Congregational Church of England and Wales

Plashet Park Congregational Church, Chester Road, Forest Gate, was founded in 1884, in a room in Crescent Road. Meetings were subsequently held in the public hall, Green Street, from 1884 until 1887, when a two-storeyed building (later used for classrooms) was erected in Chester Road, during the temporary pastorate of E. T. Egg. An iron building was added in 1890, a permanent church in 1895, and an institute in 1914. In 1925 the iron hall was gutted by fire. Its site was sold to the borough council for a chest clinic, and in 1926 a new hall, fronting on Katherine Road, was opened. In 1941 the church was badly damaged by bombing. It was reconstructed and re-opened in 1952. For most of its history the church has had a settled minister. In its earlier years it was one of the stronger nonconformist churches in the district, and it was still flourishing in the 1920s, with a membership of over 300, and a Sunday school of 600. In 1972, when the Congregational and Presbyterian Churches merged, it became the Plashet Park United Reformed Church.

Source: A History of the County of Essex: Volume 6 (1973), pp. 31-38.