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Dagenham () is a town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. Dagenham is centred east of Charing Cross.
It was historically a rural parish in the Becontree Hundred of Essex, stretching from Hainault Forest in the north to the River Thames in the south. Dagenham remained mostly undeveloped until 1921, when the London County Council began construction of the large Becontree housing estate. The population significantly increased as people moved to the new housing in the early 20th century, with the parish of Dagenham becoming Dagenham Urban District in 1926 and the Municipal Borough of Dagenham in 1938. In 1965 Dagenham became part of Greater London when most of the historic parish become part of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham.
Dagenham was chosen as a location for industrial activity and is perhaps most famous for being the location of the Ford Dagenham motor car plant where the Ford sewing machinists strike of 1968 took place. Following the decline of industry, the southern part of Dagenham adjacent to the River Thames forms part of the London Riverside section of the Thames Gateway redevelopment area, with a new district of Beam Park under construction on the former site of Ford Dagenham.
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The "Dagenham Breach" widened over time to a width of 400 feet, allowing the Thames to strip the top layer of marsh clay from the flood plain and deposited it as a mud bank in the Thames where it became a danger to shipping. Despite various remedies, the breach was not securely filled and a further flood occurred in 1718 after which, under an act of parliament, over £40,000 of public money was spent on successfully closing the breach roughly at the location of Dagenham Dock. The closure of the gap left behind a large lake, also known as "Dagenham Breach" which became a popular spot for anglers. The lake is still there but much of it has silted up or been filled in and is now surrounded by industry, but parts can still be identified as the lakes to the north of Ford's plant and also where Breach Lane follows the now lost western outline of the lake.
Many years later, Sir Robert Preston MP, invited his friend George Rose the Secretary of the Treasury and others to celebrate the feast, and on another occasion Rose invited the Prime Minister, William Pitt. Thereafter it became an obligatory ritual of government for the entire cabinet to come to Dagenham and celebrate the security of the Thames and over time this simple but hearty meal based on Whitebait and local Essex Ale grew more lavish, including turtle, grouse, champagne and a range of other luxury food and drink. Eventually the cabinet tired of the long trip to Dagenham and moved the event to Greenwich.Simon Schama – Landscape and Memory p352-354
On 20 February 2002, full production was discontinued due to overcapacity in Europe and the relative difficulty of upgrading the ageing site compared with mostly newer European production facilities such as Almussafes (Valencia, Spain) and Cologne. Other factors leading to the closure of the Auto-assembly line were the need of the site for the new Diesel Centre of Excellence, which produces half of Ford's Diesel Engines worldwide, and the UK employment laws when compared to Spanish, German and Belgian laws.
In 2005 Cummins went into a joint venture and offered $15 million (US) to reinstate the factory. Ford and Cummins offered a good redundancy package, billed as one of the best in UK manufacturing. It is the location of the Dagenham wind turbines.Greater London Authority – Wind Turbines, Ford Estate, Dagenham planning application . 4 June 2003. Some 4,000 people now work at the Ford plant. The movie Made in Dagenham (2010) is a dramatisation of the 1968 Ford sewing machinists strike at the plant, when female workers walked out in protest against sexual discrimination and unequal pay.
Sterling, who manufactured British Army weapons and Jaguar car parts, were also based in Dagenham until they went bankrupt in 1988.
Other industrial names once known worldwide were Ever Ready, whose batteries could be found in shops throughout the Commonwealth, Asian Paints and the chemical firm of May & Baker who in 1935 revolutionized the production of antibiotics with their synthetic sulfa-drug known as Sulfapyridine. The May & Baker plant, owned and run by Sanofi-Aventis, occupied a 108-acre site in Rainham Road South, near Dagenham East Underground station. It was abandoned in 2013 when the company closed it. BeFirst, a company working on behalf of the council, began to redevelop the site for commercial opportunities. It is now the London East Business and Technical Park. NTT have their London1 data centre on this site, and the Eastbrook Studios is currently under construction.
The expansion of the Greater London conurbation into the area caused the review of local government structures, and it was suggested in 1920 that the Dagenham parish should be abolished and its area divided between Ilford Urban District and Barking Town Urban District. Separately, the London County Council proposed that its area of responsibility should be expanded beyond the County of London to cover the area. Greater London: Case for Central Authority: Area and Powers. The Times. 14 December 1921. Instead, in 1926 the Dagenham parish was removed from the Romford Rural District and designated as an urban district. In 1938, in further recognition of its development, Dagenham became a municipal borough.Vision of Britain – Dagenham MB In 1965 the Municipal Borough of Dagenham was abolished and its former area became part of the London Borough of Barking,Vision of Britain – Barking LB which was renamed Barking and Dagenham in 1980.Barking and Dagenham London Borough Council – The Mayor For elections to the Greater London Council, Dagenham was part of the Barking electoral division until 1973 and then the Dagenham electoral division until 1986.
The Dagenham post town includes the whole of the Becontree estate, including those sections that were in the former (pre 1965) boroughs of Barking and Ilford. Parts of the former borough of Dagenham – part of Chadwell Heath, part of Collier Row and part of Rush Green – are in the Romford Post town. It is adjacent to Barking to the west, Romford to northeast and Hornchurch to the east. Dagenham Dock on the River Thames is to the south.
At the time of the 2011 census, the Alibon ward (north of Heathway station) was 61% White British and 15% Black African. Goresbrook ward (southwest from Heathway) was 57% White British and 17% Black African. River ward (south of Heathway) was 51% White British and 19% Black African. Village ward (east from Heathway) was 58% White British and 19% Black African. Eastbrook ward (around Eastbrookend Country Park) was 69% White British and 11% Black African. Heath ward (north of Heathway) was 60% White British and 17% Black African.
A proposed, and as yet unfunded Docklands Light Railway extension from Gallions Reach to Dagenham Dock. It was anticipated that the project could be completed and open for use by 2017.Transport for London - Docklands Light Railway - Dagenham Dock: Key Project Milestones However the public inquiry has been postponed due to concerns about funding.
Dagenham Heathway is served by the following Transport for London contracted routes: London Buses routes 145, 173, 174, 175 and 364. Transport for London – Buses from Dagenham Heathway - Routes 145, 173, 174, 175, 287, and EL2 operate in the Dagenham Dock area. Routes 103, 145, and 364 operate in Dagenham East.
Bus routes 5, 103, 128, 150, 173, 175, 499, and N15, and East London Transit service EL2 operate from Becontree Heath, north of Dagenham. Routes 128 and EL1 run a 24-hour service, while the N15 runs through the night. Transport for London – Buses from Becontree Heath –
In the post town of Romford and the pre-1965 borough of Dagenham, on the corner of Whalebone Lane and the Eastern Avenue, diagonally opposite the Moby-Dick public house, is the site of Marks Manor House, a large 15th-century moated building demolished in the early 19th century. During World War II the adjoining fields were used by the Royal Artillery for an anti-aircraft battery; later a prisoner-of-war camp for Germans was erected there. Further south down Whalebone Lane on the corner of the High Road is the Tollgate pub. This stands on the site of the milestone which marked the limit from the City of London and the Turnpike trust toll-gate.
The Roundhouse public house on the junction of Porters Avenue and Lodge Avenue (in the pre-1965 borough of Barking) became eastern Greater London's premier rock-music venue between 1969 and 1975, incorporating the Village Blues Club. Notable performers at the pub included Jethro Tull, Supertramp, Queen, Pink Floyd, Eric Clapton, Status Quo, and Led Zeppelin (on 5 April 1969). The Eastbrook is a listed building pub. Given the influence of U.S. blues on the English musicians who played at the Roundhouse, journalist Nik Cohn called the London of the late 1960s and early 1970s the "Dagenham Delta".James Wood. "Good Times, Bad Times: The making and unmaking of Led Zeppelin." The New Yorker. Jan. 31, 2022. Access-date = 2022-4-2
Greyhound racing and Motorcycle speedway was staged at the Dagenham Greyhound Stadium off Ripple Road, from 1930 to 1965. The speedway club ran various events from 1932 to 1939 and a team called the Dagenham Daggers took part in challenge matches and the Sunday Dirt-Track League.
Dagenham's leading cricket club Goresbrook Cricket Club are based at the May & Baker Sports Club in Rainham Road South, in 2011 the club won the Essex County Cricket League for the first time in its history.
Dagenham has a King George's Field in memorial to King George V. The park was renamed in 1953 by Queen Elizabeth II. Dagenham also has many other parks such as Valence - and Parsloes (which lies partly in the pre-1965 borough of Barking). Dagenham Crusaders Drum and Bugle Corps, founded by John Johnson, was the first British Drum Corps and performed in the United States for the first time in 1983. In 2010 they reformed to perform for DCUK's 30th anniversary, fielding a competitive corps for the first time in 22 years.
Four people were treated by ambulances at the scene, of which two were taken to hospital.
At 12:35 local time, Assistant Commissioner Patrick Goulbourne of the London Fire Brigade announced "everyone has been accounted for" and they had "Stood down the Major Incident"
The building was in the process of having 'non-compliant' cladding removed, similar to the cladding that was found on the Grenfell Tower.
Market gardens to suburban estate
In 1205 Dagenham was large enough to have a chaplain, and the Parish Church of St Peter and St Paul was probably built at around that time. In 1854, the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway was built through the south of Dagenham, near the River Thames. In 1885 a new direct route from Barking to Pitsea, via Upminster, was built with Dagenham station opened just north of the village. Dagenham Dock station opened on the original southern route in 1908. Dagenham was still an undeveloped village, when building of the vast Becontree estate by the London County Council began in the early 1920s.Olechnowicz, A., Working-Class Housing in England Between the Wars: The Becontree Estate (1997) The building of the enormous council estate, which also spread into the neighbouring parishes of Ilford and Barking,British History Online – The borough of Barking. Date accessed: 5 May 2007. caused a rapid increase in population.Vision of Britain – Dagenham population In 1932 the electrified District line of the London Underground was extended to Upminster through Dagenham with stations opened as Dagenham and Heathway and today called Dagenham East and Dagenham Heathway.Rose, D., The London Underground: A diagrammatic history, (1999) Dagenham East was the location of the Dagenham East rail crash in 1958.Railways Archive – Report on the collision at Dagenham East – 30.01.58 Services on the London Tilbury & Southend line at Dagenham East were withdrawn in 1962.
Governance
The 2010 wards of Eastbrook, Heath, River, Village and Whalebone are in the Dagenham and Rainham Parliamentary Constituency. The 2010 wards of Alibon, Mayesbrook, Parsloes, Thames and Valence are in the Barking Parliamentary Constituency. Each ward in B&D elects two or three councillors to Barking and Dagenham London Borough Council. The whole area is within the City and East London Assembly Constituency.
Geography
Dagenham is located approximately east of Charing Cross in Central London. The Becontree estate is largely in the pre-1965 borough of Dagenham, which also included Becontree Heath, part of Rush Green, Old Dagenham village, and the southern section around Dagenham Dock and adjacent to the River Thames. This southern section, which includes Ford Dagenham, is part of the London Riverside section of the Thames Gateway redevelopment zone. Including new developments of Beam Park and Dagenham Green.
Demography
Dagenham is a working class area. During the 2000s there was a large influx of migrants, in particular Africans. The current population of the former (pre 1965) Borough of Dagenham could be approximated from the population of the current wards which together most closely match the area, but the former boundary between the borough and neighbouring Barking, with which it merged in 1965, no longer corresponds to any ward boundaries.
Economy
The former May and Baker plant site at Dagenham East is now a centre of film and television production called Eastbrook Studios London.
Transport
Dagenham is connected to the London Underground services from three stations, Becontree (in the pre-1965 borough of Barking), Dagenham East and Dagenham Heathway, all on the District line. c2c, part of National Rail operated by Trenitalia since February 2017, runs a train service through Dagenham Dock station.c2c – Stations and route map Elizabeth line services also operate from nearby Chadwell Heath station.
Culture
Valence House, in Becontree Avenue, is the only surviving of the five manor houses of Dagenham. Valence House museum . lbbd.gov.uk
Dating back to the 13th century, it is sited in parkland and there is a moat around part of it. Valence House is the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham's local history museum, displaying artifacts and archives that tell the story of the lives of the people of Barking and Dagenham. The collection also includes portraits, family papers and other mementos of the Fanshawe family, who occupied Parsloes Manor, since demolished, from the sixteenth century. The Fanshawe Family, London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, barking-dagenham.gov.uk
The Fanshawe collection is "one of the best collections of gentry portraits in the country and is of international importance", according to Valence House.Elizabeth Ogborne, The History of Essex: From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Printed for the Proprietors by R.H. Kelham, London, 1814, p. 61.
Among members of the Fanshawe family was the diplomat Sir Richard Fanshawe, 1st Baronet, whose portrait is at Valence House. Nine successive members of the Fanshawe family served as Remembrancer to the Crown, following Henry Fanshawe's appointment to the position by Queen Elizabeth I in 1566. The appointment made possible the family's rise to prominence.
Media
The Barking & Dagenham Post is printed weekly and also published online.
Sport
Dagenham & Redbridge F.C., based at Victoria Road were relegated to the in the 2015–16 season from the Football League Two, after being relegated from the Football League One which they had reached having been promoted as playoff-winners of League two after beating Rotherham United F.C. 3–2, in the 2010–11 season. They were also the Nationwide Conference champions of the 2006–07 season.
Dagenham Flat Fire
In the early hours of 26 August 2024, a fire blazed through the Spectrum Building, a tower block mostly of flats on Freshwater Road, Dagenham. Emergency services received the first report of the fire at 02:44 local time, with the first fire engine arriving at 02:49 local time. More than 100 people were evacuated, at least 20 being rescued by Firefighter. 225 firefighters and at least 40 fire engines responded to the incident.
Notable people
Please see 'Geography' above for various definitions of 'Dagenham'.
(2025). 9780413773470, Methuen. ISBN 9780413773470
(2025). 9780956674609, Southern Records. ISBN 9780956674609
Further reading
External links
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