voices from the heart of Leyton
voices from the heart of Leyton
a local history and reminiscence project by Age Exchange bringing together young and older residents of Leyton and Leytonstone

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early transition from fields to city
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Early development of Leyton
Leyton, the “tun“ on the river Lea, lies 5 miles north-east of London between the river and Epping Forest. Its early field pattern shown on the adjacent field map (c.1800) can still be traced in the pattern of streets; Leyton High Road, Capworth Street, Beaumont Road and Skeltons Lane can be easily identified. The principle roads of the borough have changed very little since this time. The two principal roads: Leyton High Road and Leytonstone High Road, run approximately north-south through the parish. It was along these roads that two settlements, Low Leyton to the west and Leytonstone to the east were developed. Leytonstone High Road, was part of the main highway from Epping to London, reputedly the territory of highwaymen such as Dick Turpin. By 1594 it was considered to be a more important route than Leyton High Road.
Early map of Leyton Early map of Leyton Green, 1800 by Thomas Milne.
(above) “Thomas Milnes map from 1800 is from the time the Ordnance Survey were developing reliable mapping techniques. You can see what each field was, whether it was under grass or growing crops. Though it would be covered with housing now“
“People talk about Leyton High Road being a medieval pilgrim's route. The pub called The Lion and Key, is on a sort of homemade one way system on Leyton High Road. It is thought to be a reference to two saints; the Lion is St. Mark and the Key St. Peter. And so this name remembers a pilgrimage route between Stratford and Waltham Abbey“
1881 map of Leyton1881 map of Leyton
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Early settlement
“In the 15th and 16th centuries it was countryside, outside London. A popular place for the wealthy who had made their money from things like the East India Company or from the Transatlantic slave trade. They were bankers or merchants. It was a very good place where they could build their mansions“
Peter Ashan

 

'It was mostly fields, just lanes you know, even going down the High Road. You could walk down and have no bother, no cars would knock you over' Bert Watson
1862 Map of Leyton House Estate1862 Map of Leyton House Estate, Leyton Green. This large estate had a kitchen garden, glass cloches for melon growing, a smoke house and a hay barn.
(right) Bungalow Town, shack no.120, Lea Bridge Gardens. A self built community of 69 shacks, with wells, earth closets, and a wooden mission church at Lea Bridge Gardens. The occupants reared ducks and grew vegetables. The town was demolished in the 1930s.
Weatherboarded cottageWeather boarded cottage on Skelton's Lane, date c.1890.
19th Century Housing Development
“Small builder's firms would take on half a dozen houses. It is compared with broken teeth; a builder was building half a dozen houses here, half a dozen there. They were generally rented rather than home owner occupiers, it was modest terraced housing, fairly small“
(above quotes by) David Boote

“In the mid to late 19th century you had factories being built. The large mansions were being broken up by speculative builders who were providing new terraced homes for working and lower middle class people” Peter Ashan
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Public Transport in Leyton
A horse tram service ran along Lea Bridge Road in 1883, and a horse bus service ran via Leyton High Road from 1889. Trams were introduced in 1890, from Lea Bridge to the Rising Sun in Woodford New Road, and from the Bakers Arms to the Great Eastern railway station. The system was electrified in 1907. A motor bus service replaced the horse bus in 1906 when the Great Eastern London Motor Omnibus Co. built their garage at Leyton Green. The London General Omnibus Co. rebuilt and enlarged the Leyton Green depot in 1912. In 1933 the buses and trams were taken over by the London Passenger Transport board. Conversion of the tramways to trolley buses was completed in 1939 and in 1952 omnibuses replaced the trolley buses.
 
 
The first railway line to get into Leyton went up the Lea Valley in 1840 from Stratford to Cambridge. In 1856 another railway line was built from Stratford, heading out to Loughton. This has now become part of the Central line. Stations were built at Leyton and Leytonstone on the High Roads. What the railways seemed to do is allow the rich people to go and live in East Anglia, remote from poorer people. And so they sold off their land for development. Suddenly development escalated until Leyton was the fastest growing place in England
High Street near Midland Station 1905
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High Street Leyton, near the Midland station, 1905.
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Immigration
“In the mid 18th century there was a small black population living in the area including an African woman called Dorothy who was a maid working in one of the big mansions in the area. The area has a well established Irish community. They would have arrived during the 19th century to work on the canals and on the railways. There has also been a very long established Jewish community, probably since the late 19th to the early 20th century. People from the countryside would have been coming into the area for jobs because of industrialisation”
Peter Ashan
 
 
' In 1086 the recorded population was 43__in 1524 there were still only 49 people living in Leyton__in 1778 there were just 300 people__between 1881 and 1891 the population rose by 133% a larger proportionate increase than that of any other similar English town '
 
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Boundaries of Leyton
In 1868, at the request of the vestry, the directors of the Great Eastern Railway agreed to rename Low Leyton station 'Leyton'. The civil parish remained Low Leyton until 1921. The parish was about 2 miles long from north to south, with its northern boundary, shared with Walthamstow, running straight for 3 miles from forest to river. The modern Boundary Road, may coincide with the line of a former straight Roman road. (Part of which was discovered during recent building works on Clyde Place). The east boundary runs south to Wanstead with the Wanstead ditch forming the southern boundary with West Ham. The west boundary followed the old course of the river Lea as it existed before the Lea Navigation bypassed it in 1767. Undeveloped marshland and forest lay to the west and north-east.
 
 
' As you walk along Capworth Street towards Hackney, on your left is a 100 yard strip of land that used to be Walthamstow - it's called the Walthamstow Slip '
David Boote
Map showing Walthamstow Slip
Map showing the Walthamstow slip, western end. A strip of land cutting through Leyton and passing through the Beaumont Estate. Walthamstow is shown in yellow, Leyton in pink.
“The main boundary between Walthamstow and Leyton is now marked by Boundary Road which is the other side of Lea Bridge Road. The postcodes don't follow it, E17 comes down to Lea Bridge Road, so virtually everybody thinks Walthamstow reaches Lea Bridge Road but actually that's not true. The parish and later the urban district council of Leyton was responsible for the area north of Lea Bridge Road, but there was a curious strip about 100 yards long running parallel with Lea Bridge Road that starts off in Epping Forest by Eagle Pond, Wanstead, and runs all the way to the River Lea at Lea Bridge, the border of Hackney. It's a parallel set of lines going across the landscape and virtually nothing was built in it until the great building over of Leyton and Walthamstow. So there's a memory that this was a narrow strip of reserved open land”
David Boote
Re-naming the Borough
A resident signing a petition objecting to the naming of the proposed new borough of Walthamstow in October 1963. In 1965 the former boroughs of Chingford, Leyton and Walthamstow combined to form the London Borough of Waltham Forest. Originally the borough was to be called Walthamstow, but Leyton and Chingford councils and residents objected.
“Beating of the Bounds is an ancient ceremony, to remind people where the boundaries were between one parish and another. Walthamstow would have an annual procession along its boundary and Leyton would do the same. There is still a re-enactment by the Lammas Lands Defence Committee of the Leyton Beating of the Bounds every year. The youngest person has to have their head knocked against boundary stones. Its a rather cruel way of ensuring memory is passed from one generation to another”
David Boote
Re-enactment by groups of children, in 1964 (above), and 1951 (left).
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