This is Thackeray Road, East Ham, one of a ladder of a dozen Victorian terraced streets off Barking Road. It's also the birthplace of Forces' Sweetheart Dame Vera Lynn. Newham council have attempted to make this known.
This is one of a trio of street signs installed in 2017 to mark Dame Vera's 100th birthday. Newham have a habit of commemorating famous citizens on street signs, including mathematician Alan Turing opposite Westfield, meteorologist Luke Howard in Plaistow and six speedway riders on the site of a former circuit in Custom House. Strict geographical accuracy is not always required.
The Thackeray Road sign is odd because it starts by referencing author William Makepeace Thackeray, a man who spent no significant time in the locality, leaving the top drawer local icon as an afterthought. It also stands in place of the more usual marker, which is a plaque of some kind on the appropriate house so that people can pay their respects properly. In this case that's 3 Thackeray Road, specifically the ground floor flat where Vera Margaret Welch was born to a plumber and a dressmaker in March 1917. The current residents must be very pleased not to have centenarian groupies hanging around outside.
In 1921 the family moved three streets east to Ladysmith Road. Both ends are marked with a special street sign, this time highlighting Dame Vera alone, but the family home at number 38 is again anonymous. The third commemorative location is two miles away at Vera Lynn Close, a cul-de-sac in Forest Gate with no historical connection whatsoever. These signs are lovely things but I can't help thinking a pinpointed marker on the front of a house might be preferable. In a borough with only two (two!) blue plaques, Newham's famous sons and daughters deserve better.
