Today’s ramble took us to the London Borough of Newham but of course we passed through other areas to arrive there. Newham itself divides into districts which I will indicate as appropriate.

There isn’t a narrative for this trip and I will simply show you some photos I took as we went.

This is the Shoreditch side of Old Street where we changed buses. The view is looking towards what used to be called Old Street Roundabout. It had been rearranged to eliminate the roundabout but the crossing is complex with the result that is now a traffic bottleneck causing long tailbacks, especially at rush hours. Whatever possessed the road planners to make this disastrous change, I do not know.

An oasis! We stopped off for a coffee break in Leyton (Waltham Forest).

Near Costa are these market stalls in the street. I don’t think there are enough of them to call this a market but it seems busy and thus to serve a purpose for the local community.

This interesting structure, whose ground floor has been vandalized by an Iceland store, is a puzzle: is it an old Woolworth’s store or was it perhaps a cinema? We don’t know. Perhaps further research will provide an answer.

This corner building has a certain elegance to it. It is currently home to a branch of Barclay’s Bank and, I suspect, was originally built as a bank (though not necessarily for Barclay’s) with residential apartments above. Note the gables with clamshell motifs. The main one, on the corner, also has bells in the design.

Another intriguing but spoilt building that seems to speak of a more illustrious past. Cinema? Department store?

Now in Newham, I had to photograph this building using the iPhone’s panorama function because I didn’t have time to choose a better perspective. If you look closely you will see that it is decorated with relief work. Again, I have no idea of its original purpose.

Tigger took this photo of a corner-site pub called the Coach and Horses. You can just see the figure of a horse on the roof. By coincidence (if it is coincidence), this figure turns up again later. The pub has closed and is to be redeveloped as a residential block comprising 29 homes. When the Coach and Horses was still operating, it billed itself as “the birthplace of Iron Maiden”, though whether that was a recommendation, I am far from sure.

In Forest Gate (Newham) we found this drinking fountain and cattle trough combined with a clock. It seems to be Victorian and to have been been moved here from its original position. I think the clockmaker’s name is A.H. Rowley Parker & Co of Clerkenwell. The latter district used to be famous for clock and watch makers from the Huguenot era onwards though little sign of this remains today. I haven’t been able to find any reference to a clockmaker of the name cited.

This is Forest Gate Station. The railway reached here in 1840 and the first station, a wooden structure, was built a year later. I have not been able to find out when the current station was built but think it is Victorian.

We were intrigued by this round building in front of the main station but I have not so far located any information about it. The roundel attached to it differs in colour from the more familiar ones belonging to the Underground and Overground railway networks. It is the symbol for the new Elizabeth Line that is under development at present.

This sculpture, The Preacher, by Peter Lazslo Peri (1961), is on the front of Forest Gate Methodist Church which is currently closed. A new church is to be built and the sculpture will presumably be moved to it. The rather anorexic-looking figure is shown declaiming passionately while waving a book, presumably the Bible. To my eyes, though, the expression on his face seems to be one of horror rather than exaltation.

We stopped for lunch at The Hudson Bay, a Wetherspoon’s pub. The name comes from Sir John Pelly, a local landowner in the 18th to 19th century who was also for a time governor of the Hudson Bay Company.

This is an inadequate photo of Newham Town Hall in East Ham. It is so big that it’s not possible to photograph it as a whole. It is a magnificent building, clearly designed to express the civic pride of its founders. Its earliest parts date from 1901 but it took several years to complete.

This photo may give some idea of the complex detail.

Adjacent to the town hall is a library building though the library itself has moved to a more modern building.

This photo, showing the town hall clock tower, is taken looking along the front of the 1904 Technical College, now rebadged as a Sixth-Form Centre.

This is a distance view of the technic college now sixth-form centre.

One of the entrances of the college.

This is a detail from one of the gateposts and represents what I take to be the god Pan, a rather whimsical figure for a place of learning. The gateposts are topped by griffins (mythical winged beasts with the body of a lion and the head of an eagle) holding erect shields bearing the college’s and borough’s coats of arms.

Near the college on the same side of the street is the above, the old Police Station. It has been closed and is looking a little sad. I hope that it will survive with a new purpose. I could not see a date anywhere but it looks to be from about the same period as the town hall and the college.

And here, finally, is the “coincidental horse” that I mentioned in connection with the Coach and Horses pub. It is above a parade of shops opposite the old police station but does not seem to be related to any of them. Its presence therefore begs a question because such an (expensive) artifact would not have been installed for no reason. It is slightly different from the pub horse – shown as moving more slowly, perhaps – but is very similar. It therefore provides an equine mystery to end on!