I spent this morning in the Vestry House Museum, home to the Waltham Forest archives and local studies room. I was there trying to track down visual clues which might jog the memories of Collect Project visitors about the Wood Street area.
The archive is a treasure trove of information about the whole Walthamstow area and you could lose hours in there browsing through photos, maps and newspaper clippings which date back over the last couple of centuries.
The building which houses the museum and archive is a treasure itself which dates back to the mid 1700s. In its time it has seen service as a police station and a private home and now sits on top of the hill of what is often referred to as "Walthamstow Village". Despite its current incarnation as a confusing one way system, the area is lovely for a spring walk and is where you will find many of Walthamstow's fascinating historical buildings.
As well as coming across lots of old photos of the Wood Street area, my visit turned up information on the old film studios which at the very start of the 20th century were pivotal in bringing picture house entertainment to the masses. Maps like the one above from the 1960s also gave me an idea of how the area around the market itself has developed over the last 150 years.
If you're looking for more information on living in Walthamstow or want to find out about some of the places mentioned in the stories we have collected so far a visit to the archives would be a very good place to start!
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