Walthamstow

Walthamstow is recorded c. 1075 as Wilcumestowe ("the Place of Welcome") and in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Wilcumestou.[5]

St Mary's Church, the oldest building in Walthamstow, dating as far back as the 13th century

The Domesday Book describes Wilcumestou as a manor owned by the Anglo-Saxon nobleman Earl Waltheof of Huntingdon and Northumbria before the Norman conquest of 1066. After the execution of Earl Waltheof, the property of the land passed to his wife, Countess Judith, also known as Judith of Lens, a niece of William the Conqueror. The Domesday Book records 36 villeins, 25 bordars and 4 slaves living in the manor in 1086. Alice, daughter of Earl Waltheof and Countess Judith, inherited Walthamstow. She married the Norman nobleman Ralph de Tosny or Toeni (also known as Raoul IV de Conches) in 1103. When her husband died, c. 1126 , Alice gave the church of Walthamstow to the Priors of the Holy Trinity based in Aldgate, London.

King John stayed in Walthamstow for two nights in February 1208.

In the 1660s Sir William Batten, Surveyor of the Navy, and his wife Elizabeth Woodcocke had a house in Wood Street where, according to Samuel Pepys, Batten lived "like a prince"[6] and cultivated a vineyard. The Vestry House, now the Vestry House Museum, was used as the first town hall.

The influential textile designer and craftsman William Morris was born in Walthamstow in 1834. The Georgian mansion where he lived as a teenager houses the William Morris Gallery. By 1870 Walthamstow had grown to the size of a small suburb and a new town hall was built in Orford Road from which affairs of the village were run. A new town hall designed by architect Philip Dalton Hepworth in the Nordic Classical style was built between 1938 and 1942.

Until the late 19th century Walthamstow was largely rural, with a small village centre (now Walthamstow Village) and a number of large estates. The main route through the district was Hoe Street. There were various smaller lanes crossing the town. The road now known as Forest Road was originally called Clay Street. Further south, the High Street was named Marsh Street, and led from the original settlement out to the marshes. Shernhall Street is an ancient route, as is Wood Street, to the east.[8]

With the advent of the railways and the ensuing suburbanisation in the late 19th century, Walthamstow experienced a large growth in population and speculative building.[9]

The Lighthouse Methodist Church which dates from 1893 is situated on Markhouse Road, on the corner of Downsfield Road. There is a lantern at the top of the tower, which also contains a spiral staircase. The church was erected because of the generosity of Captain David King of the shipbuilding firm of Bullard King & Co which also ran the Natal Direct Shipping Line, which ran ships direct from London to Durban without stopping at the Cape.

Former tramworks on Hatherley Mews dating to the 1880s; these converted stables were used for London's electric trams until 1952

In 1885, John Kemp Starley, originally from Church Hill in Walthamstow, designed the first modern bicycle,[10] and in 1892, Frederick Bremer built the first British motorcar in a workshop in his garden, at Connaught Road. The vehicle is on display at the Vestry House Museum in Walthamstow.[11]

The LGOC X-type and B-type buses were built at Blackhorse Lane from October 1908 onwards. The B-type is considered one of the first mass-production buses. The manufacturing operation later became AEC, famous as the manufacturer of many of London's buses. On 13 June 1909, A. V. Roe's aircraft took to the air from Walthamstow Marshes. It was the first all-British aircraft[12] and was given the ominous nickname of the "Yellow Terror" but officially carried the name Avro1. Roe later founded the Avro aircraft company, which later built the acclaimed Avro Lancaster.

Walthamstow Borough Corporation had been authorised in 1904 to supply electricity to the Borough. The power station in Exeter Street had three brick chimneys and an array of wooden cooling towers.[13] In 1923 the revenue to the Borough from sales of electricity was £109,909.[14] Upon nationalisation of the electricity industry in 1948 ownership of the station passed to the British Electricity Authority and later to the Central Electricity Generating Board. The CEGB closed the station in 1967 when the thermal efficiency was 9.30 per cent.[15][16] It was subsequently demolished.

From 1894 the Municipal Borough of Walthamstow was an urban district and from 1929 a municipal borough in Essex. In 1931 the population of the borough, covering an area of 4,342 acres (1,757 hectares), peaked at 132,972.[17] In 1965 the borough was abolished and its former area merged with that of the Municipal Borough of Chingford and the Municipal Borough of Leyton to form the London Borough of Waltham Forest in Greater London.[17] Other places in east London formerly of the county of Essex, such as Ilford and Romford were placed into London Boroughs along with Walthamstow. None of the postal district names or codes was changed at this time (e.g. Ilford remained Ilford, Essex, and Walthamstow remained London E17).

Central Parade on the corner of Hoe Street and Church Hill – this was designed by F. G. Southgate and built in 1957 on the site of a 1944 war-era bomb attack that killed 22 people

Since the 2012 Summer Olympics, the town has become increasingly popular mostly as a result of gentrification. Local property prices increased at a high rate of 22.3% from 2013 to 2014, compared to London's average of 17.8%.[18] It has turned Walthamstow into a 'trendy' town similar to Shoreditch. The leafy Walthamstow Village in particular has become sought-after by buyers.[19]

On 29 May 2015, a regular local unicyclist was hit and dragged under by a double decker route 212 bus in Hoe Street. Locals numbering up to 100 people helped to pull the bus off the unicyclist.[20][21] The MP for Walthamstow, Stella Creasy, later said she was "proud" of the community for saving the unicyclist's life.[22]

Walthamstow is served by trains on the London Underground, London Overground and National Rail networks.

Walthamstow Central is the area's busiest interchange.[36][37] It is the northern terminus of the London Underground Victoria line, which provides the area with a direct connection to Tottenham, the West End and Brixton. The station is also served by London Overground services between London Liverpool Street and Chingford, via Hackney Downs.

There is an out-of-station interchange with Walthamstow Queen's Road, which is on the London Overground between Gospel Oak and Barking.

Blackhorse Road is located to the west of Walthamstow; it is also served by Victoria line trains and London Overground trains between Gospel Oak and Barking.

Other stations include St James Street and Wood Street, on the London Overground between Liverpool Street and Chingford.

Lea Bridge is also nearby, served by Greater Anglia trains between Stratford and Bishop's Stortford, via Tottenham Hale and Harlow, with onward connections to Stansted Airport.

All railway stations in the area are in London fare zone 3, except for Wood Street which is in zone 4.[38]

London Buses routes 20, 34, 55, 58, 69, 97, 123, 158, 212, 215, 230, 257, 275, 357, 675, W11, W12, W15, W16, W19 and night routes N26, N38 and N73 serve the area.[39][40]

Walthamstow bus station is next to Walthamstow Central station, along Selborne Road.

Several arterial routes pass through Walthamstow which link the district to other areas in London and the East of England.

To the north, the A406 (North Circular) runs east–west around Walthamstow. The road links the district to Ilford, the M11 (for Stansted Airport) and London City Airport to the east. To the west, the North Circular passes through Edmonton, Finchley and Brent Cross en route to Chiswick. The route meets the M1 and M4 motorways (for Luton and Heathrow airports).

To the southeast of nearby Leytonstone, the A12 (Eastern Avenue) carries traffic northeast towards the M25, Romford, and destinations in Essex and Suffolk. Southwest, the A12 passes around Stratford and Hackney Wick before terminating in Poplar.

Other routes include:

• A104 (Lea Bridge Road) – southwest to Lea Bridge and Clapton, northeast to the A406 (North Circular), Buckhurst Hill and Epping Forest.
• A112 (Hoe Street/Chingford Road) – southbound to Leyton, Stratford and London City Airport, northbound to the A406 (North Circular), Chingford and Waltham Abbey.
• A1006 – north–south through Walthamstow carried by Church Road, Markhouse Road, St James's Street and Blackhorse Road.
• A503 (Forest Road) – runs east–west through Walthamstow from the A406 (North Circular) in the east to Tottenham, Holloway and Camden Town to the west.

The London Borough of Waltham Forest monitors kerbside and roadside Nitrogen Dioxide (NO₂) levels in Walthamstow.

To the north of Walthamstow, at the Crooked Billet Roundabout (North Circular), there is an automatic monitoring site which recorded an average NO₂ concentration of 61.1μg/m3 (micrograms per cubic metre) in 2017. This fails to meet the UK National Air Quality Objective set by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) at 40μg/m3.[41]

Alternative roadside monitoring sites along Hoe Street and Selborne Road also failed to meet the UK National Air Quality Objective, with one diffusion tube on Selborne Road recording an annual average NO₂ concentration of 61.0μg/m3.[41]

Transport for London (TfL) and the London Borough of Waltham Forest provide cycling infrastructure in Walthamstow. In 2014, cyclists made up approximately 8.41% of general traffic across the Borough, and in the same year, the Borough was awarded a "Mini Holland" grant by the Mayor of London to improve infrastructure and cycle routes across Walthamstow.[42][43]

Cycling routes include:

• Quietway 2 – begins at Walthamstow Central and runs along low-traffic streets to Bloomsbury, via Walthamstow Marshes, Clapton, Hackney Central, Angel and Clerkenwell. The route is unbroken and signposted, but indirect.[44]
• Lea Bridge Road Cycle Route – from Leytonstone to Clapton via Lea Bridge. The route runs on segregated cycle track parallel to the A104.[43]
• Forest Road Cycle Route – from Walthamstow to Tottenham on cycle lanes and tracks adjacent to the A503.[43]

The River Lea towpath is also nearby, which provides a direct, traffic-free cycle link from Walthamstow Marshes to Hackney Wick and Stratford to the south, and Tottenham Hale, Enfield Lock, Hertford and Harlow to the north. The towpath also carries National Cycle Route 1 (NCR 1), an unbroken, signposted cycle route from Dover to the Shetland Islands, which in North London carries cyclists from Canary Wharf to Enfield Lock via Victoria Park and Walthamstow Marshes. The route is a shared-use path maintained by the Canal and River Trust and Sustrans.[45][46]

Walthamstow's links with William Morris and art have led to an increasing number of street art and murals painted on public buildings. Some examples of street art in Walthamstow are shown below:

• 
  Hawthorne Road
• 
  Chingford Road
• 
  West Avenue
• 
  Hoe Street
• 
  Hoe Street
• 
  Wood Street
• 
  Wood Street
• 
  Wood Street

The Walthamstow Pumphouse Museum, a Grade II listed building

The newly restored historic neon sign of the Walthamstow Stadium in 2016

An early British film studio the Walthamstow Studios operated in the area between 1914 and 1930.

The EMD (Granada) Walthamstow (formerly the Granada) is a Grade II listed cinema building[48] in Hoe Street. The cinema also operated as a live music venue, with concerts by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, John Coltrane, Little Richard, Gene Vincent, Jerry Lee Lewis, Alex Paterson, Johnny Cash, James Brown, The Who, Roy Orbison and Buddy Holly.[49] It closed in 2003 when it was sold to the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG), which sought permission for a change of use to a place of worship.

Many members of the local community opposed and successfully campaigned against the UCKG plans. Comedian and presenter Griff Rhys Jones, actor Paul McGann and writer Alain de Botton were among the famous names who backed local residents in asking the local authority to stop plans to convert the building into a church.

The Waltham Forest Film Society and Campaign to Save Our Cinema [50] was the focal point for local campaigners.

UCKG failed to gain planning permission to convert the building from Waltham Forest Council and later from the then Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles. In 2014 the building was sold to a pub company[51] who set up a bar in the grand foyer and began bringing it back into use as a venue. In 2019 Waltham Forest Council purchased the former auditorium with the intention of opening it as an entertainment venue in 2022.[52]

The Empire cinema,[53] a separate new multiplex, opened in December 2014 on Walthamstow market. It closed on 7 July 2023 when the chain went into administration.[54] The cinema was subsequently badly damaged, and all the screens ripped, during an illegal rave in September 2023.[55]

• Walthamstow F.C.
• Walthamstow Avenue F.C. (defunct club located at Green Pond Road Stadium)
• Walthamstow Avenue & Pennant
• Waltham Forest Hockey Club
• Haringey & Waltham Development F.C.
• Walthamstow Cricket Club[56]