The London Borough of Barking and Dagenham () is a London borough in East London. The borough was created in 1965 as the London Borough of Barking; the name was changed in 1980. It is an Outer London borough and the south is within the London Riverside section of the Thames Gateway; an area designated as a national priority for urban regeneration. At the 2011 census it had a population of 187,000. The borough's three main towns are Barking, Chadwell Heath and

Dagenham Dagenham () is a town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. Dagenham is centred east of Charing Cross. It was historically a rural parish in the Becontree Hundred of Essex, stretching from Hainault Fo ...

. The local authority is the Barking and Dagenham London Borough Council. Barking and Dagenham was one of six London boroughs to host the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

History

The London Borough of Barking (as it was originally called) was created in 1965 under the

London Government Act 1963 The London Government Act 1963 (c. 33) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which created Greater London and a new local government structure within it. The Act significantly reduced the number of local government districts in the ...

, covering the combined area of the former

Municipal Borough of Barking Barking was a local government district, and later civil parish and borough, in southwest Essex, England from 1882 to 1965. It was known as Barking Town from 1882 to 1931. The district included the town of Barking, eastern Beckton and the south ...

and the Municipal Borough of Dagenham, with the exceptions of a small area at Hog Hill from Dagenham which went to Redbridge, and the Gallions Reach area, being the part of Barking west of Barking Creek, which went to

Newham The London Borough of Newham () is a London boroughs, London borough created in 1965 by the London Government Act 1963. It covers an area previously administered by the Essex county boroughs of County Borough of West Ham, West Ham and County ...

. The area was transferred from

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

to Greater London to become one of the 32 London Boroughs. At the time of its creation the combined population of Barking and Dagenham was around 180,000. The pre-1965 borough of Barking had evolved from the Barking Town local government district, which had been created in 1882 covering the central part of the parish of Barking. Such districts were reconstituted as urban districts under the

Local Government Act 1894 The Local Government Act 1894 ( 56 & 57 Vict. c. 73) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales outside the County of London. The act followed the reforms carried out at county leve ...

. The Barking Town Urban District was incorporated to become a

municipal borough A municipal borough was a type of local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of ...

in 1931, at which point the name was changed from Barking Town to Barking.

was a rural parish with a parish council from 1894, subordinate to the Romford Rural District Council. In 1926 the parish council was replaced when Dagenham was made an urban district; it was made a municipal borough in 1938. The council changed the London borough's name from 'Barking' to 'Barking and Dagenham' with effect from 1 January 1980. In 1994, the borough was expanded to cover the part of the

Becontree Becontree ( or Both pronunciations are given as Received Pronunciation in the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, but the form is prioritised (). The dialectologist Peter Wright wrote in 1981 that is the traditional pronunciation in the cockney ...

estate that until then had been within the Borough of Redbridge and other areas. The area covered by Mayesbrook Park in the Borough was once part of the historic Manor of Jenkins, seat of the Fanshawe family. Historic records of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham and predecessor bodies the Borough of Barking and the Borough of Dagenham are held at the Barking and Dagenham Archive Service, Valence House Museum. There are a total of 52

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

s located within the borough's boundaries. The Grade I and Grade II* listed buildings in the borough include Eastbury Manor House, the Church of Peter and Paul, Dagenham and

Valence House Valence House Museum is the only surviving of the five manor houses of Dagenham. The timber-framed museum building, partially surrounded by a moat, is situated in Valence Park off Becontree Avenue, in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, L ...

Boundaries

The borough borders the London Borough of Havering to the east with the River Rom forming part of the boundary. It borders the London Borough of Newham to the west with the

River Roding The River Roding () is a river that rises at Molehill Green, Essex, England, then flows south through Essex and London and forms Barking Creek as it reaches the River Thames. Course The river leaves Molehill Green and passes through or near a ...

forming much of the border. To the south is the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, s ...

which forms the borough's boundary with the London Borough of Bexley and the Royal Borough of Greenwich. To the north the borough forms a thin protrusion between Havering and the London Borough of Redbridge in order to encompass Chadwell Heath. 530 hectares within the borough are designated as part of the Metropolitan Green Belt.

Geography

See List of areas of London The borough's major districts include Barking,

and

. It borders five other London boroughs: Newham, Redbridge, Havering, and Greenwich and Bexley to the south of the Thames. Much of the housing of the borough was constructed by the London County Council during the

interwar period In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period, also known as the interbellum (), lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days) – from the end of World War I (WWI) to the beginning of World War II ( ...

of 1921–1939.''Metropolitan Essex since 1919: Suburban growth'', A History of the County of Essex: Volume 5 (1966), pp. 63-74
accessed: 16 October 2007 Major settlement of the area, mostly escaping slum conditions in the East End of London, occurred during this period when the new motor and chemical industries such as the

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational corporation, multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. T ...

plant at

were set up. Since the decline of these industries in the 1980s, employment has shifted towards

service sector The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector (raw materials) and the ...

jobs. There are large areas of logistics and warehouse development around the A13 road. Much of the borough is within the London Riverside area of the Thames Gateway zone and is the site of considerable house building and other development, such as Beam Park. A £500 million budget has been earmarked for redevelopment of the borough's principal district of Barking.

Demographics

Religious makeup of Barking and Dagenham by single year age groups in 2021

In 1801, the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

es that form the modern borough had a total population of 1,937; and the area was characterised by farming, woodland and the fishing fleet at Barking. This last industry employed 1,370 men and boys by 1850, but by the end of the century had ceased to exist; replaced by train deliveries of fresh fish from the East Coast ports. The population rose slowly through the 19th century, as the district became built up; and new industries developed around Barking. The population rose dramatically between 1921 and 1931, when the London County Council developed the Becontree Estate. This

public housing Public housing, also known as social housing, refers to Subsidized housing, subsidized or affordable housing provided in buildings that are usually owned and managed by local government, central government, nonprofit organizations or a ...

development of 27,000 homes housed over 100,000 people, split between the then urban district councils of

Ilford Ilford is a large List of areas of London, town in East London, England, northeast of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Redbridge, Ilford is within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London. It had a po ...

and Barking. People were rehoused from the

slum A slum is a highly populated Urban area, urban residential area consisting of densely packed housing units of weak build quality and often associated with poverty. The infrastructure in slums is often deteriorated or incomplete, and they are p ...

s of the East End. In 1931, the

relocated to a site at

, and in 1932 the District line was extended to Upminster; bringing further development to the area. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, further public housing projects were built to rehouse the many Londoners made homeless in

the Blitz The Blitz (English: "flash") was a Nazi Germany, German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom, for eight months, from 7 September 1940 to 11 May 1941, during the Second World War. Towards the end of the Battle of Britain in 1940, a co ...

. As industry declined during the 1960s, the population entered a long decline, but has now begun to rise again with new housing developments on brownfield sites. In 2013 Barking and Dagenham has England's highest fertility rate: 2.58. At the time of the 2011 census, 49.5% of the borough's community identified themselves as white British. Barking and Dagenham has been strongly influenced by immigration, with the white British population having dropped 30.6% from 2001 to 2011 - the second largest decrease in the country, behind neighbouring

. The population of non-UK born residents increasing by 205%. The largest decrease of White British occurred in the Longbridge ward (79.8% in 2001 to 35% in 2011), and the Abbey ward, which contains the main Barking area (from 46.2% to 15.8%). The smallest decrease was in the Eastbrook ward. The largest minority communities were of Black and Asian heritage. Barking and Dagenham had by far the largest decrease of the 65+ population, having dropped almost 20% between 2001 and 2011. There were 69,700 households in the borough in 2011, up 3.6% from 2001. The borough also had the largest proportion of school-age (5-19) population of all the local authorities in England and Wales, 21.4%, at the 2011 census. The borough's pre-school (0-4) population rose by 49.1% from 2001 to 2011, by far the largest increase in London. The following table shows the ethnic group of respondents in the 2001 and 2011 census in Barking and Dagenham.

Ethnicity

Ethnic makeup of Barking and Dagenham by single year ages in 2021

Ethnic demography of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham over time

Governance

The local authority is Barking and Dagenham Council, which meets at Barking Town Hall.

Greater London representation

For elections to the

Greater London Council The Greater London Council (GLC) was the top-tier local government administrative body for Greater London from 1965 to 1986. It replaced the earlier London County Council (LCC) which had covered a much smaller area. The GLC was dissolved in 198 ...

, the borough formed the Barking electoral division, electing two members. In 1973 it was divided into the single-member Barking and

electoral divisions. The Greater London Council was abolished in 1986. Since 2000, the borough is within the City and East London Assembly constituency, returning Unmesh Desai as the directly elected Assembly Member.

UK Parliament

The borough is covered by two parliamentary constituencies: Barking and Dagenham and Rainham. The latter was first contested in

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

Twin cities

London Borough of Barking and Dagenham is twinned with: * Witten,

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

, Germany *

Tczew Tczew (, formerly ) is a city on the Vistula River in the Pomeranian Voivodeship, in northern Poland, with 59,111 inhabitants (December 2021). It is the capital of Tczew County and the largest city of the ethnocultural region of Kociewie within th ...

Pomeranian Voivodeship Pomeranian Voivodeship ( ; ) is a Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship, or province, in northwestern Poland. The provincial capital is Gdańsk. The voivodeship was established on January 1, 1999, out of the former voivodeships of Gdańsk Voivo ...

, Poland

Education

There are many schools and further education facilities in the borough. Situated near the Town Hall, the Barking Learning Centre is a learning facility providing a range of courses leading to recognised qualifications. It also includes a library with free public internet access, the council's first One Stop Shop, conference and meeting space, a gallery and a café. A study in 2017 found that nearly half of Barking & Dagenham's 19 year olds lack Level 3 qualifications (A Level equivalent) which was the highest figure in London. Barking & Dagenham College is a general

further education Further education (often abbreviated FE) in the United Kingdom and Ireland is additional education to that received at secondary school that is distinct from the higher education (HE) offered in universities and other academic institutions. It ...

college offering courses for leaners 16+. It has four campuses across the borough with their main campus being located in Rush Green less than a mile from the

Romford Romford is a large List of places in London, town in east London, east London, England, located northeast of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Havering, the town is one of the major Metropolitan centres of London, metropolitan centr ...

town centre. Their other campus is located in Barking town center at the Technical Skills Academy, The Broadway Theatre and Barking Learning Centre. CU London, a Higher Education institute owned and governed by Coventry University, started offering courses to students in September 2017. Situated in the former Dagenham Civic Centre, they offer a range of subjects across Foundation, HNC, HND and degree level. The University of East London formerly had a campus in the borough, however this has now closed with all campuses now being located in the neighbouring borough of

Transport

In March 2011, the main forms of transport that residents used to travel to work were: driving a car or van, 22.5% of all residents aged 16–74; underground, metro, light rail, tram, 7.5%; bus, minibus or coach, 7.5%; train, 7.3%; on foot, 3.7%; passenger in a car or van, 1.7%; work mainly at or from home, 1.3%.

Rail

Barking and Dagenham is served by both the

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

and National Rail networks. On the London Underground, the Borough is served by both Hammersmith & City Line, and District Line trains. National Rail c2c trains call at Dagenham Dock and Barking railway stations. Most c2c trains terminate at London Fenchurch Street, whilst to the east, trains serve Grays, Southend and Shoeburyness in Essex. Barking and, from summer 2022, Barking Riverside railway stations are served by the

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, it now serves a large part of Greate ...

with frequent services to Gospel Oak in the

London Borough of Camden The London Borough of Camden () is a London boroughs, borough in Inner London, England. Camden Town Hall, on Euston Road, lies north of Charing Cross. The borough was established on 1 April 1965 from the former Metropolitan boroughs of the Cou ...

. The Elizabeth Line serves Chadwell Heath railway station, which straddles the border between the London Borough of Redbridge and the borough. Hammersmith & City Line services terminate at Barking. Some District Line services terminate at Barking, but many also call at Upney,

, Dagenham Heathway and Dagenham East in the Borough. Some services terminate at Dagenham East.

Bus

Several

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 s ...

serve the Borough. Night buses 128, EL1, N15 and N86 travel into

Central London Central London is the innermost part of London, in England, spanning the City of London and several boroughs. Over time, a number of definitions have been used to define the scope of Central London for statistics, urban planning and local gove ...

, Stratford,

and Harold Hill every night.

Cycling

Cycle Superhighway 3 begins in Barking, to the south of Greatfields Park, linking the Borough to

Canary Wharf Canary Wharf is a financial area of London, England, located in the Isle of Dogs in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The Greater London Authority defines it as part of London's central business district, alongside Central London. Alongside ...

, the

City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...

and the

City of Westminster The City of Westminster is a London borough with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in Greater London, England. It is the site of the United Kingdom's Houses of Parliament and much of the British government. It contains a large par ...

via a bike freeway, most of which is segregated from other road traffic. TfL plans to extend the cycle network to Barking Riverside; the first consultations about this closed in winter 2019.

Roads

Two major A-roads cross the Borough: the A12 and A13. The A12 has one junction in the Borough, to the north of Chadwell Heath. To the west, the A12 carries traffic through Newbury Park towards the North Circular, Stratford and

. To the east, the A12 heads through

towards the M25 and south and east

. The A13 is named Alfred's Way as it enters the Borough to the west. Crossing Barking and Dagenham, the dual carriageway can be accessed via several grade-separated junctions. Leaving the Borough to the west via the A13 will lead to the Docklands and the

. To the east, the A13 passes Rainham and the M25 before traffic heads into south Essex. Other A-roads cross the Borough, including the A118, A123, A124, A1083, A1112, and A1306, although these roads are smaller and generally carry less traffic.

Local media

Time 107.5 FM broadcasts local news from nearby

. Bedrock is the local Hospital radio service available on-line and broadcasts a range of health related information focused around the local Hospitals; King George Hospital and Queen's Hospital. Barking & Dagenham News, a hyperlocal news service distributes news, weather, travel, sport and entertainment updates on

Facebook Watch Facebook Watch (currently rebranding to Facebook Video) is a video on demand service operated by American company Meta Platforms (previously named Facebook, Inc.). The company announced the service in August 2017 and it was available to all U.S. ...

London Fire Brigade

The London Borough of Barking and Dagenham has two fire stations within its boundary: Barking and Dagenham. Barking fire station operates two pumping appliances, a bulk foam unit and a command unit. The support units that are operated here will cover a large selection of station grounds and areas. Dagenham fire station operates two pumping appliances and a 64M turn table Ladder. The Turntable ladder is one of 3 that are in use in london and are the tallest ladders in use in the uk fire and rescue service. Of the two stations; Dagenham is the busier, attending over 2,000 incidents in 2006/2007.

Coat of arms

The coat of arms of the borough displays the Curfew tower of Barking Abbey in its crest.

Freedom of the Borough

The following people and military units have received the Freedom of the Borough of Barking and Dagenham.

Individuals

* George Shaw: 1992. * Charles J. Fairbrass: 1992. *Stephen R Thompson: 2008 * Sandie Shaw: 28 April 2021. * Claire Symonds : 28 April 2021. * Paul Ince: 23 September 2021. * Trevor Lock: 23 September 2021. * Dora Challingsworth: 23 September 2021.

Military units

* The Royal Anglian Regiment: February 2010.

References

External links

Barking and Dagenham CouncilNHS Barking and DagenhamBorough of Dagenham historic recordsBorough of Barking historic records
{{DEFAULTSORT:London Borough Of Barking And Dagenham Barking and Dagenham Barking and Dagenham 1965 establishments in the United Kingdom