Roads to Empire: 1600s - 1800s

Roads to Empire: 1600s - 1800s

Bengal Road, 2017 Redbridge Museum

Madras Road, 2017 Redbridge Museum

Many of Ilford Lane’s surrounding roads were built between 1898 and 1905.

Most of the houses on these roads were designed for upper working-class or lower middle-class residents. As was the fashion of the time, several of the road names have links to the British empire which was then at its height.

Bengal Road and Madras Road were centres of British power in India. Bengal and its port city of Calcutta (now Kolkata) in north-east India was the headquarters of the British East India Company from 1772. Madras (now Chennai) was the centre of British power and trade in southern India. Ilford had many connections to the East India Company during the 1600s and 1700s. Today, by coincidence, Ilford Lane is a centre of South Asian life in Redbridge.

Khartoum Road is named after the capital city of Sudan, which was the scene of a famous British imperial military defeat in 1885. Khartoum was re-occupied by the British in 1898, a victory celebrated in the name of this road. Neighbouring Wingate Road is likely to be named after the Governor-General of Sudan of the time, Reginald Wingate.

Natal Road is a named after a province in South Africa, then part of the British empire. Natal was the scene of battles during the Boer War of 1899-1902.

Hunter, Roman, Saxon, Dane, and Norman Road are named after British historical cultural groups. The names were probably inspired by the history of the nearby Uphall Iron Age camp.

Staines, Eton, Mortlake, Henley, Hampton, Kingston, and Windsor Road are named after towns on River Thames.

To find out more about Redbridge’s links to the East India Company in the 1600s and 1700s, visit Redbridge Museum.