Guide to Wanstead
As E11’s most affluent and expensive quarter, Wanstead’s enviable village lifestyle has been labelled many things, most recently as East London’s answer to Twickenham and as one of the Top Ten Places to Live in London by The Sunday Times.
Everything about Wanstead is lovely. Two beautiful village greens – Christ Church and Memorial – host a thriving scene of independent local shops, gorgeous streets of Victorian homes and even a modernist tube station designed by Charles Holden; there is nothing not to love.
You’d never know it from the leafy environs and laid back lifestyle, but Wanstead is just 18 minutes by tube from Bank, 25 from Holborn, and 22 from Canary Wharf via a quick change 8 minutes away at Stratford (where you might be tempted by the retail therapy of Westfield on the way back from office). You can choose from two local Central Line stations (Wanstead and Snaresbrook), each providing the same convenience as the other as the first – or last! – stops on the two branch lines that converge one stop toward London, at Leytonstone.
Bordered by two sprawling swathes of public green space – Wanstead Flats to the South and the wonderful Epping Forest to the west and north – Wanstead is also home to the splendid and respected Wanstead Golf Club and Wanstead Cricket Club, as well as a scattering of pocket parks. Along with its bounteous tree-lined avenues, the overall impression is of a verdant haven.
The village has pleasant Victorian terraces and the odd Georgian off the high street, while the streets around Wanstead Park are the finest and have broad avenues of Victorians and later. The Aldersbrook estate is another beautiful place. Spratt Hall Road has late-Victorian and Edwardian terraces and semis and you’ll find more leafy suburban environs on and around the Counties Estate and Nutter Lane. The Warren estate has fine 1920s/1930s semis.
Ofsted rated Outstanding schools include: Our Lady of Lourdes RC and Nightingale, with Church rates as Good. Secondary education comes from Wanstead High.
