As everybody knows West Ham used to be called Thames Ironworks FC - formed in 1895.
A works team based on the dockyards of East London, just to the South.
It was thus essential that I visited the Memorial Grounds (31) to see where the team used to play.
See below:
This panoramic shot shows the grounds as they are today right next to West Ham Underground station. There is an artificial pitch slap bang in the midlle of where the stadium used to be.
If you look closely you can still see some raised banks around the perimeter which must be where the stands once stood.
Better still, if you google earth the site you can see the clear outline of the oval stadium on the ground.
Come On You Irons!
On the same day I moved on to see 38 St Georges Road at Gants Hill (32) which is where I lived in 1985/86 with Nicola Herbert, Jonathan Woodward, Melanie Lynch, and Ann Pomeroy. At the time I worked at the London Borough of Redbridge as a Surveyor.
For a very few months before that I lived as a lodger of Chris Thurston at 27 Uplands Road in Woodford Bridge (33). This is the only house I have lived in where I am not 100% sure of the number! (1985).
Chris was a Surveyor and a local DJ - he had many a single lady back to the house - I fondly remember one in pink stockings that he entertained on the rug in front of the fireplace.
