Fairlop is a district in the north of Ilford, part of the London Borough of Redbridge in east London. The district consists of fields, forestry and open land providing space for sport/ activity centres (Redbridge Sport Centre), some houses, farmland and watersport/fishing lakes ( Fairlop Waters). It also has a

tube station The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The Und ...

. The western part of the district forms the eastern edge of

Barkingside Barkingside is an area in Ilford, in the London Borough of Redbridge. It includes the major road junction of ''Fullwell Cross'' which also gives its name to the locality near that roundabout. The area is situated 10.6 miles (17km) north east of ...

High Street shopping district, and simultaneously borders Claybury Park, which used to be home to

Claybury Hospital Claybury Hospital was a psychiatric hospital in Woodford Bridge, London. It was built to a design by the English architect George Thomas Hine who was a prolific Victorian architect of hospital buildings. It was opened in 1893 making it the Fifth ...

. Its location is west of

and Fullwell Cross, north of Aldborough Hatch, south of Hainault and (distantly) west from

Marks Gate Marks Gate is an area in Little Heath in Ilford at the northern tip of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham in East London, England. It is located immediately north of Chadwell Heath and to the west of Romford. The name originally referr ...

and

Collier Row Collier Row is an area of Romford in East London, England, within the London Borough of Havering. It is a suburban development north of Romford town centre, around north-east of Charing Cross. The area is based on a large housing estate built ...

. It is 3 miles from Ilford town centre.

History and origins of the name

The Fairlop Oak

The district took its name from an old

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

tree, the Fairlop Oak, that stood in Hainault Forest when much of the area was covered in trees. The oak is said to have had a trunk sixty-six feet in circumference, from which seventeen branches issued, most of them measuring not less than twelve feet in girth. In the eighteenth century, a pump and block maker from

Wapping Wapping () is a district in East London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Wapping's position, on the north bank of the River Thames, has given it a strong maritime character, which it retains through its riverside public houses and steps, ...

, Daniel Day, would take his employees on an annual fair in the forest, using the oak as their rendezvous. The fair took place on the first Friday of July. They dined on beans and bacon, and this may be the origin of the English words

bean-feast A bean-feast, also known as beano in Britain, is an informal term for a celebratory meal or party, especially an annual summer dinner given by an employer to their employees. Its probable origin is the Twelfth Night festival from the Low Countr ...

and beano.

The Fairlop Fair

By the middle of the eighteenth century, the annual excursion to Fairlop had become one of London's most popular entertainments, and as many as a hundred thousand people being drawn through Ilford to the fair in the forest. As a result, the area became known as "Fair" (after the fair) followed by "lop" referring to the tree flourishing after part of it was used to make Daniel Day's coffin after he died in 1767. A Society of Archers - The Hainault Foresters - under the patronage of the Earl Tylney of Wanstead House met under the Fairlop Oak. A legend has it that Queen Anne visited Fairlop during the fair. One of the songs sung at the fair was called "Come, come, my boys", in which one verse states: In June 1805, the oak tree caught fire, and by 1820 it was finally blown down. Its site is marked roughly at the boat house by the lake at Fairlop Waters. In nearby Fullwell Cross is a pub called the New Fairlop Oak. In 1851, the local people complained so bitterly about the depredations caused by the local

deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the re ...

that the trees which had surrounded the great oak were all felled and the adjoining parts of the forest were converted into farmland. In 1903 a station at Fairlop was opened on a new loop line that formed part of the Great Eastern Railway. In 1948 the line was taken over by the

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The ...

as part of the eastward extension of the Central line and the station became Fairlop Underground station.

Demography

According to the 2011 census in Fairlop ward, the population was 65% white (57% British, 7% Other, 1% Irish). 9% is Indian and 6% Other Asian.

Transport

Fairlop station was served by the Great Eastern Railway from its opening in 1903 until 1923, by the London and North Eastern Railway from 1923 until 1947 and has been by the London Underground's Central line since 1948. Forest Road, the area's main road, did not have a bus service until route 462 was extended from Hainault to Fairlop in June 2016.

References