Ilford is a large town in East London, England, northeast of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Redbridge, Ilford is within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It had a population of 168,168 in 2011, compared to 303,858 for the entire borough.
Identified as a metropolitan centre in the London Plan, Ilford's commercial and retail centre is surrounded by extensive residential development. The town is on the transport corridor between London and coastal Essex, with both the A12 and the central railway station linking the regions. In recent years, as a result of increased levels of immigration, Ilford has become one of the most multicultural towns in England.
Historically a small rural settlement in the ancient parish of Barking in the Becontree hundred of the historic county of Essex, its strategic position on the River Roding and the London to Colchester road made it a coaching town. The arrival of the railway in 1839 accelerated its growth, leading to the area becoming part of the conurbation with London. It split from the parish of Barking in 1888, and, in the 20th century, Ilford significantly expanded and increased in population, becoming a municipal borough in 1926. In 1965, it merged with Wanstead and Woodford, also incorporating parts of neighbouring districts, to form the London Borough of Redbridge, part of Greater London.
Origins and administration Toponymy Ilford was historically known as Great Ilford to differentiate it from nearby Little Ilford. The name is first recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Ilefort and means "ford over the Hyle". "Hyle" is an old Celtic name for the River Roding that means "trickling stream". Great and Little Ilford share the place name origin, but the Domesday reference is to the Little Ilford area.Little Ilford was the place referred to at Domesday described in
Great and Little Ilford appear to have always been distinct areas separated by the Roding. The place names of Great and Little Ilford both appear to derive from the ford (and river), rather than deriving from the subdivision of a larger Ilford area.
Manor of Barking Barking was a huge manor (landholding), first mentioned in a charter in 735 AD. The manor covered the areas now known as Barking, Dagenham and Ilford. The manor was held by the nunnery of Barking Abbey.
Ancient Parish of Barking By the late 1100s (the parishes of England were, with a few exceptions, fixed for around 700 years from the late 12th century onwards) the huge manor of Barking was served by two ancient parishes, Barking (including Ilford) and Dagenham. This reversed the usual situation (for smaller, and even quite large manors) where a parish would serve one or more manors. As with other manors, the area held by the declined over time, but the parish boundaries based on its former extent remained constant.
The Parish of Barking, in the Becontree hundred of Essex, covered the areas now known as Barking and Ilford. Barking was a large ancient parish of in the Becontree hundred of Essex. It was divided into the wards of Chadwell, Great Ilford, Ripple and Town.
Ilford separates from Barking The Barking parish authorities gradually lost responsibility for a variety of functions during the 19th century; from 1836, for the administration of poor relief, Ilford came within the Romford Poor Law Union and in 1840 the Metropolitan Police District was extended to cover the area. In 1875, the Romford rural sanitary district was created, covering a wide area including Ilford.
In 1888, Ilford and the neighbouring ward of Chadwell to its east were split from Barking and together formed a separate Ilford civil parish. In 1890, a local board of health was set up for the parish, replacing the rural sanitary authority, and in 1894 a reform of local government reconstituted it as an urban district. It formed part of the London Traffic Area from 1924 and the London Passenger Transport Area from 1933. It was incorporated as the Municipal Borough of Ilford in 1926.
The suburban expansion of London caused a significant increase in population and the borough became one of the largest in England not to gain county borough status.
London Borough of Redbridge In 1965, the municipal borough was abolished and its former area was combined with that of Wanstead and Woodford, the northern extremity of Dagenham and a small part Chigwell Urban District (around Hainault), to form the new London Borough of Redbridge.
Representation Two the UK Parliamentary constituencies are named after Ilford: Ilford North and Ilford South.The Member of Parliament (MP) for Ilford North is Wes Streeting of the Labour Party, who succeeded the previous MP Lee Scott of the Conservative Party in the 2015 general election. The MP for Ilford South from 2024 is Jas Athwal of the Labour Party. Redbridge forms part of the Havering and Redbridge London Assembly constituency.
History Prehistoric natural history
The only complete skull of a mammoth discovered in the United Kingdom was unearthed in 1864 close to where Uphall Road is today. The skull can now be seen in the Natural History Museum and a cast of the skull and other prehistoric animal remains can be seen at Redbridge Museum, Central Library, Ilford.
Iron Age Redevelopment has destroyed much of the evidence for early Ilford, but the oldest evidence for human occupation is the first- and second-century BC Iron Age earthwork known as Uphall Camp. This was situated between the Roding and Ilford Lane and is recorded in 18th-century plans. Roman finds have also been made in the vicinity.
Lavender Mount A nearby mound called Lavender Mount existed into the 1960s, when it was removed during building work at Howards chemical works. Excavation has shown that Lavender Mount may have been a 16th-century 'beacon-mound'. Archaeological discoveries are displayed at Redbridge Museum.
Economic development
Ilford straddled the important road from London to Colchester. The Middlesex and Essex Turnpike Trust controlled and maintained the road from 1721. The River Roding was made navigable for barges as far as Ilford Bridge from 1737. Ilford remained largely rural until its expansion in the 19th century. This brought about brickworks, cement works and coal yards to service the new buildings, largely centred on the River Roding. In 1839, a railway station was opened on the line from Romford to Mile End. The early businesses gave way to new industries, such as paper making and services such as steam laundries and collar making, to provide for the new commuting class created by the railway.
A number of major businesses have been founded in the town, including the eponymous photographic film and chemicals manufacturer Ilford Photo. This was founded in 1879 by Alfred H. Harman, a photographer from Peckham, who established the business in a house in Cranbrook Road making gelatino-bromide 'dry' plates. The business soon outgrew these premises, and its headquarters moved to a site at Roden Street until 1976 when the factory was closed. Many Ilford Limited products are displayed at Redbridge Museum.
The radio, electronics and telecommunications company Plessey, founded in 1917 in Marylebone, moved to Cottenham Road in Ilford early in 1919 and then to Vicarage Lane where it became one of the largest manufacturers in its field. During World War II, the factory was heavily damaged by bombing and the company carried out much of its manufacture, with 2,000 workers servicing a production line, located in the underground railway tunnel between Wanstead and Gants Hill. In 1955 the company employed 15,000 workers, in sites throughout Ilford and neighbouring areas, with an extensive research department. BAL-AMi Jukeboxes were manufactured at 290–296 High Road, Ilford, during the 1950s, which also served as the headquarters of the Balfour (Marine) Engineering company. The Exchange is the main shopping centre.
Suburban expansion
By 1653, Ilford was a compact village of 50 houses, mostly sited north and south of the current Broadway and the area was distinctly rural. In 1801 the population of Ilford was 1,724 and by 1841 it had grown to 3,742. It had a population of 41,244 in 1901 and occupied an area of . 2,500 houses of the vast Becontree Estate, built by the London County Council from 1921, were within the boundaries of Ilford; the addition caused a rise in population of 11,600 by 1926.
The Central line service of the London Underground to new and former main-line stations in the area began in 1947 and the population of the Municipal Borough of Ilford peaked in 1951 at 184,706, declining to 178,024 in 1961 before being absorbed into Redbridge and Greater London in 1965. At the 2001 Census the combined populations of the Ilford North and Ilford South constituencies was 196,414.
Notable events John Logie Baird, who invented the television, moved to Ilford in the mid to late 1920s to work on his new invention. He worked in a workshop on the roof of the Plessey premises in Ley Street, which has long since been demolished to make way for new housing.
In 1922, Ilford became notorious for being the site of the Thompson-Bywaters case, a cause célèbre in the United Kingdom that later influenced the debate around capital punishment in the UK.
Ilford was also the birthplace of the actor Maggie Smith who left for Oxford at the age of four.
During World War II an Ilford man lost his life when his Royal Air Force training aircraft crashed in the United States. Local residents living near the site, in the State of Oklahoma, erected a monument in 2000 honouring the lives of all four RAF fliers who perished. The event was attended by the Mayor of Redbridge and his mace-bearer, to much local acclaim. The residents, who include Choctaw Indians and the Choctaw Nation government, continue honouring the lives of all four on each anniversary of the crashes, which took place in February 1943.
Olympics Its proximity to the Olympic Park in Stratford meant that in 2011, Ilford was the fastest-growing tourist destination in Europe due to the London 2012 Summer Olympics.
Economy In 2005, Ilford was ranked sixth in the Retail Footprint ranking for Greater London, behind London's West End, Croydon, Kingston upon Thames, Bromley and Brent Cross Shopping Centre. It ranked just above Romford and central London's Kensington. As of 2020, Ilford has of total town centre floorspace, the tenth highest in Greater London and noticeably lower compared to Stratford and Romford.
Geography
The town is bounded in the west by the North Circular Road, Manor Park and the River Roding, with Chadwell Heath and Romford to the east and Barking to the South. The Alders Brook is a tributary of the Roding that marks the boundary between Newham and Redbridge. Climate data for Ilford is taken from the nearest weather station at Greenwich, around south south west of the railway station:
Demography Historic population statistics +Ilford (parish) population 1891 10,913 1901 41,234 1911 78,188 1921 85,194 1931 131,061 1941 # 1951 184,706 1961 178,024# no census was held due to warsource: UK census
Population The entire town of Ilford is also made up of its neighbourhoods Aldborough Hatch, Barkingside, Clayhall, Cranbrook, Fairlop, Fullwell Cross, Loxford, Gants Hill, Goodmayes, Newbury Park, Redbridge, Hainault, Little Heath and Seven Kings. It approximates to 11 electoral wards, and the total population counted 168,168 people in the 2011 census, compared to 303,858 for the borough of Redbridge as a whole.
Ethnicity Ilford has a very large ethnic-minority population, and is one of the most diverse towns in the country.
Ilford North had the fourth-highest Jewish proportion of residents in the 2001 census. The Hindu, Muslim and Sikh population number some 30,000. The large South Asian community in Ilford speak a variety of languages, including Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.