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London

Newham

Themes	Explorers and Adventurers	Nobel Prize Winners
Actors and Directors	Famous People	Places of Interest
Anglo-Saxons and Danes	Historic Events	Prime Ministers
AONB (National Landscapes)	Inventors and Scientists	Royal Consorts and Heirs
Artists and Architects	Monarchs	World Heritage Sites
Composers and Musicians	National Parks	Writers and Poets

London | Newham

The County of London was formed in 1889 from parts of the ancient counties of Middlesex, Kent and Surrey, with the City of London remaining an independent body.

In 1965 Greater London was formed, taking in the rest of Middlesex (which no longer existed as a county) together with parts of Essex and Hertfordshire and further areas of Kent and Surrey.

Greater London is made up of 13 Inner and 19 Outer London boroughs together with the City of London.

Newham once lay in Essex and is today one of the 13 boroughs making up Inner London. Its eastern border is marked by the River Roding/Barking Creek (and the London borough of Barking and Dagenham), in the west the River Lea (and the London borough of Tower Hamlets) and in the south lies on the River Thames.

London Boroughs

Anglo-Saxons and Danes

Anglo-Saxon Kings

Danish Kings

Part of the borough (East and West Ham) once lay in Essex which once formed the kingdom of the East Saxons, later becoming part of the kingdom of Wessex. The East Saxon kingdom reached from the river Thames in the south (on the other side of which lay the kingdom of Kent) to the river Stour in the north (which separated the kingdom from that of the East Angles).

Another part of the borough (North Woolwich) once lay in Kent which was an independent kingdom, but was later to become part of Wessex. The kingdom of Kent reached north to the river Thames, across which lay the kingdom of the East Saxons (Essex) and south and west to the kingdom of the South Saxons (Sussex).

Inventors and Scientists

The surgeon Joseph Lister was born at Upton House (then in Essex) in 1827. He revolutionised modern surgical methods in 1867 by introducing the system of using antiseptic during operations. By disinfecting the operating instruments the chance of infection was much reduced and this development enabled surgeons to perform more complicated procedures.

Places of Interest

Notable Places

The Thames Barrier connects Newham with the London borough of Greenwich on the south bank of the River Thames. Opened in 1982 its 520 metres is made up of ten steel gates (each the height of a 5-storey building) which can be closed to prevent high water flooding London.

Writers and Poets

The Victorian poet and priest Gerard Manley Hopkins, was born in 1844 in Stratford (then in Essex).

Gerard Manley Hopkins

What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.
Inversnaid (1881)