Aldersbrook
Coordinates: 51°33′49″N 0°02′04″E / 51.5636°N 0.0344°E
Aldersbrook is the name given to an Edwardian housing estate in North-East London. It is named after the Alders Brook,[1] a small tributary of the River Roding. The name derives from Middle English meaning "brook where alders grow" and is first recorded in 1535; previously it was the site of a farmstead known as Nakethalle or Nagethalle, literally "naked hall", alluding not to a building but to an exposed or unoccupied enclosure.[2]
The estate is bounded by Aldersbrook Road to the south, Bush Wood to the west, Wanstead Park to the north, and the City of London Cemetery and Crematorium to the east. It is wholly in the London Borough of Redbridge, and borders Waltham Forest and Newham. One half of Aldersbrook is in the postcode district of E11, the other in E12. Some of the part in E12 was formerly part of Newham.
The built-up area is surrounded on all sides by open space or parkland, which is distinctive in the otherwise dense urban landscape of North-East London. Northumberland Avenue and Aldersbrook Road, in particular, have housing frontage built only on one side of the road, affording views of Wanstead Park and Wanstead Flats, respectively, to the properties there. Perhaps reflecting the generally pro-temperance Edwardian era in which the estate was laid out, or perhaps due to restrictive covenant,[3] there are no public houses at all in the area, save for the bar of the Courtney Hotel, which is at the extreme south-eastern corner of the area.
There is a school, Aldersbrook Primary School, two churches, one Anglican and one Baptist, and a library on Park Road. There is a short strip of shops on Aldersbrook Road, in the south-eastern corner of the estate, a convenience store in the western end of the estate, behind the Anglican church, and a launderette and another convenience store at the eastern side of the estate.
While the greater body of the estate was laid out in the 1910s, which defines its overall character, there are smaller areas of more recent post-war development. Brading Crescent area was laid out as a mix of council housing styles in the 1950s: terraces, sheltered housing, and one high-rise block called Jackson Court. At the extreme eastern edge of the estate, behind Clavering Road, are small courtyards of flat-roofed terraced housing laid out in the late 1960s. On the site of the former maternity hospital, modern houses and flats were laid out in the mid-1980s to form Alders Close. There is also a tiny pocket of land directly behind the wall of the Primary School which was developed into Albury Mews in the late 1980s.
The estate was designated a Conservation area by Redbridge London Borough Council in 2002.[4]
In 2009 a Mike Leigh film, Another Year was using the area for locations.[5]
External links
References
- ↑ Wanstead Wildlife: Discovering the Alders Brook
- ↑ Mills, A.D. (2010). A Dictionary of London Place-Names. Oxford University Press. p. 5. ISBN 9780199566785.
- ↑ Suggested in Semi-Detached London, Alan A Jackson, Allen & Unwin, 1973
- ↑ Conservation areas
- ↑ Filming locations for Another Year (2010)
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