Whipps Cross
| Whipps Cross | |
| Essex | |
|---|---|
 Whipps Cross Hospital old building | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ387888 |
| Location: | 51°34’54"N, -0°0’2"E |
| Data | |
| Post town: | London |
| Postcode: | E10, E11, E17 |
| Dialling code: | 020 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Waltham Forest |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Leyton and Wanstead |
Whipps Cross is a suburban village of Essex between Leytonstone and Walthamstow. It is most famous for Whipps Cross University Hospital.
The name Whipps Cross specifically applies to the junction of Lea Bridge Road (the A104) with Whipps Cross Road (the A114) and Wood Street (the B160). It lay on the boundary of the ancient parishes of Walthamstow and Leyton.
The area to the south and west of Whipps Cross is residential, mainly terraced housing built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. On the south side of the Whipps Cross junction is a large Victorian house which is used as a Territorial Army Centre by 68 Signal Squadron of the Inns of Court & City Yeomanry. Adjacent to this building is a war memorial in the form of a Celtic cross, to the 7th Battalion, the Essex Regiment (Territorial) and other local Territorial Army units of both World Wars.
The area to the south and east of the junction, on the southern side of Whipps Cross Road, was once the site of Forest House but has for the last century been occupied by Whipps Cross Hospital. To the north and east of Whipps Cross is an area of Epping Forest called 'Leyton Flats', which features a lake created from old gravel pits officially called 'Hollow Pond' (or as 'Hollow Ponds' locally).[1][2]
Name
The village is first named in local records of the late fourteenth century as Phip's cross, referring to a wayside cross set up by a member of the family of one John Phyppe. Further versions on maps and deeds are Phyppys Crosse in 1517, Fypps Chrosse 1537, Phippes Cross 1572, and finally Whipps Cross by 1636.[3] The change in the initial consonant is thought to have been a product of the local Essex dialect at that time, in which "F" sounds were pronounced as "W".[4] These early examples disprove a local legend, which supposes that the name derives from it being the place where those found guilty of breaking the forest laws were whipped.[5]
Forest House
The Forest House estate lay to the south of Whipps Cross Road and west of James Lane. It has its origins in a lease of land granted by the Abbot of Stratford Langthorne Abbey in 1492.[6] Forrest House had been built by 1568 and was rebuilt before 1625.[7] In 1658, George Goring, 1st Earl of Norwich acquired the estate by marriage. His second son, Lord Goring, enlarged the estate and is buried in Leyton Parish Church.[8] Ownership of Forest House passed to Sir Henry Capell who sold it to James Houblon in 1682, who immediately started to build a new house on the site in the English Baroque style with a Doric porch.[9] Houblon was a wealthy City merchant of Huguenot descent, whose sons John and Abraham were born at Forest House. In 1703, the estate was sold to Sir Gilbert Heathcote, the last Lord Mayor of London to ride on horseback at the Lord Mayor's Show.[10] The estate was sold to the Bosanquet family in 1743,[11] and it remained in their hands until 1889.
In 1889, the house it was sold to the West Ham Board of Guardians who established a work house there. During First World War, the workhouse infirmary was used to treat wounded soldiers and this became Whipps Cross Hospital in 1917. In that year, it was visited by King George V and Queen Mary. The mansion itself became a ward for male mental patients. It was finally demolished in 1964 and only part of the garden wall (thought to date from 1641) remains.
Whipps Cross Lido
In 1905, a swimming pond was excavated by manual labour as part of an unemployment relief scheme. It was located to the north of the Hollow Pond, close to the junction of Lea Bridge Road and Snaresbrook Road. It was locally known as "the Batho", but it became notorious for being muddy and unhygienic.
After improvements, in 1932, a new lido or open-air swimming pool was opened by the Lord Mayor of London.
By 1981, attendances had fallen to 20,000 visits a year and the decision was taken to close the lido on 4 September 1982. By December 1983, the site had been levelled and returned to forest land; only part of the access road remains.
References
- ↑ "Hollow Pond and Leyton Flats". https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/green-spaces/epping-forest/where-to-go-in-epping-forest/hollow-pond-and-leyton-flats.
- ↑ "Timeout: Hollow Ponds". 10 July 2018. https://www.timeout.com/london/things-to-do/hollow-ponds.
- ↑ Place-names of Greater London, John Field, B T Batsford Ltd 1980 ISBN 0-7134-5254-4
- ↑ The Place-Names of Essex, Percy Hide Reaney, Cambridge University Press 1935
- ↑ Epping Forest Then and Now, Winston G. Ramsey, After the Battle 1986, ISBN 0-900913-39-8
- ↑ Leyton & Leytonstone Historical Society: An Account of the House and Estate known as FOREST HOUSE by Frederick Temple, 1957 (p 4)
- ↑ Temple, pp 6–8
- ↑ Temple, pp 10–12
- ↑ Temple, p 34
- ↑ Temple, pp 12–20
- ↑ Temple p 22