Chris Guy | Walthamstow and the Lea Valley

By Chris Guy posted on 2 Apr 2015 in Urban

At nine miles, this was one of the longer walks of the circle that I’d completed to date – I began at Wood Street and walked via Walthamstow and the Lea Valley to Lower Edmonton and Edmonton Green Shopping Centre. I enjoyed coming back to Wood Street – it feels like a proper high street with independent shops and a market. It’s bit quirky and has some rough edges. At the top end is this mural by Vic Lee.

Black-and-white illustrated mural on a brick wall reading "Tales Dubious" with intricate lettering and drawings; a wooden log bench on metal supports sits in front.

Vic Lee mural

White street sign on a weathered stone wall reading 'We are WOOD ST E17' with stylised linked 'OO' and a QR code at left.

We Are Wood Street

Busy London high street with terraced shops and flats, shopfront signs, satellite dishes, chimneys, parked cars and a street sign pointing to Tottenham.

Wood Street shop parade

Opposite the Corner Coffee Shop is Willow House, an ex-council office block now closed and scheduled for demolition and re-development to provide a mix of residential, commercial and social uses.

Along Forest Road I pass the William Morris pub (named after the Victorian poet and designer born in Walthamstow) and come to the very grand Waltham Forest Civic Centre, comprising Town Hall, Assembly Hall and Magistrates’ Court.

Neoclassical civic building with tall vertical windows and a clock tower, framed by tree branches, a manicured lawn and a bird overhead.

Grand neoclassical civic building with a central tower and portico, facing a circular fountain and manicured lawns under a blue sky with scattered clouds.

Waltham Forest Town Hall

The Town Hall and Assembly Hall were both designed by Philip Dalton Hepworth in the simplified classicism style with art deco details. They were completed in 1941.

Waltham Forest Magistrates’ Court

To the left of the Town Hall is The Magistrates’ Court. This was built later – in the 1970’s by the GLC Special Works Department and makes use of Portland Stone, not commonly seen in brutalist architecture. The building was saved from potential closure in 2010.

Back on the North Circular Road I reached the Crooked Billet Roundabout – famous for its tailbacks. In the subways beneath the roundabout are some great examples of what I presume to be 1970s tiling and above ground on the Chingford Road is the architecturally modernist ‘Catholic Church of Christ The King’.

Sunlit curved path lined with shrubs and trees, a colourful geometric tiled wall, metal railings and a lamppost beneath a bright blue sky.

Tall brick bell tower beside a curved building above a colourful tiled retaining wall, with a lamppost and tree under a bright blue, partly cloudy sky.

Staggered brick-pattern wall of rectangular tiles in vertical stripes of orange, pale green, cream and pale blue.

A shadowed underpass with a curved road and long ceiling lights, a single lamppost, and a chequered diagonal-tiled wall in orange, green, blue and white.

The Crooked Billet Roundabout

Just up the road from the Crooked Billet is Walthamstow Stadium. A Greyhound, Speedway and Stock Car racing venue that opened in 1933 and closed 75 years later in 2008.

Expansive vacant lot with rubble and patches of grass, bordered by terraced houses and the Walthamstow Stadium sign under a blue sky with scattered clouds.

Walthamstow Stadium - from the footbridge over the North Circular Road

The famous Walthamstow Stadium frontage

The front and back album cover of Blur’s Parklife were shot at Walthamstow Stadium. And now, despite considerable local protest, the site is being re-developed by L&Q to provide homes and local amenities. The plans include the retention of the grade II listed facade.

On the other side of the footbridge – and the North Circular Road – is this urban meadow, complete with trees, shrubs and grazing horses and bordered by light industrial units.

Wide grassy meadow dotted with small shrubs and blossom, industrial buildings and cranes on the horizon beneath a partly cloudy sky.

Urban Meadow – Lea Valley Park

Urban scene with a Ford Kuga 'Express Bag Drop' billboard by greenery, terraced houses and parked cars under an overcast sky.

Outdoor Advertising Juxtaposition

From here I walk past the Banbury Reservoir and up towards the River Ching, River Lea, and the industrial landscape of Harbet Road and the Hastingwood Trading Estate.

Wildflowers and tall grass line a canal beside industrial units, while electricity pylons stretch into the distance beneath a pale, partly cloudy sky.

Industrial Landscape, Harbet Road, N18

Derelict multi-storey brick building with scaffolding, fenced-off demolition site, 'Keep out' sign and company notice under a cloudy sky.

Demolition on the Hastingwood Trading Estate

Weathered brick warehouses and a shuttered garage on Silvermere Drive beside an empty industrial yard beneath a bright blue sky.

Silvermere Drive, Hastingwood Trading Estate

Derelict red-and-white minibus with yellow curtains parked in a gravel industrial yard, surrounded by clutter and debris.

Peeling red wooden door with rusty padlock and latch, displaying a white "Danger – Hazard area" sign with an exclamation triangle and walking-figure icon.

Tall electricity pylons and power lines crossing a wildflower meadow of yellow blooms under a blue sky with scattered clouds.

Colourful shop-window poster showing juice cartons and bottles, with a woman sipping a drink through a straw against a rural sunset backdrop.

Hastingwood Trading Estate

Whilst parts of the Hastingwood Trading Estate appear to be in the process of being demolished the estate is also, I discover, home to the Warehouse LDN nightclub.