The estate called GREEN STREET or BOLEYN CASTLE appears to have been built up in the 16th century, all or most of it being copyhold of the manor of East Ham Burnells. It lay near the southern end of the street from which it took its name.
The estate may have been formed by Richard Breame (d. 1546), who was described in the probate of his will as 'of Green Street'. His connexion with the house possibly inspired the tradition, of which there is no contemporary evidence, that Anne Boleyn lived at Green Street. Breame was a servant of Henry VIII from whom, in 1529–31, the king rented a house at Greenwich, nominally for the use of Anne's brother, Lord Rochford. It was in 1531 that Henry VIII finally deserted Katharine of Aragon, and the legend connecting Anne with Green Street may have originated in a boast by Breame or his descendants that it was in his house that Henry courted his second queen. In 1544 Breame bought from the king the manor of East Ham, but he may have been living at Green Street before that date.
It has been suggested that in the late 16th and early 17th centuries Green Street belonged to the Nevilles whose monument is in St. Mary's church. In the 1630s and 1640s the estate seems to have belonged to Sir Henry Holcroft (d. c. 1651) a Parliamentarian prominent in Essex during the Civil War, and later to his widow. It was acquired about 1653 by Sir Jacob Garrard (Bt.), a London merchant of royalist sympathies who founded an apprenticing charity. Green Street House descended with the baronetcy until the death in 1728 of Sir Nicholas Garrard. Cecilia, widow of Sir Nicholas, retained it until her death in 1753, when it passed to his grandnephew Sir Jacob Downing, Bt. In 1755 Downing conveyed the estate, then comprising about 160 a., to James Barnard or Bernard. Bernard (d. 1759) appears to have been succeeded by Mrs. Whiteside, who was probably his daughter. The estate was partly broken up about this time.
In 1788–9 Maurice Bernard sold Green Street House and grounds, totalling 17 a., to William Morley. Morley, a London corn merchant, lived there until his death in 1832.
The house was subsequently bought by Mr. Lee, for his daughter Mrs. Morley, who was not related to the former owner. In 1839 James Morley, presumably her husband, owned and occupied the house. In 1863 the house and grounds, then comprising 30 a., were advertised for sale. They do not appear to have changed hands then, but in 1869 they were bought from the Morleys by Cardinal Manning, for use as a Roman Catholic reformatory school. After the reformatory was closed the southern part of the site was used for a Roman Catholic church and primary school. The house, after being used c. 1907–12 as a maternity home, was leased, with some adjoining land, to the West Ham United football club, which sub-let the house to the Boleyn Castle social club. The social club occupied the house until the Second World War. In 1955 the house, which had become very dilapidated, was demolished.
Green Street House, a red-brick building, mostly of two storeys, was erected about the middle of the 16th century, possibly by Richard Breame. It originally comprised a great hall at right angles to the street with a long range at its west end and a kitchen block at the east end, south of which was a staircase wing, with a three-storeyed tower east of that. At the north end of the west range, fronting Green Street, was an arched gateway. In the late 17th century the upper parts of the hall, the west range, the kitchen, and staircase wing were partly rebuilt. In 1662 the house was taxed on 20 hearths; the figures for 1670 and 1674 were 16 and 18 respectively. This suggests that alterations were then in progress, during the ownership of Sir Jacob and Sir Thomas Garrard. In the 18th century a wing was added east of the tower, and a later addition was made east of the kitchen. Inside the house there was panelling of the late 16th or early 17th century, and the main staircase was of the same period. In the garden, south of the west wing, was a detached tower which overlooked the street and was the best-known feature of the house. This was an octagonal building of red brick with crenellated parapet and stair-turret. It was built about the middle of the 16th century, and may originally have been balanced by another tower at the south-east corner of the garden. The upper part of the tower was rebuilt by William Morley about 1800. Until the 18th century a room in the tower was hung with leather embossed with gold, but Morley's predecessor, Mrs. Whiteside, is said to have burnt these hangings and sold the gold. The sale catalogue of 1863 lists all the rooms in the house and its outbuildings, and describes the gardens, which contained several fine cedars. When the Roman Catholics bought the house they demolished the gateway and erected a range of buildings along Green Street.
The manor of HAMMARSH lay in the marshes of East Ham, adjoining the Thames. From the Conquest or earlier until the 19th century it belonged to Westminster Abbey. In 1086 the abbey's manor in Ham comprised 2 hides, worth £3.When and how Westminster had acquired it is uncertain. Charters of Edward the Confessor and of King Edgar, purporting to confirm it to the abbey, are forgeries, though possibly embodying some authentic information.
In the time of Abbot Gervase (c. 1137–56) the abbey confirmed to Alger the Clerk the land in Ham formerly held by his grandfather Puncelin, to hold for as long as he should serve faithfully, at an annual rent of £3. There was probably a connexion between this estate and 'Algoresland' which occurs in 1338 as a field name in the Gallions Reach area of North Woolwich, adjoining East Ham. John Flete, the 15th-century chronicler of Westminster, accuses Gervase of alienating abbey lands to his friends in perpetuity subject only to fee-farm rents, and cites the grant to Alger as an example. In 1291 and 1381 the abbey's total income from East Ham was given as £3, which was probably the rent paid by Alger's successors. This might be taken to mean that Alger had acquired all Westminster's land in the parish, but in fact the abbey did keep in hand a small estate there. In 1306 the abbot authorized payment of 55s. 'for one cask of wine with the carriage of our provisions sent to Ham' which suggests that this land was being farmed in demesne. In 1530 the abbey's manor of 'Hammarsh juxta Barking' was leased to Thomas Chamberlayne of East Ham for 29 years at an annual rent of £4. The absence of earlier references to an income from Hammarsh, apart from Alger's fee-farm rent, is not surprising. During the Middle Ages, when flooding was frequent, this small property, lying wholly in the marshes, may well have been a liability rather than an asset.
In 1556 Westminster's estate in East Ham, described as 'a cottage and a marsh' was on lease to Thomas Eaglesfield. Between 1732 and 1841, for for which period a continuous series of leases is recorded, Hammarsh was still being let at £4 a year. Leases were usually renewed every 7 years, but the details of fines for renewal are not stated. The last lessees were William Meredith and Edward Moss (1834, renewed in 1841). Their holding, incorrectly entered in the tithe award of 1839 under the name of 'Moss, William and Edward', comprised 50 a., lying in the tongue of East Ham which separated the two parts of North Woolwich. In 1846 the abbey sold 34 a. of Hammarsh to the North Woolwich Railway Co. for £6,000. The portion sold was bounded on the south by the Thames and on the north by the remainder of the manor. The remaining 16 a. were probably sold soon after. Part of the land bought by the railway was later acquired by a company which in 1852–3 developed it as the Victoria Gardens.
The YNYR BURGES estate was built up by Ynyr Burges, Paymaster of the East India Company, between 1762 and his death in 1792, at a total cost of £20,700. He was succeeded by his daughter Margaret (d. 1838) wife of (Sir) John Smith-Burges (Bt.), a director of the East India Company. In 1799 the estate comprised 422 a., with a rent-roll of £1,217. Smith-Burges died in 1803 and in 1816 his widow married John Poulett, Earl Poulett (d. 1819). Lady Poulett, who was childless, was succeeded by John Ynyr Burges, grandson of her father's elder brother. In 1838 the estate, then about 410 a., produced an income of £1,549, but by 1840 this had been increased to £2,471. An estate map drawn in 1881, which includes details of recent and later changes, shows that most of the property lay near the present town centre. There were substantial blocks of land on both sides of East Ham Manor Road (now High Street South) and another to the north of Barking Road, with outliers at Beckton. One piece of land at Beckton had been sold in 1880.
John Ynyr Burges (d. 1889) was succeeded by his son Col. Ynyr Henry Burges. Col. Burges was largely responsible for developing the estate for building. He had started to do so, on his father's behalf, about 1887, and continued until his own death in 1908. The process involved buying land as well as selling. An estate map of 1892 shows he acquired in that yeare 98 a. adjoining the parish church in High Street South. This included the site of the ancient manor house of East Ham. With this exception the Burgeses do not appear to have acquired any important part of the manor of East Ham, whether land or manorial rights, in spite of statements to the contrary. Col. Burges was succeeded by his grandson, (Major) Ynyr A. Burges, who completed the development of the estate during the 1920s.
Ynyr Burges (d. 1792) lived at East Ham for most of his life. As a boy he was adopted by his uncle, Ynyr Lloyd, deputy secretary of the East India Company, who had a house in Wakefield Street. In 1764 Burges bought from George Higginson a newly built copyhold house, to which in 1774 he added a 30-foot wing on freehold land. The 1881 map shows that this house was behind the west side of High Street South, opposite Market Street, and that the copyhold part of it was enfranchised in 1854. A water-colour of 1788 shows an imposing mansion with a central block crowned by an octagonal lantern. After 1792 the house was usually let, but by about 1840 it was unoccupied and dilapidated. A surveyor's report of 1853, in connexion with the enfranchisement, lists the mansion, and also the Clock House, and 'two tenements, a shop, orchard and sundry outbuildings, yard and land abutting on East Ham Street'. It is clear from this and other references that the mansion and the Clock House were not identical: the Clock House was probably the stable block. Both buildings seem to have been demolished soon after 1854. The iron gates at the entrance to the drive from High Street South were left standing until the 1870s or later. On the opposite side of the same street was Clock House farm, which also belonged to the Burgeses, and which survived until early in the 20th century. It was a square three-storey brick building of five bays, dating from the earlier 18th century.