Editing Plaistow, Newham (section)

===19th century===
Newly-appointed as pastor to a Congregationalist church in Plaistow, [[John Curwen]] opened the Plaistow Public School in 1844.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=42764&strquery=#s2 | title=British History Online, West Ham, Education, Elementary schools founded before 1871 | publisher=University of London & History of Parliament Trust | access-date=13 May 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.canamus.org/Enchiridion/obits/curwen.htm | title=The Enchiridion, Selected Obituaries and Biographies, John Curwen | publisher=Canamus | access-date=1 October 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060520192028/http://www.canamus.org/Enchiridion/obits/curwen.htm | archive-date=20 May 2006 | url-status=dead | df=dmy-all }}</ref> That year also saw Plaistow become a chapelry as well as an Anglican parish in its own right, split off from [[All Saints Church, West Ham]]; Plaistow's [[chapel of ease]] [[St Mary's Church, Plaistow|St Mary's]] became the new parish's church. Curwen also started a printing business in Plaistow in 1863.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://curwenpress.com/index.php/about/history | title=CURWEN PRESS, History | publisher=Curwen Press | access-date=1 October 2012}}</ref>

In the 1870s, [[John Marius Wilson]] described it in his ''[[Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales]]'' as a village, a chapelry and a ward in the Parish of West Ham in Essex.<ref name="IGEW">{{cite web| url=http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/place_page.jsp?p_id=20405| title=A Vision of Britain Through Time| publisher=University of Portsmouth| access-date=20 June 2012}}</ref>  The population of the chapelry was recorded as 11,214 in 1861.<ref name="IGEW"/>  James Thorne, in his 1876 work ''"Handbook to the Environs of London"'', mentions Plaistow, Essex, as a village and ecclesiastical district of West Ham parish with a population of 6,699.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.eolfhs.org.uk/parish-pages/Plaistow.html | archive-url=https://archive.today/20121225030732/http://www.eolfhs.org.uk/parish-pages/Plaistow.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=25 December 2012 | title=Plaistow, Church Records | access-date=11 August 2012 }}</ref>  Thorne recounts the changes to the old village of Plaistow, with the gentry, merchants and others of renown having gone and the occupations of the residents changed from agricultural and pastoral to manufacturing. In 1886 Plaistow became part of the new [[County Borough of West Ham]].

The area gained several new Anglican churches in the second half of the 19th century – [[St Philip and St James’ Church, Plaistow|St Philip's]] in 1860, [[St Andrew's Church, Plaistow|St Andrew's]] in 1868, [[St Katherine's Church, Plaistow|St Katherine's]] in 1891, [[St Martin's Church, Plaistow|St Martin's]] in 1894 and [[St Thomas' Church, Plaistow|St Thomas's]] in 1898. Only St Martin's and St Andrew's survive; St Andrew's is mentioned in Thorne's work and, like its adjoining vicarage (1871), is a grade II [[listed building]].<ref>{{National Heritage List for England| num=1080967|desc=Church of St Andrew|access-date=31 May 2012}}</ref><ref>{{National Heritage List for England| num=1080968|desc=St Andrew's Vicarage|access-date=31 May 2012}}</ref>  John Curwen's son, John Spencer Curwen (who founded the Stratford & East London Music Festival – the oldest English music festival – in 1882),<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.stratfordmusicfestival.org.uk/ | title=Stratford & East London Music Festival | access-date=1 October 2012}}</ref> published a paper called ''“Old Plaistow”'' in 1891<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.recordinguttlesfordhistory.org.uk/saffronwalden/swlibraryoldbooks.html | title=Saffron Walden Town Library: museum bookcase (Entry 269)| publisher=Saffron Walden Town Library | access-date=1 October 2012}}</ref> describing houses of the area.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://historyofstratford.co.uk/Silvertown/Silvertown%20&%20neighbours-Plaistow.shtml | title=History of Straford, West Ham, Canning Town, Silvertown etc | date=29 July 2009 | access-date=1 October 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111025045158/http://historyofstratford.co.uk/Silvertown/Silvertown%20%26%20neighbours-Plaistow.shtml | archive-date=25 October 2011 | url-status=dead | df=dmy-all }}</ref>