“If the Salvation Army could help to save the Borough from Sabbath-breaking, wife-beating, drunkenness and other evils, what a great work they are doing” [15.3.1902]
Across Newham bands marched, the magazine War Cry was distributed in pubs, halls were hired, open-air services spread, uniforms were seen in the streets and the work expanded By 1901 the Stratford Corps in Angel Lane, established in 1883, had nearly 1000 soldiers.
The Salvation Army has had 25 halls, citadels or temples across Newham as centres for evangelism or social care. You could find them in Canning Town in Bradley Street, off the Beckton Road until 1964. Custom House had halls in Coolfin Road [burnt down in 1940], Prince Regents Lane, Woodstock Street, and Ashburton Road. Silvertown had a hall in Park Street until 1961 and premises in Oriental Road and Victoria Dock Road. Plaistow had the Upper Road building from 1875-you can still see the abandoned building.
Only 100 years ago Jesus's salvation storm troopers considered wife-beating to be a sin roughly equivalent to drunkenness or 'Sabbath-breaking'.