Monthly Archives: March 2014

Fireplaces, parlours and sculleries


This week I was lucky enough to meet Roger Dear, who used to be one of the area managers for the Warner Estate and who worked for them in different roles for over 40 years until they sold the remaining properties to Circle 33 in 2001. He told me about how the properties were maintained under the Warners and about how they were modernised at different stages. Interestingly for me, he told me about the changes that would have been made to my own flat. Although I knew that the kitchen and bathroom would have been in a different configuration […]

Warner Wallpaper


We received a call from a family in Ardleigh Road to say they were redecorating their home, stripping wallpaper and kept uncovering layers of old wallpaper. In fact we had three calls from them, as they kept uncovering more Warner wallpaper. A closer inspection of the Bedford Lemere album shows some of this wallpaper at the time. The Ardleigh Road properties were built in the 1920s, and the Bedford Lemere album was taken in 1903 so they used the same wallpaper and interior design for many years. Seen here is a section of the floral wallpaper used to decorate a […]

Family photographs


A big thank you to all of those who have lent us their family photographs from the Warner estate. We have received some really wonderful photos, including people outside their first home, or with their first car or TV; we have also received photographs dating back to the 1940s. Seen here is a photograph from a family in Warner Road, Walthamstow who have lived in Warner properties all their lives, in fact four generations of their family lived in Warner properties. Although this is unusual now, it was not necessarily unusual when the Warners owned the estate. Good tenants were […]

The Bedford Lemere Warner Album


Each property and resident I have photographed, I’ve shown the 1903 Bedford Lemere album to, so I thought it worth sharing a photograph from it here as they have prompted many conversations and much interest. And the album has inspired the interior photography which will form part of this project. This album was commissioned by the Warners to showcase their properties and to document the different types of property available in Woodford, Walthamstow and Leyton. Rooms are meticulously presented, possibly staged. The interiors look quite opulent, packed with ornaments, patterns and different textures. The photographs were taken by Bedford Lemere, […]