Floods of 1953 - Docklands Memories

THE GREAT FLOOD
OF
CANNING TOWN
1st February 1953
A record of the flood and the aftermath taken from
archive records and personal memories of
Canning Town people
By
KATHY TAYLOR
Kathy Taylor
Canning Town flooded on my second birthday,
the 1st February 1953. My family were lucky as the
floods didn’t reach our house in Ordnance Road,
which is to the north of the Barking Road. For the
families living in other parts of Canning Town it was
a very different story.
I have compiled this record of the flood from
various sources and to the best of my knowledge
the information is correct. You will find extracts
from: The book ‘The Great Tide’ by Helga Grieve
Gieve, which was commissioned by Essex County Council in 1959; the
Stratford Express; PortCities-London website; Newham Archives and Local
Studies; The Getty Photo Archive website.
I would also like to thank all of the Canning Town people who have given
their personal memories of the flood, on the Newham Local History
Message Board and the East-West-Newham web-based local history Yahoo
group.
Kathy Taylor
The great floods of 1953
The greatest storm surge on record for the North Sea occurred on 31 January
and 1 February 1953. The surge height reached 2.74 m at Southend in Essex,
2.97 m at King's Lynn in Norfolk and 3.36 m in the Netherlands.
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a deep depression moving south from the Shetland Islands to the North Sea
caused the sea level to rise up to 3 metres (9ft 9inches) above normal.
gale force winds blowi ng from the north caus ed high waves
the shape of the North Sea - narrower and shallower towards the south - caused
water to pile up in the southern p art
during January the high spring tides already meant higher levels of water
The storm that caused the disastrous surge was among the worst to visit the UK in the
20th century . Hurricane-force winds had blown down more trees in Scotland than were
normally felled in a y ear.
The first event of January 31 was when the Fleetwood trawler, Michael Griffiths, sank off the
Hebrides in the early hours without trace with all 13 of the crew lost.
At 1.45 pm a car ferry, the Pr incess Victo ria, one of the earliest roll-on roll-off (RORO)
ferries, built in 194 7, on passage from Stranraer to Larne, was abandoned off Belfast when
the punishing se as had burst open her rear car-deck doors and flooded in. She sank with
the loss of 133 live s. Lifeboats from Donaghadee, Portpatrick, Cloughey and Newcastle
searched for survivors and saved 31 people.
From Yorkshire to the Thames Estuary, coastal defences had been pounded by the sea and
given way unde r the onslaught . During the af ternoon of the 3 1st, the shingle spit of Spu rn
Head in Yorkshire was breached.
At 5 pm, soon after darkness fell, the first sea wa lls on the Lincolnshire coa st gave way
and waves over 6 metres high (20ft) crashe d onto homes, drowning 4 1 people. The tide,
continuously getting highe r and higher, r an down the East Coast. Sand was scoured from
beaches and sand hills, timber-piled dunes were breached, the landward slopes of
embankments were eroded, concrete sea walls crumbled, the promenades of Mablethorpe
and Sutton-on-Sea were wrecked, and seawater broke through to flood agricultural land.
Later that evening, embankments around The Wash were overtopped and people were
drowned in nort hern Norfolk. King's Lynn lost 15 people, and a few miles rou nd the coast,
in the small village of H eacham, 66 lost their lives. At Wells-next-the-Sea, a 160-ton
vessel was lef t high and dry on t he quay.
As the night wore on every coa stal town and co mmunity on the East Coast was battered
by the storm. In total there were breaches in the sea defences in 1,200 places, and
thousands of a nimals were d rowned
Telephone lines i n Lincolnshire and Norfolk h ad been brought d own by the w ind, virtually
no warnings of t he storm's severity were passed to counties farthe r south until too lat e.
By midnight, Felixstow e, Harwich and Maldo n had been flooded, wit h much loss of life. At
Jaywick in Clacton, the sea rose a metre in 15 minutes and 35 people drowned.
Soon after midnight, the sea walls on Canvey Island collapsed and was completely
submerged by the flood water and 58 people died. The BP oil refinery on t he Isle of Grain
was flooded, and so too was the Naval Dockyard at Sheerness.
The devastating tidal surge rushed up the Thames, with sea levels 3 metres above normal
in some places. From Tilbury to Lond on's docklands, oil re fineries, factories, cement works,
gasworks and electricity generating stations were flooded and brought to a standstill.
A trail of death and destruction
The Netherlands suffered the worst of the floods.
The flood cover ed nine per ce nt of all Dutch agricultural land and three per cent of the
dairy country. The sea re claimed over 20 0,000 hectares of low-lying polder country.
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1835 drowned
50 dykes burst
46,000 houses damaged
322,500 acres flooded
In the South-East of England
In a single night 24,000 homes were damaged or destroyed. There was no flood warning
system and the first most people knew about their danger was when water several feet
deep crashed into their ho mes. Canvey Island on the Tha mes Estuary w as one of the last
to be hit in the early hour s of 1st February with 58 people being drowned.
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24,00 houses damaged
180,000 acres flooded
307 people died in Brita in
58 of the dead were on Canvey Island
In London water lapped the top of the Chelsea Embankment
Canning Town
It was in the vicinity of Bow Creek, the tidal outfall of the river Lea, where London suffered
most, with Canning Town, Custom House, Silver town and North Woolwich be ing flooded.
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100 yards of sea wall collapsed
The Thames and Bow Creek burst their banks
1 person dead at Tidal Basin
1,130 houses flooded
The low laying marshes of West Ham were no stranger to the peril s of flooding and the
local board’s surveyor pointed out i n 1875 that the river walls should be strengthened. The
area was badly flooded in 1897 and in the floods of 1928 about 2,700 houses were
affected at Stratford, Canning town and Silvertown.
More than half the boroug h lay below the level of the ordinary spring tide s, and three-fifths
of it below the level re ached by exceptionall y high ones. The lowest part of the area was
also the most densely pop ulated. Silvertow n, lying in a hollow bet ween the Thames and
the docks, was especially vulnerable.
Flood Watch
11.40 p.m. Saturday 31st January, Southend police passed a telegraph warning to New
Scotland Yard: ‘The flood warning has just sounded at this station. Height of tide 21 feet.
12 inches above Trinity High Wat er Mark. Rising fast’. This was the signal for stage two in
the pre-arranged plan of action in the metropolitan waterside police divisions.
The message was distrib uted to all waterside divisions and subdivis ions, with the
instruction: ‘De spatch loudspe aker cars’. At the same time constables were stationed as
‘watchers’ at seven selected points by the river, to report the rise of the water towards
danger level. The watcher for ‘K’ division was posted at North Woolwich, where danger
level for the area was marked on the tide board on the Woolwich Ferry pier.
11.58 p.m. The warning reached West Ham fire control. The tide at West Ham, according
to prediction, has stil l more than two and a half ho urs to flow.
Midnight news - the B.B.C. broadcast a message that was sent in a pre-arranged form,
by New Scotland Yard:
‘There is a warning from the police of the possib ility of an exceptiona lly high tide
in the river Thames and Medway’. The statement added that high water at London
Bridge was predicted for shortly after 3 o’clock. After repeating the bleak forecast ‘It will be cold’ – the B.B.C. the n closed down f or the night.
The sea strikes
The rivers flowing into the Thames on the Essex sid e and including the Lea, where it flows
into Bow Creek are all embanked and tidal in their lower reaches. Fortunately the fresh
water river flow at the time was low, as there had been no heavy rainfall. The fresh water
flow was only in the order of 430 cubic feet per second; at that time of year double that
volume would no t have been e xceptional, a nd in certain ci rcumstances it could have been
higher. Had the river flow been higher (as in the flood of 1928), the development of
flooding from t he height of the t ide would ha ve been far m ore serious than it was.
1.10 a.m. Sunday 1st February New Scotland Yard received a message from the
‘watcher’ posted at North Woolwich: ‘R/T car watching at Woolwich Ferry. Water has
reached the danger mark at Woolwich Ferry pier. Time of origin 1.10am’. This was the
signal for stage three of the Thames flood warning system. Wireless cars al ready standing
by moved out to patrol the streets of West Ham, announcing on loudspeakers at frequent
intervals, ‘There is a danger of river flooding’; reserve motor-cyclists supp lemented the m,
blowing whistles.
Flood watch a t Bow Creek, 1 st February 1953
1.45 a.m. the tide reached its peak at the Royal Docks, at a height about six feet above
that predicted. It was in Silvertown, little affected itself by the floods, that the trouble
began. Water from the high tid e on the Tham es filling the P ontoon dock a nd overflowed
into Fort street and Mill Road, where Silvertown fire station is situated. The fire engines, in
danger of being stranded, were moved to higher ground.
Thousands of gallons of water then poured into the sewers, and instead of flowing away to
Barking, forced it’s way towards Custom House, Tidal Basin and Canning Town.
It was, this very much lower ground which took the burden of the excess water, for it
surged up throug h the drains int o the streets a nd houses, caus ing the floods w hich rapidl y
spread throughout this p art of the b orough.
1.55 a.m. West Ham fire control re ceived a message f rom Silvertown fire sta tion that
floodwater was coming in from the dock area, that the appliances were being moved to
higher ground for safety, and that a temporary control was being set up at No. 2 gate of
the Royal Victoria Dock .
2.00 a.m. As the Silvertown fire station was being evacuated the tide reached its peak at
Bow Creek Outfall, at a height also some six feet above that predicted, half a foot above
the highest level prev iously record ed there (in 1 928), and higher than the nomi nal tidal
defence crest.
2.00 a.m. firemen were called to help a British Road Services night watchman, who had
clambered to safety on the roof of a caravan in Dock Road. They could not reach him for
three hours, but at 5.00 a.m. when the water had gone down a bit, they managed to wade
out to him and carry him, numb with cold, to dry land.
2.06 a.m. firemen called to Tidal Basin Road where 2 other watchmen were marooned on
a lorry underneath the arches on Silvertown Way. Mr. Phillip Campling aged 53 of Grace
Road, Stratford and Mr. Leonard Neyric aged 60 of Parr Road, East Ham were rescued
from the yard of Messrs. Watts Fincham Ltd, Tidal Basin Road by means of the brigade’s
100-foot turn-table ladder, which went out over the viaduct; a fireman was let down on a
sling who then tr ansferred t o the 2 men to the sling, to be hau led up to safet y. Mr. Neyric
was taken to hospital suf fering from shock an im mersion.
2.45 a.m. Water was reported entering the cable chamber at Albert Dock Telephone
Exchange.
3.07 a.m. the ‘K’ division ‘watcher’ at Woolwich Ferry pier reported that the tide had
ebbed below the danger mark.
3.33 a.m. The ‘G’ cable in the Albert Dock Telephone exchange carrying 200 pairs of
wires, failed.
4.00 a.m. West Ham fire brigade telephones began to fail.
4.29 a.m. The Thames division river police, cove ring the river down to Erit h, reported: ‘All
Thames stations now below danger mark and tide now receding’.
4.36 a.m. ‘Danger of flooding now past, notify public accordingly; withdraw watchers and
loudspeaker cars’, w as the instruction that w ent out from New Scot land Yard.
4.50 a.m. The ‘K’ division super intendent made out a situation report to t he district
commander; ‘Ex tensive surface flooding to road, wharves, houses, quays, adjacent to
Rivers Thames Lea and Rod ing. No casualties. Pub lic morale good. Not y et possible to
estimate damage’.
6.00 a.m. Telephone communications between the three fire stations in the borough were
completely cut and they were relying entirel y on radio communicatio n.
6.50 a.m. 1,200 pairs of telephone wires on the E Cable at Albert Dock Exchange failed
The help starts to arrive
Soon after dawn, Officers of the Salvation Army were on the scene in West Ham, having
heard of Canni ng Town's plight while busy o n flood relief near the docks i n the
neighbouring boroug h of Poplar, on the othe r side of Bow Creek They crossed the river to
Canning Town, to find the Keir Hardie estat e flooded, and as it was ' useless to do anyt hing
about the water', the Salvation Army officers,' practical as always, began without more
ado to make arrangements to feed some of the people trapped upstairs :
In an R.A.F. dinghy, and later an oil drum made into a raft, we fed tea and biscuits
from a Red Shield Canteen from about 11 a.m. to well on in the afterno on. The
people were dropping ropes from the windows and lifting up the tea in flasks and
milk bottles.
One officer went to Barking to ask the police to provide a boat to carry the urns of
tea down the streets, and about an hour later the boat arrived on a lorry. By this
time some of our comrades we re making hot meals in t heir own homes and
bringing them out to the vict ims.
The Franciscan Miss ionaries of Mary from St. Margaret's Convent, were also early in
the flooded area, serene and comforting figures in their white robes:
We first became aware of the floods about 10.30 a.m. on Sunday, 1st February,
when a priest who was staying with us was due to say Mass in Killip Close-Chapel
of Ease to St. Margaret's Church—but found he could not reac h it because of the
floods. Some time lat er our school-keeper came to tell us of the flooded areas and
of the welfare assistant of our school who was flooded out. We immediately set out
in our utility van to see if we could be of any assistance. W e took shoes and food
to the welfare assistant as she had nothing, and we gained access to her by going
round a back street that was not so badly flooded. A young man who was there
kindly offered to hand the parcel to her, which he did by climbing on a wall and
tying it to a string. We then visited various streets and asked if there was anything
required. Knowing that a hot drink and sandwiches would be welcome we returned
to the Convent, where the Sisters all gave a helping hand to get provisions for
these poor people.
We returned with the food but now our diffic ulty was to get access to t he people.
Using a string, some han ded down cans or pots w hich we filled with tea and we put
the sandwiches i n baskets. These were hoisted up to the top floor windows as no
one could get downstairs.
News of the flooding spread surprisingly slowly. The chief officer of the West Ham fire
brigade was the key agent in drawing official attention to what had happened. It was he
who telephoned the borough engineer and discussed with him, before 11 a.m., the
difficulty of the blocked sewers. It was he, too, who telephoned the mayor's house. As it
was a weekend, the mayor, like several other responsible people in West Ham, including
the town clerk, was not immediately ava ilable, but his son was able t o pass on to him the
news of what had ha ppened, and he returned home at once to take control. About 1 p.m.
the Mayor held a conference in the Town Hall, which was attended by the chairman of the
Soup kitchen f or the flood vic tims
fire brigade committee and another member of the council, the police superintendent of '
K' division, the borough engineer, the chief officer of the fire brigade, and the chief welfare
officer. It was decided to turn Canning Town Public Hall into a control and rest centre,
organised and staffed by members and officers of the council, and by volunteers. The
deputy medical officer of health had already been notified by the chief fire officer, and with
the chief sanitary in spector had reconnoit red the flooded area in t he morning. Having see n
conditions there, they had warned the chief welfare officer, called out staff of the schoo l
meals service, and helped to set in motion emergency feeding arrangements.
12.30 p.m The Woman’s Voluntary Service contacted the police in West Ham and
offered help, which was accepted:
Most people in West Ham preferred to remain on the upper floors, opt imistic that
the water would go down before long. But in the afternoon members of the armed
services were brought in to help to rescue those who wished to get out. Rubber
dinghies, and rowing boats borrowed from Poplar and from Barking Park, were
paddled up the canal-like street s; horses and cart s splashed throug h the water;
some people were pushed out on Costa-mongers' barrows. Council, army and
business lorries, carrie d people to the Publi c Hall, and also to St. M argaret's
Convent, where the Franciscan Sisters had set up another rest centre:
Volunteer rescuers were working hard all the time. One soldier in particular went
leg deep in the wate r and then climbed the st airs of one of the houses t o lift the
children downstairs t o our van, where the nuns took charg e of them, cha nging
their clothes and giving them some food. We continue d to do this unt il evening,
making many calls backwards and forwards to the Convent as the van only holds 8
The Franciscan Miss ionaries of Ma ry:
To accommodate all the people w e transformed our primary school hall into a
dormitory. Our next problem was to find bedding for all. The nuns carried beds and
mattresses to the hall and a hospital very k indly lent us some blanket s. In the
evening we went to the Public Hall to which many v ictims of the floods had bee n
brought.
Here the Women's Voluntary Service were doing excellent work. We asked if there
were any people or childr en who would like to com e back with us to the Conv ent.
Some mothers and children were happy to accept our offer.
In the evening we returned to some of the streets we had visited earlier. All the
people were in the top f loor rooms of their hom es as the ground floor room s were
flooded. Some families had tried to sweep away the water and rescue their
belongings.
We took clothes, bread and tinned food to the m to help them out as most of their
provisions had floated away. We were very much struck by the admirable courage
of these people—not a complaint was hea rd; all were anxious t o help one another.
The mayor of West H am was outstanding in his devot ion to these poor peop le. He
remained with t hem througho ut the day, doi ng all in his powe r to help them. It
was with diffic ulty that we persuaded him, i n the evening , to return to the Convent
to take some refreshment.
All day the W.V.S. county organiser had methodically expanded her members' activities,
stage by stage, in scrupulous liaison with the authorities:
After consulting the Town Hall and the police, I arranged for the Dagenham van to
go to the flooded area (i.e . Canning Town) and to g et its supplies from Ilford (i.e.,
tea, soup, bread and biscuits).
At 3.15 p.m. the county org aniser drove ove r to Canning Town to see for herself
how things were going. She arrived at the same time as Dagenham's van, which
had been diverted from the flooded area to the Public Hall.
A few members of the public had begun to trickle in, and soon the W.V.S. were
feeding crowds who had lef t their homes. Realising clothes would be needed, we
went to Ilford, where the canteen staff (W.V.S.) were working at full pressure.
There we learnt refugees were coming into the area from Canvey, and the police
asked us to supply blankets. The regional clothing depot, 88 Eaton Square, agreed
to send us 200 t hat night, and we w ere ready if needed to open a rest centre.
About 6.30 p.m. 172 of West Ham's victims were given a hot supper at the Public Hall,
Canning Town, prepared and served by the mayor's band of helpers, lady members of the
council in overalls, s chool canteen staff, and others, with school meals service equipment
and stocks borrow ed from the kitche n of Ravenscr oft School, Plaistow. The Ilf ord W.V.S.
had kept the hall supplied with soup. Wherever the depth of water in the flooded area
permitted, the string-and-bucket, delivered-to-your-window method of fe eding pioneered
by the Salvation Army and the Franciscan Sisters had been augmented by soup, tea,
sandwiches and other supplies brought by the Ilford W.V.S. in their second van, by a
member of the council wit h the local Veterans Club's mobile canteen, and by council
lorries.
In the hall the G.P.O. had installed a telepho ne to make control of opera tions easier. The
staff of the Citizens' Advice Bureau, which operates in West Ham under the aegis of
Canning Town Wom en's Settlement, were there to help with personal problems. Clothing
had been sent in fr om W.V.S. and B ritish Red Cross stocks, or collect ed from door to door
by members of the council in lorries. Blankets and mattresses had been provided by the
welfare department from institutions under t he council's control . Lady members of the
council, W.V.S. and Salvation Army gave out clothing and dry bedding to those who
preferred to return to their own homes for the night. 129 people settled down to spend the
night in the hall.
6.50 p.m., a police situat ion report was sent t o the commander of district 3 , the
superintendent of' K ' division estimated that 150 people had been evacuated. 'Water
gradually receding' The efforts of the Lee Conservancy catchment board, the borough
engineer and the fire brigade were beginning to show results.
After dusk, t he W.V.S. county organiser ret urned to West Ham:
Returned via Ilford (for messages) to West Ham; found rest centre very busy. We
talked to mayor, borough e ngineer, transpor t officer, etc., and later to M.P., and
agreed to continue with tea, soup and biscuits that evening, and agreed we could
do early morning drinks (as schools meals could provide breakfast but no drinks).
Later I was informed that people were still marooned on top floors of some house s
and the mayor asked if we could feed them. Arranged to get further supplies from
Ilford (this time using Wanstead's van) and transport officer arranged for ' high
level' lorry. Wanstead centre organiser and d river plus two police took this out at
about 11.30 p.m.
At the same time we agreed to provide clothes, which we issued from the stage in
the big upstairs hall, which was being used as sleeping quarters. We had used the
smaller hall downstair s for feeding. We put a new team on duty at about 7.30 p.m.
and arranged for some to deal with the canteen and the others to issue clothing.
West Ham stated that they would have people on duty all night, so we left about
11 p.m.
On the Keir Hardie Esta te
The next day
By 6 a.m. on Monday, after thirtee n hours continuo us pumping by t he fire brigade , the
water was out, leaving Canning Town thickly carpeted with slime and mud.
Once the water was gone, a ll the foul stinking sludge, split timber, br oken glass, floating s
from sewers, coal, coke, rotting greengrocery, disintegrating domestic chattels, sodden
toys, books and papers (all to wet to burn), and the carcases of drowned animals, had to
be scavenged from dwellings and the streets.
No major industries had been
seriously affected in t he area, but
the only fatal casualty had
occurred on the premises of
William Ritchie & Son (Text iles)
Limited at Tidal Basin, which was
flooded three feet deep.
When the night-watchman, Mr
William
Hayward
of
255
Corporation Street, Stratford,
failed to return home from duty
on Sunday the police enlisted t he
help of the fire brigade to search
for him. They fo und the premises
filled with coal gas, escaping
from a leaking main which had
been fractured by the pressure of
bales of hessian and jute, swollen
by immersion in water.
After turning of f the gas the
firemen
went
in,
wearing
breathing apparatus. They found
the body of the watchma n on the
first floor, where he had taken
refuge from the water, only to
succumb to the gas.
In West Ham it had not been
necessary to keep the rest
centres open long. Daily t he
numbers retur ning at night to
sleep in Canning Town Public Hall
or at the Francisca n convent
dwindled, until the end of the
first week. By then all were able
to sleep at home, their bedding
having been dried out for them
or replaced. None slept in the
rest centres after Saturday, 7th
February, though the public hall was used for another week as a general relief centre and
for the issue of clothing by the W.V.S. By 13th February the emergency meals service in
West Ham had provided 1,376 main meals, 713 light meals and 1,295 drinks at the public
hall for people temporarily without the means of cooking in the ir own homes.
For some weeks the Franciscan Sisters of St. Margaret's Convent went out to clean in
groups, and some parents, while they cleaned up, left their children for over a week with
the rest of the Sisters in the co nvent until t heir homes were fit for them to return to:
This was a flood enterprise i n which young p eople shone, and t heir natura l
optimism and gay, cheerful vit ality did much to ra lly the low spirits of old pe ople
who felt defeated by the stinking wreckage around them.
Cleaning up on the Keir Hardie Estate
In the West Ham area some of the floodwater flowed back into the Lea and the Thames on
the falling tide. But in Canning Town the par tial blockage of sewers a nd gullies with
scoured-up rubbish and dirt prevented its draining away, and about a square mile of the
Tidal Basin and Canning Town remained submerged Many of the sewers were flowing at
only about half bore, and at West Ham pumping station, for most of the time that
floodwater was being evacuated, only about 50 per cent of the pumping capacity of the
station could be used, as the water could not find its way to the station through the
obstructed sewers. The Canning Town area had a flood relief system for surface water
which normally discharg ed into the Victor ia Dock Cut, near Custom House station, but t his
could not be operated because the Dock Cut itself was already overloaded. This was partly
because the bad ebb in the Thames on Sunday morning prolonged the tidelock period
during which the Cut could not d ischarge its contents int o the Thames by way of its outf all
at Baxter Fell's Wharf, partly because its channel was obstructed by debris, and partly
because of the quantity of floodwater drainin g into the Cut direct from the Victoria Dock
area. Neither could pumping operations be effectively started until the borough engineer
had found out whi ch sewers were functioning most adequate ly for disposal of water. A s
soon as he had done so three major pumps of the West Ham fire brigade were set to work.
By about 2 p.m. the general level had been reduced by about two feet, but the second
high water at 3 p.m., which rose about three feet above the predicted level, though it
brought no more direct flooding, caused seepage and infiltration which temporarily raised
the level of the wat er again in Canning Town.
With so much water standing in a densely built-up district, above an elaborate
underground communications system, the East area telephone engineers and fitters in the
East and Albert Dock exchange areas faced great difficulties. During the day five more
main cable failures were reported, Jointers and pumps were being concentrated round the
Albert Dock exchange area, where the cable chamber itself was flooded, ready to attack
the manholes and joint boxes as soon as the fl oodwater beg an to subside. W herever the
water had flowed back sufficiently work began.
The heroine of Mary Street
The heroine of Mary Street, Canning Town, is 66 year old Mrs. Annie Shepherd
who lives at number 54.
Wearing only her nightdress, s he battled her way through the cold water t o waken the
neighbours alo ng the road in t he early hours of Sunday morni ng. Mrs. Shephe rd was
herself arouse d by her daught er, Mrs. Seat on, of Hut 20 Vi ncent Road, one of the first
streets to be affected by the flood. Seeking shelter she took
her children to M rs. Shepher d, not believ ing that the w ater was just be hind her
and advancing on Mary Street.
“Before I could light a fire to dry the children off” said Mrs. Shepherd “the water
had started pour ing through the front door.”
She immediately f ought her way into the stree t and, stumbling over w alls, in the
icy cold water, knocke d on doors until the rest of her neighbours were aware of the
danger.
WORSE THAN RAIDS
“I went through al l the air raids” she said, “b ut this was worse t han any of it. W e
didn’t have a m inute’s warning . There was no t ime to do anyt hing before the
ground floor rooms were flooded and the furniture was float ing round in them.”
“A very brave woman” was how Mr. R.G. Lane, 39 Mary Street, described Mrs.
Shepherd. “He r first thought was for other s and if she had not roused us, h ow
many people were asleep on the ground floor might ha ve been drowne d in their
beds.”
When he awakened and saw water filling the street outside his first thought was
that a water main had burst.
Along with almost every other resident of Mary Street, he spent Monday away
from work so that he and his wife co uld clean up t heir home.
Piled outside their houses , the furniture prese nted a pitiful sight. Wood was
warping. Upholstery and bedding was soaked through. Drawers were stuck in
dressing tables, and in some cases veneers were peeling off and joints c oming
unstuck.
Inside the houses where the water had been to a height of two feet an inch thick
layer of sludge covered everything. “What will happen to the floor boards and
joists after this soaking I hate to imagine,” said Mr. Lane.
His complaint was that of many people, “Why were we not given warning so that
some precautions could be taken and why didn’t the Corporation provide us with
food when we were stranded on Sunday?”
But like everybody else who suffered, Mr. Lane had nothing but the highe st
praise for the Salvation A rmy. “They worke d like slaves, and but f or them we
would have been even worse off.”
FAMILY MAROONED
Among those who had most cause to be grateful to the Salvation Army was Mrs.
Annie Young, 66 Mary Street, who with her husband a nd four child ren was
marooned in their top floo r until five o’clock on Sunday evening.
The only food they had during that time was a loaf of bread and some butter
which she had managed to snatch up before the downstairs part of her house
flooded.
Just before five o’clock a Salvation Army off icer in a rubber dinghy broug ht them
tea and biscuit s which they ha uled up to thei r window with a rop e. A short tim e
afterwards he returned with a boat he had borrowed from Poplar and managed to
to rescue them and other families.
Even on Monday, Mrs. Seaton was unable to get back to her prefab home in
Vincent Road for it was still full with water and the fire brigade had to pump it dry.
It was she who raised the alarm in Mary Street, after her husband, Albert, had
heard police whistles. H e looked out of the w indow to see the flood and
immediately carried his family to Mrs. Shepherd’s house. At that time the water
was already waist deep, and after looking after his own family he returned to
Vincent Road where a number of women were unable to escape with their children
because of a wire fence. Mr Seaton knocked down the fence down and helped
them carry the children to safe ty.
PEWS BECAME BEDS
Church pews were placed together in the school hall and mattresses laid across
the seats to make beds for the refugees who went to the Franciscan Missionaries of
Mary convent, Ca nning Town In ot her corners, gy mnasium benc hes were pushe d
alongside each other when a supply of camp beds ran out.
Families sleeping there were visited by the Mayor (Alderman A.C. Moorey),
Mayoress and Deputy Mayor. Hot drinks and food were taken round by the Sisters.
Many of the victims who had hu rriedly left their bed s, without time to put
anything over t heir night clot hes were given jumpers and warm clothing by the
sisters. Pari shioners of the convents chur ch called at the convent with off ers of
help and spare clothing.
‘WAKE UP’ SHOUT
Mrs Julia Katele y and her family of Mary Stre et, stuck it out f or several hour s in
the upper floor of her house. Then t hey were wheele d on a neighbour’ s
costermonger’s barrow, almost awash, to dry land.
Mary Street. Mrs Beatrice Kateley and Miss Joan Kateley
Resting with her married da ughter, who lives wit h her at 6 Tidal Basin Road, in
the Fransican Mi ssionaries of M ary Convent , Canning Town , on Monday, was M rs.
Alice Haggerty.
Bouncing a baby on her knee she said; “I was sleeping downstairs when I heard
a man shouting “W ake up”. Wat er was running in the door. Ten of u s live there,
including fou r babies under t hree and we sp ent the whole of Sunday upsta irs,
without any food. We had to wade into the kitchen to g et milk for the babie s.”
Several walls of Nissen huts threatened to cave in and in Vincent Street, Mr
Charles Reeves, aged 25, with his wife Dorothy, 23, and two babies escaped to
friends as the wall began to buckle under the pressure of the water.
PETS RESCUED TOO
Several families took their pet dogs and cats with them when they were rescued
by dinghy from upstairs windows.
Many of the rescued went to relatives and friends after a meal at the Public Hall
centre, Canni ng Town.
AT FENDT CLOSE – Forced doors w ith chopper
The flood alarm was give n to people in Fendt close, o n the new Keir Hardie
estate, Canni ng Town, by 27 year old Margaret Gregory, of 9 Bowman Avenue,
which joins the Close.
She said, “I was just going to bed about 2 a.m. on Sunday when I looked out of
my window and thought I saw water. I looked again to make sure. Then I ran
downstairs and gave the alarm. I rushe d round to all the houses in t he Close,
banging at the doors, as the water gradually got deeper.”
Mr. Joseph Rogers of 31 Fendt Close, Keir Hardie estate, used a chopper to force
the door of the flat downst airs to rescue Mrs A lice Mitchell. Blind in o ne eye and
deaf, she was sitting on her bed screaming for help as the water lapped around it.
He picked her up and carried her up the stairs to his flat.
Mr. Rogers was awakened by the screaming of Mrs. Catherine Whitelock, who
lived downstairs in the flat op posite Mrs. Mitchell . She was standing at the bottom
of the stairs, deep in water.
– transcribed from the Stratford Express
Toxic Flooding
Flood water which swept through the Associated Fumigation Ltd. factory at 113 Victoria
Dock Road, washed away 30 empty gallon drums which had contained hydrogen cyanide
and 2 drums holding methyl bromide. All of these drums, the police impressed upon the
children, we re highly dange rous, and they were told not t o touch them if they saw them ,
but to call a policeman.
Both drums of methyl bromide and 10 of the hydrogen cyanide containers were found by
Tuesday morni ng.
A police car drives through Mary Street in Canning Town, warning the public of highly
dangerous hydro cyanide containers that had been washed away by the floods
(Photo by Edward Miller/Keys tone/Getty Image s)
The disastrous effects for the Canning Town area of West Ham were described in a report
prepared by the engineer to the Lee Conservancy catchment board a week later:
On the length of approximately three-quarters of a mile of defence crest between the
western entrance to the Royal Victor ia Dock and the Canning T own Quay near Canni ng Town
Station, approximately half a mile of the crest was below tide level, and water was rapidly
finding its way from the river into the low-lying district of the southern part of t he County
Borough of West Ham (Canning Town and C ustom House areas ). The overtop of t he tidal
defence crest varied in depth of course, but was probably about 9" to I' 0" in places, and the
flow from the river from over-topping on this lengt h alone probably amou nted to
approximately 3,000 cusecs, (cusec: 1 cubic foot per second). To make matters worse in this
district, a length of about 300 ft of brick wall in the tidal defence line collapsed under the
head of water, and this probably cont ributed a further inp ut to the Canning Town a rea of
about 2,100 cusecs. Fortunately a secondary and lower line of defence stood, otherwise the
flooding would have b een of longer durat ion and greater volume.
Canning Town Wharf was another place where trouble was experienced. First of all, the rising
tide got behind the piles and protective crest timbers, eroding some of the back fill. At a later
stage of the rising tide the defence crest was overtopped, water finding its way to the railway
at Canning Town Station at a rate of about 1,000 cusecs.
From the foregoing we hav e the position that dur ing a period of about t wo hours water was
flowing from the riv er into the Canning Tow n district at rates varying from O to 6,100 cusecs,
a total quantity of about 141,750,000 gallons. It may be well to mention that in the
extensive fluvial floods of 1947 the maximum discharge of the Lee was assessed at 5,400
cusecs, which is appreciably less than the above-mentioned 6,100 cusecs tidal flow from the
river on 1st February 1953.
Memories of the 1953 Floods - Newham Local Studies Notes No. 64
By Mrs M Yates of Morgan Street, Canning Town
It had been a typical January - nearly every one having the flu a t the same time. We must
have been wok en up in the early hours of Feb ruary 1st by som eone calling and k nocking
at a neighbour's house, desperately trying to waken her mother who was sleeping
downnstairs because she had flu.
The first sign of trouble we were aware of was seeing a moving refle ction like waves on the
bedroom ceiling, We made our way downstairs and were startled awake by the shock of
putting or feet into ice -cold water on the stairs.
We opened the staircase door and couldn't believe our eyes, to see mater all over the
ground floor, a loaf had floated out of the bread bin in the scullery, up the steps and right
across the kit chen, ending up u nder the kitchener. I watched appalled to see the water
creeping higher up the kitchener and furnitu re, thinking of all the hours waste d in polishing
them.
There was an unca nny silence in t he street, no cars or sounds o f foot-steps, just water .
We were surprised to see traffic moving along Beckton Road which was not flooded.
We did not know at the time the extent of the floods, but were puzzled that we'd had no
warning at all. We thought sur ely the loudsp eaker vans used at election time could have
come round and w oken us up, or someone in each street told to alert the neighbours.
My sister and her little boy were evacuated from Canvey Island and came to us, not
knowing that their house would stay dry while we had water up to 4’ 6” inches at high tide.
The boy was carried up on the shoulders of a good neighbour, and as we opened the door
to them, bits of straw and debris floated in on the w ater. This same good neighb our later
threw a loaf of broad up through the bedroom window.
My husband dived under the flood water in the garden to get some coal so that we could
have a fire in the bedroom, and the marvellous Fire Brigade were inspired to bring a lorry
load of chopped firewood .
Furniture Drying out in Mary Street
Water was up to the top of the gas stove, but the rings lit, so my husband stood the bath
on top and heated up soup and potatoes for us, and we had a fruit pie which my sist er had
brought with he r.
When the water finally receded, leaving a layer of mud, the first people on the scene were
the Salvation Army ladies. They came along with soap and brushes, and buckets on their
arms.
Then it was all action as we tried to clean up the mess, collecting disinfectant from the
Public Hall whe n our own ran out. F iremen wer e pumping out water, someonoe else (I
believe it was the RAF) brought round hot ai r dryers, someo ne else (I think a dry cleanin g
firm) collected carpe ts for cleaning and drying. Rugs went into the bath to be washed, lino
was rolled up and stood out to dry, not an easy task in February.
Spoilt food (still rati oned) and belongings ha d to be thrown away and crockery well
washed, lashing s of disinfect ant water used to clean floors and wall s to remove the smell
and mud.
Some months lat er we apprecia ted the kind t houghts which pro mpted people to send gift s
such as a bottle of Samos w ine, dried fruit from Greece, a tin of coffee from Emperor Ha ille
Selassie of Ethiopia, a flood par cel from America.
The Mayor star ted the flood f und, to which e ven prisoners of War in Korea contributed, a nd
this helped the landl ords to carry out some repairs. Our landlord then used those repairs
as an excuse to in crease our rent, and it took Mr . Elwyn Jones a nd questions in Parliament
to show him the error of his W ays.
It took about 3 ye ars before the b ricks walls dried completely, our furniture w as ruined b ut
at least we lived.
Personal Memories
from the Newham Local History Message Board
I have very vague memories of being carried on the shoulders of my uncle Len across
Clever Rd which had a slight slope on our side to his house opposite and l ooking at all this
very dirty water gushing along as my mum and dad were busy carrying as much as they
could upstairs to safet y!
Posted by: Jackie Palmer
That night of the flood I happened to be home on embarkation leave having done my
National Service training , we lived then in a grou nd floor flat in Rogers Rd, m y parents and
two younger sisters, and I can see it now slowly seeping down the road black and oily,
then suddenly it was there in the flat!. Recalling the mark it left on the wall I believe it
rose to about a metre, my future brother in law who lived then in Trinity Street always
tells the tale of float ing around in his bed, it was a real nasty time not for me particularly
as I buzzed off and had to leave them to it!!
Posted by: Vic Wernham
Stan very kindly sent me pictures of Saville Road when it was flooded, s ome of the boys in
one of the pictures are my uncles as young boys, afraid I am not able to ask them as have
all passed away now, apa rt from one uncle who re cognised himself a nd brothers in the
photo, but was not able to g ive anymore informa tion as he only has memorie s of the water
in the street and living r oom. Useless inform ation but Saville Road w as also flooded
sometime in the mid to late 60's I remember after the water had subsided, the firemen
lifting floorboards in the passage and pumping the water into the street.
Storm floods of 1957 i n Saville Road, Silvertown
Posted by: Kerry Williams
I read a lot of these posts with interest as I appear to be one of the youngest on here. A
junior member at 55, which ma kes my Mrs laugh a s she's a lot y ounger than me . I tried to
post on the flood of 1953 the other day but my temperamental PC crashed when I tried to
send it. I remember being on my dads shoulders as he walked down Cundy Road in the
floodwater. I always thought that I was about 4 years old when it happened. But a good
few weeks back I wondered where my younger sister was at the time, and decided to
google it. No wond er I couldn't remember he r, she wasn't bor n until July 1953. Amaz ingly,
I was only 15 m onths old when it ha ppened. But I can't remembe r anything else before I
was 5 years old, and I'm renowned for having a good memory. It must have frightened the
life out of me as I've always been afraid of water, and never learned to swim because of it.
As a teenager I was always over Beckton Lido chatting up girls, but never near the water
in case I got thr own in. Strange world.
Posted by: John Bird
I remember that the floods inundated the cellars of the Henley Arms on Albert Road at
North Woolwich.
Posted by: Eileen Brady
Yes there were other floods in Silvertown, the most damaging being the 1953 floods - the
1957 floods were no where near as bad as the 1953 one's but nevertheless a real nuisance
or an absolute delight, dependant on whether you were a kid or an adult. As you know
Kathy, from the East-West-Ham postings, the 195 3 floods did also affect N orth Woolwich,
as per the Albert Road/Kent Arms flooded roadway photo that I circulated.
Posted by: Stan Dyson
The flood certainly did affect Freemasons Road. I lived in Adamson Road and remember
paddling along Freemasons Road to the U nited Dairies to ge t some milk. The dairy was
opposite the park entrance
Posted by: Richard W Robins
Corner of Fords Park Road.
The Paragon is on the left and the glass works in the centre
Your post gobsmacked me. In 1953 I lived in Freemasons Road and I have no
remembrance of the floods. I remember it on the news but I only recollect items about
somewhere in De von and Canvey Island. I must b e getting more forgetful than I thought.
Did the water come right up to the UD? I lived three houses past it (in what is n ow the
house on the corne r of Newham W ay) and I didn't us ually go down F reemasons muc h as
my school, my paper round and the Hammers were all on the other side of Beckton Road.
Posted By: Alan Smith
The flood waters reached to just past the gates of East London Cemetery in that area.
Mary Street was badly affected, where Rathbone car park is now.
Posted by: Alex
I remember quite clearly paddling in the flood water. It extended from the cemetery gates
down Grange Road to where it joins G ainsboroug h Road There was an i ncline in the ro ad of
foot or more by the old cli nic the rise may still be t here The Hermit Road was certainly
affected
Posted by: Alex
Parts of the Barking Road that were elevated may have escaped the flooding but as I
remember Mary Street which I believe ran parallel to the Barking Roadd where Mona
Street now is only yards be hind the Bark ing Road shops was one of the worst hit areas and
I am reasonably sure the Hermit Road was also flooded. Just as a point of interest the
whole of Silvertown Wa y excluding the high point s flooded to a depth of about a foot about
twenty years ago the water topping at Barge House Road, North Woolwich.
Posted by: Alex
That's interest ing Alex, do y ou think the Me morial ground s could have flooded.
Posted by: Kathy Taylor
I don't think so Kat hy
Posted by: Alex
In 1953 I was living in 95 Memorial Avenue the very end block towards the Grandstand
and we overlooked the whole Memorial Grou nds the goalpost of the ne arest football pitc h
under our very window. I can say that at no time was any part of the ground flooded. The
Memorial ground was my children’s backyard.
Regards
Posted by: Charles Buhler
Wasn't the floo ding in 1953 a result of the Nort h Sea surge that inundated Ca nvey Island
at the same time. I have been talking to a former resident of Lansdowne Road nearby to
St.Luke's Ch urch who remem bers that the f lood came up to the second and th ird floor of
their house the re, he was a you ng boy at the t ime and his job wa s to rescue the chickens
from the backyard and take them safely upstairs to the bedroom. The aftermath of the
flood same as elsewhere, days of cleaning up the mud.
Posted by: Charles Buhler
This large mooring post had drifted along with the flood and came to rest in Appleby Road
I have been looking at the 1867 Godfrey Map, and it shows that Tidal Basin and Custom
House were built on an area known as Plaistow Marsh. It appears that prior to the
development of the area the marsh would flood, hence some of the names given to small
clusters of houses, for example Cherry Island, this area was approximately where Ford
Park Road is now. According to the notes provided with the map, ditches were built, one of
the largest being on the west side of Regent's Lane and were known as County Walls.
These ditches and the large mounds of earth were constructed to protect the area from
Spring tides. The ground appears to rise the nearer you get to Barking Road.
I myself went to visit re latives in Mary Stree t after the flood, but a s I was only 4 at the
time, I do not have a grea t recollection of it, only to say that the flood nev er reached
Liverpool Road.
Posted by: Andy
We must be due another surge. The last big one was I believe in 1978. Alt hough the
Thames Barrie r was not finis hed the other defences further down the Thames proved their
worth, and Londo n was O.K.
This has been a very interesting thread and I have learned more about what happened in
'53 (I was 2), including tidal surges and their causes, and modern flood defences or the
lack of them in parts of Nor folk, and Suffolk. Just hope it never happe ns again.
Posted by: Jim Heale
I lived in Chaunt ler Road E.16 and although I was very young a t the time, I re member
seeing the water coming around the corner from Leslie Road. My parent's bedroom was
upstairs and I recall wa tching all the excit ement from the window . To go to the toilet
outside, my father turned the cast iron bathtub upside down, grabbed the broom and
rowed himself there.
Posted by: Jennifer Beynon
Personal Memories
from the West-East-Newham Yahoo Group
I well recall the 195 3 floods in West Silvert own. I recall paddling in the Westwood Road in
the evening that the floods started and in the following day(s) standing opposite the Lyle
Park House at 1 Bradfield Road and seeing soldiers marching down the middle of the
flooded road towards t he River Thames and S hell Mex Oil Depot.
There are several pict ures of the 1953 f loods in Silvertown on my 'Stan’s Gallery' site.
Posted by: Stan Dyson
It sounds like t he story of Noah's Ark. Funnil y enough I don't remem ber the floods getting
anywhere near w here I lived in Ra venscroft Road. Can anyo ne confirm this? All I can
remember from that far back was the parties held in the street for the Queen's Coronation.
Posted by: Alan Price
The floods would not have reached the Barking Road, my Grandmother lived in Lawrence
Street which was south of B arking Road behind Rathbone Street, and the floods stopped
just short of her front door. Me and a couple of mates wandered around near St Luke’s
Church where there were still open basements from bombed houses, the basements were
flooded and there was us silly buggers at 8 years old and not able to swim, playing around
without a care i n the world. The f loods subsi ded the next day.
Posted by: Alan
One other thing I remember about the floods was the day before there were gale force
winds and our garden fence was blown down, Dad was not amused.
Posted by: Alan
To my best recollection the flood came in the evening/night, because I recall paddling in
the dark and they had disappeared by the end of the following day. It was the following
day that I saw the Soldiers marching down the middle of Bradfield Road and I was
standing on the pavement that was dry, right opposite the Lyle Park entrance gate, and
the Soldiers were march ing through the still p artially flooded midd le of the road. I have
the impression that wat er was still flowing dow n from the higher leve l of Bradfield Road
that ends at the 'River Steps' or 'The Bank', as we called the wooden steps that led down
to the River Thames. So, I assume that the Thames must have swollen to a point that it
had overflowed, or it was st ill teeming down wit h rain - in which case why was I just
standing outside Lyle Park getting soaking wet for?
As an 8-year old at the time I just en joyed the exciteme nt of it all, not paying any
attention as to how the floods came about, either by torrential rain and over full drainage
or whether the Thames did actually overflow - my guess would be that given the volume of
water pouring down Bradfield Road the Thames overflowed and the Soldiers were on their
way to sandbag the area.
Posted by: Stan Dyson
I remember that night well. I was 6 or 7 years old. My Uncle Len carried me from our
house (16 Clever Road) to theirs at No.31. It was up way past his waist by about 11 pm.
We were all upstairs at my Aunt Peggy's - it seemed like dozens of kids on the big
double bed for the night, while the grown-ups played cards.
The next morning my Auntie Ann carried me back to No.16 and the mess was awful in
the street, she said “look at all this shit, we will have to clean up”! !!!
All the next week the rat catchers were very busy catching the huge sewer rats running
riot. Our next door neighbours had dozens, the rat-catchers had their work cut our
carrying the hug e metal rings with dead rats hanging from them out of the houses, time
after time..
I don’t know if was afte r the flood or what, but I know I went down with scarlet fever at
one time.
I remember my sister Vicky was asleep and there was a rat gnawing at her hair, dad threw
the wood axe and hit the rat, missing my sister’s head literally by the hair. I remember
every night there were loads of saucepans in the scullery on the floor half filled with water
and every morning dad would get rid of the drowne d rats out of t hem Uuurrrggg hhhh.
It wasn’t just the water damage, it was the many ramifications from after the flood we had
to contend with!
Posted by: Dotl
On the evening of the surge, my friend and I ha d met two young ladies who lived in
Greenwich. I don't remember any problems going to Greenwich via the tunnel. I did not
experience any problem using t he tunnel on the return jour ney around mid night. Walki ng
back to East India Dock Road, people and vehicles, in numbers, were being held back by
police on the approach to the swing bridge.(was it 'swing' or 'Cantilever'?) The water was
lapping over the surface of the mechanism of the bridge and the lead-up roadway. It was
2.00am before we were allowed to continue the journey to East India Dock R oad. (some
'bridger'!)
When I eventually arrived the re, who should be waiting at t he bus stop for the 'all-nighter',
bus was my mate. When I approached him, his words were, 'another fine mess you have
got me into'. We ev entually needed to walk all the way home. Apart from the incide nts
already referred to, there certainly was no flooding of the East India or Barking Roads.
Also, can't remember there being any form of hue and cry re the advent of heavy flooding.
I may be wrong, but I can only relate what I experienced in that particular area.
Posted by: Ted Breed
We were living in Fords Park Road (opposite the Paragon Works). The water never reached
us…..it stopped about ten yards from our front door. But my Grandmother lived in Fendt
Close, just up the road from Tidal Basin Station, and the water was up round her ankles. I
remember as a six year old I had a toy fort on a wooden base and I thought I could use it
to rescue her!!!
David Matthews
I was very young but have some clear memories of this event. We lived in Bradley S treet
(between Forty Acre Lane and Edwin Street) in an area known a s Cherry Island , and were
not flooded, the water lapped at the kerb, but did not come into the houses. My bedroom
window overlooked M organ Street, and from there, I could see that they were flooded.
One of the things that puzzled me was why a small area, completely surrounded by dry
land, should hav e the name ‘is land’. As I grew older I realised that this tiny piece of land
must have been left high and dry on nume rous occasio ns, when the sur rounding area ,
then marshland, flooded. Local information about the 1953 event is very scarce and so
information about earl ier floods has probably been lost forever.
There are lots of anomal ies in the largely anecdotal evidence, but I think I may have found
at least a partial explanation for this. The flood had been preceded by torrential rain, but
the water could not escape because of the high river level. Small ‘pockets’ of low ly ing
land were then flooded, not by river water, but by water emerging from the drainage
system, fed by huge amounts of water entering higher up the system.
If you look at Google Eart h, on the bottom le ft hand side of the map, it gives latitude,
longitude and elevat ion (height above mean sea level). As you move the cursor over the
map, some of the changes are quite dramatic. To take one example, New Barn St shows
an elevation of only 4ft at the south end and 20ft at the junct ion with Bark ing rd, a drop of
16 feet in a couple of hundred yards. Imagine the torrent of water there must have been
with torrential rain a nd all the drains blocke d, this could easily ha ve caused the flood ing of
houses at the sout h end of the road w ithout the river ever com ing close.
i.e. We were living in Fords Park Road (opposite the Paragon Works) (Elevation
from 7-10ft.) Water never reached ...stopped about ten yards from our front door.
But my Grandmother liv ed in Fendt Close, (Elevation 4ft ) just up the road f rom
Tidal Basin Station, water was up round her ankles. I remember as a six year old I
had a toy fort on a wooden base and I thought I could use it to rescue he r!!!
Posted by: Tony
I have read so much about the floods in '53. I understand that the Thames breached and
then The Lea which would account for the report s of flooding in parts of t he area that one
would have thought impo ssible to be flooded without the other parts . i.e. one part of The
Barking Road (near the Lea) and not the Abbey Arms. There is one report on the Local
History Board of Morgan Street having water up the stairs whereas as far as I am aware
Tinto Road which is abo ut 1/4 mile, if that, aw ay was o.k. The map on the following site
under What Will Happen is very disturbing for anyone living in parts of Newham and for
the Olympic Site:
Posted by: Jim
My memories are that the flood
happened either late at night or early
hours of mor ning, because my mum
and dad woke me and my sister to
come look out of t he window. We lived
in a maisonette above our shop in
Tarling Road, next to Tidal Basin. The
water got to about 3 foot high. We
were very lucky as we were able still
cook because we had gas. All the
neighbours were calling to one another
and my dad was able to tell the ones
opposite in the houses to bring a
teaport with tea leaves in it and we
would boil kettles for them to have a
hot drink and so a lot of pe ople
paddled across to us. Later in the
evening, It was funny to see a rowing
boat coming down Tarling Road and up
Bowman Avenue with firemen in it
handing out packets of sandwiches.
This photo from one of m y Jolly photo albums is a n ot very good picture of t he flood in my
dad’s yard. All his apple boxes floated away. These box es had deposit s on them fr om the
market, (Stratford Market) he had to take them back to get his money back. When the
waters went, (I can't remember how long that was). He had to wa lk under t he arches of
the Silvertown Flyover and up Silve rtown Way looking for his apple box es.
Posted by: Pat Jolly
I spoke to elderly rela tives today about the flood. They were living in Shirley St reet at the
time, and they had to go up 4 steps to get to their front door. The water reached almost
to the step but not over it. The water did come in from under t he house though , to about
half an inch above the f loorboards. Their most vivid mem ory is looking out at St L uke’s
church and seeing quite a lot of traffic, in the form of rowing boats. They also said that
after 2 days, when the water was gone from the streets, the fire brigade called offering to
pump out basements and cellars, but as t hey only had an u nder-floor space, they had to
bale it out by hand themselves.
Posted by: Tony Bailey
Tony, I can go along with you on that but the Thames did breach and this is one of the
reasons that we now have the Thames Barrier. I was a lad in the British Red Cr oss at the
time and I helped out at one of the halls where people were moved into. Some of the tales
they told about the flood ing would make you r hair stand on end.
Posted by: Ray Savory
These memories are from other sources
I was 16 when the floods came, so I remember it well. At the time we were living in
Randolph Road at Custom House where we had been re-housed after being bombed-out of
our house in Plaistow du ring the war. The wat er flooded into the road from Prince Regent
Lane but luckily it didn’t q uite reach our hou se. I know that Churchil l Road, Alnwick Road ,
Prince of Wales Road and Leyes Road were also flooded. The mess afterwards was terrible,
it took weeks to clea r up.
My friend lived in Constan ce Street at Silv ertown and her street was badly affected and
Tate & Lyle’s very q uickly came forward with he lp. They brought clot hes and food and
many families stayed in the Tate Institute while their homes dried out. Tate and Lyle were
really wonderful, how they helped the flood victims.
From: Violet Flay
We had relations who had a fish & Chip shop on Canvey Island, which was destroyed in the
flood. They got a good c laim and when off to A ustralia, never to be heard of again!
From: R.J.Rogers
I was six when ou r house in Albert Road flooded. I don’t really remember much about it
but mum and dad said that the whole road was underwater.
From: Bill Drury
Albert Road, by the Kent Arms, in the storm floods of 195 7
My wife, Emma Uren, was 11 years old when her home in Leslie Road at Custom House,
flooded. She said the water was waist high.
From: John
A barrier pro posed
Although centra l London had escaped disaster in 1953, the floods had shown just how
vulnerable the city could be. Had the tidal surge reached central London, the outcome
could have been horre ndous. Over a million people would have been in danger. The likely
damage to London's infrastructure - water and sewage systems, and power, gas and
phone lines - would have disrupte d life in the capital for m onths and cost a fortune to
repair.
After the floods, an enq uiry was set up to work out ways of protecting Lon don in the
future. As the old system of embankments was clearly no longer adequate, the enquiry
recommended the construction of a flood barrier across the Thames.
Earlier in the century, p roposals for a flood barrier included a dam across the Thames in
Gravesend and a dam in Woolwich. This would have carried a road across the river.
However, something more sophisticated was needed. In the 1950s, with the port in its
heyday, the river st ill carried heavy tra ffic. With ships get ting larger, any barrie r would
have to have wide openings. Several schemes were proposed, but none was satisfactory
and the scheme was abandoned
Whilst the Thames Barrier was being planned it was thought necessary to raise flood
defences against a repetition of the 1953 ‘surge’. In the case of the River Lea it was
considered more economic to erect a moveable barrier not far into Bow Creek rather than
to raise some 12 miles of river walls. In co-operation with other a uthorities involve d, the
Lea Conservancy Board built the Lea Tidal Barrier.
The flood barrier at Bow Creek. This was removed after the Thames Barrier was built.
By the 1960s it seemed clear that a barrier with movable gates was the way forward. In
1972, approval was finally given for a barrier at Woolwich. Work began in 1975, and the
project took seven ye ars to complete. The Thames Barrier became operational in October
1982, and was officially opened in May 1984.
The Thames Barrier is a set of 10 separate movable gates positioned end-to-end
across the river. Between the gates are the concrete piers housing the operating
machinery, in the event of a surge warning, the gates are closed to form a steel wall.
This effectively closes off the Upper Thames.
When not in use the main gates lie in special recesses on the riverbed to allow ships
to pass through.
The Thames Barrier was not the only defence against flooding built in this period.
There are more than 30 other barriers, of which the Barking Barrier is the largest.
There are also more than 94 miles of embankments and defensive walls along the
Thames.
The Thames Barrier