Towards EDMONTON

1929. Arch.FRANK NASH and H.T. BONNER. Baroque/WREN style.

Municipal offices of the  URBAN DISTRICT COUNCIL, then, from 1938: HQ of the  MUNICIPAL BOROUGH.

In 1960 a 2 storey block, the MUNICIPAL OFFICES, added to the SW. After being used by the LBWF for years, in 2013, it the TOWN HALL was converted to residential use, and the 1960s offices de Oli shed and redeveloped.

This has been common grazing since Saxon times. However, the parallel ridges on the ground are probably signs that it was used for strip farming until early 19th c. The park appears small as you enter; there are some seats and a couple of flowerbeds planted with Japanese anemone, an unusual but effective choice. At the apparent end of the park is a gate opening onto an area of grass backed by woodland; from there a path leads down a steep hill to more woodland at the bottom. From the top, there are good views over William Girling Reservoir and King George's Reservoir. The ornamental iron entrance gates have a design incorporating the park's name and two leaping deer. Mansfield, Ridgeway and Ainslie Wood form part of the David Beckham trail put out by the Council some years ago.

Caroline's Mount or the Mount Caroline Estate, so-called after the wife of the Admiral who owned the land. Mount Caroline house, which was pulled down to make way for the new cemetery, was one of the oldest and largest houses in the parish, which apparently had had 'a nice garden at the back and ancient outbuildings'.

This is a sister cemetery to ABNEY PARK, STOKE NEWINGTON, which opened in response to the crises in the burial conditions in inner London. When it inherited the mantle of BUNHILL FIELDS, CITY OF LONDON, as a cemetery for Non-Conformists, allowing people of all branches of Christianity to be buried here.
When the CM CEMETERY was created, it was the first new site open under the new regime (a Joint Stock Co. (now a Corporation or Limited Co)

But, when the company collapsed in the 1970s, the LBWF took over.

GATES, RAILINGS,PIERS survive, but the original CHAPEL and GATE LODGES have gone.

Among those buried here are the sculptor John Bacon (d.1799) whose Chatham Memorial can be found in Westminster Abbey and his memorials in St Paul’s include that of Samuel Johnson; and Benjamin Pollock (d.1937), the toy theatre maker, who set up Pollock’s Toy Shop in Hoxton. One of the largest funerals seen here in recent years was that of East End gangster Ronnie Kray in 1995 which processed to Chingford Mount from St Matthew's church in Bethnal Green ; Frances Kray, the wife of his brother Reggie was also buried here in 1967.

This is the OLD CHURCH, as it is commonly know. The present building is 13th c., although there is a (very low) 12th c. North Wall DOOR (4 1/2 feet tall ). Evidence of Norman origins are in the Nave. The Tower is 14thc. The Chancel, 15th c. The Porch dates from 1547, and it was paid by pawning the church silver.

A 3 bay aisles nave, with clerestory. Lower chancel. Perpendicular, with tracery.

Around the piers, an arcade of pointed arches.

Outside, rubble stone, 16th c. brick, partly rendered, tile pitched roof.

The king post roof is early 20th c. 

As by the 1840s the ivy was climbing its walls and roof its became known as the GREEN CHURCH. It  became as well famous for ROMANTIC ART (ASHMOLEAN MJSEUM), as it had fallen into such state of deterioration that it became necessary to abandon it, falling out of any use until its restoration in 1930 (by arch.CHARLES WINMILL, with funding by LOUISA HEATHCOTE, of FRIDAY HILL).

In the Chancel sculptures and wall monument to HEATHCOTES LEGHS and othe local families.

2005.Further restoration has taken place, and now it stands as beautiful reminder of past times.
With the HALL, they are used for various activities (choir rehearsals, keep fit classes, Guides and Brownies, slimming. World…)

This district receives the name of  CAROLINE MOUNT.

A shopping area, a crossroads at the foot of the hill (MERRY HILL, CHURCH HILL, are historical names) leading to the OLD CHURCH.

Farmland until de 1850s (CHERRYDOWN,  NORMANSHIRE, are the names of old farms).

With the arrival of the railways, an inn (PRINCE ALBERT) was built, and houses and shops, and finallalynthe tramway was extended in 1904 to ALBERT CORNER

Attention, attention, you can divert alongside HALL LANE Westwards:

Towards the reservoirs, that is the VALLEY OF THE LEA RIVER

See CHURCH PATH

In 1873 the East London Waterworks Company acquired a water mill in what is now Lower Hall Lane, the mill was demolished and a turbine house built over the mill stream. In 1885 a well was sunk through the London Clay, Reading Beds, Thanet Sand and into the underlying Chalk which it encountered at a depth of 141 feet. The well continued through the Chalk, with its characteristic bands of flints, and terminated at a depth of 451 feet. It was an artesian well which means that the water, which was said to be of exceptional purity, initially filled the entire well and overflowed at the surface. Due to the shape of the London Basin, water in the permeable Chalk beneath London (originally rain water that has fallen on the North Downs and the Chilterns) is confined under pressure beneath the London Clay and when released forms an artesian well. Such was the success of this well that a second well was sunk into the Chalk some years later.

A water mill was recorded here at Domesday. In the 18^th it was a fulling mill, but also ground for flour and cutlery.

In 1895 a delightful red brick pumping station was built and the whole pumping station complex, in a variant of the style popularised by Norman Shaw, with its TURBINE HOUSE  (low half- timbered building) and railings, is now a listed building. It is situated near the old toll bridge in Lower Hall Lane. In 2007 planning consent was granted for the conversion of the disused pumping station into flats. There was a horizontal quadruple-expansion steam engine by John Cochrane, which pumped drinking water from a borehole.

The building is in two ownerships. Part of the building is being converted for residential use; part remains for utility use. The roof to the tower section is in very poor condition and rainwater goods require repair. Enforcement action for unauthorised works is ongoing. The Local Authority and Historic England are liaising with the owners to improve the condition and management of the buildings and wider site.

The Cork Tree Retail Park in South Chingford was once the site of the Cork Manufacturing Company. Nothing is left of the works, but a cork oak, planted as an arboreal signpost over a century ago does survive in this most unlikely corner just off London’s thundering North Circular Road. Remarkably, the tree is thriving, showing how well adapted this Mediterranean species is to life in these northern isles, as well as a clear propensity to shrug off urban pollution.

Freed from tolls as a result of action by the CORPORATION OF LONDON, 1877

This hall belonged to the manor of Chingford St. Pauls which had belonged to the Dean and Chapter before 1066. In 1544 it went to the Crown and then was privately owned. The manor house of Chingford St. Pauls was noted in the mid-13^th as a hall with outbuildings, including a chapel and a granary enclosed with a moat.  In 1709 a new owner restored the building however in the 19^th this was replaced by a small yellow brick building used as offices by the Cork Company.  The moat was extant until the Second World War.

This ferry had been the crossing of the Lea which was replaced by a toll bridge
Cooks Ferry inn – a big music pub where many headline bands played. Demolished

The first road through here ran along Angel Road and Hall Lane (now A406 to the west and A1009 to the east). It crossed the river on Bleak Hall Bridge, and passed a pub named Cook's Ferry.

North Circular Road and the original viaduct were built in the 1920s. This used Angel Road, and turned Hall Lane into a minor turning. There was another turning at Towpath Road.

The area became more industrial. In the 1960s, Harbert Road was built, which branched off from Hall Lane and then looped under the viaduct, introducing an element of grade separation to the junction.

The Lea Valley Viaduct was replaced in the 1990s, with a new dual carriageway and a new, grade separated roundabout at Cooks Ferry, and local access roads replacing the turnings. This end of Hall Lane became a minor pathway. The Cooks Ferry pub was demolished.

South Chingford includes part of the Chingford Hall Estate which was built across the historic boundary with Walthamstow.

The area has several open spaces including Ainslie Wood, Larks Wood and Memorial Park. A small section of the River Ching flows through the area. Recently Fergal Sharkey hiked along the River Ching to raise awareness of pollution in the river.

It was previously the home of a number of factories including a large Durex condom factory which closed in 1994.^[2]

Keep in mind that the area has changed profoundly, since 2010!

You are now in EDMONTON

Back to the “regular” route. You are walking or cycling along. CHINGFORD MOUNT ROAD

1939. Arch. N.F.CACHEMAILLE-DAY

Cachemaille-Day was the greatest parish church designer of the interwar period. Built for posterity, his churches are monuments in their suburban setting. Cachemaille-Day’s priority was the provision of spaces that worked for local communities, fulfilling a need for buildings to represent 'their social, ceremonial and community life'.

It was Chingford UDC's first municipal park. The park incorporated an existing small sunken garden with a memorial to those who died in the Great War. There is a pond with an area of formal planting, tennis courts and children's play equipment.

1991. By JACK GARDNER.  Chinese influence.

TAO= the right path in life. 

The Chingford Dental Laboratories, on the corner of Ainslie Wood Road and Chingford Mount Road. This is not a mosaic using the normal tesserae. Various materials have been used for colour and texture variation, ranging from pebbles to tiling.

This area was part of CHINGFORD EARLS, acquired by HENRY VIII in 1544, the last owners of which being the BOOTHBY-HEATHCOTE of FRIDAY HILL.  All part of the ANCIENT FOREST OF ESSEX. 

Larkswood is colloquially called ”the bluebell wood”.. Mentioned in the SUBSIDY ROLLS of 1319 is the name of THOMAS LAVERK, origin  of the name LARKSWOOD.

AINSLEE WOOD was privately owned until recently, and its isolation makes it a site of wildlife not usually found in such urban settings.

More to the EAST (CHINGFORD HATCH)

Part timber-framed, 16th, on the site of a farm

1890. Originally a Mission (church)room.

1950. permanent church built and made parish of its own.

To WALTHAMSTOW. See chapter 3, for the same route, in opposite direction.