War Memorial

977/0/10029 CLOCKHOUSE LANE War Memorial

II War Memorial for 1914-1918 War. Granite with lead lettering. A shafted cross, octagonal in plan, on which is hung a wreath, all set on an octagonal plinth and base. The plinth carries the names of the 'Stepney Boys who laid down their lives during the Great War'. There are approximately thirty names. HISTORY: This memorial is sited on the crescent green at the Stepney Home, established in 1901 by Stepney Board of Guardians to house 200 boys and girls. The home was taken over by London County Council in 1930. It is an example of the cottage-home system whereby workhouse children were instead moved to rural developments and sent to local schools. Many cottage-home villages were built in the early-C20, often in an Arts and Crafts influenced style. Stepney's cotrage-home development, similarly to Salford's and Hackney's, adopted the layout of curving rows of homes around a green. Of note at Stepney was the prominent centrepiece of the distinctive Arts and Crafts style water tower, which converted in the early-C21, along with the former principal's house across from the memorial; the cottages are demolished.

Listed as a complete, handsome and legible World War I memorial that has added historic interest as part of the c.1901 Stepney cottage-home development.

This List entry has been amended to add sources for War Memorials Online and the War Memorials Register. These sources were not used in the compilation of this List entry but are added here as a guide for further reading, 10 August 2017.