London Borough of Redbridge

The London Borough of Redbridge is a London borough in North-East London, England. It is known for its award winning parks and open spaces, excellent transport links, thriving shopping areas and high-performing schools. The borough is known as the 'leafy suburb' with one quarter of the borough covered by forest and green, and three quarters of homes are owner-occupied.

Its administrative headquarters is at Redbridge Town Hall in Ilford. The local authority is Redbridge London Borough Council.

Etymology
The name comes from a bridge over the River Roding which was demolished in 1921. The bridge was made of red brick, unlike other bridges in the area made of white stone. The name had first been applied to the Redbridge area and Redbridge tube station was opened in 1947. It was earlier known as Hocklee's Bridge.

Parks and open spaces
Redbridge is one of London's greenest Boroughs, with more than 35 parks, playgrounds and open spaces to enjoy. These include Hainault Forest Country Park, with 300 acres of countryside including adventure play areas, cafe and petting zoo. Roding Valley Park, a wildlife sanctuary with a wide range of flora and fauna and woodland areas to explore. Fairlop Waters Country Park, which offers a huge range of activities both on and off the water. The award winning Valentines Park, situated next to the beautiful Valentines Mansion, ornamental gardens, bowling green and outdoor gym among other attractions. Claybury Woods and Park, a conservation area that features and ancient area of oak and hornbeam woodland, meadows and wildlife ponds.

Six parks have attained the prestigious Green Flag Award.

For more information, see Redbridge parks and open spaces

Arts and culture
Valentines Mansion is a Georgian country house and gardens in the grounds of Valentines Park, Ilford. The 300-year-old restored building attracts thousands of visitors every year. There is also a Gardener's Cottage Café and regular art installations and exhibitions.

Redbridge Drama Centre in Churchfields, South Woodford, offers young people aged five to 21 the chance to take part in a professional performance and gives the public a year-round opportunity to see live shows in this part of the Borough. It has a television studio and edit suite where film and videos are made.

Kenneth More Theatre in Oakfield Road, Ilford opened in 1975 and the theatre in Ilford Town Centre has since served up a diverse programme of amateur and professional performances to the local community with new shows most weeks.

Redbridge Museum is situated in Redbridge Central Library, Clements Road, Ilford, Redbridge Museum explores the many places, people and events in over 150,000 years of the Borough's history. The museum also features interactive displays, a multi-media Children's Trail and touch displays to help bring the past to life. There are also regular changing exhibitions for visitors to enjoy.

Libraries
Redbridge has 13 libraries across the Borough. This includes the Redbridge Central Library, in Clements Road, Ilford, which had a major refurbishment in 2012. The libraries offer a number of services including reading clubs, story time sessions, study areas and learning resources.

The libraries in Redbridge are:
 * Aldersbrook Library
 * Clayhall Library
 * Fullwell Cross Library
 * Gants Hill Library
 * Goodmayes Library
 * Hainault Library
 * Redbridge Central Library
 * Keith Axon Library
 * Seven Kings Library
 * South Woodford Library
 * Uphall School Library
 * Wanstead Library
 * Woodford Green Library

The schools in Redbridge are: PRIMARY SCHOOLS:

Aldersbrook Barley Lane Chadwell Christchurch Churchfields Infants Churchfields Junior Cleveland Clore Tikva(Jewish) Coppice Cranbrook Downshall Fairlop Farnham Green Fullwood Gearies Gilbert Colvin Glade Goodmayes Gordon Infants Grove Highlands John Bramston Loxford Trust Manford Mayespark Mossford Green Newbury Park Nightingale Oakdale Infants Oakdale Junior Our lady Of Lourdes RC(Catholic) Parkhill Infants Parkhill Junior Ray Lodge Redbridge Roding Seven Kings South Park SS Peter And Paul's Catholic St. Anthony's Catholic St. Augustine's Catholic St. Bede's Catholic Uphall Wanstead Church Of England(Catholic) Wells William Torbitt Winston Way Woodlands

SECONDARY SCHOOLS: A.t.A.M. Academy(Sikh) Beal Caterham Chadwell Heath City Gates(Christian) Isaac Newton Academy King Solomon High School (Jewish Faith) Loxford School Trust Mayfield School (Foundation) Oaks Park High School Seven Kings School The Forest Academy The Palmer Catholic Academy The Ursuline Academy Ilford Trinity Catholic High School (Catholic) Valentines High School Wanstead High School Woodbridge High School Ilford County High School (for boys) (Grammar) Woodford County High School (for girls) (Grammar)

Sport and leisure facilities
Redbridge has a number of sports and leisure facilities including the fantastic road and off road cycling tracks at Redbridge Cycling Centre, top class water sports at Fairlop Activity Centre, in Fairlop Waters and sporting facilities at Redbridge Sports and Leisure Centre, in Forest Road, Fairlop. Fullwell Cross Leisure Centre, in Barkingside features a swimming pool, dance studio and spa.

There are also a number of outdoor gyms in the Borough's parks. The gyms can be found in the following parks:


 * Ashton Playing Fields
 * Claybury Woods and Park
 * Elmhurst Gardens
 * Forest Road Playing Fields
 * Goodmayes Park
 * Ray Park
 * Valentines Park

There are two local football teams both playing in the Isthmian League Division One: Redbridge F.C. (not to be confused with Dagenham & Redbridge) and Ilford FC. In addition there is fellow Non-League football club Barkingside F.C. who play at The Oakside stadium.

The borough was one of the locations of the 2010 Mayor of London's Sky Ride. Along with Ealing, it was the first time the event took place in Outer London boroughs as well as in central London.

Redbridge's Valentines Park in Ilford acted as one of Essex County Cricket Club's home grounds in 1923-4 and from 1935 until 2002, when the club stopped playing there due to financial constraints.

Demographics
In 2011 the population of Redbridge was recorded at 278,970. In common with the other London boroughs this continues a period of growth; between the 1991 and 2001 censuses the increase was 7.5% with a further rise of 15.3% by 2011. Redbridge has the third highest proportion of children and a higher-than-average proportion of older adults while the proportion of working age adults is slightly lower than average. The population density was last recorded at 4,945 residents per km2(the London regional density is 5,199, far higher than the England and Wales figure of 371).

The healthy life expectancy (HLE) at birth for Redbridge residents stands at 65.5 years for males and 62.4 years for females (the England average HLE is 63.4 for males and 64.1 for females).

Redbridge is one of the most ethnically diverse local authorities in the UK. 34% of respondents to the 2011 census stated that they were born outside the UK and 65.5% identified as belonging to an ethnic group other than white British. Redbridge's largest ethnic group is White British (34.5%), followed by Indian (16.4%), and Pakistani (Redbridge has the highest proportion of Pakistani residents of any London borough).

Ethnic and religious change
In common with many London boroughs, the most recent (2011) census showed notable ethnic and religious population mobility in Redbridge. Ethnic groups whose proportions fell in Redbridge were White British (-23% of the borough's total), Irish (-0.9%), and Caribbean (-0.6%). Ethnic groups whose proportions rose include Pakistani (+4.9%), other Asians (+4.4%), Bangladeshis (+3.9%), and other White (+2.9%). Religious groups whose proportions fell in Redbridge were Christian (-13.9%) and Jews (-2.5%). For Jews this represented a fall of over 50% of their number in some wards. Religious groups whose proportions rose include Muslims (+11.4%) followed by Hindu (+3.6%).

Educated 30–40 years old Asian residents of Redbridge who participated in a 2012 academic research project expressed nostalgia for an earlier Redbridge they described as more culturally diverse, by which they meant fewer British Asians.

TfL Rail
These services serving these stations will be rebranded from TfL Rail to Crossrail in 2017.

London Underground
Central line Fairlop Loop Epping Branch.

Hainault Branch following the route of the A12 road from Wanstead to Newbury Park.

Buses
Numerous London buses run through and within the borough. These include routes 20, 62, 173, 368, 387, 397, 549; night bus routes N8, N15, N86; school bus route 667, 675, 679; and other routes 958. And also these routes :

Travel to work
In March 2011, the main forms of transport that residents used to travel to work were: driving a car or van, 23.5% of all residents aged 16–74; underground, metro, light rail, tram, 6.2%; train, 6.2%; bus, minibus or coach, 4.6%; on foot, 3.7%; work mainly at or from home, 2.6%; passenger in a car or van, 1.5%.

History
The borough was formed in 1965 by the London Government Act 1963 as a merger of the former area of:

All of which had been transferred from Essex to Greater London by the Act.

Destruction of Hainault Forest
An act of parliament in 1851 permitted the virtual destruction of Hainault Forest and 92% of the forest was cut down using machines specially designed for the task. The loss of this habitat outraged public opinion far beyond the local area. The naturalist Oliver Rackham argued that this led to the creation of the modern British conservation movement with the creation of organisations which successfully opposed such a fate happening to Epping Forest, which only lost around 10% of its area.

Redbridge London Borough Council
Summary of Council results:

In June 2007 Redbridge London Borough Council introduced Redbridge i, a website using personalisation and customisation techniques. In May 2008 Redbridge i was used as the basis for the Redbridge Conversation, a public consultation asking everyone who lives or works in the borough to talk about the long-term improvements they want to see, and how the council should pay for them.

Education
Redbridge Council is the Local Education Authority. The Borough has the accolade of sending more young people to university than any other borough in the country in both 2011 and 2012. GCSE and A Level results are consistently higher than the Country's average.

All schools in the borough take part in the Redbridge Schools Choral Festival, a biennial music festival held in the Royal Albert Hall in Knightsbridge. It was inaugurated in 1976. Around 1,900 children from Redbridge schools take part in each festival, with the latest edition being held in 2012.

Maps

 * Snaresbrook – 51.58083°N, 0.02167°W
 * South Woodford – 51.59167°N, 0.0275°W
 * Woodford – 51.60611°N, 0.03417°W
 * Wanstead – 51.575°N, 0.02806°W
 * Redbridge – 51.57583°N, 0.045°W
 * Gants Hill – 51.57667°N, 0.06611°W
 * Newbury Park – 51.575°N, 0.08944°W
 * Barkingside – 51.58472°N, 0.08861°W
 * Fairlop – 51.59556°N, 0.09056°W
 * Hainault – 51.60333°N, 0.09333°W
 * Grange Hill – 51.61333°N, 0.09222°W