Great Eastern Railway Line from Liverpool Street to Chingford. Chingford
Great Eastern Railway from Liverpool Street to Chingford
The line running northwards from Highams Park Station turns north eastwards
Suburban area on hillsides above the Lea, with woodlands with monuments and old defence sites. Around Chingford Green and its surroundings are old municipal buildings, pubs and churches,
Post to the south Pimp's Hall
Post to the east Chingford
Post to the north Stewardstonebury
Post to the west Low Hall
Arabia Close
Called after Lawrence of Arabia, who lived for a while at Pole Hill
Balgonie Road
Balgonie was the name of nurseries which were once on this site. Balgonie itself is a town in Fife.
Blandford Crescent
The northern and western loop of the road has on the north side an iron retaining wall – which is presumably to keep Hawkwood from slipping onto the houses.
The Cottage. The road is on the site of this house. It was built in the early 1930s. There was a summer house at the top of the garden next to the cottage which remains in the forest. The house was demolished in the early 1960s.the grounds extended right up to the forest and the road shapes of Hawkesmouth and Blandford Crescent are said to have long existed
Enterprise House. Polish born architect, J. Spiwak, wanted to design something which would be a fitting memorial to his parents who died in Warsaw in 1944. He decided on housing for retired professional and business people in a hotel-type complex. The site was purchased in 1964 and The House was opened in 1969. The grounds were laid out as gardens by gardener/residents and these remain as private areas adjacent to the house
Buxton Road
The Buxton family were active in preserving Epping Forest ad some members were later verderers.
Housing here was begun around 1890 laid out on the edge of the Forest by Edmond Egan of Loughton for Jabez Balfour's Liberator Building Society. Building work ceased when this collapsed in 1892 and Balfour went to gaol. The south side of this road had already been built by this time. Houses were however abandoned and left unfinished, and it was five years before work restarted.
United Reformed Church Congregational Church. In the 1800s members of Abney Park Congregational Church moved to Chingford and wanted to set up a church here. The project was partly funded by James Spicer of Woodford Green and a site was site was acquired. The Church initially met from late 1888 in upper rooms of a shop until Spicer Hall was completed. The present Church building was opened in 1910 and the halls in 1923. The church was known as Chingford Congregational Church until 1972 when it came part of the United Reformed Church.
Spicer Hall. Designed by Rowland Plumbe and built as the first church here in 1890. It was sold and converted to housing in 2003-4. It is in orange brick with stone dressings and a timber-topped tower.
Church. Designed and built in 1910 by J.D. Mould. It is in duller red brick. The plan is a smaller version of that adopted by some major late 19 Congregational churches. Inside are large carved beams with boldly lettered texts. There is a stained glass window in memory of the funder, James Spicer.
Cambridge Road
Chingford Church of England Junior School. This is part of a federation with the infant school. It was built in 1975
Connaught Avenue
The Duke of Connaught was the first Ranger of Epping Forest for over sixty years.
Epping Glade
Hawkswood Nursery. Where T.E.Lawrence planted fruit trees as Arabian Orchard. The Nursery was owned by the local council and is now part of Organiclea’s market garden
Green Walk
Park Farm. This was on the north side of the road
2 The Rectory
Mornington Hall. Red brick single story hall, this was built in 1924 to use as a private school. A schoolhouse was built next door in 1930. It was a British restaurant in the Second World War and then a public hall. It is used by Chingford Amateur Dramatic and operatic society.
Carbis Cottage. Weather boarded cottage with central entrance and end stack. Probably 17th.
Hawkwood Crescent
115 Organiclea. This organisation began in 2001, on an acre of once-derelict allotment land situated on the edge of Epping Forest. A forest garden was planted with apple trees, Worcester berries and blackcurrant bushes. Structures included a pond, a willow dome and vegetables were planted using organic and permaculture principles. Surplus produce was sold on market stalls and through North Leyton Surestart. In 2007 Waltham Forest Council closed its plant nursery, sited just round the corner from Organiclea’s allotment site, and, following lease negotiations; in 2009 the Hawkwood steering group planted the first seedlings in the glasshouses. The group reminds us of the vegetable growing traditions of the Lea Valley.
King’s Head Hill
2b King's Head, at the crown of the hill simple two-storey pub but enlarged behind and many alterations which are made to look old. The earliest evidence of the pub is in 1782. Between 1805 and 1840 the Manorial Courts were held here. The 18th Century origins of the building are still recognisable
3-7 part-weather boarded cottages, early 19th.
Lock up. This was for local officers to hold prisoners until they could be taken to Waltham Abbey. It was demolished in 1888 and it was on the site of the current war memorial
Police Station. This originated in 1886 as a small stable built fir the opposite the village lock up. This was intended to be for the use of the visiting police inspector and a rest point for the mounted patrol from Waltham Abbey. A police station replaced it in 1888 next to the "Kings Head" public house/
Police Station. The 1888 police station was demolished and a new station built. This large brick and concrete building was opened in early 1977 as a new sub-divisional station. The majority of police tasks in the area were focussed here and Major crime investigation was transferred here from Walthamstow and Waltham Abbey. The lone CID typist was also transferred to Chingford.
War memorial. This is on the site of the pound and lock up. This was erected in 1921 to commemorate the 242 local men who were killed in the Great War as the result of a public subscription. It was designed by WA Lewis in granite and it stands in a paved area within a garden. The inscription says ‘IN GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE OF THE MEN OF CHINGFORD WHO DIED IN THE SERVICE OF THEIR COUNTRY IN THE GREAT WAR 1914-1918 “WE ARE THE DEAD..... TO YOU FROM FAILING HANDS WE THROW THE TORCH BE YOURS TO HOLD IT HIGH” ', and also: ‘AND OF THOSE WHO LOST THEIR LIVES 1939 – 1945’.and ‘IN MEMORY OF THE FALLEN OF CHINGFORD 1945 TO PRESENT DAY, LEST WE FORGET’.
King’s Road
The name of the road was changed for the coronation of Edward VIII, previously Bull Lane, also called Station Street.
Chingford (C.E.) Infants School. This was built on a field given by the then Rector in 1856 and built at his expense as a single room. It was managed by the church until a management committee was se up in 1873. It was never a National School. The national school dated from 1865 and was built by the parish surveyor, Walter Stair. Originally a single room with doorway in the centre, it was enlarged with a gabled wing in 1887, by another in 1911 and subsequently. Behind is a teacher's house. Much of the school was burnt down in 1925 and rebuilt by Essex County Council, however it remained a church school.
2 Tiny building with a plaque which says: “Former Chingford Fire station. Locally Listed building. The original home of the Chingford voluntary fire brigade, erected in 1899 by Chingford Urban District Council for the sum of £300. It remained in use until replaced by a new fire station in the Ridgeway in the late 1920’s”.
Baptist church. The church has been here since 1929 and was extended in 1953. It was set up as the Chingford branch of The Particular Baptist church of Commercial Street, Whitechapel, which had moved to Walthamstow.
18 Chingford United Services Club
Our Lady of Grace and St Teresa of Avila Roman Catholic church which was established here in 1914 when Mass was celebrated in a private house and in an outbuilding of the Royal Forest Hotel. A hall was originally built in 1919. The nave of the church was built in 1930-1, using second hand bricks in the foundations from the original railway bridge over Kings Road which was then being demolished. The rest was completed in 1939 and the tower built in 1956. The new brick church has details in an Arts and Crafts tradition. There is an oak porch with carving by Donald Potter, a Chingford resident and pupil of Eric Gill. Inside are windows by Veronica Whall from 1939. It was reordered in, 2002 by Richard Hurley & Associates of Dublin. An inscription commemorates G. W.Martyn a Catholic convert who built the church.
Laundry Road
The southern half of Carbis Close is marked as Laundry Road on older maps and two sites are marked as Laundries. It is said that one laundry building remained in the late 1970s in other use.
Nevin Drive
Nevin was the first name of the Chair of the Urban District Council
Chingford Foundation School. This was Chingford County High School which was a co-educational, selective grammar school originally opened in 1938, in temporary premises in Yardley Lane by Essex County Council. In 1939 the school was evacuated to the west of England. The school moved to the current buildings in 1941 and it was later extended. In 1968 it became comprehensive as Chingford Senior High School and in 1986 took only the under 16s and was called Chingford School. In 1993 it became grant maintained and thus a new Sixth Form Centre was opened in 1997. In 2000 it became a Foundation School. In 2007 a new sports hall and staff room were built and has since became an ‘academy’.
Pole Hill
It is noted as Pole Hill on the Ordnance Survey map of 1904, and reflects the name of the old manor of Chingford which was ‘Poules’ in 1498 – that is 'Paul's’ because the estate it once belonged to the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's. Pole Hill is 300 feet above sea level and lies exactly on the Greenwich Meridian. It consists of London Clay capped by Claygate Beds.
Brickworks. This lay south of the obelisk and was established in the mid-19th and exposing Claygate Beds, It was brickworks was extensive, consisting of six kilns, an engine house, a 100 foot long drying house, and outbuildings. . The brickworks had closed by 1930
Brickworks. In 1914 a second brickworks opened slightly further down the hill, on Park Hill. The pit here yielded septarian nodules from the London Clay with numerous 50 million year old fossils - over 25 species of marine molluscs were found here. The brickworks had closed by 1930 and the land is now by housing. The fossils are in the Essex Field Club’s collection
Obelisk. This carries a plaque which says “This pillar was erected in 1824 under the direction of the Reverend John Pond, MA, Astronomer Royal. It was placed on the Greenwich Meridian and its purpose was to indicate the direction of true north from the transit telescope of the Royal Observatory. The Greenwich Meridian was changed in 1850 and adopted by international agreement in 1884 as the line of zero longitude passes 19 feet to the east of this pillar”. It is said you can see the laser beam from Greenwich observatory from this point. It also has a plaque recording the residence in the area of T.E.Lawrence.
Trig point obelisk. There is a smaller concrete obelisk, which marks the true modern position of the Greenwich Meridian and which is an Ordnance Survey trig point
Anti Aircraft Gun. The gun was set up here in the Great War because The Forest ridge provided clear views to the east, south and west, the gun and its associated barrack block was sited on the top of the hill. Despite the limited number of air raids, the loud sound of the gun became a feature in the area. After the war T.E.Lawrence was given space at one end of the barrack block. The gun was removed at the end of the war and the barrack block nearly 10 years later. It is said that it was used by teachers as a scout camp and that also Gothic furniture was made there. All that remains today are some concrete foundations hidden amongst dense vegetation
Hut. T.E. Lawrence. Lawrence had a friend named Vyvyan Richards who he had met at university who later taught at Bancroft's School. He and Lawrence camped on Pole Hill with Scouts over ten years. When Lawrence left the Army in 1919 he bought 18 acres on the hill. Here he built a hut and a small swimming pool there, and the idea was to set up a printing press– but this never happened. The structures were pulled down in 1930 by Chingford Urban District Council when it purchased the land. The hut was re-erected the hut in the grounds of The Warren which is now the City Corporation depot, where it remains
Ring of seven trees at the top planted by Lawrence
Pretoria Road
Drill Hall. This was built for the Chingford Rifle Club in 1938
Air Training Corps 27F Chingford Squadron. Air Defence Cadet Corps.
Air Commodore J.A Chamier set up the Air Defence Cadet Corps In 1938. The first 50 squadrons were founder squadrons and could put the letter F after the squadron number. Chingford squadron was the 27th and was formed by the Air League of the British Empire in 1938. The squadron continues successfully today
Station Road
North Chingford Methodist Church. In 1898 the Wanstead and Woodford Wesleyan Circuit wanted to build a church here but in 1905 the Clapton Circuit, erected an iron building. A church, designed by George Baines & Son, was built in 1927. It is a single space with a curved pews and large, light windows.
St Marys Roman Catholic Primary School. This is a one-form entry Catholic Primary School. The main school building dates from 1934
St.Egbert’s Way
St. Egbert’s College. This was founded by a Belgian religious order who came to England as refugees at the outbreak of the Great War. It was in the Ridgeway, Chingford from 1920 and run by the Brothers of Mercy. It closed in 1971.
The Green
Chingford Green. Chingford was once a hamlet in the Forest. .
2 Bull and Crown. This is now closed and is a restaurant. Built in 1899, with lots of terracotta by Taylor Walker to cater for Forest visitors. It was originally intended to be the railway hotel. It is on the site of an earlier pub of the same name. In the past it was called Black Bull, then Bull, then Bull’s Head, then Crown and More recently has been known as the Slug and Lettuce, then Molly K’s, and then The Bull on the Green
Kilgreanea/The Lodge. This is Chingford Lodge, now subdivided. Between 1798 and 1806 William Mellish kept staghounds here in a quadrangle of kennels said to have been among the most complete in the country. This house is a survival from this original establishment and was known
Chingford Almshouses. In 1859 four almshouses were erected by public subscription and a fifth house was added, again by public subscription, in Jubilee Year of 1887. Bequests in 1901 provided money for repairs and an annual stipend for the residents. Later the Charity Commission consolidated them and others into the Chingford Almshouse Charity. In 1957 they were sold and the almshouses built elsewhere.
Green Farm. This was on the is site of what is now the Assembly Hall
St.Peter & St.Paul. In 1840 the old parish church of All Saints was in such a bad state of repair that the then Rector and lord of the manor, Rev Robert Boothby Heathcote, decided to build a new church on Chingford Green. This was designed by Lewis Vulliamy, and it was built at the rector’s own expense. It is in brick and flint in a Gothic style and dominates the Green. In 1903 Sir Arthur Blomfield designed an extended chancel and nave aisles. A 12th font from the Old Church is here as is the 17th parish chest and 18th pulpit. The organ was built by Norman and Beard and installed in 1913. Three bells were brought from the Old Church, but were returned in 1930 and six new bells installed here. The St. Elizabeth Chapel was built in 1937. The East Window was designed by Clayton and Bell in 1913.There are two memorials to the Boothby Heathcote family. The church was bombed in 1940 and memorial windows were later installed.
Chingford Assembly Hall and Library. Built by Tooley & Foster in 1959 as a plain two-storey block. There is a mosaic mural of roundels with local allusions, by Wallscapes installed in 2000. It was built on the site of a previous smithy.
The Ridgeway
36 Ridgeway Evangelical Church in Ridgeway Hall
34 Chingford Fire Station. Built by Essex County Fire Brigade in 1956 and transferred to the London Fire Brigade in 1965
Town Hall and Municipal Buildings. Built as Chingford Town Hall, 1929 by Frederick Nash and H. T. Banner in red brick. Extension from 1959 by Tooley & Foster, brick-faced, with ranges round a rear quadrangle with fountain. If originally housed a council chamber on the first floor but was latterly used as housing. And the offices became the Engineering department in there. Now all flogged off for housing and partly demolished. Town Hall itself to be done up and kept.
Woodberry Way
This is built on the line of the tree lined drive that led to Sunnyside. The house which stood behind the Kings Head Pub was demolished in 1955
73 cottage built in the 19th was the gatekeeper's lodge to 'Sunnyside'
Woodland Road
82 Christian Science Church.. Built in 1933
Sources
Barry. Water supply in Chingford,
British History Online. Walthamstow
British Listed Buildings. Web site
Chingford As It Was,
Chingford Church of England Junior School. Web site
Chingford Foundation School. Web site
Chingford Green Conservation Area. Leaflet
Connor. Liverpool Street to Chingford
Corporation of the City of London. Epping Forest. Web site
East London Old and New
English Heritage. Web site
Enterprise House Garden. Web site
Essex Field Club. Web site
Field. Place names of London,
Greenwich Meridian, leaflet
Hayward. The Streets of Waltham Forest
Law and Barry. The Forest in Walthamstow and Chingford
London Encyclopaedia
London Gardens Online. Web site
Neale. Chingford in History
Old Egbertians, Web site
Peelers Progress. Web site
Pevsner and Cherry. Essex
Pond. The Chingford Line
Ray Chingford Past
Rider. Chingford Fire Brigade
Ridgeway Church. Web site
St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Primary School. Web site
St.Peter and St.Paul. Web site.
Victoria County History. Essex,
Walford.Village London,
The line running northwards from Highams Park Station turns north eastwards
Suburban area on hillsides above the Lea, with woodlands with monuments and old defence sites. Around Chingford Green and its surroundings are old municipal buildings, pubs and churches,
Post to the south Pimp's Hall
Post to the east Chingford
Post to the north Stewardstonebury
Post to the west Low Hall
Arabia Close
Called after Lawrence of Arabia, who lived for a while at Pole Hill
Balgonie Road
Balgonie was the name of nurseries which were once on this site. Balgonie itself is a town in Fife.
Blandford Crescent
The northern and western loop of the road has on the north side an iron retaining wall – which is presumably to keep Hawkwood from slipping onto the houses.
The Cottage. The road is on the site of this house. It was built in the early 1930s. There was a summer house at the top of the garden next to the cottage which remains in the forest. The house was demolished in the early 1960s.the grounds extended right up to the forest and the road shapes of Hawkesmouth and Blandford Crescent are said to have long existed
Enterprise House. Polish born architect, J. Spiwak, wanted to design something which would be a fitting memorial to his parents who died in Warsaw in 1944. He decided on housing for retired professional and business people in a hotel-type complex. The site was purchased in 1964 and The House was opened in 1969. The grounds were laid out as gardens by gardener/residents and these remain as private areas adjacent to the house
Buxton Road
The Buxton family were active in preserving Epping Forest ad some members were later verderers.
Housing here was begun around 1890 laid out on the edge of the Forest by Edmond Egan of Loughton for Jabez Balfour's Liberator Building Society. Building work ceased when this collapsed in 1892 and Balfour went to gaol. The south side of this road had already been built by this time. Houses were however abandoned and left unfinished, and it was five years before work restarted.
United Reformed Church Congregational Church. In the 1800s members of Abney Park Congregational Church moved to Chingford and wanted to set up a church here. The project was partly funded by James Spicer of Woodford Green and a site was site was acquired. The Church initially met from late 1888 in upper rooms of a shop until Spicer Hall was completed. The present Church building was opened in 1910 and the halls in 1923. The church was known as Chingford Congregational Church until 1972 when it came part of the United Reformed Church.
Spicer Hall. Designed by Rowland Plumbe and built as the first church here in 1890. It was sold and converted to housing in 2003-4. It is in orange brick with stone dressings and a timber-topped tower.
Church. Designed and built in 1910 by J.D. Mould. It is in duller red brick. The plan is a smaller version of that adopted by some major late 19 Congregational churches. Inside are large carved beams with boldly lettered texts. There is a stained glass window in memory of the funder, James Spicer.
Cambridge Road
Chingford Church of England Junior School. This is part of a federation with the infant school. It was built in 1975
Connaught Avenue
The Duke of Connaught was the first Ranger of Epping Forest for over sixty years.
Epping Glade
Hawkswood Nursery. Where T.E.Lawrence planted fruit trees as Arabian Orchard. The Nursery was owned by the local council and is now part of Organiclea’s market garden
Green Walk
Park Farm. This was on the north side of the road
2 The Rectory
Mornington Hall. Red brick single story hall, this was built in 1924 to use as a private school. A schoolhouse was built next door in 1930. It was a British restaurant in the Second World War and then a public hall. It is used by Chingford Amateur Dramatic and operatic society.
Carbis Cottage. Weather boarded cottage with central entrance and end stack. Probably 17th.
Hawkwood Crescent
115 Organiclea. This organisation began in 2001, on an acre of once-derelict allotment land situated on the edge of Epping Forest. A forest garden was planted with apple trees, Worcester berries and blackcurrant bushes. Structures included a pond, a willow dome and vegetables were planted using organic and permaculture principles. Surplus produce was sold on market stalls and through North Leyton Surestart. In 2007 Waltham Forest Council closed its plant nursery, sited just round the corner from Organiclea’s allotment site, and, following lease negotiations; in 2009 the Hawkwood steering group planted the first seedlings in the glasshouses. The group reminds us of the vegetable growing traditions of the Lea Valley.
King’s Head Hill
2b King's Head, at the crown of the hill simple two-storey pub but enlarged behind and many alterations which are made to look old. The earliest evidence of the pub is in 1782. Between 1805 and 1840 the Manorial Courts were held here. The 18th Century origins of the building are still recognisable
3-7 part-weather boarded cottages, early 19th.
Lock up. This was for local officers to hold prisoners until they could be taken to Waltham Abbey. It was demolished in 1888 and it was on the site of the current war memorial
Police Station. This originated in 1886 as a small stable built fir the opposite the village lock up. This was intended to be for the use of the visiting police inspector and a rest point for the mounted patrol from Waltham Abbey. A police station replaced it in 1888 next to the "Kings Head" public house/
Police Station. The 1888 police station was demolished and a new station built. This large brick and concrete building was opened in early 1977 as a new sub-divisional station. The majority of police tasks in the area were focussed here and Major crime investigation was transferred here from Walthamstow and Waltham Abbey. The lone CID typist was also transferred to Chingford.
War memorial. This is on the site of the pound and lock up. This was erected in 1921 to commemorate the 242 local men who were killed in the Great War as the result of a public subscription. It was designed by WA Lewis in granite and it stands in a paved area within a garden. The inscription says ‘IN GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE OF THE MEN OF CHINGFORD WHO DIED IN THE SERVICE OF THEIR COUNTRY IN THE GREAT WAR 1914-1918 “WE ARE THE DEAD..... TO YOU FROM FAILING HANDS WE THROW THE TORCH BE YOURS TO HOLD IT HIGH” ', and also: ‘AND OF THOSE WHO LOST THEIR LIVES 1939 – 1945’.and ‘IN MEMORY OF THE FALLEN OF CHINGFORD 1945 TO PRESENT DAY, LEST WE FORGET’.
King’s Road
The name of the road was changed for the coronation of Edward VIII, previously Bull Lane, also called Station Street.
Chingford (C.E.) Infants School. This was built on a field given by the then Rector in 1856 and built at his expense as a single room. It was managed by the church until a management committee was se up in 1873. It was never a National School. The national school dated from 1865 and was built by the parish surveyor, Walter Stair. Originally a single room with doorway in the centre, it was enlarged with a gabled wing in 1887, by another in 1911 and subsequently. Behind is a teacher's house. Much of the school was burnt down in 1925 and rebuilt by Essex County Council, however it remained a church school.
2 Tiny building with a plaque which says: “Former Chingford Fire station. Locally Listed building. The original home of the Chingford voluntary fire brigade, erected in 1899 by Chingford Urban District Council for the sum of £300. It remained in use until replaced by a new fire station in the Ridgeway in the late 1920’s”.
Baptist church. The church has been here since 1929 and was extended in 1953. It was set up as the Chingford branch of The Particular Baptist church of Commercial Street, Whitechapel, which had moved to Walthamstow.
18 Chingford United Services Club
Our Lady of Grace and St Teresa of Avila Roman Catholic church which was established here in 1914 when Mass was celebrated in a private house and in an outbuilding of the Royal Forest Hotel. A hall was originally built in 1919. The nave of the church was built in 1930-1, using second hand bricks in the foundations from the original railway bridge over Kings Road which was then being demolished. The rest was completed in 1939 and the tower built in 1956. The new brick church has details in an Arts and Crafts tradition. There is an oak porch with carving by Donald Potter, a Chingford resident and pupil of Eric Gill. Inside are windows by Veronica Whall from 1939. It was reordered in, 2002 by Richard Hurley & Associates of Dublin. An inscription commemorates G. W.Martyn a Catholic convert who built the church.
Laundry Road
The southern half of Carbis Close is marked as Laundry Road on older maps and two sites are marked as Laundries. It is said that one laundry building remained in the late 1970s in other use.
Nevin Drive
Nevin was the first name of the Chair of the Urban District Council
Chingford Foundation School. This was Chingford County High School which was a co-educational, selective grammar school originally opened in 1938, in temporary premises in Yardley Lane by Essex County Council. In 1939 the school was evacuated to the west of England. The school moved to the current buildings in 1941 and it was later extended. In 1968 it became comprehensive as Chingford Senior High School and in 1986 took only the under 16s and was called Chingford School. In 1993 it became grant maintained and thus a new Sixth Form Centre was opened in 1997. In 2000 it became a Foundation School. In 2007 a new sports hall and staff room were built and has since became an ‘academy’.
Pole Hill
It is noted as Pole Hill on the Ordnance Survey map of 1904, and reflects the name of the old manor of Chingford which was ‘Poules’ in 1498 – that is 'Paul's’ because the estate it once belonged to the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's. Pole Hill is 300 feet above sea level and lies exactly on the Greenwich Meridian. It consists of London Clay capped by Claygate Beds.
Brickworks. This lay south of the obelisk and was established in the mid-19th and exposing Claygate Beds, It was brickworks was extensive, consisting of six kilns, an engine house, a 100 foot long drying house, and outbuildings. . The brickworks had closed by 1930
Brickworks. In 1914 a second brickworks opened slightly further down the hill, on Park Hill. The pit here yielded septarian nodules from the London Clay with numerous 50 million year old fossils - over 25 species of marine molluscs were found here. The brickworks had closed by 1930 and the land is now by housing. The fossils are in the Essex Field Club’s collection
Obelisk. This carries a plaque which says “This pillar was erected in 1824 under the direction of the Reverend John Pond, MA, Astronomer Royal. It was placed on the Greenwich Meridian and its purpose was to indicate the direction of true north from the transit telescope of the Royal Observatory. The Greenwich Meridian was changed in 1850 and adopted by international agreement in 1884 as the line of zero longitude passes 19 feet to the east of this pillar”. It is said you can see the laser beam from Greenwich observatory from this point. It also has a plaque recording the residence in the area of T.E.Lawrence.
Trig point obelisk. There is a smaller concrete obelisk, which marks the true modern position of the Greenwich Meridian and which is an Ordnance Survey trig point
Anti Aircraft Gun. The gun was set up here in the Great War because The Forest ridge provided clear views to the east, south and west, the gun and its associated barrack block was sited on the top of the hill. Despite the limited number of air raids, the loud sound of the gun became a feature in the area. After the war T.E.Lawrence was given space at one end of the barrack block. The gun was removed at the end of the war and the barrack block nearly 10 years later. It is said that it was used by teachers as a scout camp and that also Gothic furniture was made there. All that remains today are some concrete foundations hidden amongst dense vegetation
Hut. T.E. Lawrence. Lawrence had a friend named Vyvyan Richards who he had met at university who later taught at Bancroft's School. He and Lawrence camped on Pole Hill with Scouts over ten years. When Lawrence left the Army in 1919 he bought 18 acres on the hill. Here he built a hut and a small swimming pool there, and the idea was to set up a printing press– but this never happened. The structures were pulled down in 1930 by Chingford Urban District Council when it purchased the land. The hut was re-erected the hut in the grounds of The Warren which is now the City Corporation depot, where it remains
Ring of seven trees at the top planted by Lawrence
Pretoria Road
Drill Hall. This was built for the Chingford Rifle Club in 1938
Air Training Corps 27F Chingford Squadron. Air Defence Cadet Corps.
Air Commodore J.A Chamier set up the Air Defence Cadet Corps In 1938. The first 50 squadrons were founder squadrons and could put the letter F after the squadron number. Chingford squadron was the 27th and was formed by the Air League of the British Empire in 1938. The squadron continues successfully today
Station Road
North Chingford Methodist Church. In 1898 the Wanstead and Woodford Wesleyan Circuit wanted to build a church here but in 1905 the Clapton Circuit, erected an iron building. A church, designed by George Baines & Son, was built in 1927. It is a single space with a curved pews and large, light windows.
St Marys Roman Catholic Primary School. This is a one-form entry Catholic Primary School. The main school building dates from 1934
St.Egbert’s Way
St. Egbert’s College. This was founded by a Belgian religious order who came to England as refugees at the outbreak of the Great War. It was in the Ridgeway, Chingford from 1920 and run by the Brothers of Mercy. It closed in 1971.
The Green
Chingford Green. Chingford was once a hamlet in the Forest. .
2 Bull and Crown. This is now closed and is a restaurant. Built in 1899, with lots of terracotta by Taylor Walker to cater for Forest visitors. It was originally intended to be the railway hotel. It is on the site of an earlier pub of the same name. In the past it was called Black Bull, then Bull, then Bull’s Head, then Crown and More recently has been known as the Slug and Lettuce, then Molly K’s, and then The Bull on the Green
Kilgreanea/The Lodge. This is Chingford Lodge, now subdivided. Between 1798 and 1806 William Mellish kept staghounds here in a quadrangle of kennels said to have been among the most complete in the country. This house is a survival from this original establishment and was known
Chingford Almshouses. In 1859 four almshouses were erected by public subscription and a fifth house was added, again by public subscription, in Jubilee Year of 1887. Bequests in 1901 provided money for repairs and an annual stipend for the residents. Later the Charity Commission consolidated them and others into the Chingford Almshouse Charity. In 1957 they were sold and the almshouses built elsewhere.
Green Farm. This was on the is site of what is now the Assembly Hall
St.Peter & St.Paul. In 1840 the old parish church of All Saints was in such a bad state of repair that the then Rector and lord of the manor, Rev Robert Boothby Heathcote, decided to build a new church on Chingford Green. This was designed by Lewis Vulliamy, and it was built at the rector’s own expense. It is in brick and flint in a Gothic style and dominates the Green. In 1903 Sir Arthur Blomfield designed an extended chancel and nave aisles. A 12th font from the Old Church is here as is the 17th parish chest and 18th pulpit. The organ was built by Norman and Beard and installed in 1913. Three bells were brought from the Old Church, but were returned in 1930 and six new bells installed here. The St. Elizabeth Chapel was built in 1937. The East Window was designed by Clayton and Bell in 1913.There are two memorials to the Boothby Heathcote family. The church was bombed in 1940 and memorial windows were later installed.
Chingford Assembly Hall and Library. Built by Tooley & Foster in 1959 as a plain two-storey block. There is a mosaic mural of roundels with local allusions, by Wallscapes installed in 2000. It was built on the site of a previous smithy.
The Ridgeway
36 Ridgeway Evangelical Church in Ridgeway Hall
34 Chingford Fire Station. Built by Essex County Fire Brigade in 1956 and transferred to the London Fire Brigade in 1965
Town Hall and Municipal Buildings. Built as Chingford Town Hall, 1929 by Frederick Nash and H. T. Banner in red brick. Extension from 1959 by Tooley & Foster, brick-faced, with ranges round a rear quadrangle with fountain. If originally housed a council chamber on the first floor but was latterly used as housing. And the offices became the Engineering department in there. Now all flogged off for housing and partly demolished. Town Hall itself to be done up and kept.
Woodberry Way
This is built on the line of the tree lined drive that led to Sunnyside. The house which stood behind the Kings Head Pub was demolished in 1955
73 cottage built in the 19th was the gatekeeper's lodge to 'Sunnyside'
Woodland Road
82 Christian Science Church.. Built in 1933
Sources
Barry. Water supply in Chingford,
British History Online. Walthamstow
British Listed Buildings. Web site
Chingford As It Was,
Chingford Church of England Junior School. Web site
Chingford Foundation School. Web site
Chingford Green Conservation Area. Leaflet
Connor. Liverpool Street to Chingford
Corporation of the City of London. Epping Forest. Web site
East London Old and New
English Heritage. Web site
Enterprise House Garden. Web site
Essex Field Club. Web site
Field. Place names of London,
Greenwich Meridian, leaflet
Hayward. The Streets of Waltham Forest
Law and Barry. The Forest in Walthamstow and Chingford
London Encyclopaedia
London Gardens Online. Web site
Neale. Chingford in History
Old Egbertians, Web site
Peelers Progress. Web site
Pevsner and Cherry. Essex
Pond. The Chingford Line
Ray Chingford Past
Rider. Chingford Fire Brigade
Ridgeway Church. Web site
St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Primary School. Web site
St.Peter and St.Paul. Web site.
Victoria County History. Essex,
Walford.Village London,
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