Dagenham

Dagenham is a suburban town in East London, in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, situated east of Charing Cross. Dagenham as Dæccanhaam is first recorded in a charter of Barking Abbey dating from 687 AD. The first Dagenham was almost certainly just a small farmstead, the ham or farm of a man called Daecca, as Dæccan means home of a man called Dæcca. The area has a strong white working class tradition and up to a couple of years ago it was a mainly White area. But, recent immigration has radically transformed it. It now has a large and growing black population, who have moved out from Hackney and Stratford. There is also a growing south asian population, who have moved out from Ilford and Goodmayes. On the corner of Whalebone Lane and the Eastern Avenue, diagonally opposite the Moby-Dick public house, is the site of a Saxon moot hall. The adjoining fields were used during World War II by the Royal Artillery as an anti-aircraft battery before being converted into a... full article at wikipedia