The beginning of the actual modern suburb of WOODFORD can be traced back to the opening in 1856 of the EAST.COUNT. RWY., from STRATFORD to LOUGHTON. A station was created at SNAKES LANE (WOODFORD) and at GEORGE LANE (SOUTH WOODFORD).

The new and convenient means of transport encouraged the growth of daily commuters, well to do City workers: the number of mansions,  good villas are attested by contemporar descriptions (1870s)

As the population had reached 7.100 , 3 new churches wer erected in 1874.

The suburb was completed in te period in between the wars, when all available land was hungrily built on.Mansions were pulled down making way for middle class housing estates (3/4 bedrooms semidetached, with front and back garden). In the 1930s were built on average 1.600 houses a year.

In the middle of the 20th c. the CENTRAL LINE was e tended, using existing overlaid network, solidifying WOODFORD’s place in the commuter belt.

An aspirational area, with a majority of white population with other ethnic groups,

1856. Originally GEORGE LANE. A network of streets was laid out both sides of the railway line

 The volunteer fire brigade engine used to be garaged at the rear of the RAILWAY BELL

South Woodford's retail and business area is centred on George Lane, the location of South Woodford tube station and Woodford Green High Road. There are several leading chain stores, such as Sainsbury's, Marks & Spencer, Waitroseand Boots and a number of smaller shops, bars, restaurants and cafes. British bakery Gails recently opened on George Lane.

1925. Shops and flats

Art Deco, by arch. PRITLOVE, seating 1724, incorp. a COMPTON THEATRE c. Restaurant and ballroom 
Opened in 1934, as a MAJESTIC (a small chain of 5), with “CLEOPATRA” (CLAUDETTE COLBERT) with the presence of W. CH.

In 1935 ABC CINEMAS took over. In ‘73 tripled re-opening. In ‘86, CANNON, 7 screens.

an 18th-century building on the site of an earlier inn, was originally a stopping point for stagecoaches, with several bars.

The  High Road  crosses the very busy North Circular Road (A406). It is 25 miles long and together with the South Circular Road forms a ring road for London. It doesn't quite make a complete circuit though, as you have to cross the Thames in the East on the Woolwich Ferry. The motorway M25 however does make a complete circuit of London.

Built at the beginning of the 1800s, showing the high status of the minister.

Later became Council offices, London  Quarter Sessions, offices

To the West, DERBY ROAD 

Development started in the 1860s. All streets named after members of the DERBY cabinet

He was born here, 1860, in a caravan. A Romany converted to Christianity, became one of the first officers of the SALVATION ARMY, under WILLIAM BOOTH’s leadership.

Afterwards, became an itinerant preacher and was awarded an MBE.

High Road in the shrubbery nearly opposite the Churchill Statue.

This is one of four such hand pumps still surviving in the Woodford area. All of these have been renovated. Before water pipes were laid local residents had to rely on these for their water supply. Though unconnected with them, these pumps remind us that Woodford Wells got its name by the 18th century from springs which were thought to have medicinal properties. The other pumps are at:

Beside Chigwell Road, about 3 yards NE of where the M 11 crosses over it. Errected 1834. (See No. 25a. on MAP )

Under a willow tree beside the pond at the end of Johnston Road. (See No. 25b. on MAP )

Chigwell Road between Broadmead Road and Wansford Road. (See No. 25. on MAP

A conservation area designated jointly by 2 London Boroughs

Another hamlet in the ancient parish of Woodford. The locality takes its name from the Green, an area of open common land - a part of Epping Forest - besides which the area first developed.

It ranks as one of the highest income areas of Greater London.

Woodford Green Cricket Club was founded in 1735. It plays alongside the High Road. The club has teams for all age groups with the senior teams playing in the Hamro Essex League.

Cottages, stables, entrance lodge

Nursery and Pre-school

No. 1 Broomhill Walk. This house (the central block, as wings were added later in the century) was built about 1714 as Hurst House but was named on some maps as the Naked Beauty probably because it stood out at the top of the Salway Hill unshielded by trees. A disastrous fire in the 1930s destroyed much of the original building; but it was then reconstructed to the original design and now looks impressive. Minor wings added.  The original owner was Henry Raine a philanthropic brewer from Wapping who founded the first Raine's School just 5 years after building this house.

1880s-90s. Locally listed

Georgian porch and gable

In WW1, when London was troubled by ZEPPELIN AIR RAIDS, a response for this was to place to ROYAL FLYING CORPS night-fighter squadrons. THEY were headquartered at WOODHAM MORTIMER and here, with up to 8 aircrafts (generally BLERIOT EXPERIMENTAL) at each airfield. They formed part of the LONDON AIR DEFENSE AREA.

The CUFFLEY airship (11 Sept.1916] and the L48 (June 1917, over NORFOLK) were shot down by those squadrons.

Until 1914 Londoners used to visit Woodford in large numbers on day trips stopping off here when visiting the Epping Forest. There has long been a pub on this spot. In 1753 it was known as the Ship and Castle. The High Road was one of two main routes from Leytonstone which existed from Roman times. The other was the Low Road (Now Chingford Road) which follows the Roding valley and used to cross it at Woodford Bridge, which was roughly where the M 11 now bridges the road.

The 

On the front of the Sir James Hawkey Hall, Broomhill Road. Note the trees and the river at the top indicate Wood ford, while the heron supporters represent Wanstead. On the shield are leopard's heads and birds (martlets). These are the symbols of King Harold, who gave the manor of Woodford to Waltham Abbey, and of Edward the confessor who gave Wanstead to Westminster Abbey. Wanstead and Woodford merged with Ilford in 1965 to become the Borough of Redbridge. Hawkey served as Mayor of Wanstead & Woodford in the 1940s.

This was originally the GATEHOUSE at the entrance to HARTS, a large mansion and like the main building is Grade II listed.

There had been a house here in mediaeval times, but in 1617 Sir Humphrey HANDFORTH who was Master of the WARDROBE to KING JAMES I built an impressive house.

In the 18th century it was owned by Richard WARNER who laid out a noted botanical garden. More recently it became Harts HOSPITAL  (in 1919 EAST HAM BOROUGH COUNCIL bought the house and established the HARTS SANATORIUM, an hospital for patients with lung diseases; wards for women, huts and shelters were built to house male patients; in 1933 a new pavilion was built, incorporating an X RAY room. As there were no drugs for TB, plenty of sunlight, fresh air, rest annd nourishing food was offered).

The head gardener cottage became the Night Nurses Home.

After WW2 (and after all damages were repaired) became part of the NHS, a new operating theatre was opened, an occupational therapy depart established and art therapy introduced. In 1959 it had 100 beds.

Antibiotics were introduced. It was open to patients with diseases of the chest, not only with TB. 

In 1961 a new chapel was open.

By 1983 It was used mainly for geriatric cases. It closed in 1983. It is  now a NURSING HOME.
Warner gave his name to a PATH and the POND on the Green.

RICHARD WARNER (1713-75]  was passionately interested for botany. He studied plants grown locally and he cultivated rare plants. He had built a HOTHOUSE.  Amongst his relations was PHILIP MILLER, head gardener at CHELSEA PHY. GDN, where new plants from abroad were cultivated.

The 18th c. was a time of mounting interest in plants brought from the 4 corners in the world. In 1759 PRINCESS AUGUSTA and LORD BUTE established the KEW BOTANICAL GARDENS.

In 1752 CAPT.HUTCHINSON, Commander of the GODOLPHIN, an EAST INDIA MAN, set off for INDIA, SUMATRA and BATAVIA. On their return, they called at CAPE OF GOOD HOPE, where they found a new plant, in 1754. In fact, that plant was destined for HUTCHINSON’s employer, CHARLES RAYMOND, a shipowner of UPTON, who was interested in botanical matters. After being presented with the new plant, a GARDENIA, and as he was moving to VALENTINES, he presented in on to WARNER.

So… the the first GARDENIA that bloomed in England was cultivated here. That is the main claim to fame of WOODFORD WELLS!.

WARNER was in correspondence with CARL LINNAEUS, who refused the name “WARDENIA”. It finally was known as GARDENIA after ALEXANDER GARDEN of SOUTH CAROLINA.

Again, a very helpful blog

Woodford Green Library in Snakes Lane has been serving the community since 1961.

The station was originally opened on 22 August 1856 as part of the Eastern Counties Railway branch from Leyton to Loughton.^[9][10]Further alterations were carried out by the successor company, the Great Eastern Railway, including services to Ilford via the Fairlop Loop opened between Woodford and Newbury Park in 1903.^[10] After 1923 the station came under the control of the London & North Eastern Railway until transfer to the London Passenger Transport Board (LPTB) on 14 December 1947 as part of the extension of the Central line services of the London Underground. The station acted as a terminus of the Central line, with passengers transferring to a steam shuttle onwards towards Epping

Once the railway arrived here in 1856, the population soon increased from 4,609 in the 1871 census to 13,798 in 1901.

Worked with George Lansbury in the East End. 1924 Sylvia moved from the East End of London to Woodford Green, into Red Cottage with Silvio Corio, an Italian anarchist/journalist/painter and her lover and companion for 30 years. Demolished in 1939, Red Cottage was number 126 on Woodford Green High Road. They ran it as a teashop. What remains is the Stone Bomb monument.

She was born in 1882, in OLD TRAFFORD, MANCHESTER, daughter of future founding members (in 1893]  of the ILP , RICHARD PANKHURST and EMMELINE GOULDEN.

She attended MANCHESTER HIGH SCHOOL with sisters CHRISTABEL and ADELA. After attending MANCHESTER SCHOOL OF ART and getting a scholarship, she joined the ROYAL COLLEGE OF ART, SOUTH KEN., where she witnessed the lack of gender equality.

In 1906 she started to work for the WSPU, with mother EMME.  and sister CHRIST. She designed the LOGO, the LEAFLETS, the BANNERS, POSTERS and decorated the meeting hall.

ALICE HAWKINGS and MARY CAWTHORPE joined them, during a tour of England.

SYLVIA retained meanwhile his affinities with the labour movement and concentrated in local campaigning, founding with AMY BULL the ELF of the WSPU. 

She contributed wit art to the WSPU newspaper.
she published “THE SUFFRAGETTE: THE HISTORY OF THE WOMEN'S MILITANT SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT”, a propagandist history.

In 1913 she spoke in the RFH in support of the Dublin workers, who were staging a strange (humane society)

Because that involvement with the workers movement, her family relations were strained, as mother EMMELINE thought that their movement had to be independent. She was expelled from the WSPU.

SP wanted a socialist organisation and the staging of direct action, plus tackling wider issues. She had a close relationship with KEIR HARDIE.

Between 1913-14 she was arrested 8 times and forcefed. She won a HUNGER STRIKE MEDAL from WSPU.

USA McCLURE’S MAGAZINE gives accounts of that period.

A possible diversion:
Alongside SNAKES LANE  EAST, towards the RIVER RODING VALLEY and then South towards VALENTINES or WANSTEAD PARK

The name is Old English and means 'ford in or by a wood'. The ford refers to a crossing of the River Roding. Walking to the end of Snakes Lane East you will find the crossing to which the name refers.

There is nothing to see at Charlie Brown's roundabout but the traffic, yet the name still remains. But who was he? Like so many other places in East London it is connected with a pub. From 1899-1932, Charlie Brown was the landlord of the Railway Tavern near the West India Docks, Limehouse. He put together a large collection of curios and exotica which formed a mini museum. Ship owners did not pay their crews until some days after arrival, so they often landed without cash. Charlie one of the few who would supply them with drink and food (mostly the former) on credit. He was also generous in support of the dockers. For all this he was warmly remembered and his funeral, at what is now Tower Hamlets cemetery, was attended by hundreds of mourners and thousands lined the route. There were 140 floral tributes and the cortege took 20 minutes to pass. In 1938 his son, Charlie junior, opened his own pub here called the Roundabout, but it was known locally as Charlie Brown's. It disappeared in 1972 with the changes to road lay out for the M 11.

Back to WOODFORD GREEN and the HIGH  ROAD

Attlee lived here while he was MP for Walthamstow West.
B.in PUTNEY, OXFORD B.A., called to the Bar 1906.

Voluntary work at HAYLEYBURY HOUSE, STEPNEY, a UNIVERSITY SETTLEMENT, a charitable club for working class boys, run by his old OXFORD SCHOOL. He got in contact with poverty an deprivation, making him aware that some sort of state income redistribution was necessary, charity alone being insufficient.

In 1908 he joined the INDEPENDENT LABOUR PARTY,  becoming active in local politics. He was a candidate in STEPNEY, 1909.
Secretary for BEATRICE WEBB and for TOYNBEE HALL (UNIVERSITY  SETTLEMENT), WHITECHAPEL. Explainer of the NATIONAL INSURANCE ACT. Lectures LSE.

In 1914 he joined the army (while his brother was conscious objector, suffering prison.They had a rift). He was at the GALLIPOLI CAMPAIGN.

Back to England due to dysentery, but returns to action. 1916. Evacuee at SUVIA BAY. He felt admiration for the FL ADMRALTY, CHURCHILL, for his bold design of GALLIPOLI.

Badly wounded in IRAQ, back  to England. As a MAJOR, he trains soldiers in England..

1918. To the  WESTERN FRONT.

1919. When discharged enters the LSE. 1921-22. Meets, gets engaged and marries VIOLET MILLAR.

MAYOR OF STEPNEY. Tackles slum landlords, appoints health visitors and sanitary inspectors, reducing Infant mortality. Finds jobs for unemployed ex servicemen.

1920. “THE SOCIAL WORKER”: he sets up his principles, which inform his political philosophy, and underpin his activity in government. The principle: the organised community, by law, has to help. As opposite to charity d to entitlement according to character.

1921.GEORGE LANSBURY’S POPLAR REBELLION. He, a personal friend, fully supported. Instead MORRISON (HACKNEY) opposed.

1922. MP for LIMEHOUSE. He helps RAMSAY McDONALD being elected leader of the LP, becoming his PPS. 1924.Under-secretary of War in the firs LABOUR Government.

1926. He opposes GENERAL STRIKE, without undermining it. He negotiates with the ELECTRICAL UNION to continue supplying hospitals.

1927. Member of ROYAL COMMISSION, recomm INDIAN self-rule. 1933. Supp for INDEPENDENCE.

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (MOSLEY’s successor, as the latte had left LABOUR).

Great Depression.  NATIONAL GOV. But he stays loyal to LABOUR, turning down a post.

1931. Retains LIMEHOUSE, but a disastrous election for LP (52 seats). Deputy Leader to LANSBURY. Opposes NAT.GOV.

Wife I’ll.Financial problems. STAFFORD CRIPPS donation.

1932-33. Flirts with radicalism. Member of the SOCIALIST LEAGUE. Stands for a socialist government with emergency

owers to overcome the opposition by vested interests. Shows admiration for CROMWELL’s strong army rule. However, looking more closely at DICTATORS and at MOSLEY he distanced himself from TOTALITARIANISM.

1935. LANSBURY resigns (over sanctions to MUSSOLINI’s invasion of ABISSINIS). Interim leader.

1935. LP election comeback, 38% of the vote. Elected  leader. Competence and unifying force. Support of LEAGUE OF NATIONS. 
1936. No great involvement in ED.VIII’s abdication.

Against CHAMBERLAIN’s rearmament budget, and alliance with France.

However, the LPs PACIFIST POLICY is jettisoned due to ineffective LEA/NAT and the rising threat of NAZI GERMANY. He opposes the 1938 MUNICH AGREEMENT.

He visited Spain in 1937. MAJOR ATTLEE COMPANY.

Book: “THE LABOUR PARTY IN PERSPECTIVE”: no need to compromise socialist principles for more (liberal)votes, watering down policies. Clear and bold policies.

Late 30s. Living in STANMORE. The family accommodated a kid from GERMANY.

Deputy PM

Here, between WOODFORD and CHIGWELL, in ESSEX, there was, originally, a country estate. The area contained a country house, originally a farm.

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and in the north of the parish Monkhams Lane led from Woodford Wells to the farm. The winding section by Lord’s Bushes became first ’Hospital Lane’ and then later ’Knighton Lane’, from which Monkhams Lane ran through the Forest to Monkhams Farm and on to Woodford Bridge.
To cope with a shortage of farm workers, the Ilford National Part-Time Workers committee was set up in late 1916 or early 1917. German prisoners of war were put to work on local farms including Monkhams, Woodford Green.

The owner: ARNOLD HILLS (1857-1927), the founder of WEST HAM UNITED. He was a keen sportsman (he played football and cricket, and he was the English champion of the mile and the 3 kilometres course). He had been in HARROW, where he played for the HARROVIANS; in 1879, at the OVAL, they won the CORINTHIAN CUP, England 5-0 to SCOTLAND)and  in OXFORD.

He was the managing director of the THAMES IRON WORKS (f.1846). He lived, in fact, in a small house, in EAST INDIA DOCK ROAD, CANNING TOWN. He organised recreational centre for his employees.

However, those were times of poor pay and bad working conditions, and when strikes took place black labour was employed.

In 1895, with DANE TAYLOR, he f. the THAMES IRONWORKS F.C. (a totally vegetarian football team, which later turned professional and changed their name to West Ham United) and he supported financially the team for the next 5 years. He rented the MEMORIAL GROUNDS to the club at very favourable terms.

However, the failing fortunes of the iRONWORKS, and his own health problems (he suffered from arthritis, becoming virtually invalid). He was involved in the developing of a new car engine, though.

HILLS had to sell the land for development, in order to pay for his debts…

As a matter of fact, the families of the gentry moved out, their homes were pulled down and the grounds laid out for housing estates. On the Monkhams estate, while the southern part had been developed by 1914, the remaining part was completed in garden-suburb style during the 1930s.

ARNOLD HILL was the first president of the LONDON VEGETARIAN SOCIETY,bformed as a breakaway from themain society (1888). He served on the executive committee alongside a young  MAHATMA GANDHI, who wrote several journal articles. Indeed, it has been argued that the society was responsible for Gandhi coming to see a vegetarian diet as one not just central to his Hindu religion, but also a moral imperative and component part of his philosophy of non-violent struggle.

He presided as well the VEG CYCL AND ATHLETIC CLUB and the LDN VEG RAMBLING CLUB, founded THE VEGETARIAN  MAGAZINE and had close links with the TEMPERANCE LEAGUE, and founded theORIOLET FRUITARIAN HOSPITAL in LOUGHTON.

He wrote a book, VITAL FOOD, where he argued for a plant based raw foo field

There can be fewer residences for the city man which combine with so remarkable degree the advantages of Town and Country”.

That was the sales patter  for a new estate being built in the 1930s.
The suburbs!.Finding London Utopia…

The suburbs were hailed as a new and wonderful way of living, combining the best of city and of rural life. 
Is this still the case today?. How ave the suburbs fared?.

At the beginning of the 20th c. the suburbs was seen a place where you could better yourself, build your own home and escape the INNER CITY.

The upper classes, though, sneered that view, as the saw them a downmarket: either you live in the city or in the country

Remember, you were about to cross SNAKES LANE EAST

18th c.House 

Woodford Wells is a small settlement on the edge of Epping Forest, in Woodford, East London. The area lies about 9.5 miles (15.3 km) north-east of Charing Cross.

The name is shown in the Chapman and Andre 1777 map of Essex, and shortly after on an Ordnance Surveymap of 1805;^[1] the name refers to mineral water wells. In the 18th century briefly the hamlet was a small spa but by the 1870s the wells had been long neglected and Woodford Wells had become part of a "straggle of hamlets".

Listed

house

House

This memorial was erected  in protest for the bombing of the people of ETHIOPIA, under the orders of MUSSOLINI, in 1935. He intended to show off himself as a military leader and Italy’s muscle, invading from the  Italian territories  of SOMALILAND and ERITREA. 
Mussoline unleashed upon ETH the horrors of modern war: the air force AND the artillery delivered bombs and canisters of chemical weapons, such as mustard gas and phosgene, against troops and villagers.

The LEAGUE OF NATIONS declared Italy an aggressor but failed to act against them.

SYILVIA PANKHURST was a committed anti-fascist, fighting for the independence of ETH.

Most of the inscriptions are unlegible:

South Face: “To,those who in 1932 upheld the the right to use bombing aeroplanes l

East Face: “This monument is raised as a protest against war in the air”

The only one readable  is the North Face: ”Originally unveiled by R.ZAPHIRO Secretary of the Imperial Ethiopian Legation, London. Supp.by J.RANGER, J.DAVEY, SYLVIA PANKHURST, WEBSTER.Oct. 20 1935}”

West Face: “The site(…)is property of S.P. Design and work ERIC BENFIELD”

Historian ALFIO BERNABEI tells the remarkable story of how Sylvia Pankhurst and Silvio Corio railed against the fascist ‘camorra’ in Clerkenwell’s Little Italy in the aftermath of Mussolini’s seizure of power.

After the March on Rome that had taken place a few months earlier at the end of October. Mussolini was now in power; the fascist armed militia was at work consolidating its reign of terror.

In London, emboldened members of the branch of the Italian Fascist Party that had been set up in December were already at work with plans to organise the Italian community in Britain numbering about 20,000 into what was described as a “state in miniature.”

Why not continuing on to CHINGFORD?