Cambridge Heath is an urban area of
Bethnal Green
Bethnal Green is an area in the East End of London northeast of Charing Cross. The area emerged from the small settlement which developed around the common land, Green, much of which survives today as Bethnal Green Gardens, beside Cambridge Heat ...
in the
London Borough of Tower Hamlets
The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is a London boroughs, London borough covering much of the traditional East End of London, East End. It was formed in 1965 from the merger of the former Metropolitan boroughs of the County of London, metropol ...
, approximately north east of
Charing Cross
Charing Cross ( ) is a junction in Westminster, London, England, where six routes meet. Clockwise from north these are: the east side of Trafalgar Square leading to St Martin's Place and then Charing Cross Road; the Strand leading to the City; ...
. It is named after a former heath in the
East End of London
The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have uni ...
. The northern boundary is formed by the
Regent's Canal
Regent's Canal is a canal across an area just north of central London, England. It provides a link from the Paddington Arm of the Grand Union Canal, north-west of Paddington Basin in the west, to the Limehouse Basin and the River Thames in eas ...
and the area includes
Vyner Street, best known for its street art and galleries.
The area is served by
Cambridge Heath railway station
Cambridge Heath is a railway station operated by London Overground in Bethnal Green, East London. The station is down the line from London Liverpool Street and is situated between and on the Lea Valley lines to and . Its three-letter station ...
, operated by
London Overground
London Overground (also known simply as the Overground) is a Urban rail in the United Kingdom, suburban rail network serving London and its environs. Established in 2007 to take over Silverlink Metro routes, (via archive.org). it now serves a ...
.
Toponymy
The earliest written use of the name was by a scribe in the era of great orthographic variety, as ''Camprichthesheth'', in 1275; other manifold variations soon followed. It could be unconnected with
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
instead from an
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
plant (such as
comfrey
''Symphytum'' is a genus of flowering plants in the borage family, Boraginaceae, known by the common name comfrey (pronounced ). There are 59 recognized species.WFO (2022): Symphytum L. Published on the Internet; http://www.worldfloraonline.org/ ...
) or unusual-form man's name. The area was once marshland and forest which, as Bishopswood, lingered in the east until the 16th century.
History
![Cambridge Heath station entrance geograph-3296920-by-Ben-Brooksbank](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/Cambridge_Heath_station_entrance_geograph-3296920-by-Ben-Brooksbank.jpg)
The Bethnal Green gasworks in Cambridge Heath, named after the then-
Metropolitan Borough of Bethnal Green
Bethnal Green was a civil parish and a metropolitan borough in the East End of London, England.
It was formed as a civil parish in 1743 from the Bethnal Green hamlet in Stepney ancient parish, and the church of St Matthew, Bethnal Green, was ...
were built in 1866 and 1889 by designer, John Clark. Prior to the 1960s the sites were used to manufacture and store town gas made from coal. Following the discovery of natural gas in the North Sea in the 1960s, the gas holders continued to be used to store natural gas.
The Wilkinson Gallery opened on Cambridge Heath Road in 1998 before moving to
Vyner Street in 2007. The gallery became known as one of the first in London to have exhibitions by major female artists such as
Joan Jonas
Joan Jonas (born July 13, 1936) is an American visual artist and a pioneer of video and performance art, and one of the most important artists to emerge in the late 1960s and early 1970s.[Dara Birnbaum
Dara Birnbaum (born 1946) is an American video and installation artist. Birnbaum entered the nascent field of video art in the mid-to-late 1970s challenging the gendered biases of the period and television’s ever-growing presence within the Amer ...]
and
Laurie Simmons.
However the Wilkinson Gallery closed in 2017.
![Area surrounding 244 Cambridge Heath Road, London 17](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Area_surrounding_244_Cambridge_Heath_Road%2C_London_17.jpg)
By around 2005,
Vyner Street had become a hub of the
East London
East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth.
Etymology
As in other languages, the word is formed from the f ...
art scene.
Between 2005 and 2008, the EEL established the Vyner Street Festival with the local Victory Pub as a family festival with local bands, artists and market traders, this has a different theme every year, with the
Red Arrows
The Red Arrows, officially known as the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, is the aerobatics display team of the Royal Air Force based at RAF Waddington. The team was formed in late 1964 as an all-RAF team, replacing a number of unofficial teams ...
performing flyover in 2008. By 2012, however, many artists had moved out due to the effects of the
Great Recession
The Great Recession was a period of marked general decline, i.e. a recession, observed in national economies globally that occurred from late 2007 into 2009. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country (see map). At ...
as well as the
2012 Olympics
The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...
.
A documentary film was released in the same year titled ''Vyner Street'': this was a short observational piece about two different worlds living inconspicuously and side by side in the same place.
Marco Canha and James Roach, established an academy in 2012 called the Fight Zone and it has the busiest martial arts schedule in Europe and internationally acclaimed coaches.
In 2015, Tower Hamlets Council took the owners of Al Amin Tandoori Restaurant to court after a routine inspection, which found mouse droppings throughout the kitchen. The owner Abdul Noor, pleaded guilty at
Thames Magistrates Court to six charges including inadequate control of pests, contamination of equipment and contamination of food.. Following an inspection on 28 March 2019 the Al Amin Tandoori Restaurant was given the highest Food Hygiene Rating of 5 (Very Good) .
Cambridge Heath station was chosen in 2018 for a trial with a pay-by-face system that may end the need for station barriers, due to its low passenger volumes and having no gates.
Governance
Cambridge Heath is in the constituency of
Bethnal Green and Bow
Bethnal Green and Bow is a constituency in Greater London, represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Rushanara Ali of the Labour Party.
Boundaries
Since the 2014 boundary changes, the constituency has contained the ...
represented by the
Labour Party's
Rushanara Ali
Rushanara Ali ( bn, রুশনারা আলী; born 14 March 1975) is a British Labour Party politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bethnal Green and Bow since 2010.
She served as a Shadow Minister for International D ...
(since 2010) in the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
of the
UK Parliament
The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative supremac ...
.
London overall has a directly elected, executive
Mayor of London
The mayor of London is the chief executive of the Greater London Authority. The role was created in 2000 after the 1998 Greater London Authority referendum, Greater London devolution referendum in 1998, and was the first Directly elected may ...
, currently
Sadiq Khan
Sadiq Aman Khan (; born 8 October 1970) is a British politician serving as Mayor of London since 2016. He was previously Member of Parliament (MP) for Tooting from 2005 until 2016. A member of the Labour Party, Khan is on the party's sof ...
with strong powers in transport, construction planning and long-term strategies. The mayor is scrutinised, and can be steered by the
London Assembly
The London Assembly is a 25-member elected body, part of the Greater London Authority, that scrutinises the activities of the Mayor of London and has the power, with a two-thirds super-majority, to amend the Mayor's annual budget and to reject ...
; both Mayor and Assembly face regular elections. Its
City and East seat is held by Labour's
Unmesh Desai
Unmesh Desai is a British politician. A member of the Labour Party, he has represented City and East in the London Assembly since 2016. He served as Councillor on the London Borough of Newham from 1998 until 2016, representing East Ham Central ...
.
;Honorary figure for London
London's Lord-Lieutenant Ken Olisa
Sir Kenneth Aphunezi Olisa (born 13 October 1951) is a British businessman and philanthropist. He is the first mixed heritage Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London. He founded and led the AIM-listed technology merchant bank Interregnum and now lea ...
can be invited as personal representative for the monarch to key ceremonies but no has public policy or active operational role. Always consulting with the departmental office or local councils before opening buildings, the role is an honorary (titular) position.
Geography and Regents Canal Conservation Area
![Eastern end of Hackney Road - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/Eastern_end_of_Hackney_Road_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1717330.jpg)
Cambridge Heath and Bethnal Green proper were unequal halves of the same
manor, and in the 19th century both formed part of the
Metropolitan Borough of Bethnal Green
Bethnal Green was a civil parish and a metropolitan borough in the East End of London, England.
It was formed as a civil parish in 1743 from the Bethnal Green hamlet in Stepney ancient parish, and the church of St Matthew, Bethnal Green, was ...
. This was incorporated into the newly created
London Borough of Tower Hamlets
The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is a London boroughs, London borough covering much of the traditional East End of London, East End. It was formed in 1965 from the merger of the former Metropolitan boroughs of the County of London, metropol ...
in 1965.
It is north and west of Bethnal Green, east of
Haggerston
Haggerston is a locale in East London, England, centred approximately on Great Cambridge Street (now renamed Queensbridge Road). It is within the London Borough of Hackney and is considered to be a part of London's East End. It is about 3.1 mi ...
, south-west of
Hackney and west of
Victoria Park Victoria Park may refer to:
Places Australia
* Victoria Park Nature Reserve, a protected area in Northern Rivers region, New South Wales
* Victoria Park, Adelaide, a park and racecourse
* Victoria Park, Brisbane, a public park and former golf ...
.
It is largely part of the wider Regents Canal Conservation Area, 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.
Filmography
*''
Gangster No. 1
''Gangster No. 1'' is a 2000 British crime drama film directed by Paul McGuigan. It is based on the stage play ''Gangster No.1'' written by Louis Mellis and David Scinto. The film stars Paul Bettany in the title role and features Malcolm McDo ...
''
*''
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'' is a 1974 spy novel by British author John le Carré. It follows the endeavours of taciturn, aging spymaster George Smiley to uncover a Soviet mole in the British Secret Intelligence Service. The novel has receive ...
''
*''
Fast & Furious 6
''Fast & Furious 6'' (titled on-screen as ''Furious 6'') is a 2013 American action film directed by Justin Lin and written by Chris Morgan. It is the sequel to '' Fast Five'' (2011) and is the sixth installment in the ''Fast & Furious'' franc ...
''
*''
Kingsman: The Secret Service''
Public houses
The Hare is one of few
public house
A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...
s of Cambridge Heath opened before 1900. An ex-Truman establishment, it is now a free house. The Hare was described as the epitome of a 'good, honest pub' by the ''Evening Standard'' and listed as one of the best 50 in London in 2019.
Festivals and events
The Oval Space hosted the London's first catfest in 2018. This featured photography with felines; street food and shelter kittens.
Religious buildings
St Casimir's is the earliest church for London's
Lithuanian Catholics and masses are held in
Lithuanian and English. It was opened by
Cardinal Bourne on 10 March 1912.
In the Church of England, west of the Overground railway is the parish of St Peter; the church is on its so-named Close and one-limb, remnant
square
In Euclidean geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles (90-degree angles, π/2 radian angles, or right angles). It can also be defined as a rectangle with two equal-length adj ...
opposite Ion Square Gardens. East of the viaduct, west of Russia Lane, is the north part of the parish of St John on Bethnal Green; east of Russia Lane and Wadeson Street is St James The Less.
Education
Cambridge Heath has Mowlem Primary School,
Martial arts
Jiu jitsu and other martial arts have a large size, professionally-taught club.
Transport
The neighbourhood main arterial route for motor vehicles and cyclists is the A107
Cambridge Heath Road from Mile End Gate in
Stepney
Stepney is a district in the East End of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The district is no longer officially defined, and is usually used to refer to a relatively small area. However, for much of its history the place name appl ...
and Mare Street from
Hackney Central
Hackney Central is a sub-district of Hackney in the London Borough of Hackney in London, England and is four miles (6.4 km) northeast of Charing Cross.
The Hackney Central area is focused on Mare Street and the retail areas to the north o ...
which runs north–south from the two borough boundaries over the
Regents Canal
Regent's Canal is a canal across an area just north of central London, England. It provides a link from the Paddington Arm of the Grand Union Canal, north-west of Paddington Basin in the west, to the Limehouse Basin and the River Thames in ea ...
.
Hackney Road
Hackney Road is a London arterial route running from Shoreditch Church in London Borough of Hackney to Cambridge Heath in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The route runs along the northern edge of Bethnal Green and southern edge of Hoxto ...
is the main arterial road for
Central London
Central London is the innermost part of London, in England, spanning several boroughs. Over time, a number of definitions have been used to define the scope of Central London for statistics, urban planning and local government. Its characteris ...
.
The Cat & Mutton Bridge spans over the Regents Canal, which still carries the name of a former alehouse which stood on the site at the extreme right, closed since at least 1919. The present pub on a new site was built in 1909 as the Sir Walter Scott but is now known as La Vie en Rose.
London Overground
London Overground (also known simply as the Overground) is a Urban rail in the United Kingdom, suburban rail network serving London and its environs. Established in 2007 to take over Silverlink Metro routes, (via archive.org). it now serves a ...
;
Cambridge Heath railway station
Cambridge Heath is a railway station operated by London Overground in Bethnal Green, East London. The station is down the line from London Liverpool Street and is situated between and on the Lea Valley lines to and . Its three-letter station ...
, opened on 27 May 1872 in the southern end of the neighbourhood, is served by Overground
Enfield Town/Cheshunt-London Liverpool Street Line.
A number of
London Buses
London Buses is the subsidiary of Transport for London (TfL) that manages most bus services in London, England. It was formed following the Greater London Authority Act 1999 that transferred control of London Regional Transport (LRT) bus se ...
contacted routes serve the area, the
26,
48,
55,
N26
N26 (known as ''Number 26'' until July 2016) is a German neobank headquartered in Berlin, Germany. N26 was founded in 2013 in a Rocket Internet Incubator and currently operates in various member states of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA). I ...
,
N55 on Hackney Road which in turn go towards Mare Street, while the
106,
254,
388,
D6 and
N253 run on Cambridge Heath Road and Mare Street. The D6 finishes and restarts near Ash Grove since 2014.
References
{{LB Tower Hamlets
Geography of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets
Districts of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets
Areas of London
Bethnal Green
Places formerly in Middlesex