Photo of a crate on display at Redbridge Museum showing products traded by the East India Company, including spices, coffee and tea

Photo of a large tin tea pot in a display at Redbridge Museum about Claybury Asylum

Photo of a wooden tea caddy with a hinged lid and boxed compartments with a red cloth lining visible in a display at Redbridge Museum about the Fairlop Fair (on loan from Newham Heritage Service)

Photo of a table laid for tea with a brown teapot, cake and cups of tea on display in the 1930s Kitchen at Redbridge Museum

On National Tea Day, here are some of the tea-related objects on display at Redbridge Museum 🫖

Can you spot them on your next visit to us? Don’t forget to have a cuppa in the Library’s Hardback Café on your way out!

Photo of a rusted blue metal oxygen bottle consisting of three spherical shapes moulded together.

Poster for Redbridge Museum’s ‘Redbridge and the Second World War’ exhibition featuring a black and white photograph of two Air Raid Precaution wardens wearing gas masks

On this day in 1944, a German Junkers Ju 188 bomber plane was shot down over Redbridge and crashed into 14 Seven Kings Road, where four occupants were killed.

This oxygen bottle and other pieces from similar aircrafts are on display now in our exhibition 'Redbridge and the Second World War'.

Black and white photo of four men in suits sat around tables with checked tablecloths in a café or tearoom. Two of them look to be holding cameras in their hands.

Happy Friday! ☕️

Members of the Ilford Photographic Club take a break in a local café, about 1932.

Painting of a field with golden haystacks and trees

Today is World Art Day!

This is ‘Field with Haystacks, Wanstead’, painted by local artist Arthur Parsons in 1921. The golden countryside scene depicted here reminds us of the work of van Gogh 🌾

Find out more via @artukdotorg.bsky.social: artuk.org/discover/art...

Black and white photograph of Ilford Police Station on Ilford Hill, about 1880

Photograph of Ilford Police Station on Ilford Hill, about 1980

Photograph of Ilford Police Station on Ilford High Road, 2001

Ilford Police Station was first built on Ilford Hill in 1860 (📸: 1880).

In 1906 it was replaced with a new building (📸: 1980) on the same site.

The station on Ilford Hill was closed in 1995 when the current one (📸: 2001) opened on the High Road.

#EYACrime @exploreyourarchive.bsky.social

Black and white photo of a ladies hockey team wearing pinafores and blazers posing seated holding hockey sticks

For @arascot.bsky.social #Archive30 #SportArchives theme today, we have this photo from our collection of the Crostyx Hockey Club ladies team, Woodford, about 1930 🏑

Poster for Rediscover Redbridge event 'Brilliant Badges'

We're excited to be taking part in Rediscover Redbridge again!

Hunt for badges from the past in our exciting museum trail and then join us to make and take away your very own badge!

📅 Wednesday 8 April
🕑 11am-4pm (drop in)
📍 Redbridge Museum & Heritage Centre
🔗 visionrcl.org.uk/events/redis...

Did you know that Fry’s was the first company to make chocolate Easter eggs in 1873?

Photograph of a collection of assorted birds' eggs of different colours and textures, nestled in a straw-lined cardboard Fry's chocolate box

A happy Easter to all from Redbridge Museum! 🐣

For Christians, Easter celebrates the resurrection of Christ and eggs symbolise his rebirth. These may look like delicious mini chocolate eggs but they're in fact real bird’s eggs collected in the 1920s (before poaching became illegal)!

Black and white photograph of a young girl wearing a sailor suit and skirt seated beside her mother in an Edwardian style blouse and skirt

Photo of a white and red child's sailor suit and skirt styled on a mannequin

Children’s sailor suits became fashionable after being popularised by royalty in the Victorian era.

Local girl Gladys Harrison is pictured here in her sailor suit, now in our collection, with her mother Lily, around1917.

#ArchiveFashion #Archive30 @arascot.bsky.social

Poster for Rediscover Redbridge event 'Brilliant Badges'

We're excited to be taking part in Rediscover Redbridge again!

Hunt for badges from the past in our exciting museum trail and then join us to make and take away your very own badge!

📅 Wednesday 8 April
🕑 11am-4pm (drop in)
📍 Redbridge Museum & Heritage Centre
🔗 visionrcl.org.uk/events/redis...

Poster for Redbridge Museum's Easter opening hours: Friday 3 April – Closed / Saturday 4 April – 11am-5pm / Sunday 5 April – Closed / Monday 6 April – Closed / We will be open as usual from Tuesday 7 April.

📢 Redbridge Museum & Heritage Centre and our Second World War exhibition will be CLOSED this Friday for the Easter weekend.

We will resume our usual opening hours (Tues-Sat 11am-5pm) from Saturday 4 April.

Fauja Singh: Marathon Man Ilford resident, Fauja Singh, is believed to be the oldest marathon runner in the world. Fauja ran his first marathon in 1999 aged 89 years old and finally retired from long-distance running aged 101…

Watch ‘Marathon Man’ on our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWvk...

and visit Redbridge Museum to see one of Fauja’s t-shirts on display and find out more about his life

Photo of Redbridge Museum Education Officer Aki Deo speaking in front of the stage at Redbridge Town Hall about Redbridge Museum's film 'Marathon Man'

We were honoured to speak at the Fauja Singh Memorial Service held at the Town Hall on Saturday 28 March.

The event celebrated Fauja Singh's legacy and achievements, and screened our 2015 film ‘Marathon Man’, highlighting Fauja’s inspirational journey as the oldest marathon runner in the world.

Photo of the Moving Stories section at Redbridge Museum with a view of a display about Sylvia Pankhurst

To find out more about Sylvia Pankhurst, visit our website about her life ➡️ sylviapankhurst.com

or visit our display at Redbridge Museum.

Photograph of a selection of objects from Ethiopia and a book titled ‘Ethiopia and Eritrea: The Last Ten Years of the Reunion Struggle, 1941-1952’ by Sylvia and Richard Pankhurst

While living in Woodford, Sylvia campaigned against the colonisation of Ethiopia, where she moved to spend the remainder of her life at age 74. She died four years later and is buried in Addis Ababa.

Find out more about Sylvia's time in Ethiopia ➡️ sylviapankhurst.com/campaigner

Black and white photo of a wooden one-storey cottage with ivy growing on the outer walls and a white picket fence surrounding it

Advertisement from the Woodford Times, 8 October 1926, reading: “Old Red Cottage / (Opposite Horse and Well). / Café and Gardens. / TEAS, LUNCHEONS & SUPPERS / Salads and Vegetarian Dishes. / CUT FLOWERS from the GARDEN. / Gladioli, Chyrsathemums, etc. / now in season.”

In 1924 Sylvia moved into the Vine Cottage on the High Road at Woodford Wells. She renamed it the 'Red Cottage' and set it up as a tearoom for people visiting the area as well as a radical meeting-place.

Find out more about Sylvia’s time in Woodford ➡️ sylviapankhurst.com/life-in-woodford

Poster for Redbridge Museum's Easter opening hours: Friday 3 April – Closed / Saturday 4 April – 11am-5pm / Sunday 5 April – Closed / Monday 6 April – Closed / We will be open as usual from Tuesday 7 April.

📢 Redbridge Museum & Heritage Centre and our Second World War exhibition will be CLOSED this Friday for the Easter weekend.

We will resume our usual opening hours (Tues-Sat 11am-5pm) from Saturday 4 April.

Sylvia left the WSPU in 1914 and formed the East London Federation of Suffragettes. She opened a co-operative toy factory in Bow to provide work and opportunities for local women.

Find out more about Sylvia's activism in the East End of London ➡️ sylviapankhurst.com/campaigner

Photo of a china plate with a floral design and inscription reading “To commemorate the decision of the General Synod to approve the creation of legislation that will allow women to be ordained as Priests, 11th November 1992”

Photo of a white candle with half-burnt wick featuring a black fish design and the letters ‘MOW’

Photo of three badges pinned to a piece of card reading (1) “Ordain women or stop baptising them”; (2) “The heart of God is bigger than the mind of any Synod”; (3) “Real life is not like this”

Redbridge Museum holds these objects relating to the MOW campaign donated by local residents:

1. Commemorative plate, 1992
2. Candle produced by MOW for members to light once a month to remember women deacons waiting to be ordained, about 1990
3. Slogan badges, 1998

(2/2)

The first female Archbishop of Canterbury will be officially enthroned today at Canterbury Cathedral.

In the 1980s and '90s, the Movement for the Ordination of Women (MOW) campaigned to allow women in the Anglican Church to become ordained ministers.

(1/2)

Photo of The Women’s Social and Political Union members’ card with a painting of a line of women in workwear and aprons holding babies and work-related items such as a bucket. The woman in the front holds a banner above their heads reading ‘VOTES / VOTES / VOTES’.

As an accomplished artist, Sylvia gave the Women’s Social & Political Union the visual identity they became known for. This photo held in our collection shows a membership card featuring one of the first paintings she produced for them.

Find out more ➡️ sylviapankhurst.com/artist

Photo of an open Eid card showing the Kaaba surrounded by minarets and roses with the message ‘To Sarwar, Shahida & Family / This Eid greeting comes today to wish you all of these… A happy day, a joyful year, and pleasant memories. / Have a Happy Eid.’

Eid Mubarak to everyone celebrating across Redbridge! 🌙

This Eid card from our collection was sent to a Muslim family in Ilford in the 2000s.

Black and white photograph of two women holding newborn babies in beds in a hospital ward.

Happy Mother’s Day! 👩‍👧‍👦

Here are two happy mums with their newborns at the Ilford Maternity Hospital (later part of King George Hospital), Newbury Park, about 1952.

Black and white photo of a 150-foot chimney coming down, with spectators viewing from across the yard.

Extract from the Essex Guardian newsletter, 3 June 1905, titled ‘What Ilford People Think: The Cost of a Dust Destructor’

The chimney of Ilford’s Dust Destructor comes down in this picture taken on 14 March 1957.

The Dust Destructor, based on Suffolk Road in Newbury Park, was an incinerator for household waste and was built in 1916, not without controversy amongst locals.

An early 20th century school report card showing marks for each subject with handwritten notes by a teacher

On School Archives Day, here’s a peek at Ida Watson’s school report for the Autumn Term 1908 at Aldersbrook Girls’ School, Wanstead.

Ida’s teacher remarked that her personal conduct in class was “fairly good” but that “fidgeting [was] the chief fault”! Can anyone relate?

Page of a newsletter with letters from members detailing accounts of wildlife spotted around the Redbridge area

A page from the Wren Conservation Group newsletter, Autumn 1977, with mention of wildlife spotted at Wanstead Park and a sighting of parakeets in Ilford! 🦜

#EYAWildlife @exploreyourarchive.bsky.social

Black and white photograph of a boy playing a French Horn

Black and white close-up photograph of boys singing in a choir

Black and white photograph of school children singing in a choir

Local schoolchildren perform in the Redbridge Choral Festival at the Royal Albert Hall, March 1976.

Black and white photo of a very long queue of people waiting outside Fullwell Cross Library

Black and white photo of people standing around a table laden with books

That’s what we like to see – readers of all ages ready for a good book sale at Fullwell Cross Library, 1977.

Happy World Book Day! 📚

‘A Dirty History of Photography’ is now available to read at Redbridge Heritage Centre.

Please book a research session to view the Ilford Limited archive.