An Anglo-Saxon jewelled bead was found in Forest Gate in 1875 during sewer construction behind the former Princess Alice public house in the Sprowston Road area.

From the 18th century a number of wealthy city dwellers had large country houses in the area and many of them were Quakers; the best known of these were the families of Gurney, Fry and Lester.

[3] An ethnographic study of the neighbourhood by researcher Dr Joy White, Terraformed: Young Black Lives in the Inner City, was published in 2020 by Repeater Books.

There are blocks of council flats at the western end of Claremont and Windsor roads built on the site of houses damaged during bombing in World War II.

Based in Forest Gate, Senrab operates fifteen teams for age groups ranging from 5 to 17 years old and has produced several players who have gone on to successful professional careers, including: John Terry (who gave an undisclosed sum to keep the club running in April 2011), Sol Campbell, Jermain Defoe, Ledley King, Bobby Zamora and Paul Konchesky.

In December 1966 Jimi Hendrix wrote Purple Haze in the Upper Cut Club, owned by Douglas Bayle and George and Billy Walker, it had been opened by The Who, and had The Small Faces as the house band, for a while.

[11][12] Damnably Records began in Forest Gate on Salisbury Road and many of its bands including Shonen Knife, Geoff Farina, Chris Brokaw, Wussy stayed or visited there while on tour and Kath Bloom played a house concert there in 2011.

Damnably and Vacilando '68 have teamed up numerous times to promote live shows including at the now defunct Moka East based in the Olympic Park, Stratford.

Former managers of West Ham United Football Club associated with Forest Gate include Alan Curbishley and Ted Fenton.

[15] Other sportsmen and women connected with Forest Gate include heavyweight boxing champions Billy Wells[16] and Lennox Lewis, 7 times world karate champion Molly Samuel, cricketer Ravi Bopara, sprinter Damien Greaves, Olympic fencer Linda Strachan, and Olympic and Commonwealth Games athlete Jean Desforges.

Other actors born in Forest Gate include David Farrar, Malcolm McFee, Billy Murray, Terrence Hardiman and Chiwetel Ejiofor.

[18] Musicians from Forest Gate include biographer, composer and pianist Norman Charles Suckling, John Ashton, Kele Le Roc and heavy metal vocalist Sarah Jezebel Deva.

Ronnie Lane of the Small Faces was born in Plaistow but spent his childhood and early adulthood in Forest Gate, living at 385 Romford Road.

Artists from Forest Gate include Betsy Schneider, John Bowstead, Walter Westley Russell and Barry Windsor-Smith.