Echoes from the Bridge

Eastside Community Heritage is excited to announce their newest project, Echoes from the Bridge, which will record and celebrate the history of working-class bands and musicians at the famous Bridge House pub in Canning Town between 1975-1982.

Echoes from the Bridge is being funded by Historic England’s Everyday Heritage grant programme, celebrating working class histories. Eastside Community Heritage are collecting oral histories of former patrons and performers of the venue, which held great significance to the music landscape of East London between 1975 and 1982, and which continues to hold a fond place in the memories of many local people.

The Bridge House pub was located at 23 Barking Road, and was said to be named after a local iron bridge which span the nearby River Lea. Historically a popular haunt for gas and shipbuilding workers, the 1970s saw the venue become a leading live music venue which played host to an eclectic mix of sounds and genres, as well as the first pub with their own record label. From the heavy metal of Iron Maiden, to the punk of Wasted Youth, and the new wave rock of the Q-Tips, the Bridge House became a central piece of the London live music scene, and is remembered fondly by local people and music lovers alike!

Barry, who performed there in the early 1980’s, remembers his experience of the venue while with the Q-Tips:

We took a bit of a chance on this because it it was a bit of a rough house. It was a great pub, great atmosphere, incredible crowd, but it was a real East End boozer and they, more often than not, they had heavy metal bands on so you take a a bunch of guys in suits, matching suits with a brass section that has a choreography routine. And you put them in a heavy metal venue, you're asking for trouble, you know [laughs] but we, no, that they liked us that they booked us again and again.

Wasted Youth, described by guitarist Rocco as the ‘house band’ of the venue, was formed of local musicians and signed to the Bridge House record label. Rocco fondly remembers the pub as ‘the only place in East London that you could go every night of the week and see a live band ... [people] would just go there because they knew it was going to be a great night out’.

If you have your own story to share, email callum@ech.org.uk or call 07411 536339. Eastside Community Heritage is particularly interested in capturing the stories of women who visited, performed, or worked at the Bridge House, who remain underrepresented in the history of music in East London. These stories will inspire history and music workshops, be preserved in our Hidden-Histories archive, and feature in a project exhibition, co-designed with local young people!

Eastside Community Heritage is a Newham-based charity that has been working for over twenty-five years to uncover and share the hidden histories of East London. Their digital Hidden-Histories archive, open to the public, now contains over 4,000 oral histories and 40,000 photos of East Londoners, dating from the 19th century to the present day. This project will give new insight into music and culture in Canning Town and celebrate the Bridge House as an important site in the rich music history of East London.

The online Hidden-Histories archive is due to be launched in 2025. You can find out more about the Hidden-History Archive here: https://www.hidden-histories.org/