Walthamstow market

Die Stamping, GPO, Ancient House, Churchyard, Leaves & Market: I can’t now recall why I had only time for a relatively short walk in Walthamstow on Saturday 16th September 1989 but it was an interesting one. I think possibly I was unhappy with a picture I had take earlier and had returned to have another attempt.

*Essex Die Stamping Co, Church Path, Walthamstow, Waltham Forest, 1989 89-9b-31*

From Walthamstow Central Station I crossed Hoe St and walked down St Mary Road, which leads to Church Path, and the Essex Die Stamping Co Ltd who were also steel engravers was on this path. The company had moved out to Harlow when I made this picture and the property had already been sold. It is now residential.

*Column, Vestry House Museum, Vestry Rd, Walthamstow, Waltham Forest, 1989 89-9b-23*

At the end of Church Path is Vestry Road and the Vestry House Museum in a Grade II listed building built as the parish workhouse in 1730. Before opening as a local history museum in 1931 it had served as a police station, an armoury, a building merchant’s store, and a private home. Among its exhibits is “the Bremer Car, the first British motor car with an internal combustion engine, which was built by Frederick Bremer (1872–1941) in a workshop at the back of his family home in Connaught Road, Walthamstow.” The museum is currently being renovated and should reopen in 2026.

The short fluted column and capital outside the museum was one of the many which adorned the frontage of Sir Robert Smirke’s fine neo-classical General Post Office HQ in St Martin-le-Grand, built in 19826-9 and demolished in 1912. It was then bought by stone mason Frank Mortimer who presented it to Walthamstow Council. They put it in Lloyd Park, but moved it outside the museum in 1954.

House, 2, Church lane, Orford Rd, Walthamstow, Waltham Forest,1989 89-9b-25 — *House, 2, Church Lane, Orford Rd, Walthamstow, Waltham Forest,1989 89-9b-25*

The Ancient House at 2,4,6 and 8, Church Lane was Grade II listed in 1951, early on in the pioneer survey which followed the Town and Country Planning Acts of 1944 and 1947. The listing text indicates it began as a single fifteenth century hall house but has since been converted into separate dwellings with the hall also divided into normal height floors. It was extensively “restored in 1934 by Mr Robert Fuller under the supervision ofMr CJ Brewin, architect, as a memorial to W G Fuller, head of the Fuller’s firm of builders. “

Monument, St Mary's Churchyard, Church End Path, Walthamstow, Waltham Forest, 1989 89-9c-51 — *Monument, St Mary’s Churchyard, Church End Path, Walthamstow, Waltham Forest, 1989 89-9c-51*

An atmospheric view of the corner of St Mary’s Churchyard. Beyond the path (although not showing their best side) are the almshouses “ERECTED and ENDOWED FOR EVER By Mrs MARY SQUIRES Widow for the Use of Six Decayed Tradesmens Widow of this Parish and no other” in 1795. You can read more about them in an article by Karen Averby Story of Squires Almshouses built in 1795 in Walthamstow, East London.

*Porch, 52-4, Church Hill, Walthamstow, Waltham Forest, 1989 89-9c-55*

Although St Mary’s Church is well worth a visit I didn’t photograph it (or take a proper picture of the almshouses.) When I visited the National Building Record in Saville Row I often had to wait in the library where I could pull files for various areas off the shelves and look through the pictures they contained. Most were stuffed full of pictures of old churches, many taken by clergymen who apparently had time on their hands and were often keen amateur photographers. So I felt little need to photograph old churches.

Instead I took the footpath through the churchyard to Church Hill whre I found this porch across the entrance to two houses with delightful leaf ironwork.

*Chic, 212, Walthamstow Market, High St, Walthamstow, Waltham Forest, 1989 89-9c-56*

Before catching the Underground from Walthamstow Central I had time for a short wander along Walthamstow Market which claims to be a mile long but isn’t, though at around a kilometre it is still the second longest outdoor market in Europe.

*Walthamstow Market, High St, Walthamstow, Waltham Forest, 1989 89-9c-43*

The market began in 1885 and operates five days a week with around 500 market stalls as well as shops on both sides of the street. It is still worth a visit but I think has gone down considerably since 1989, though the four pictures I took on this occasion (three on-line) do not show it at its best.

You can browse a few more pictures I took on this walk on Flickr from any of those here, as well as many more of my pictures – over 30,000 from London.

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Fight the Height, Walthamstow: Sunday 1 June, 2008

In 1999 Waltham Forest council demolished a large site at the east end of Walthamstow High Street and on Hoe Street. An arcade of shops was built through the block between the two streets in the 1960s and the site was known as the Arcade site.

The area had been heavily bombed in the war and the post-war buildings on the site were of no particular architectural merit but they were home to many small local shops remembered fondly by local residents, as well as some council flats on the second and third floors above them. Waltham Forest council are blamed for failing to properly maintain the properties resulting in their deterioration.

When demolition took place in 1999, the council announced their intention to put the site to cultural use and benefit the community – a new leisure centre, library and arts centre together with social housing. But for some years this was an empty square with a path across. But developer St Modwen published its proposals for the site in 2008 they appeared to be dominated by commercial interest and to have little regard for local needs.

The Arcade site was at the east end of Walthamstow’s famous street market, claimed to be the longest in Europe which began in 1885 and attracts shoppers from across London and tourists from around the world. St Modwen’s plans included a large Primark supermarket which would threaten the future of the market and many of the shops along the high street.

Then there was the Vue multiplex cinema which would put an end to any chance of the restoration of the Grade II* listed 1930 high Art-Deco Moorish style former Walthamstow Granada a few yards away on Hoe Street.

In the 2008 plans was an 18 storey tower block, quite out of scale with the surrounding area, with its terraces of two storey housing and small scale developments. It was this that led those protesting to call their campaign ‘Fight The Height‘.

Flats in this tower block would be highly attractive to well-paid city workers, just a short walk from Walthamstow Central station with its 4 trains an hour to Liverpool Street in 17 minutes as well as a frequent Victoria Line service to the West End.

Considerable thought had gone into the protest to attract publicity for the campaign. There were three characters representing the tower block, Vue cinema and Primark who bravely stood in front of the hoardings with the large coloured computer generated images of the proposed development as the protesters pelted them with over-ripe tomatoes donated by market stall-holders. And it made the TV news.

There were also many large placards with adults and children carrying them, and local boy William Morris (1834-1896) born here in and celebrated in his childhood home now the William Morris Gallery in Lloyd Park) also put in an appearance. Morris in 1877 was one of the founders of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, often known by its nickname Anti-Scrape, a charity whose purpose remains ‘Heritage protection’.

And “local artists and non-artists” founded the Antiscrap campaign “against against the attacks on our culture by the local authority.” Originally formed to fight cuts in museum fnding, on their web site you can read more about the Arcade campaign and other campaigns about out-of-character local developments.

Protests like this one were probably important in leading St Modwen to revise their plans for the Arcade site.

Here is a post from Antiscrap on Thursday 22 November 2012:

The shocking news about the new Arcade site plans is that they’re not bad. No, really. Opinions differ as to whether it’s appropriate to build 120 new homes and a nine-screen cinema there at all. But the plans have been thoughtfully designed with good attention to detail and far less negative impact on central Walthamstow than previous plans.
http://www.antiscrap.co.uk/

But as a short visit to Walthamstow will show, some other campaigns in the area have met with rather less success, though the Granada has been saved and now hosts a theatre. There are now tower blocks clustered around various areas of the town – largely in easy walking distance from its stations – and the Ensign camera factory has been replaced by flats rather than rediscovered under its ugly 1980s cladding.

More at Fight the Height, Walthamstow.

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Tag: Walthamstow market

Die Stamping, GPO, Ancient House, Churchyard, Leaves & Market

Fight the Height, Walthamstow 2008