Globe Town

Globe Town is a district in the East End of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, east and south of Bethnal Green. It is part of the traditional county of Middlesex, but for administrative purposes was part of the County of London following the passing of the Local Government Act 1888, it later became part of Greater London in 1965. The local authority is Tower Hamlets Borough Council.

The district developed from a small settlement around Rushy (Russia) Lane to the Driftway (later Green Street and then Roman Road) that was to the east of Bethnal Green and became known as Globe Town in the 1820s. It was partly redeveloped after the Second World War into a number of council estates, including the Cranbrook Estate and the Greenways Estate. The name was revived in the 1980s when the borough of Tower Hamlets was classified into seven neighbourhoods for local administrative purposes.

Origins
In 1703, east of the green and the hamlet of Bethnal Green was almost empty of houses. But a village was present that would later be called Globe Town was made up of a group of houses on the boundary at Grove Street and Rushy (Russia) Lane, and at the Driftway (later Green Street and then Roman Road) and it is thought that it was unlikely that any owners occupied Bishop's or Bonner's Hall after the death of Edmund Bonner. Between 1760 and the 1790s another building stood to the south, at the junction with Old Ford Lane and was called Globe Hall and the Globe Cottage had been built to the north in 1826.

Establishment
Globe Town was expanded from 1800 to provide for the expanding population of weavers around Bethnal Green attracted by improving prospects in silk weaving. The population of Bethnal Green trebled between 1801 and 1831, operating 20,000 looms in their own homes. By 1824, with restrictions on importation of French silks relaxed, up to half these looms became idle and prices were driven down. With many importing warehouses already established in the district, the abundance of cheap labour was turned to boot, furniture and clothing manufacture. Globe Town continued its expansion into the 1860s, long after the decline of the silk industry.

Globe Town Market was established in 1800. It has a compact diamond space which remains busy and popular with its fruit and vegetable and fish sellers still trading today.

Bonner's Hall, known as Bonner's Palace, served as a residence of the Bishops of London, an notable example being Edmund Bonner. However it was pulled down in 1845 to make way for Victoria Park.

Growth


Globe Town was a temporary London terminus and first main line terminal from East London which was called Devonshire Street Railway Station, located on Morpeth Street for the Eastern Counties Railway (ECR) from Romford prior to the construction of Bishopsgate Station which became the permanent terminus and Devonshire Street was closed in 1840.

The now closed (since 22 May 1916 due to competition from Stepney Green Underground Station on the London Underground and wartime constraints) Globe Road Station on the Great Eastern Main Line, opened 1 July 1884 when the company quadrupled the double-track main line section.

Opened and named after the parish of Bethnal Green, in 1868, the Bethnal Green Methodist Church became tied in with the founding of the National Children’s Home and Orphanage (known now as the Action for Children.) This was established next to the church on Bonner Road.

Mowlem Primary School, which opened in 1887 and was called Mowlem Street School. As the population grew, the school was enlarged in 1898 and changed once again in 1902 for 410 boys and 410 girls. A new single-storey building catering for a total of 280 children was opened in 1971 when it was renamed Mowlem Primary School.

Post-war rebuilding


The Cranbrook Estate, which is east of Bonner Street and north of Roman Road, was build as a result of World War Two. Bethnal Green Oxford House supported the area when the slum clearances and rebuilding was taking place as residents were rehoused into the new high rise flats.

The sculpture of the Blind Beggar and His Dog was commissioned by Bethnal Green Council in 1957, and was awarded to the then 27 year-old sculptor Elisabeth Frink. It was first sited on Roman Road, from where it can still be seen, but was moved to its intended, Tate Garden, location in 1963.

Frank Dobson Square was constructed by London County Council in 1963, the year of Dobson's death. The centrepiece of the square was the ‘Woman and Fish’ fountain, a sculpture designed and completed by Dobson himself in 1951. The sculpture had been purchased for the borough by London County Council in 1963.

The Bishop Bonner pub by the former Taylor Walker Brewery, established in 1872. Years after the war, the council demolished and rebuilt western Bonner Steet in 1975, it was due to be pulled down along with all the old shops and terraced houses but because the pub was popular, it was decided to not go ahead. Their for it remained as the only surviving building in an otherwise mostly redeveloped area. In the 1970s and 1980s, the pub maintain close links to British boxing but closed in 1997 and was converted to residential use.

Contemporary
The Globe Town Mural was painted in 1992. A year later on the 25 September 1993, route 309 started running between Bethnal Green and Poplar. It was intended to start from Globe Town’s London Chest Hospital but this was delayed due to speed hump problems and it therefore started and ended at Three Colts Lane instead. It was finally extended from Bethnal Green Station to the Chest Hospital in 1995.

The Approach Gallery was established in a disused space in 1997 by Jake Miller, along with other artists including Damien Meade, Ana Genoves.

The ex-headteacher of Morpeth School, Alasdair Uist Macdonald, was knighted in the 2007 New Year Honours for services to education, with his extensive work on improving the school, by improving teaching skills and achievements by pupils in their SATs and GCSEs results. He has said that then-Prime Minister Tony Blair and Queen Elizabeth II had recognised the transformation of the school under Sir Alasdair's leadership. 2007 also saw the rise of Drumworks, which had began after a Barbican samba project in Morpeth School, which after it had ended, a pile of samba drums was left behind, and a group of students was encouraged to form a group, who started creating new material together.



From 2005 to 2008 the EEL promoted and organised the Vyner Street Festival with the Victory Pub. This was a two-day family festival featuring local bands, artists and market traders with a different theme each year, with the Royal Air Force Red Arrows performing an impromptu flyover in 2008.

The Cranbrook Community Food Garden was built in 2009, by the local residents of the Cranbrook Estate housing estate in Globe Town and others from the local area who designed and support the community garden that used to be a children's playground that was in disrepair. In the same year, David Philip, 19, and Jake Sheehan, 20, torched a property, after a fight with another youth who lived there over a £15 debt. Shannen Vickers, 17, and her grandmother Pauline Adams, 57 as well as a dog and cat, were in the fifth-floor flat and all died as a result of the fire by the two men.

By 2012, many local residents and workers had moved out of Vyner Street due to the effects of the Great Recession and the impact of the 2012 Olympics. A documentary film titled Vyner Street was released in the same year as a short observational piece chronicling the two different worlds living side-by-side in the same street.

The British and Japanese table tennis teams choose Morpeth School as their training base for the 2012 London Olympics.

The London Chest Hospital was closed on 17 April 2015 and its functions transferred to other sites of the Barts Health NHS Trust. It was where Fabrice Muamba, who played for Bolton Wanderers was taken to the Chest Hospital after suffering a cardiac arrest on the pitch on 17 March 2012.

Joannes Florist was shut in 2016 and relocated to Hullbridge in Essex. This was due to a growing market bureaucracy and parking restrictions that have driven away business. The Globe Town Mural was plastered over in 2016 due to major work on the host building.

During early 2017 a developer obtained permission from Tower Hamlets Council's Arboricultural team to relocate the Bethnal Green mulberry tree at the former chest hospital site, which was prior to submitting a planning application to redevelop the hospital and surrounding grounds. The tree is subject to a Tree preservation order, issued by Tower Hamlets Council.

In June 2017, after the Grenfell Tower fire, further fire risk assessments on the high-rise buildings in the estate were conducted and the tower blocks deemed to be a "high/substantial fire risk". In the same year, the Angel & Crown closed, which was put up for sell due to a number of local members of the community complaining, beforehand the police had tried to revoke it license in the council licensing sub-committee and claimed it was a site of assault, public urination and drug use, and that it had been taken over by gangs from the nearby estate.

Revival
A Globe Town Branding Workshop was held at the Cranbrook Community Centre to discuss possible initiatives. The market also hosted it first Spring Fair on 25 May 2019, this was to celebrate the Globe Town community, and was organized by the Globe Town Assembly and funded by Tower Hamlets Council. A year before, a commemoration was held by the council, Friends of Meath Gardens, Cricket Australia, for indigenous Australian cricketer Bripumyarrimin, who was known as King Cole, buried in Victoria Park Cemetery in 1868. The first Roman Road E2 Christmas Hamper was also held in 2017 and it first winner was Sonia. 2017 also saw the formation of the women only Samba Sisters Collective, who formed together during a Women March against Trump march in 2017.

The Camel Pub was voted the best pet friendly pub in the world according to a media source in 2018, for its allowing dogs and cats to come in and have a bowl of water, as well as for the two pub cats and being a friendly animal and human community.

A new £1.3 million community hub was opened in 2019 at the converted Tramshed Centre. A bar inspired by New Orleans called NOLA reopened on Roman Road, on March 2018 after relocating from Shoreditch.

Drumworks took part in the St Paul's Way 2019 Festival in Bow Common by Poplar HARCA and was promoted by Clean Air Day to raise awareness about air pollution with the street transformed into a garden.

Governance
Globe Town is part of the Bethnal Green ward and has councilors in the Tower Hamlets Borough Council, all are members of the Labour Party. They include Mohammed Ahbab Hossain, Sirajul Islam (who is Statutory Deputy Mayor for Housing under Mayor of Tower Hamlets John Biggs), and Eve McQuillan who serves as Mayoral Advisor for Tackling Poverty and Inequality.

Globe Town is in the constituency of Bethnal Green and Bow, represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Rushanara Ali of the Labour Party.

Community


A cross broad community exists in Globe Town, with local schools, business and community developments working together, this has led to the creation of the Globe Town Steering Committee, made up of local businesses, residents and community groups. Another notable example is the Cranbrook Community Food Garden within the Cranbrook Estate, which is run by volunteers and has been chaired by Lizzy Mace since 2016. Vegetables are distributed weekly to members. It has lay out three targets which are set for the garden per year. A wide range of food is organically grown by participants with wormeries and compost sites. The gardeners have set up a bin outside for all food waste which helps to make good compost. An further extensive community provision and training is provided by Morpeth School via its connection to the community. Morpeth Sixth Form is also actively involved in some community enrichment project, with support from the Roman Road Trust and Drumworks, who are a band based in Morpeth School associated with the Barbican Centre. Globe Town also has a hyperlocal magazine called Roman Road LDN that covers the area as well as Bow, this was launched from within both communities as a full time publication in 2018 and in 2019 the magazine had 2,500 subscribers, 10,000 followers on social media, and nearly 100,000 unique readers a year.

The Tremshed and Meath Gardens Children's Centre provide local community services.

The current community leaders in Globe Town are Ned Younger, the Acting Chair of Globe Town Assembly as of 2019, Lizzy Mace, chair of Cranbrook Community Food Garden, Tunde Morakinyo who is chair of Friends of Meath Gardens, and Melise Keogh, owner of the Angel and Crown.

Geography
Globe Town, which is to the west of Bow is an area characterized by medium to large scale post-war housing, interspersed with smaller scale retail units within the town center. A smaller proportion of Victorian housing exists, in particular around the Approach Road area where there is a strong connection to Victoria Park. Approach Road is a tree-lined axial route leading into the park, and elsewhere Meath Gardens is another large park within Globe Town area. Regent’s Canal also passes through the area.

It is also part of the wider Regents Canal Conservation Area along with Bethnal Green, established in 2008, the streetside buildings seem neglected but form part of the industrial heritage and character of Vyner Street and also Wadeson Street, which contains a row of three storey Victorian workshops mostly converted to residential use. Both types contribute to the character of the area. The Globe Road Conservation Area, also shared with Bethnal Green was designated in October 1990 and extended in October 2008 to include mixed use terraces along the north side of Roman Road. It is bounded by Roman Road to the south, Old Ford Road to the north, Burnham Street to the west and Bonner Primary School to the east and is centered on the streetscape of Globe Road, which runs north-south through the area. This designation highlights the areas historic significance and assures that its special character is retained.

Between 1986 and 1992, the name Globe Town was applied to one of seven neighbourhoods to which power was devolved from the council. This resulted in replacement of much of the street signage in the area that remains in place.

Culture
Samba Sisters Collective are based at Vatican Studios under the Great Eastern Main Line arches, who are a women-only collective and gather together twice a month, as well as having musicians from cross the world. Globe Town is also host to an unusual art gallery scene, with the Portman Gallery being based within Morpeth School that bridges the world of education and that of contemporary art, and the The Approach Gallery, based above a public house of the same name.

Economy
The layout of the local economy within Globe Town almost entirely locally based with it primarily consisting of independent outlets, however residents are more likely to shop outside of the area, due to an undeveloped market, but however it is beginning to undergo a regeneration in conjunction with a community led Common Vision for the district. With the Roman Road Trust having a digital content and marketing strategy has aided in putting Roman Road on the digital map to increase footfall and assisting with increasing awareness and footfall to the high street, Also aiding this is a local event, the Roman Road E2 Hamper which is used as a tool by local shops to reach out to customers in the community, aiding in promoting their businesses, products and services.

Globe Town Market Square
With the arrival of the Greenways Estate during the post-war building boom when old hosuing was cleared and redeveloped in phases between 1949 and 1959, designed by Denys Lasdun, known for the National Theatre, and Ove Arup, the engineer behind the Sydney Opera House. Globe Town Market Square, known officially as Roman Road Market Square became a shopping centre with it aimed to supersede Roman Road traditional street market as the hub for retail activity and public life. Globe Town Market Square is open everyday and is a focal point for local residents in Globe Town. During the week, having a small number of stall are present. In recent years the market has suffered from a decline in activity and fears of anti-social behavior but their are plans for more use of the square.

Education
Bonner Primary School and Globe Primary School are both a two form entry school, with Bonner located on Stainsbury Street and Globe on Gawber Street, with both accredited to Unicef UK Rights Respecting School Award.

Raine's Foundation School, with a site on Approach Road, is a voluntary aided Anglican school founded in 1719. The school relocated several times, amalgamating with St. Jude's School

It also has a private school called Gatehouse School.

Transport
Globe Town has no connection to the London Underground, historically it did have two stations on the Great Eastern Main Line called Globe Road & Devonshire Street but closed in 1916, this replaced an earlier station called Devonshire Street on the 20 June 1839 While Globe Town is not connected to the London Underground, Bethnal Green and Stepney Green are nearby.

Globe Town is served several London Buses, the truck route 8 to Tottenham Court Road Station and Bow Church as well as local bus routes 309, D3 and D6 call in the area. It is also linked to the London Night Bus network by the N8.

Globe Town is part of the council controlled parking zone and is covered by Zone A and is covered entirely by mini zone 2 which fall into the district boundaries.

The Wikipedia page is.