Place Name
Jane Seymour (about 1508 – October 24, 1537), the third wife of Henry VIII who served as Queen of England from 1536 to 1537. Jane became betrothed to the king the day after the execution of his second wife, Anne Boleyn, and in stark contrast to Anne, was said to be strict and formal, swiftly putting a stop to some of the extravagances of the queen’s household. The marriage however was short-lived. Just over a year later Jane died of post-natal complications after giving birth to the future Edward VI. She is the only of Henry’s wives to receive a queen’s funeral and is buried beside him in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. This is one of a cluster of local streets on the Boleyn Estate built in about 1880. They were named after Henry VIII’s wives on account of a dubious local legend linking Anne Boleyn with a local mansion called Green Street House, or Boleyn’s Castle, where she is said to have lived and the king is meant to have come to court her. The castle-like mansion with tower was located at the southern end of Green Street. In 1904 its grounds were rented to West Ham Football Club and became the infamous Boleyn Ground. At first the houses were of the slum type, erected by builders who were continually contravening the by-laws.
