Protestant Nonconformity, p. Judaism, p. Education, p. Charities for the Poor, p. It is part of the London borough of Waltham Forest. The urban landscape is, however, relieved by the forest and by spacious parks, sports grounds, and reservoirs.
Walthamstow Municipal Borough. Argent, a maunch gules, on a chief azure a seamew volant between two anchors, argent. The ancient parish, comprising 4, a. Its boundary marched with Chingford to the north fn. The long straight southern boundary with Leyton is discussed elsewhere.
The Walthamstow Slip 98 a. Walthamstow became an urban sanitary district in and a municipal borough in In the borough comprised 4, a. Unless otherwise stated that year is the terminal point of this article.
The land rises from the Lea to over ft. The steep mound of Higham Hill is 75 ft. Gravel terraces border the marshland alluvium, while farther east is mixed gravel and London clay. The river Ching, called the Bourne in , fn. The Fleet river, known at different periods as Papermill, Coppermill, or Waterworks river, branched from the Lea at Fleetmouth, fn. Most of Moor ditch was piped in the s. In Leyton it was called the Phillebrook.
It now runs underground. The recorded population in was After it doubled in each decade reaching 95, in During the s Walthamstow was growing faster than any other town of its size except East Ham. Numbers had begun to decline by , fn. In most of the population lived south of Higham Hill and Hale End. Edward's chapel and Salisbury Hall, while Church End fn.
Mary's church. King's End c. At that period settlement seems to have been increasing in Marsh Street. Walthamstow's roads evolved on a gridiron plan. Three east-west routes intersected three northsouth routes. Hoe 'ridge' Street is recorded in Blackhorse Lane was a 'coach lane' by , fn. The third and most easterly north-south route was close to the forest.
From Chingford, Green Lane , fn. The chief east-west route came from Epping and beyond through Walthamstow to Tottenham Mdx. It emerged from the forest as Hangerstrete , later Hagger Lane, leading into Clay Street , fn. Marsh Street was renamed High Street in , fn. Around Church End a network of lanes, alleys, and footpaths led from Hoe Street, Clay Street, Wood Street, and the south of the parish to the church, rectory, vicarage, and Church common field.
There was apparently a bridge over the Lea at Higham Hill in , fn. There was a ferry there by , called Boulton's in the 18th century and Games's in the late 19th century. The ferry-house, which belonged to Salisbury Hall manor, stood on the west bank and was rebuilt about The East London Waterworks Co. A footpath and footbridge to Wild marsh, Tottenham Mdx.
The most important Lea crossing was to Tottenham Mdx. It required two bridges in Walthamstow, over the Fleet and the Lea. In Ralph de Tony was required to make two bridges in Horseholme and Smethemerse, fn. In 'Mill Bridge' was one of the most useful over the Lea. The ferry-house, which was probably rebuilt soon after , fn. In Sir William Maynard rebuilt the main bridge as a private toll-bridge for horses and carriages.
Constructed of timber with iron abutments, it was called Ferry Bridge or Hillyer's Turnpike from Sacheverell Hillyer, the ferryman and landlord of the inn. Viscount Maynard repaired Ferry Bridge in Iron trestles replaced the timber ones in The old bridge was demolished in when the present Ferry Lane bridge was built a little downstream. An account of that early crossing place from Walthamstow and Leyton to Clapton Mdx.
It still existed in By the 17th century Walthamstow was an area of large houses mainly occupied by London merchants, bankers, and public officials.
Their well-tended gardens and parks were set in a landscape of farmland, forest, and marsh. The village centre developed around St. As part of the suburban growth of London, Walthamstow significantly increased in population and was incorporated as a municipal borough in It has formed part of Greater London since Walthamstow is recorded c. At one point Walthamstow was just a culmination of five small villages, and affairs were discussed at Vestry House , acting as the first town hall.
In it had grown to the size of a small suburb and a town hall was built in Orford Road from which affairs of the village were run which now takes place in Forest Road - since Until the 19th century it was largely rural, with a small village centre now Walthamstow Village — see below and a number of large estates. The main route through the district was the aforementioned Hoe Street. Additionally, there were various smaller lanes, crossing the town.
The road now known as Forest Road was originally called Clay Street. Shernhall Street is an ancient route, as is Wood Street, to the east. In the s Sir William Batten , Surveyor of the Navy, and his wife had a house here where, according to Samuel Pepys , they lived "like princes" and cultivated a vineyard. 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.
There is a lantern at the top of the tower, which also contains a spiral staircase. 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 , A. Roe's aircraft took to the air from Walthamstow Marshes. It was the first all-British aircraft 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. From Walthamstow was an urban district and from a municipal borough in Essex. In the population of the borough, covering an area of 4, acres None of the postal district names or codes was changed at this time e. Walthamstow is bordered to the north by Chingford , south by Leyton and Leytonstone , east by the southern reaches of Epping Forest at Woodford and west by Tottenham and the River Lea valley.
Walthamstow Village conservation area is a peaceful and attractive district to the east of what has become the commercial centre of Walthamstow. Orford Road is the main route through the district, though even this is a quiet thoroughfare by the standards of London.
The village has a small selection of specialist shops, pubs and restaurants, and house prices tend to be higher in the streets of this neighbourhood. It was voted best urban village in London by Time Out magazine in Upper Walthamstow is to the east of Walthamstow Village.
The area's main thoroughfare is Wood Street, which has a good selection of shops and local businesses, and is served by railway, with a station on the Liverpool Street to Chingford line.
It re-opened under new independent management in as the Rio Cinema, but this was short lived and it closed in Walthamstow has a wide variety of housing stock, but the vast majority of residential property was built in the early 20th century. From Coppermill Lane in the west next to the marshes , to Wood Street in the east, there are scores of terraced streets dating to the Edwardian era and the s.
These were developed as affordable housing for the working classes in the early part of the 20th century. Stringent means of economy, including discontinuing payment of rents, reduced the rate from 5 s.
In the parish's responsibility for the poor was taken over by the West Ham poor law union. The workhouse, later called the Vestry House and Armoury, now the museum, was built in —1 on an acre of land in Buryfield. The cost was met by a loan and by the sale of the capital of the Turner and Compton charities. A large workroom with a loft room over it was added to the workhouse in The vestry room by the main south entrance was extended into the front yard in From to the vestry employed a salaried master and mistress.
From to the poor were usually farmed to contractors at weekly rates varying from 2 s. In an agreement to farm the poor on the product of two 7 d.
From the vestry employed a qualified salaried master and mistress, supervised by the parish officers and a regular visiting committee. The rules required the men and boys to garden, pick oakum, and spin hemp or flax; the women and girls to do the domestic work, and spin flax for sheeting, hemp for sacks, and yarn for stockings to be knitted for the house.
The master appointed in proposed to employ the poor in winding cotton for the tallow-chandler. The problem of employment was, however, never solved. In a visiting committee found the inmates with no occupation but household and garden tasks. When they were again found idle in the able-bodied men were sent to work in West Ham workhouse fn. In oakum was ordered. The diet laid down in was second bread, beer, and meat 3 times a week, with no stint of other things, but no waste.
Some teaching was provided for the children in the house. From to the number of inmates averaged 31, mainly women and children; men below 60 were rare unless sick or incapacitated. In there were 37 occupants, though there were beds for 50 and, since the enlargement of room for 80 if more beds were provided. In , when there were 48 in the house, it was described as much too small, in bad condition, and incapable of holding more, but by there were 80 inmates. In the house was taken over by the West Ham guardians, who kept it open, with those of Woodford and West Ham, to serve the union until the new union house at Leytonstone was completed.
In there were 77 inmates awaiting transfer. After their transfer the workhouse building was divided. The vestry and parish officers, and later the local board, occupied the older part of it until the town hall was built, fn. The building became vested in the Walthamstow charity trustees, who let the Vestry House from to to the Literary and Scientific Institute and then to private tenants.
In Miss C. Demain Saunders gave the remainder of her lease, which the trustees extended, to the corporation, so that the Vestry House might become a museum of local history and antiquities, which was opened in The corporation acquired the lease of the armoury also in , and opened it as an extension to the museum in The museum is a dignified two-storey building of brown stock brick with hipped tile roofs.
Its plan is irregular as a result of the extensions of and The south front was originally symmetrical and of five bays, with segmental-headed sash windows and a central doorway.
The doorway survives with, above it, a stone tablet inscribed 'This house erected An. Some original 18th-century panelling and staircases remain, but the Tudor and Jacobean panelling and chimneypiece in the former armoury came from Essex Hall after its demolition in The lateth-century doorcase with half-round pilasters, flat hood, and copper-framed fan-light now in the east wall of the armoury came from Church Hill House, demolished in In the parish owned a house adjoining the churchyard.
Waste on either side of it was granted to the parish and churchwardens in , and by the churchwardens held in trust for the poor buildings on both sides of the south gate of the church, fn.
In the vestry ordered their back doors, opening upon the churchyard, to be stopped up, and decided that when the cottages became vacant or the occupants could be moved to the Monoux alms-houses, they should be demolished and the south side of the churchyard fenced. These conditions were satisfied in , when the cottages were pulled down. The vestry's most important civil responsibility after was the care of parish roads.
One of its members acted as treasurer. The spread of speculative building in the s soon presented the vestry with sanitary problems, and a nuisances removal committee was appointed some time before , comprising the members of the parish highway board with additional members elected by the vestry.
This committee appointed an inspector and was attended, unpaid, by the clerk to the highway board. In the vestry combined the two authorities by forming an enlarged highway board at whose monthly meetings the nuisances and highway business was dealt with in turn. In the clerk advised the board that in view of the Sanitary Act, , he considered their powers as nuisance authority to be at an end, since they had become vested in the West Ham guardians.
For two years the guardians appointed a small nuisance removal committee, fn. In the vestry constituted the south-east corner of the parish, roughly eastward of Church End and Pig Alley now Beulah Path , a special drainage district. Later in the same year, following the Sanitary Act, , the vestry resumed its powers as sanitary authority, annually thereafter electing a committee composed of the members of the highway board to exercise them in the whole parish outside the special drainage district.
The committee might not, however, borrow money without the vestry's consent. The highway board maintained some 21 miles of road on an average rate of 6 d.
The cost of sewers laid by the board was met by special rates levied on the roads served. During an outbreak of cholera in the board met weekly, and appointed a temporary highways assistant to enable the assistant surveyor, who was also the nuisances inspector, to concentrate on his sanitary duties. In the special drainage district was dissolved and the civil parish constituted as an urban sanitary district, excluding the Walthamstow Slip, which became incorporated in the Leyton urban sanitary district.
The district was governed by a local board of health of 12 members, increased to 18 in , when the district was divided into 4 wards. Another wing was added in —1. The ornate mid-Victorian front of the town hall still survives as part of Connaught Hospital.
The vestry and highway board clerk, William Houghton, became the local board's part-time clerk. Some clerical help was authorized in , and in , when the clerk became also solicitor to the board, a full-time assistant clerk and accountant was appointed. But the clerk continued to act part-time and to be entitled to various fees and costs. A majority on the board consistently opposed a full-time appointment. Cluff, its chief advocate, in mustered only 3 supporters.
The resistance may have been influenced by regard for the Houghton family and their long professional association with local affairs.
A part-time professional surveyor was appointed in ; but the parish surveyor employed full-time by the vestry and parish highway board since before fn. When the part-time surveyor resigned in the board, urged by Cluff, appointed in a resident, full-time surveyor, who also took over the post of inspector of nuisances. Responsibility for the district's sewerage schemes led to redesignation of the appointment as engineer, surveyor, and inspector in , when a full-time assistant inspector was authorized and office staff provided.
From the engineer was relieved of the inspector's duties entirely, and a separate appointment made. The engineer's office was reorganized in , to administer the growing direct labour force. The board's rate collector was paid on commission. A second collector was appointed from , and in fixed salaries replaced payment by commission.
A part-time medical officer was appointed from A bank manager acted as treasurer to the board. The press were admitted to the board's meetings from the first. For five years the board's minutes record nothing but harmony among its members. But after the election of W. Cluff fn. Cluff proposed publication of the board's accounts, proper custody of its records, and admission of ratepayers as spectators at board meetings.
He pressed for legal action against builders contravening the by-laws, and for the use of direct labour on the board's own work. As returning officer in he criticized mal-practices at a local election. Cluff had a considerable following outside the board. In a public meeting of ratepayers endorsed the course adopted by him and his two most constant supporters; yet in the board's chairman, W.
Whittingham, condemned them as a minority aiming to 'usurp the authority which must repose in the majority'. Nevertheless, by Cluff's persistence had secured acceptance of all the most important matters raised by him, except the appointment of a full-time clerk.
The board inherited from the parish highway board the unmade roads and poor drainage of earlier unrestricted developments, notably in the Church common area, and on the Tower Hamlets estate.
At the same time speculative building was accelerating. The product of 1 d. The number of houses in the district rose from 2, in to 7, in By the board had considered some 2, applications, the largest one for houses in Leucha Road in Over houses a year were being built by , falling to about a year by Differences between the board and builders came to a head in —8, when the surveyor reported persistent breaches of the regulations.
Notices were served on 31 builders; discussions with them followed, minor adjustments of the by-laws were agreed, and from the surveyor reported improved standards. The board's schemes for sewage disposal are described below.
By the board was responsible for over 50 miles of roads. Between and 20 miles of gravel paths were replaced by asphalt or flagged pavements. The board bought a site for an isolation hospital, provided a public library, reorganized the fire service, increased recreation space, and took the first steps towards providing baths, technical education, and a local electricity supply.
It initiated the use of direct labour in refuse collection and other municipal works, and by attacking the use of polluted wells and pressing for their replacement by mains supplies reduced the incidence of typhoid. Under the Local Government Act, , the local board was replaced in by an urban district council of 18 members representing 4 wards.
The membership was increased to 22 in when a fifth ward was created, to 27 in , and to 33 in , when the number of wards was increased to 6. By the s local elections were being fought on party lines. From to the U.
McSheedy councillor — , a fiery young Irishman who was editor of the Walthamstow Reporter , and who was the storm centre of local politics at that period. The Walthamstow Guardian , supporting the Moderates, exploited the fear of Socialism engendered by contemporary events in West Ham. They increased their representation in , and in gained control of the council.
They never lost it, though their majority was sometimes very small.
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