Wanstead and Woodford by Ian Dowling

Wanstead and Woodford by Ian Dowling

This selection of old photographs of Wanstead and Woodford portrays this pleasant area of Greater London over the last one hundred years. 'Waenstade' and 'Wudeford' were both established in Saxon times as settlements near the Great Forest of Essex, later called Epping Forest. In the Eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the area became popular with city merchants and businessmen who built themselves large houses, some of which still survive today. The two Boroughs of Wanstead and Woodford joined together in 1937 and were incorporated into the Borough of Redbridge in 1965. The history of these, still in places, rural boroughs can be traced in the photographs of this book which are all drawn from the Redbridge Local Studies Library Collection.

Nick Harris began his career as a writer for the motorcycle magazines Motorcyle News and Motorcycle Weekly. He subsequently moved to Rothmans Honda as Media Manager before moving to Rothmans Williams Renault in Formula One, where he announced Ayrton Senna's death and oversaw the worldwide media coverage of Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve's world titles. For 18 years, he hosted MotoGP on BT Sports, and when he announced his departure last year, over 1.2 million people watched his farewell Facebook video, which included Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez. He resides in the county of Oxfordshire.