In 1887, John Bartholomew's Gazetteer of the British Isles described West Ham like this:
West Ham, parl. bor., par., and local government dist., Essex, on N. bank of river Thames, opposite Greenwich, and in E. of London, 4667 ac., pop. 128,953; contains Stratford town and has several industrial establishments in connection with the Victoria Docks; ship-building, silk-printing, brewing, leather-cloth mfr., &c., See STRATFORD. West Ham returns 2 members to Parliament (2 divisions - viz., North and South, 1 member for each division); it was made a parl. bor. in 1885.
West Ham through time
For the best overall sense of how the area containing West Ham has changed, please see our redistricted information for the modern district of Newham. More detailed statistical data are available under Historical units & statistics for administrative units named after or covering West Ham.
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