left you can see they are outside number 320 Barking Road, Plaistow – this is where Samrat Tandoori restaurant is now.

These crowds in the picture below are outside the Memorial Church, near the junction of Barking Road and Adine Road. The Hovis sign painted on the brick wall at the corner is still there.

Below is a photo of the Memorial Church on the day it was opened in 1922.

Thanks to WHCM for these archive photos. You can see more on their Flickr photostream. If you have any photos from Plaistow at the time of the First World War or the years afterwards, we would be delighted to add them.