page_title: Bow, London
section_title: Contemporary
hierarchical_section_title: Bow, London / History / Contemporary
caption_attribution_description: The bridge over the former North London Railway, closed c.1981, in Tredegar Road,Bow. The scrapyard of T Bates has since relocated to Fish Island but their office building will be incorated into future development on the site. An S2 service bus waits to pull out of Fairfield Road.(now renumbered the 488)
context_page_description: Bow is an area of East London within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is primarily a built-up and mostly residential area and is 4.6 miles east of Charing Cross.
  It was in the traditional county of Middlesex but became part of the County of London following the passing of the Local Government Act 1888. "Bow" is an abbreviation of the medieval name Stratford-at-Bow, in which "Bow" refers to the bowed bridge built here in the early 12th century. Bow contains parts of both Victoria Park and the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Old Ford and Fish Island are localities within Bow, but Bromley-by-Bow immediately to the south, is a separate district. These distinctions have their roots in historic parish boundaries.
  Bow underwent extensive urban regeneration including the replacement or improvement of council homes, with the impetus given by the staging of the 2012 Olympic Games at nearby Stratford.
context_section_description: In 1986 the Greater London Council transferred responsibility for the park to the London borough of Tower Hamlets and the London Borough of Hackney, through a joint management board. Since 1994 Tower Hamlets has run the park alone.
  Between 1986 and 1992 the name Bow applied to one of seven neighbourhoods to whom power was devolved from the council. This resulted in replacement of much of the street signage. Bow West and Bow East are two wards formed in 2002 that incorporate Old Ford and the eastern end of Globe Town (to Grove Road, parts of which used to comprise Mile End New Town, north of the Mile End Road). Bow lost its territory south of the Mile End Road.
  In 1991, St Paul's, Old Ford was closed due to poor maintenance and safety concerns in the years after the war. The Parochial Church Council and local people were determined to see that the church remained open and, in fact, was improved. The "A New Heart for Bow" project was born. More than £3,000,000 was raised from more than a dozen sources and philanthropies. Matthew Lloyd Architects was appointed to refurbish the building and enable it to serve the wider community as well as the church. Work began in March 2003 and ended over a year later, in May 2004.
  Channel 4’s The Big Breakfast was broadcast live from a former lockkeeper's cottages located on Fish Island, in Old Ford, from 28 September 1992 until 29 March 2002.
  Rachel Whiteread's temporary public sculpture "House" was created on Grove Road, being completed on 25 October 1993 and demolished eleven weeks later on 11 January 1994. The work won her the Turner Prize and K Foundation art award in November 1993.
  Bow Arts was set up in 1994 by Marcel Baettig and Marc Schimmel, the owner of the then new premises. It became an artist studio supporting over 100 working artists. In 1995, the Trust became a registered arts and education charity. In 1996, after an Arts Council England grant, they were able to build the Nunnery Gallery on Bow Road.
  An annual fête and music festival held on Wennington Green in Mile End Park called the St Barnabas Community Fete began in 2003, with 2007 fete being part of a case study in the 'Community' section of the Living Britain report published by Zurich and The Future Laboratory,
  In 2003, H. Forman and Son learned of London's bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympics. The company would have had to relocate from Stratford following a Compulsory Purchase Order. Then Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, officially opened the newly finished smokehouse in Old Ford in 2009. Following the compulsory purchase, the company rebuilt its premises near to the Olympic Park, on the banks of the River Lee.
caption: Last day of the Routemaster, 4 June 2004.
exif: {"Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Album Starter Edition 3.0", "Image DateTime": "2008:12:01 12:38:50"}