Plaistow South is a bright, vibrant, sociable and green ward. It boasts Plaistow Park, New City Green, a large section of the Greenway – from Barking Road to Boundary Lane – and one of our Community Assembly projects, a community garden, still in its infancy, in Walton Road.
These green spaces are constantly being enhanced. The Greenway not only has the enriched Greenway Orchard, which offers a peaceful place for some patients of the adjacent Newham University Hospital, but also hosts the Plaistow Youth Market where creative young entrepreneurs sell their handmade, homemade, homegrown and interesting produce.
Plaistow Park has also had an injection of new life. Not long before the years of Covid-19, the railings outside the Park, by Barber’s Alley, were given a bright coat of paint by students from Lister School (our next door neighbours from Plaistow North) as were some of the brick walls.
This summer, as part of the Newham Unlocked festivities, organised by Rosetta Arts, another wall in the park was painted, giving us the Shape Newham Community Mural, but this time it was painted with photocatalytic paint, which helps to purify the air.
Plaistow South is also a hub of learning with wonderful schools – three primary, two secondary, the Tunmarsh Centre, the Pupil Referral Unit, and NewVIc College. A little less salubrious, though essential and famed throughout the Borough, is Jenkins Lane Re-use and Recycling Centre.
We also have two cycle superhighways, are home to a hospital and Newham Leisure Centre but… we have no station. We remain true to our medieval origins in this respect. To find the underground – District Line – you need to travel a few hundred yards beyond our boundary to Plaistow North.
We also share with Plaistow North our beautiful library, a Grade 2 listed building, donated in the late 19th century by the Cornish philanthropist Passmore Edwards – born near Truro, in Blackwater (my family’s home for many years).
Plaistow is one of the few Passmore Edwards libraries still serving its original purpose and always buzzing with activity. A very sociable place, Plaistow, where, as you see, we get on well with our neighbours.
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