REDISCOVERING WANSTEAD HOUSE - MOBILE PHONE AUDIO GUIDE - PART 2

Above: Wanstead House in the mid 18th century. A Public Domain image of an etching by Wilson Joseph Lowry (1803–1879) after George Robertson (1749–1788).
INTRODUCTION

This guide is designed to be used on a smart phone with an internet connection. Best when using the Safari browser on an iPhone and Chrome on an Android phone.

This part 2 guide leads on from, and complements, REDISCOVERING WANSTEAD HOUSE - MOBILE PHONE AUDIO GUIDE - PART 1  

The guide consists of direction instructions (written in black) which lead you on a set route to various places that have a link to the demolished Wanstead House. Once at these places, there are audio recordings that explain the historical significance of what you can see there.

There is an accompanying online map for this walk (see below). You can use this if you need help to find the places to listen to the audio guides at. 

Spread two fingers to resize the map, and drag two fingers to move it.

You can click on the red letters on the map to find out what that position is.    
 
THE WALK
This walk starts at Wanstead Tube Station.

However, if you are continuing on after having just done Part 1 of the walk, you could start from St Mary the Virgin church, Wanstead E11 2LN, which is where Part 1 ends.

George Green to Overton Drive
(The George Green Sweet Chestnut Trees, St Mary the Virgin Church, the Basin, The site of Blake Hall, the alignment of Overton Drive.

START THE WALK... Walk across the road to George Green and walk on the path going diagonally across it. At the second park lamp post, turn left off the path to three large Sweet Chestnut trees.

Above: Position of the old sweet chestnut trees on George Green.

This is at map position (A)
GEORGE GREEN CHESTNUT TREES
(Click the play button below)

Above: The old sweet chestnut trees on George Green dating back about 300 years..

Below: Another sweet chestnut tree on George Green, also dating from about 300 years ago, was the focus of a protest in 1993 when the M11 bypass (which is now underground near here) was being built. The protest delayed it being felled, but did not save the tree.

Image below is in the Public Domain.
CONTINUE THE WALK... Cross over the road that is nearest to the Chestnuts, then turn right and walk along the pavement away from the tube station. Just past Wanstead House Community Centre on the left, cross over Redbridge Lane West, and continue along St Mary's Avenue until you see St Mary's Church in front of you (Map Position B).

NOTE:
IF YOU HAVE NOT PREVIOUSLY DONE PART 1 OF THIS WALK, AND WANT TO LOOK AROUND ST MARY'S CHURCHYARD AND SEE THE SITE OF WANSTEAD HOUSE, YOU CAN USE THIS LINK TO JUMP TO THAT SECTION OF OF THE PART 1 PAGE. 

At the end of St Mary's Avenue, turn right and cross over it to continue along Overton Drive. 

Walk along and cross over Draycot Road, to continue on Overton Drive. 

Draycot Road was built at the beginning of the 20th century, but takes it's name from another grand property owned by Sir James Tylney-Long and his descendants, Draycot House in Draycot Cerne in Wiltshire.  Sir James Tylney-Long inherited Wanstead House from his uncle John Child in 1784. 

Just before you get to the next road off right, Seagry Road, carefully cross over Overton Drive. There are some good tree free spots here to get a good view of the Basin, once the pond in front of Wanstead House.

This is at map position (C)
THE BASIN
(Click the play button below)

Above: The Basin from Overton Drive, with a mock-up showing the approximate position of Wanstead House, behind and to the left of the Basin when viewed from here.

Below: The original version of The Basin, in front of Wanstead Hall in 1715. The hall was the Tudor predecessor of Wanstead House. In 1715, Richard Child was the owner of the estate, although his father, Josiah, had also spent a lot of money planting trees in the parkland around the hall. Seven years later, in 1722, Wanstead Hall had been demolished and replaced by Wanstead House. Picture courtesy of Redbridge Heritage Centre



CONTINUE THE WALK... Cross back over Overton drive and continue along to Seagry Road, also named after a Wiltshire property owned by Sir James Tylney-Long. 

Blake Hall, that Blake Hall Road is named after, once stood approximately half way up where Seagry Road stands now.

This is at map position (D)
BLAKE HALL
(Click the play button below)

Above: The position of Blake Hall on a late 19C. OS map (shaded in pink). Your position now is approximately where the red dot is. Overton Drive as a road did not exist then.  

Below: Blake Hall at the beginning of the 20th century, just before it was demolished.
CONTINUE THE WALK... along Overton Drive. After Seagry Road the road will start to curve left for about 200 metres, and then turns and becomes straight towards the intersection with Blake Hall Road. The alignment of this last, straight part of Overton Drive matches that of the original approach road to the front of Wanstead House. On entering the gates, visitors would see the Basin straight ahead, and behind it the house. 

This is at map position (E)
THE END OF OVERTON DRIVE AND THE WANSTEAD HOUSE GATEPOSTS
(Click the play button below)

Before you walk to the very end of Overton Drive where the Blake Hall Road crosses it, and see the two original Wanstead House gateposts, it may be better to play the next audio recording here. Blake Hall Road gets busy, and it may be difficult to hear the audio above the traffic noise.

Overton Drive to Evelyn's Avenue
(The Wanstead House Gateposts, building Blake Hall Road, Bush Wood Sweet Chestnut Trees, Evelyn's Avenue, Lake House)

Below: The original Wanstead House gateposts, either side of Overton Drive, where it meets Blake Hall Road.

At map position (F)
BUILDING BLAKE HALL ROAD
(Click the play button below)

Above: A satirical cartoon of William and Catherine Pole-Tylney-Long-Wellesley, with John Townsend, a Bow Street Runner, and Mr Scott, Catherine's stalker.
Image thanks to the British Museum - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.

CONTINUE THE WALK... Approach the end of Overton Drive, past the Wanstead House gateposts. Cross Blake Hall Road at the pedestrian crossing, then cross over Bush Road and walk straight on towards the Keepers Cottage (see below).

Notice the large very old Sweet Chestnut tree in the cottage front garden (see the red arrow above). 

Continue further down the path until you come to an even larger old Chestnut tree on the left (see photo below).



This is at map position (G)
SWEET CHESTNUT AVENUES
(Click the play button below)

CONTINUE THE WALK... Continue walking down the path. You will come to a junction with another very old Sweet Chestnut Tree in front of you.

Above: The last of the three old Sweet Chestnut trees on this path.

CONTINUE THE WALK... At the junction shown above, take the left hand path, and when you come to another junction, take the left hand path again.
 
Continue straight ahead until you come to a square wooden post, with the top painted green, at another junction. This is Evelyn's Avenue.

Above the tree line you may see a grey block of flats. This is a residential development called "Belgrave Heights" which was originally built as Metropolitan Police cadet accommodation. Before that, a timber framed building called "The Swiss Cottage", built around 1850, stood near there. The Cottage was demolished 1962 when the police cadet accommodation was built.


CONTINUE THE WALK... Walk down Evelyn's Avenue in the direction of the arrow on the post. See picture below.
 
Below: Evelyn's Avenue

This is at map position (H)
EVELYN'S AVENUE
(Click the play button below)

CONTINUE THE WALK... Carry on walking down Evelyn's Avenue until you come to a lamp post in the middle of the avenue. If you look straight down the rest of Evelyn's Avenue, on a clear day you should be able to see the Shard, because the avenue points straight towards London Bridge.

Below: The Shard seen down Evelyn's Avenue. 
Just after passing the lamp post in the middle of Evelyn's Avenue, turn 45 degrees left here, and walk across the grass towards what is now the Lake House Estate, Edwardian style houses built around 1909. See the map below for the route to take.


Through the trees on your left you should see the garden walls and the back of some of the houses on the Lake House housing estate. Where the estate is was once a lake, with a causeway leading to an island with the Lake House on it. It was built as a summer dining place by Richard Child who built Wanstead House.
  
This is at map position (I)
THE LAKE HOUSE
(Click the play button below)




Above: The Lake House.

Below: The Lake House taken from Roque's Map "London, 10 Miles Round".
The Lake House is shown in the blue box.



BACK TO ALDERSBROOK

Carry on walking along the track. When you get to Lake House Road, move left to the corner so that you can see traffic coming both ways, then carefully cross the road.

Look back at the houses of the Lake House Estate, and notice that it is lower than the road which is on an embankment. The estate is the area where the Lake was.

Walk on to the flats the other side and immediately turn left along the path that runs parallel to Lake House Road. Half way along the path, turn 45 degrees right along a path heading towards Centre Road. 

See the map below for route described above:




Carefully cross Centre Road (the traffic is very heavy here at certain times of the day) and walk down the gated path on the other side of the road. 

Carry on walking is the same general direction, then down a short incline and along the path that follows Aldersbrook Road to your left (up a bank), and with football pitches to your right. This area is called "Brick Field" or "The Dell". 

This is at map position (J)
BRICK FIELD
(Click the play button below)

END OF WALK
Carry on walking along the path until you see St Gabriel's Church on the left.  Turn towards the Aldersbrook Road. There is a crossing here. There are bus stops here on both sides of the road. On the Wanstead Flats side, the 101 buses go to Wanstead, the W19 busses go to Leytonstone and Walthamstow. On the St Gabriel's side of the road, the 101 buses go to Manor Park & East Ham, and the W19 buses go to Ilford.

Please send your feedback!


Let us know if you enjoyed the walk, and if you have any other feedback that we could use to improve it.

Music used in the audio recordings on this page: 
Sonatina No 2 in F Major Allegro - Joel Cummins - Copyright Free Music - YouTube Audio Library 

Maps courtesy of Google MyMaps and Google Earth