At the northern end of Leytonstone High Road is The Green Man, a public house, with an eponymous nearby gyratory road junction system under which the A12 runs. Leytonstone is noted for being the birthplace of Alfred Hitchcock, with a number of references to the filmmaker around the area, including painted murals, mosaics, and a hotel.
History
Origins and Roman milestone
The main thoroughfare, Leytonstone High Road, is part of an ancient highway from Epping to London, on the borders of Epping Forest. A small hamlet at Leytonstone had existed since the early 14th century, when it formed part of the parish of Leyton St Mary. The name Leytonstone, originally "Leyton-atte-Stone", comes from nearby Leyton ("settlement (tun) on the River Lea") and the Roman milestone called the High Stone.
The stone and obelisk
The milestone still stands at the junction of Hollybush Hill (the A1199 road with Woodford) and New Wanstead (the A113 road with Woodford Bridge), near the eastern bounds of the parish. It is a restored 18th-century obelisk set up on an earlier stump, traditionally described as a Roman milestone, possibly marking an extension of the Roman road from Dunmow to Chigwell into London. Two of the obelisk inscriptions are still just legible, others not:
"To Epping XI Miles through Woodford, Loughton"
"To Ongar XV Miles through Woodford Bridge, Chigwell, Abridge"
Other Roman archaeological features have been found in nearby Leyton, including "a Roman cemetery south of Blind Lane, and massive foundations of some Roman building, with quantities of Roman brick... discovered in the grounds of Leyton Grange."
18th and 19th century
In 1722, author Daniel Defoe travelled through "Layton-stone, a place by some known, now as much, by the sign of the Green-Man". Leytonstone, along with Stratford, Leyton and Woodford, was one of the villages Defoe called desirable country retreats for wealthy merchants and financiers within an easy ride of the City.
Leytonstone remained largely rural until the opening of the railway at Leytonstone station in 1856, which gave quick and easy access to Stratford and central London. This, with increased availability of office and industrial work, had transformed the area into a suburban dormitory town by the end of the 19th century.
However, the forest land in the north and east of Leytonstone escaped development following a prolonged public campaign, when the Epping Forest Act 1878 preserved more than 200 acres (80 hectares) of open space for public use.
In 1898 the department store Bearmans, opened by Frank Bearman to sell furniture and clothing, was the first store outside central London with an escalator.
20th century
In the mid-1990s, the M11 link road (A12) was built through the area, despite a long-running protest by locals and road protestors. This and other protests led to the policy, Roads for Prosperity, being abandoned. From 2001 to 2013, artists ran the 491 Gallery, a squatted social space in a building next the A12, which hosted events from exhibitions to gigs.
The annual Leytonstone Loves Film with The Barbican was first held in 2019.
Notable buildings and landmarks
The Green Manroundabout and public house at the north edge of Leytonstone, with associated statue and mosaic; it remains a signposting-point on the A12.
Site of 517 High Road Leytonstone, birthplace of Alfred Hitchcock
Leytonstone is the birthplace of Sir Alfred Hitchcock. The entrance to Leytonstone tube station has mosaics of scenes from his films. Next to his birth site at 517 Leytonstone High Road, the building has been painted with a mural of birds, repeated in the pavement outside. A pub at 692 Leytonstone High Road was renamed The Birds, in reference to his film The Birds, which was based on the novella by Daphne du Maurier.
Independent Buildings on Church Lane, an art deco building and clock constructed by a local newspaper in 1934, replacing the Gaiety Cinema. The adjoining Seascape House is of matching architectural style.
St John the Baptist's Church, Leytonstone is Grade II listed. Built in 1832 and consecrated in 1833, it is a landmark church at the junction of High Road Leytonstone and Church Lane. The churchyard is host to a vintage market and occasional screenings of Alfred Hitchcock films, as part of the annual Leytonstone Festival.Notable graves include those of the Buxton family and the Cotton family, local philanthropists.
Leytonstone and Wanstead Synagogue, a post-war building in the art deco style on the corner of Fillebrook Road and Drayton Road; built in 1954 by the local Jewish community.
Leytonstone Mosque, a 1970s adaptation of an 1880s church hall that was originally part of St John's, provides worship for up to 1000 male Sunni Muslims and a range of religious education for young boys.
Leytonstone House
Leytonstone House is an eighteenth century, Grade II-listed building immediately to the southwest of the Green Man Roundabout. It stands on a plot of land of approximately 3.5 hectares set back from the main road behind a long wall. A celebrated ancient black mulberry tree grows in the grounds, planted some time before 1840, which still bears fruit. The first known occupants of the house were Philip Sansom (1786- 1845), his wife Elizabeth, son Henry and daughter Elizabeth. Philip Sansom was a founding member of The Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade (aka The Anti-Slavery Society) alongside William Wilberforce (1759–1833), Thomas Fowell Buxton (1786–1845) and others.
Between 1840 and 1867 Thomas Fowell Buxton's son, also called Thomas Fowell Buxton (1822–1908), lived in the house with his wife Rachel Jane Gurney Buxton and large family. An account of the day-to-day life of the family was written by their daughter Elizabeth Ellen Buxton (1848–1919) which includes many drawings of the house, garden, family and friends.
It was also the home of the Liberal Party MP Sir Edward North Buxton (1812–1858). His third son, also named Edward North Buxton, along with his brother Thomas, argued alongside the City of London Corporation for the preservation of nearby Epping Forest for public use, leading to the passing of the Epping Forest Act 1878. In 1867 the house was purchased by the Bethnal Green Board of Guardians to use as a workhouse school, named The Bethnal Green Schools for the Juvenile Poor, an industrial school and home for children under the age of fifteen. The original outbuildings of Leytonstone House were demolished, with the house itself retained as an administrative centre. Temporary iron school buildings were erected, which were all replaced by permanent blocks by 1889. The schools became the London County Council's in 1930, and operated until 1937 as the Leytonstone Children's Home, and then Leytonstone House Hospital until it closed in 1994. The site was subsequently redeveloped, and the house and half of the school blocks remain today as a mixture of commercial and residential use.
Wallwood Farmhouse, near the Welsh Church on Leytonstone High Road, was built on the Wallwood Estate in the 1600s when the area was rural. it was owned in the early 19th Century by William Cotton, son of Joseph Cotton and father of Agnes Cotton, philanthropist.
Leytonstone Library – a Grade II* listed art deco building built in 1934 to the design of James Ambrose Dartnall – underwent s £1.5 million refurbishment completed in 2015.
The Red Lion public house, restored in 2011
Harrow Green Library, an art deco building opened in 1939 and closed in 2011 due to funding cuts; now run as a volunteer library in the same building, renamed The Junction.
Leytonstone War Memorial and Gardens revealed in 1925 in remembrance of people of Leyton and Leytonstone who fought in The Great War and World War II; sited in the middle of Harrow Green, which is also the site of the modernist-style Wesleyan Christian Centre, built in 1959.
The Red Lion, which has had a public house on the site since 1670. The current building is from 1891, having been restored as craft beer pub, ballroom and hotel; currently owned by the pub group Antic London.
Whipps Cross University Hospital is set for redevelopment to include a brand-new hospital, along with new homes and other communal facilities. It was selected as one of six UK hospitals to receive a share of £2.7 billion of initial government funding in 2019.
Whipps Cross Lido was a swimming pool dug in 1905, updated to a chlorinated facility in 1937 and closed in 1982. Some remains of the building and access road can be found near Hollow Pond on Leyton Flats. The original Leytonstone Fire Station
Leytonstone Fire Station, in Leytonstone High Road, was a Victorian building that was replaced in February 2016 by the current building.
Pastures and Good Shepherd Building in Davies Lane are, respectively, the location of a 17th-century house, the home of Agnes Cotton, and a Children's Home founded by her. Both were threatened with redevelopment but saved by community protest in April 2021. The Pastures is now a Youth Centre and Sports Hall, while the Good Shepherd building is run as artists studios and a community creative space.
West Ham Union Workhouse, whose buildings still remain in south Leytonstone, was originally part of the village of Holloway Down, located between Harrow Green and the Thatched House junction.
Leytonstone belonged originally to the ancient parish of Leyton in the Becontree Hundred of Essex. It became a separate ecclesiastical parish in 1845. The parish of Leyton formed part of the West Ham Poor law union. In 1894 it became part of Leyton Urban District, which was incorporated in 1926 as the Municipal Borough of Leyton.
Leytonstone Bus Station stands either side of exits for Leytonstone tube station; key routes include the 257 to Stratford, the W15 to Hackney, and the night bus N8 to Tottenham Court Road.
From 25 October 2021, Leytonstone will be in London's Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ); which is to be expanding from central London up to the North Circular and South Circular roads.
Education
Leytonstone schools include:
Buxton School, an all-through school for ages 3–16 and Specialist Science College
Davies Lane Primary School, first opened in 1901 as a board school. In 1948 it became a junior and infants school, merging into a single primary in 2004.
Leytonstone Leisure Centre on Cathall Road provides a gym and 25-metre main pool, sports hall, fitness studios, and a children's soft-play area.
Wanstead Flats has 60 football pitches, including eight full size pitches. This facility is overseen by City of London Corporation and amateur football teams play every Sunday. 5K Parkruns take place in Wanstead Flats at 9am every Saturday morning, starting and finishing at Harrow Road Pavilion.
The association football team Wanderers F.C. was founded in Leytonstone in 1859 as Forest Football Club, playing their home matches on Leyton Flats until 1865, instead playing at various locations in London and the surrounding area. The team was a founding member of The Football Association in 1863 and would rename in 1864 and would win the inaugural Football Association Challenge Cup in 1872, winning five out of the first seven finals and won three in succession from 1876 to 1878, a feat which has been repeated only once. Despite dissolving in 1887, Wanderers are still tied with Everton and West Bromwich Albion with the sixth most FA Cups as of 2025.
In The Bed-Sitting Room (1969), Spike Milligan created the (fictional) closest heir to the British throne after the outbreak of nuclear war as "Mrs. Ethel Shroake" of 393A High Street, Leytonstone. She appears in the final scene of the play.
Deep End, a 1970 British-German drama starring Jane Asher with a soundtrack by Can, was partly shot on Cann Hall Road and Cathall Road Baths (built 1906, rebuilt later in 1977).
In Vicious, a sitcom series that ran from 2013 to 2016, the fictional character Stuart Bixby, played by Derek Jacobi, was from Leytonstone (like Jacobi in real life).
Notable people
Damon Albarn (born 1968), singer-songwriter raised in Fillebrook Road, lead singer of Blur.
Ashley Banjo (born 1988), dancer and choreographer, was born in Leytonstone.
Sir David Beckham OBE (born 1975), former footballer (England, Manchester United, Real Madrid, LA Galaxy, AC Milan, Paris Saint-Germain), was born in Leytonstone and grew up in Chingford.
James Bevan (1858–1938), captain of the Welsh rugby union team in its first international match, died in Leytonstone
Stuart Freeborn (1914–2013), Star Wars make-up artist who was most famous as the designer of Yoda; born in Grove Green Road, had a Blue Heritage Plaque placed on his former home in December 2015.
Graham Gooch (born 1953), OBE, cricketer, former captain of the England cricket team
Philip Samson (died 1815), prominent abolitionist, made Leytonstone House his home from 1795 until his death. A wealthy London merchant and banker, he was one of the 12 founding members of the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade
June Sarpong (born 1977) MBE, television presenter
Rita Simons (born 1977), actress, singer and model
Halszka Wasilewska (1899–1961), soldier, daughter of Leon Wasilewski, spent her infancy here before becoming a decorated major in the Polish Armed Forces
Leon Wasilewski (1870–1936), Polish political activist and editor lived in Leytonstone in 1898–1903
Douglas Webb (1922–1996), dam buster and photographer
Horace Waller (1833–1896), missionary, anti-slavery activist and campaigner
↑An Account of "Wallwood", Leytonstone, from 1200-1960 by Frederick Temple
Reprinted in 2009 by kind permission from Part H, Vol. 1, Third series, Transactions of the Essex Archaeological
Society (1964) (introductory note last revised November 2007)
By Leyton & Leytonstone Historical Society
Number 5 in The Great Houses of Leyton and Leytonstone Series
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