Looking for somewhere nearby to get your nature fix? This area has you covered. Looking for the longest street market in in Europe? Yep, they’ve got that too. Looking for the best place to raise a family? This area came out on top for that too. It’s safe to say that Walthamstow already has plenty good going on (special shout out to the hidden neon paradise God’s Own Junkyard and of course the stunning William Morris Museum featuring the world’s largest of William Morris’ work). Aside of being home to all of those marvellous things, there is yet another item to add to the area’s ever-growing list of reasons why it’s so stunning.
Enter: a significant revamp of Vestry House and Chestnuts House. Waltham Forest Council has approved of two major renovations as of July 16 which will contribute to the next phase of a planned 17 million ‘cultural quarter.’
Vestry House is a Grade II-listed building, which dates all the way back to 1730. It has undergone many looks as first a parish workhouse and subsequently then as a police station, armoury, builder’s merchants and a private home. By 1931, it was open to the public as a museum.
And so in another expensive makeover, the revamp will help build new creative workspaces, a cafe and improve the building’s accessibility over all.
Chestnuts House, another Grade II-listed manor, will also be repurposed as a ‘creative workshop and cafe.’ The building is set to get new doors and repairs to its windows and a general tidy.
These two revamps come under the government’s ‘levelling up’ funding with work on Chestnuts House is expected to be finished by early 2025, while Vestry House’s renovations will be completed by 2026.