London Borough of Newham


The London Borough of Newham is a London borough created in 1965 by the London Government Act 1963. It covers an area previously administered by the Essex county boroughs of West Ham and East Ham, authorities that were both abolished by the same act.
The name Newham reflects its creation and combines the compass points of the old borough names.
It is east of the City of London, north of the River Thames. Newham was one of the six host boroughs for the 2012 Summer Olympics and contains most of the Olympic Park including the London Stadium. The local authority is Newham London Borough Council.
The borough's motto, from its coat of arms, is "Progress with the People". The coat of arms was derived from that of the County Borough of West Ham, while the motto is a translation of the County Borough of East Ham's Latin "Progressio cum Populo".

History

The borough was formed by merging the former area of the Essex county borough of East Ham and the county borough of West Ham as a borough of the newly formed Greater London, on 1 April 1965 – these in turn were successors to the ancient civil and ecclesiastical parishes of East Ham and West Ham. Green Street and Boundary Road mark the former boundary between the two. North Woolwich also became part of the borough along with a small area west of the River Roding which had previously been part of the Municipal Borough of Barking. Newham was devised for the borough as an entirely new name.

Ham(me): Pre-partition origins

The area of the modern borough was at one time occupied by a territory called 'Ham'.
The first known written use of the term, as 'Hamme', is in an Anglo-Saxon charter of 958, and again in the 1086 Domesday Book as Hame. It is formed from Old English 'hamm' and means 'a dry area of land between rivers or marshland', referring to the location of the settlement within boundaries formed by the rivers Lea, Thames and Roding and their marshes.
These natural boundaries suggest that Little Ilford, North Woolwich and areas of the parish of Barking west of the Roding are likely to have been part of Ham.
The territory was subdivided into the more familiar West and East Ham sometime in the 12th century, with the earliest recorded distinction being as 'Westhamma' in 1186. It could be speculated that the partition arose as a result of population increase resulting from economic prosperity delivered by the construction of Bow Bridge over the Lea and the creation of Stratford Langthorne Abbey.
North Woolwich was removed from Ham at an earlier date, in the aftermath of the Norman Conquest but it is unclear when Little Ilford and western Barking were transferred, and it is not known for sure that they were part of Ham.
The boundary between West and East Ham was drawn from the now lost Hamfrith Waste and Hamfrith Wood in the north, along Green Street down to the small, similarly lost, natural harbour known as Ham Creek.
The formation of the modern borough in 1965 saw the merger of West and East Ham, together with North Woolwich and Barking west of the River Roding. This reorganisation effectively re-established the earlier territory of Ham.

Governance

Unlike most English districts, its council is led by a directly elected mayor of Newham. From 2002 to 2009 one of the councillors had been appointed as the "civic ambassador" and performed the civic and ceremonial role previously carried out by the mayor. The post has been discontinued.
At the borough elections held in 2014, the Labour Party won all 60 of the seats on the Council. Sir Robin Wales was re-elected as the borough's Executive Mayor with 61% of the first preference votes cast.
In 2018, Robin Wales was deselected as the Labour Party mayoral candidate. Rokhsana Fiaz was elected in the position of Executive Mayor, also for the Labour party.

Demography

Newham has the youngest overall population and one of the lowest indigenous White British populations in the country according to the 2011 UK Census. The borough has the second-highest percentage of Muslims in the UK, after the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, at 32%. A 2017 report from and the found that 36% of local employees in Newham are in low paid work; the highest percentage of any London borough. Newham also has a 37% poverty rate, which is the second-highest rate in London.
When using Simpson's Diversity Index on 10 aggregated ethnic groups, the 2001 UK Census identified Newham as the most ethnically diverse district in England and Wales, with 9 wards in the top 15. However, when using the 16 ethnic categories in the Census so that White Irish and White Other ethnic minorities are also included in the analysis, Newham becomes the second-most ethnically diverse borough with six out of the top 15 wards, behind Brent with 7 out of the top 15 wards.

Health

In 2018, Newham had the lowest life expectancy and the highest rate of heart disease of all London boroughs together with the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.
In 2019, the BBC reported that Newham had the highest rate of tuberculosis in the UK at 107 per population, which was higher than Rwanda and Iraq according to WHO figures from 2013. More than 80% of TB cases in London occur in people born abroad. The UK average was 13.
Newham has the lowest percentage of White British residents of all of London's boroughs. The White British proportion of the population fell from 33.8% in 2001 to 16.7% in 2011; this decrease of 37.5 percentage points is the largest of any local authority in England and Wales between the two censuses. The joint-lowest wards with White British population are Green Street East and Green Street West, both having 4.8% – the third-lowest behind Southall Broadway and Southall Green in Ealing. East Ham North follows closely, at 4.9%.
People of White British ancestry nevertheless remain the largest single ethnic group in the borough. The largest non-White British ethnic groups are Indian, African, Bangladeshi and Pakistani. Newham has had a large Indian community for many decades. The ethnic group to increase the most in number since 1991 is the Bangladeshi community.

Religion

Education

A 2017 report by and the finds that the GCSE attainment gap between advantaged and disadvantaged pupils in Newham is the 4th best out of 32 London boroughs.

Schools and colleges

The Borough is the education authority for the district providing education in a mix of Foundation, community and voluntary aided schools. The borough also owns and operates Debden House, a residential adult education college in Loughton, Essex, and is home to the , a dedicated visual art organisation which delivers courses at its base in Stratford and produces participatory art projects, programmes and initiatives. The Essex Primary School in Sheridan Road with over 900 pupils is one of the biggest primary schools in London.

University

The University of East London has two campuses in Newham:
Birkbeck Stratford is a collaboration between Birkbeck, University of London and UEL to increase participation in adult learning. This is based on the UEL/Birkbeck shared campus, USS, in the centre of Stratford.
The University of East London had formed a partnership with the United States Olympic Committee which resulted in the United States Olympic Team using University of East London campuses as training bases during the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Places of interest

Community

Newham has ten libraries.

Museums

There are a number of local markets in the Borough, including Queens Market, which the Council is controversially seeking to redevelop. These proposals are being fought by .

Parks and open spaces

80 hectares within the borough are designated as part of the Metropolitan Green Belt.

Performance

The local newspaper is the Newham Recorder.

Districts

The borough is covered by the following ecclesiastical parishes of the Church of England:
Since the 1980s, public transport in Newham has undergone many upgrades and improvements are still continuing to this day. The Jubilee Line Extension was completed in 1999, including new or improved stations at Canning Town, West Ham and Stratford. The Docklands Light Railway opened in 1987 and has undergone many extensions since, predominantly serving Newham and the neighbouring borough of Tower Hamlets. The DLR network compensates for Newham's lack of tube stations, of which there are only 6, in comparison with other London boroughs. It was extended to serve London City Airport, as well as Stratford International station in 2011 after its High Speed 1 link opened in late 2009. The Crossrail scheme will also improve rail connections to several stations as it heads through the borough on an east west axis. As a result of all the recent developments, the borough contains one of only two airports located within the Greater London boundary and currently the only railway station outside of central London that is served by high speed rail.

List of stations

In March 2011, the main forms of transport that residents used to travel to work were: underground, metro, light rail, tram, 23.0% of all residents aged 16–74; driving a car or van, 7.6%; bus, minibus or coach, 7.6%; train, 7.2%; on foot, 4.1%; work mainly at or from home, 1.4%; bicycle, 1.0%.

River services

London Buses routes 5, 25, 58, 69, 86, 97, 101, 104, 108, 115, 147, 158, 173, 238, 241, 257, 262, 276, 300, 308, 309, 323, 325, 330, 339, 366, 376, 388, 425, 473, 474, 541, D8, W19, School buses routes 673, 678 and Night route N8, N15, N86, N205, N550 and N551.

Town twinning

Newham is twinned with:
The following people and military units have received the Freedom of the Borough of Newham.

Individuals