Leyton
Leyton is a town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It borders Walthamstow to the north, Leytonstone to the east, and Stratford to the south, with Clapton, Hackney Wick and Homerton, across the River Lea, to the west. The area includes New Spitalfields Market, Leyton Orient Football Club, as well as part of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The town consists largely of terraced houses built between 1870 and 1910, interspersed with some modern housing estates. It is north-east of Charing Cross.
Leyton was an ancient parish, also known as Low Leyton or Leyton St Mary. It formed part of the Becontree hundred of the ancient county of Essex. The parish contained the two settlements of Low Leyton and Leytonstone and remained largely rural until the 19th century. The area saw significant development in the late 19th century, becoming part of the conurbation of London, similar to much of south-west Essex. It became part of the Metropolitan Police District in 1839 and has been part of the London postal district since its inception in 1856.
A Leyton local government district was established in 1873, covering Leyton and Leytonstone. The district was enlarged in 1875 to also include Cann Hall. It became an urban district in 1894 and gained municipal borough status in 1926. In 1965, the Municipal Borough of Leyton merged with the neighbouring boroughs of Walthamstow and Chingford to form the London Borough of Waltham Forest, a local government district of Greater London.
History
implements and fossil bones show that early man hunted in Leyton. A Roman cemetery and the foundations of a Roman villa have been found here. From Anglo-Saxon times, Leyton has been part of the county of Essex. The name means "settlement on the River Lea" and was also known until 1921 as "Low Leyton".The Domesday Book of 1086 lists six estates or manors at the vill of Leituna or Leintuna in the Becontree Hundred of Essex. There were 51 households recorded across the six Leyton manors at that time.
The ancient parish of Leyton, also known as Leyton St Mary or Low Leyton, was in two parts. The main part included the settlements of Leytonstone and Leyton itself. The detached part of the parish to the north included the area around Lea Bridge Road. The two parts were separated by a long, thin exclave of Walthamstow parish, known as the "Walthamstow Slip". To the south, the parish of Leyton had anciently included the manor of Cann Hall, which was transferred to the parish of Wanstead sometime prior to the 13th century.
Leyton's parish church of St Mary the Virgin was largely rebuilt in the 17th century.
A local government district was created in 1873, covering the parish of Leyton or Low Leyton and the Walthamstow Slip. The order creating the district called it "Low Leyton", but by 1875 the district was being called just "Leyton" in official documents. The district was extended in 1875 to also include the Cann Hall area of Wanstead parish to the south, also known as the Wanstead Slip. The Walthamstow Slip was transferred to the parish of Low Leyton in 1878.
Local government districts were reconstituted as urban districts under the Local Government Act 1894. The Leyton Urban District comprised the two civil parishes of Cann Hall and Leyton or Low Leyton. The ambiguity in the name of the latter parish was resolved in 1921 when the name was confirmed to be just Leyton. Leyton Town Hall on Adelaide Road was built in 1895 to serve as the council's headquarters. In 1926 the urban district was incorporated as a borough, becoming the Municipal Borough of Leyton.
In 1965, the borough of Leyton was abolished and was combined with that of Walthamstow and Chingford to form the London Borough of Waltham Forest, within the new county of Greater London. Although Leyton did not become officially part of London until 1965, the borough formed part of London's built-up area and had been part of the London postal district since its inception in 1856 and the Metropolitan Police District since 1839.
The main route through the town is the High Road, which forms part of the ancient route to Waltham Abbey. At the top end of the High Road is a crossroads with Lea Bridge Road and Hoe Street. This junction and the surrounding district is known as Bakers Arms, named after the public house which has now closed down. The pub was named in honour of the almshouses on Lea Bridge Road built in 1857 by the London Master Bakers' Benevolent Institution.
During the 17th and 18th centuries, Leyton was a "pretty retiring place from London" for wealthy merchants and bankers; in 1766 there were said to be 50 or 60 gentlemen with houses in the parish. Leyton's development from an agricultural community to an industrial and residential suburb was given impetus by the arrival of the railway. First at Lea Bridge Station in 1840, then at Low Leyton in 1856. Finally Leyton Midland Road opened in 1894, after an elevated line had been built on brick arches across the already developed streets. However, not all the green spaces were lost, of Epping Forest within Leyton's borders were preserved by the Epping Forest Act 1878. In 1897 Leyton Urban District Council purchased the land for a formal park close to the town hall; it opened in 1903 as Coronation Gardens, named after the coronation of King Edward VII. In 1905, the "Lammas land", common pasture land on Leyton Marshes, was purchased by the council for use as a recreation ground.
In World War I, about 1,300 houses were damaged by Zeppelin raids. By the 1920s, it had become a built-up and thriving urban industrial area known for manufacturing neckties and for its Thermos factory. During the Blitz of World War II, Leyton suffered as a target because of its proximity to the London Docks and Temple Mills rail yard. The yard is now reduced in size as part of it has become a retail park 'Leyton Mills', whilst the rest has been renovated to serve as a depot for high-speed Eurostar trains.
After World War Two, Leyton suffered from large-scale industrial decline in the second half of the 20th century. But, like much of east London, Leyton, which also borders the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, has benefited from significant regeneration projects over the past decade. Parks have been spruced up, some new small parks and gardens created and several tower blocks have been demolished. The millennium was marked with a clock tower in the Lea Bridge Rd area and a major piece of street art at Baker's Arms. And, most recently, in the build-up to the Olympics, Waltham Forest Borough Council spent £475,000 restoring 41 shopfronts on the part of Leyton High Road closest to the 2012 London Olympic Games site. The Olympics authority also funded the smartening up of pavements and street furniture.
Geography
Leyton is in the Lower Lea Valley, the river forming its western boundary. The area rises from low-lying marshland along the river Lea to over 90 feet at Whipps Cross on the southern edge of Epping Forest. Leyton is partially bisected by the A12, with most of the district lying on the north-west side of this busy traffic artery through east London.The High Road Leyton bridge crossing the A12 offers some of the best views in London of the Olympic Park, which also borders the district, as well as of skyscrapers further west. It borders Walthamstow along Lea Bridge Road and areas of the London Borough of Hackney via the River Lea.
Areas of Leyton
- Bakers Arms
- Leyton
- Lea Bridge
- Grove Green
- Temple Mills
Demography
Once a more traditional, working class district, it has become much more gentrified and expensive in recent years. A number of articles have referenced the large numbers of young professionals and other university-educated people moving into Leyton, and its subsequent gentrification and location as a current 'hot spot' to buy in. The area was referenced in the July 2015 edition of Vogue, which said: "All eyes are on Leyton and Stratford ." More widely in Waltham Forest, the borough has seen an influx of those who cannot afford higher house prices or rent in neighbouring Hackney as well as areas such as Bethnal Green and Bow in the nearby London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Related to this, Waltham Forest has been one of the fastest rising boroughs in terms of house prices since 2013.
Facilities
The New Spitalfields Market, relocated in 1991 from the Old Spitalfields market, is the UK's leading horticultural market specialising in exotic fruit and vegetables.There are two main shopping areas in the district, located at opposite ends of the High Road. There is a large retail park at Leyton Mills, next to the station. This has a large, 24-hour Asda store, a B&Q store and a selection of furniture and electrical stores. At the north end of the town, Baker's Arms has a more traditional selection of shops lining Lea Bridge Road and the High Road, including a branch of Tesco.
The local police station is at Boreham Close near Leyton Midland Road station. It moved from Francis Road in December 2012.
Restaurants reflect the diversity of Leyton's population, with cuisines on offer including Turkish, Portuguese, Polish, Indian, Mauritian, Somali and Cypriot. There are also several fast-food takeaway shops, cafes and bakeries.
Leyton lies on the eastern side of the Hackney Marshes, one of the largest areas of open land in London. A bridge to the marshes crosses the Orient Way road and railway tracks from Leyton Jubilee Park, which was created as a merger of two previously separate playing fields to mark the 60th anniversary of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II.
A major focal point in the centre of Leyton is Coronation Gardens, a park built in 1902 to commemorate the coronation that year of King Edward VII. It includes a fountain, landscaped gardens, a bandstand and a children's maze.
On the High Road, near the site of the Bakers Arms, there is also a municipal gym and Leyton Leisure Centre swimming pool, which was formerly called the Leyton Leisure Lagoon and was reopened in October 2013 following a period of renovation.
There are two public libraries in Leyton. One on the High Road next door to the former Town Hall, and the other on Lea Bridge Road which has been recently modernised to offer extensive computer facilities.
The London Borough of Waltham Forest also operates Brooks Farm, a city farm in Skelton Lane Park, near Leyton Midland Road station. It is free to visitors and the livestock include pigs, sheep, cows, horses and llamas.
A recent regeneration of Ive Farm Fields in 2018 has brought a host of new facilities to the area, with floodlit sports pitches, a running track, volleyball courts and a series of walking routes. In memory of those who lost their lives in Waltham Forest during the Covid pandemic, a memorial plaque and tree has been placed in Jubilee Park as a tribute.