Buildings on Parade - restoration works in Barking

We are polishing up the Edwardian buildings in Barking’s Town Centre, as part of our Townscape Heritage Project largely funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund with additional investment from the building owners, in the town-centre Conservation Area.

This is the crest on the 1907 United Westminster Charities Block, 1-11 East Street.

They were built by the charity, on land donated to St Margaret’s Hospital, Westminster, by King Charles II in 1636.

These buildings were eventually sold in the 1990s and are currently being repaired and restored to their former glory. HBS have ensured that the Edwardian Dutch Gables have been made safe and carefully restored. The windows have been mended, painted and also replaced where they were beyond repair. The stonework was not repainted but restored to its original condition - which is now considered the most sustainable way to manage old buildings (as proposed by The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings). This building has also been steam cleaned and the brickwork and mortar joints repaired.

Jasmine Jandu, a student from Barking College, studying for a T-Level technical qualification in design, surveying and planning for construction has been enjoying her weekly work experience placement, with the contactors, Havering Building Specialists (HBS) since November 2021. Jasmine, who has braved working at height, said: “I love it – it’s amazing, brick restoring and laying. I’m learning so much.” The team at HBS are pleased to have Jasmine too, saying she is, ' a pleasure to work with, very polite and a great listener, also not afraid to ask questions!'

Learning from the experts – Jasmine has been re-pointing the bricks using lime mortar rather than cement and restoring the worn and often unsafe masonry including on the roof of the building.

Jasmine up on the roof (35 East Street) with HBS - taken by Leslie Bowen, with kind permission Further along East Street, closer to the station, is another regal row of purpose-built shops with upper-floor residences. These began at 83 East Street but were re-numbered 1-9 Station Parade during the twenties. We had not found an exact build date for this row in the borough’s Archives, but the HBS team recently removed the post-war rendering on 1 Station Parade and revealed a damaged but clearly visible and ornate date of 1906.

Photo of dated emblem on 1 Station Parade - courtesy of Leslie Bowen, HBS

The uncovered crest confirms that this is another row of Edwardian stores, predating the 1907 parade next to The Bull. HBS also revealed the original timber windows, at number 1 – which have been covered up for around seventy years. These will be repaired rather than replaced. A photo recording the regeneration of bomb-damaged London Road shows the wrap around advertisement for Radios which first covered the windows on the corner of Station Parade and Linton Road. Photo: LBBD Archive

The ornate date had previously been covered by a huge image of an Indigenous American, advertising a cool new footwear, Moccasins, probably in the 1920s (LBBD Archives)… Originally Gosling’s Store had been more well known for its boots and in an older photograph the building emblem is clearly visible above the glass frontage. As glass became more affordable, it became a key feature of Edwardian Architecture, including ornate and stained glass.

Early twentieth century photograph of Station Parade (LBBD Archives) - thanks to the restoration works this original feature can be viewed once again.

Another marvelous discovery, during these restoration works, overseen by Be First and Focus Consultants, is the mid-twentieth century glass and copper signage used by renown toy maker and seller of fancy goods, JT Worricker.

The entrepreneurial young craftsman opened his first store, probably at 38 East Street, around 1898, a photo, taken between 1902 and 1906, with his young wife Ethel, shows Joseph Worricker's wooden horse walkers and local postcards…From the Worricker's Collection in the LBBD Archive

When the United Westminster Charities opened their parade in 1907, with resplendent shopfront lighting (preceding streetlights) Worricker’s had a new store at number 3. This photo from the LBBD Archive, shows an intriguing display, with a range of wooden handled skipping ropes hanging from the doorway, enduring favourites: dart boards and scooters, and even a hospital (upstairs) to repair dolls. The best clue to the date of this snap is a new American import of, the ever popular board game, Monopoly, first sold in the UK in 1936…

Intriguingly if you research the history of this game, Charles Darrow is credited with its invention, the original counters were claimed to be charms from his daughter’s bracelet (iron, purse, lantern, racing car, thimble, top hat, battleship, cannon, and rocking horse). He sold the game to Parker Brothers, but had previously purchased the proto-type from Elizabeth Magie. Lizzie patented The Landlord’s Game in 1904 and had created it two years earlier. Emerging during the Edwardian era her game was intended to illustrate the role of rents in society and to promote taxation – she was a follower of progressive economist Henry George. Also a feminist, she believed women as capable as men in professions, as inventors and business owners - it is a harsh irony that a man took sole credit for her game for decades and that it became famous as a pursuit of rich monopolies rather than generating prosperity to be shared by all…If you look closely at the photo from the thirties, not only do you spy Monopoly, but also Glass signs advertising TOYS, DOLLS and FANCY GOODS, either side of the doorway.

These were later replaced by those recently uncovered by HBS, which in turn advertise popular products from the fifties and sixties: SPORTS GOODS, MECCANO SETS & SPARES, TRI-ANG TOYS and LEATHER GOODS.

The middle panels each side, are wonderful Ws for Worricker’s, complete with copper embellishments.

With the kind permission of the building owner we are hoping to use Lottery funding to carefully remove, restore and exhibit these examples of high street history, reminders of the hey-day of local shopping…

Worricker opened another store at 103 East Street (now 21 Station Parade) which was famous in Barking not only for its toys but its nursery equipment. Worricker and his sons, Cyril and Stanley, catered for and benefitted from two post-war baby-booms in the twentieth century! After Joseph’s death in 1962, one obituary described the one-time woodturner and book seller as a ‘Baby Carriage and Toy Dealer’. Meanwhile his son Cyril, who took over the business was locally revered for his charity work, especially as a Friend of Barking Hospital (Upney), where a ward was named after him…Joseph Worricker also left a legacy for Barking in his historic Post Card collection which provides a substantial amount of the historic photographs of Barking in the borough’s archives

Local property owner, Barbara, once lived close to Worricker’s double-fronted store, at 15 Station Parade, above her family’s Newsagents. As a young child she remembers the excitement she felt when she visited Worricker’s and playing with her pram and dolls, as well as going to John’s café, nearby, with her father, Bert Key.

Barbara took this photo of her father outside the family store, in 1983

E C Hewett’s was named after her maternal grandfather - a contemporary of Worricker - he opened his store, on the parade, in the early thirties. Barbara’s fond memories of living there include, watching the Barking carnival go by from the rooms above the shop, and later helping downstairs. She recalls the rush for plush, boxed, cards purchased by cheery chaps, for their wives and girlfriends, along with their usual paper and cigarettes on Christmas Eve... You can read more about her memories of Barking in our next Stories Behind the Stores feature, on this webpage!

The restoration works at 1-5 Station Parade, which include another building owned by Barbara’s family, have focused on the upper floors where the rooves, windows and facades have been restored (see above). The shop front of 5 will also be improved and 3 is getting a new door and sign on the side.

Colin Bannon, Heritage Townscape Officer for the project, said that he is very pleased with the quality of the workmanship shown on the restoration works!

The project is ongoing and will hopefully include further buildings from the Woolworth’s row (11-23 East Street, with its prominent pilasters) built in 1927 and perhaps the most well-known of Barking’s Edwardian parade’s the remainder of the 1910-11 row built by Councillor Arthur Blake.

Blake’s corner with its renown Ironmongery was damaged by a bomb in 1941. Barking lost a fine corner building with a neo-baroque clocktower but its name remains in local lore.

The remainder of the row with its ornate masonry, red brickwork, and triangular pediments, is in need of some TLC and hopefully some of these old Edwardian buildings will benefit from the project too... If you would like to find out more about this heritage project please contact Simone.panayi@befirst.london