Wanstead

Wanstead is a suburban area in the London Borough of Redbridge, East London. The main road going through Wanstead is the A12. The name is from the Anglo-Saxon words wænn and stede, meaning "settlement on a small hill".

The town has a largely suburban feel, containing open grasslands such as Wanstead Flats, and the woodland of Wanstead Park (part of Epping Forest). The park, with artificial lakes, was originally part of the estate of a large stately home Wanstead House, one of the finest Palladian mansions in Britain, from its size and splendour nicknamed the English Versailles, and the architectural inspiration for Mansion House, London. It was demolished after the bankruptcy of the owner, William Wellesley-Long, in 1824. It is also home to Wanstead Golf club, which has hosted many of the major events in the Essex County calendar. A notable landmark towards the northern edge of Wanstead is the former Wanstead Hospital building, now a housing complex.

Wanstead High Street is distinctive because of its many independent retailers, attracting shoppers from a wide area. Public houses include The George (which began life as the George and Dragon in the 18th century), The Cuckfield and Russells.

History

The name Wanstead is first recorded about 1050.

Wanstead was a part of Essex until 1965, when Greater London was created.

The George Public House

Although The George is not a particularly old building, there has been a pub on that site for hundreds of years. Set in to the side of the pub is a plaque dating from 1752 which was formerly part of an older pub building. The plaque is inscribed with the eccentrically spelled verse:

In Memory of

Ye Cherry Pey

As cost 1/2 a Guiney

Ye 17 of July

That day we had good cheer

I hope to so do maney a Year

R C 1752 D Jerry

There are various local legends explaining this curious plaque, including a tale of the theft of a cherry pie by local workmen who were caught and fined half a guinea (52.5p). However the most likely explanantion is that it was placed there by the landlord of 1752, David Jersey (corrupted by centuries of repainting and re-cutting the inscription to D Jerry on the plaque), commemorating a feast which included a huge cherry pie. Monstrous pies were a feature of 18th-century Essex rural festivals; the Tollesbury Gooseberry Pie festival is still in existence, and other inns around the edge of Epping Forest were famed for pies (rabbit pie at The Reindeer, Loughton, now Warren House, and pigeon pie at The King's Head, Chigwell). Wanstead was well-known for its cherry orchards as late as the 1830s, when they were mentioned by poet Thomas Hood, who lived in Wanstead 1832-5.

Local flora and fauna

An area near the A12 M11 Link Road (which was built in the 1990s) beside the section from Blake Hall Road to Selsdon Road was in 2008 preserved by local residents as a Wild-Flower Meadow with a year-round display of wild and naturalised plants, shrubs and trees; starting in spring with oxlip (P. elatoir), cowslip (Primula veris), primrose (P. vulgaris), and meadow buttercup (Ranunculus acris), followed by many species including the grass vetchling (Lathyrus nissolia). The meadow is listed as one of the main Primula species meadows in Greater London. The fauna of the area includes birds, foxes, Muntjac deer, and squirrels.

Education

Wanstead is home to a large comprehensive school, Wanstead High School. There are six primary schools in Wanstead: Our Lady of Lourdes, Aldersbrook, Wanstead Church School, Nightingale, Snaresbrook and St. Joseph's which is an all-girls' private school.

Transport and locale

Nearest places

Nearest railway stations

Leytonstone High Road railway station

Notable residents

Jessie Wallace, Actress. Lived in Wanstead until late 2006.
Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester and favourite of Elizabeth I, had a house here, in which he died, much to Elizabeth's intense sorrow, on 4th September 1588, three days before the Queen's 55th birthday.