East Ham

East Ham is a suburban district of London, England, and part of the London Borough of Newham. It is a built-up district located 8 miles (12.8 km) east-northeast of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. A settlement in the area named Ham is first recorded as Hamme in an Anglo-Saxon charter of 958 and then in the 1086 Domesday Book as Hame. It is formed from Old English 'hamm' and means 'a dry area of land between rivers or marshland', referring the location of the settlement within boundaries formed by the rivers Lea, Thames and Roding and their marshes. In 1859 East Ham railway station opened and, although in 1863 the area was still being described as a "scattered village"...