Streets
Streets
I really like it, I remember when we first bought the flat, I would drive down here, I was so excited about moving, because it was around spring time, and in the spring all the trees have got blossom on, and in the summer they’re bright green, and in the autumn they’ve got autumn leaves, so it’s just a really pretty road, I think.
Rosie, Carr Road
It’s been a really nice street to move to actually, I’ve never lived anywhere like this, when I moved in people were really nice and said hello, and there’s a lot of people who’ve lived here for quite some time, like my next door neighbours were born.. I think she was born on Edward Road and he was born somewhere else in Walthamstow, and they’ve lived here for about 40 years. So they’ve been fantastic, they introduced themselves the first day and they helped me out a lot and look after the cats when I’m away and things like that, and it’s a really nice community which I haven’t ever experienced anywhere else I’ve lived really, particularly in London. It’s a bit noisier now than it used to be, I don’t know, Walthamstow’s just busier, at night and that kind of thing it is, but I think everyone looks out for each other and everyone kind of knows what’s going on which is nice, you get to know people.
Heather, Lloyd Road
The street’s quite a long street, as you’ve probably seen, so it’s in two halves with Pretoria Avenue providing a kind of cross-over. We know most people down our end of this street and a lot of them have lived here either as long as or longer than us. There are a lot of people with children, and we’re a very friendly street, so we do know each other. Once a year we host a kind of winter stroke Christmas get together drop in, when everybody comes and brings food and drink to share and we all get together. You know we support each other, people have rung me up at work to tell me that my car window’s open, or you know we do the same thing, if we see someone hanging around someone’s house, someone will call them up and tell them. Yeah it’s a nice street to live in, it’s got a nice feel to it, it’s very friendly.
Alice, Northcote Road
Leucha Road used to be very peaceful. It was really good, and the neighbours are very friendly, always used to be, still they are, but it’s not as friendly as before, any more. But closer neighbours, we are like families. The council are putting so many people with social problems in. In my experience living in this house, just downstairs itself there have been 4 lots of tenants just moving in and out, in and out.
Gnanamani, Leucha Road
J: I think it’s lovely, I think because it’s a dead end at the bottom where the school is, it’s really quiet and you do see kids playing outside and especially with the shop as well sort of going backwards and forwards and chatting to each other and shouting to each other and I actually really like that, being somewhere that’s quiet enough that people can live on the street a bit. I think that’s lovely.
C: I think one of the things that we inadvertently liked, is that Bridge Road is bollarded off at the end. I cycle to work and it’s just really nice when I turn off the Lea Bridge Road and I know that I’ve got a couple of blocks left to cycle but it’s really calm and if you see somebody it’s probably somebody that lives in this little bit. I’m often vaguely amused, you see cars come down and sort of do these ridiculous three point turns because they haven’t realised that they can’t actually cut through.
Claire and Judith, Hibbert Road
It has changed quite a lot. I think one of the most interesting things is seeing different people coming and going. A few years ago for example the street was sort of taken over by Romanian families, and you could hear the children playing on the streets and families talking from one side of the road to the other. It was completely different, and that lasted for a few months and as quickly as they came, they went, all at the same time, leaving just a lot of silence behind, in the summer. There was, when we moved in, a lot of rental properties, now there’s a lot of people buying, and that brings a new flavour to the street again. You can see people really excited about buying, and what they can do, and I’ve met people and they’ve come over to see the flat and the potential, and that’s really exciting, that new energy, of wanting to come and transform the Warners, and I’m always telling them what a Warner is, and the story behind, that it’s not just a flat! You have to keep it safe!
Marta, Seymour Road
Theydon Street was a beautiful street, because during the war they didn’t lob the trees and we had big plane trees all the way down. And of course they grew and they made a big arch right across, it was beautiful, it really looked nice.
There was an old flower seller used to stand on the corner of Markhouse Road and Lea Bridge Road, he was there for years, selling flowers, the flower stall, it’s all changed there now.
Beryl, Elphinstone Road
E: I really like the street and the day that we moved in we did say hello to a couple of people.
D: Yeah we were unloading and it was quite obvious we’d been to Ikea. The lady across the road had a new baby and was talking to us from across the road, and then I had to ask a guy further down about the bins, because we didn’t know what day the bin people came. Yes everyone seems quite nice
E: And the street seems quite quiet, because it’s signposted as a dead end, isn’t it
D: Yeah I like this street
E: It’s nice that it’s tree lined as well, that was something we spotted as well about more and more of the houses that we did like, when we were looking around. The street does matter.
Daisy and Edd, Theydon Street