Whipps Cross - The Environs

The Environs

The name "Whipps Cross" specifically applies to the junction of Lea Bridge Road (A104) with Whipps Cross Road (A114) and Wood Street (B160). It lay on the boundary of the former civil parishes and Municipal Boroughs of Walthamstow and Leyton, which were both incorporated into Waltham Forest in 1965. It is the highest point in Leyton at 63 metres above sea level.

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 and 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. It bears the inscription "WE ARE THE DEAD. TO YOU WITH FAILING HANDS WE THROW THE TORCH; BE YOURS TO HOLD IT HIGH." This memorial was moved from Church Hill, Walthamstow when the TA drill hall there closed in the 1950s.

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 called the Hollow Pond.