Thames Tributary Mayesbrook - Barking

Thames Tributary Mayesbrook
The Mayesbrook flows south west towards the river Roding. It is joined and splits into ditches and tributaries.


An urban area of mainly local authority housing to the east of Barking Centre.  It is intersected by the main A13 road and also by the Great Eastern Railway. There are pockets of industry around the railway, as well as schools, churches as well as Eastbury House itself, in community use.

Post to the south River Road


A13 Barking Bypass
The road was originally opened in 1928 and is now a dual three-lane expressway upgraded in 2002-2004 and through Barking is called Alfred’s Way, made up of what was Barking Bypass, originally made a dual carriageway in the 1960s.
Underpass at Movers Lane. This was partially opened from spring 2003 and fully opened by the late summer. It replaces a two-way flyover above a roundabout.
Pumphouse. This concrete box is part of Artscape – this is a never completed arts project along the A13 by architect Tom de Paor, with Barking & Dagenham Council. The marker for the start of this is a ‘pocket park’ on the south west corner of the Movers Lane underpass area with reptile shaped mounds which are said to deflect road noise. Then there is an actual swage pumping station in a concrete box by Clare Brew replacing an Edwardian predecessor but with a fancy lighting scheme
Trees. This is also part of the Artscape Project ‘Arterial’ and seeks to ‘address the commuter in his diurnal rhythm’ by alternating species. It consists of a line of trees along the line of the road.
Subway leading to Charlton Crescent. Also part of Artscape and designed by Anu Patel. This consists of York Stone and green slate ‘dramatic facades’ plus a parapet fence. It opens out to the Mayesbrook and to echo this there are designs which ‘flow through the subway like water’ using ‘snaking fibre optic cables’ and coloured lighting.
Mayesbrook flows under the main road in a culvert.

Bastable Avenue
Named after the Ministry of Local Govt. housing officer
Christ Church. This is a Church of England building which that shares its premises with Christ Church Apostolic Community Church and community groups like Thames View Aid and Advice Centre. It is a plain building from 1958-9. There is a high brick bell-tower with a sloping roof.
Thames View Community Centre
Thames View Junior School
Lighterman Pub


Blake Avenue
Edward VIII Pillar Box
Eastbury Children’s Centre
79 Barking United Services Club
95 Turning Point Care Home
St Patrick’s Church
designed in 1940 by A.E. Wiseman of Chelmsford better known as a cinema and paid for by Lavinia Keene with a foundation stone on the tower. It is brick on a Reinforced concrete frame. Inside the west end divides off into a Church hall with double doors. There is a new floor following subsidence. There is a Bakelite cross. It is surrounded by railings with metal gates painted in red white. It is a streamlined moderne church with an extraordinary tower. Pevsner says that it could be taken for a part of underground station.

Eastbury Square
Eastbury. This was a manor of Barking as ‘east manor', in contrast to Westbury. Eastbury and Westbury Levels are shown on 19th maps. Eastbury was about a mile east of Barking town, and was a tenement of Barking abbey – a reeve of is mentioned in 1331. It was leased to a Nicholas Stodard after the dissolution and passed through various hands until 1913 when land was sold for development. Eastbury House was acquired by Percy. Bayman, and he sold it on to the National Trust
Eastbury House. In grim red brick it is in contrast to the surrounding 1920s council estate. It is a medium-sized brick- built Elizabethan manor house, well preserved, and includes early 17th- wall paintings. Built for Clement Sysley, a City merchant, in the mid 16th. The date of 1572 and 1573 were on the building. In 1605 Lord Montague visited and it is said contrived the gunpowder plot here – hence it is sometimes called ‘Gunpowder House’. By 1796 it was a farmhouse but saved in 1841 by local antiquarians after some had already been demolished and gone. In 1918 it was saved by the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, and the London Survey Committee, which published a monograph on it. It was then be bought by the National Trust. Later part was used as an ex-servicemen's club and later, while emoty, was vandalised, in 1934 it was leased it to Barking Borough Council and opened it as a museum which closed in 1941. It was then used as a nursery and welfare centre. It has now been restored again by Richard Griffiths Architects. The house is outward facing, a reversal of medieval practice; there are groups of octagonal chimneys and a three-storey porch. Above the hall is the painted room, with bits of wall paintings showing brightly coloured sea and landscapes. The house is now open and run by Barking Museum Service.
Kitchen garden. This is planned to a 16th design. There is a Walled garden with openings in the wall which are thought to be bee-boles.

Movers Lane
Great Fields Park. Small park with sports facilities and ornamental gardens. It contains “Art in the Park” a horticultural sculpture. It was opened in 1919 as Movers Lane Playing Fields, and called a park from 1926.

Ripple Road
This is the old line of what was the A13 now renumbered and bypassed
Flyover and elevated section
The Harrow. This pub is now closed but dated from 1748.

River Road
Built as an extension to Movers Lane in the 1890s to connect with new building at Creekmouth.
Arcelor
The Roundabout Sewer joins the Mayesbrook just south of the A13 near River Road.
Lyon Business Park

Suffolk Road
Ripple Junior School

Thames View Estate,
This cottage estate was planned from 1949 by Barking Council on marshland using piles and rafts. It was opened in 1954 with 1,700 dwellings and designed by C.C. Shaw, the Borough Architect. Because of its distance from Barking town centre it was built with a shopping centre, schools, pubs and church with formal planning. Street names are those of local government officers.

Tom Mann Close
Road named for the 19th trade unionist and leader in the 1889 Dock Strike

Waverley Gardens
Waverley Gardens Pumping Station. Thames Water

Sources
Christ Church. Web site
Clunn. The face of London
London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, Web site
Nature Conservation in Barking and Dagenham
Pevsner and Cherry Essex
Port of London Authority. Magazine

St Patricks Church. Web site
Victoria County History. Barking,
Walford. Village London

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