Living in Woodford: area guide to homes, schools and transport links
Woodford is a place of many settlements spread out along one of the main roads out of London, with South Woodford, the main shopping centre, separated from the other Woodfords — Woodford Green, Woodford Wells and Woodford Bridge — by the busy North Circular road.
This is a place that’s proud of its history, as the little garden on the bridge over the North Circular demonstrates.
The benches are decorated with enamel plaques telling the stories of the many famous people who have made their home in Woodford.
One bench is dedicated to the suffragette and peace campaigner Sylvia Pankhurst.
With her mother Emmeline and elder sister Christabel, Sylvia was an early force in the Votes for Women campaign, although she broke away from the movement before the First World War.
She continued to work as a social reformer and peace activist and in 1924 she scandalised the residents of Woodford by setting up home in Woodford Green with her Italian anarchist lover, Silvio Corio, and naming her home The Red Cottage.
She ended her days not in Woodford but in Ethiopia where on her death in 1960 she was given a state funeral. Another bench celebrates the life of William Morris (1834-1896), the polymath now most famous for his textile designs but who, during his lifetime, was equally famous as a writer, poet, painter, socialist and associate of the Pre-Raphaelites.
Morris spent seven formative years from the age of six to 13 living at Woodford Hall, a grand classical Georgian mansion in High Road.
Woodford Hall was demolished in 1900 and the site is now occupied by a pretty Edwardian church hall used by community groups who run a playgroup, a Brownie pack, ballroom dancing classes and Taekwondo and Karate sessions.
Other monuments to Woodford’s greats include the statue to Winston Churchill that stands on a corner of The Green, and a blue plaque on the house where Clement Attlee lived in the Monkhams Estate.
Winston Churchill, the great wartime leader, was MP for Woodford from 1945 to 1964 and Clement Attlee, who succeeded him as prime minister in the reforming post-war 1945 Labour government, lived in Monkhams Avenue when he was MP for Walthamstow West from 1950 to 1956.
Only time will tell if Chingford and Woodford Green’s current MP, Sir Iain Duncan Smith, former Conservative Party leader and architect of the controversial Universal Credit welfare reform, will be equally celebrated.
A petition opposing his knighthood in the recent New Year Honours List was signed by 270,000 people.
Woodford South station is eight-and-a-half miles as the crow flies from central London and Woodford station is half a mile further on.
Buckhurst Hill, Chigwell and Chingford are to the north; Barkingside is to the east; Wanstead is to the south and Walthamstow is to the west.
The property scene
Woodford is a popular commuter town with a wide range of homes, from Victorian and Edwardian properties to Twenties, Thirties and later.
The most popular areas are the Monkhams Estate — a small garden suburb with attractive Edwardian detached and semi-detached houses in Woodford Green — and the Firs Estate west of Woodford Road in South Woodford, where the houses date mainly from the Twenties and Thirties, the largest being in The Drive.
An eight-bedroom detached house with baronial features in The Drive is on the market for £3 million.
A six-bedroom detached mock Tudor house in Monkhams Lane on the Monkhams Estate is on the market for £1,575,000.
Large Victorian terrace or semi-detached houses start at around £700,000, with a semi in Malmesbury Road, in the grid of streets north of the North Circular and west of High Road, on the market for £725,000.
Some of Woodford’s most expensive flats are in Highwood, in Sunset Avenue, overlooking the green spaces of Epping Forest. These flats are characterised by their large balconies. A four-bedroom apartment is on the market for £850,000.
In South Woodford in 2003, Telford Homes built Queen Mary’s Gate, a development of 482 homes on a site overlooking the North Circular.
One-bedroom flats there start at £300,000, with two-bedroom flats priced from £385,000.
Developer Crest Nicholson converted the listed Victorian buildings and built new flats and houses in the Humphry Repton-landscaped grounds of the former Claybury Hospital in Manor Road, creating 850 new homes.
The development, Repton Park, where buyers included cricketer Phil Tufnell and actress Patsy Palmer, has a cricket pitch and health club. Prices at Repton Park range from £545,000 for a two-bedroom flat to £1.85 million for a five-bedroom detached house.
New-build homes
Few new homes are being built in Woodford currently. The nearest large development is Discovery by Fairview New Homes, with 81 flats in Larkshall Road in Highams Park. One-bedroom flats start at £335,000, with two-bedroom flats from £411,000. Call 020 3925 6046.
First-time buyers
Help to Buy is available at Discovery (as before).
Renting in woodford
Woodford does not have a large home rental market although one- and two-bedroom flats are popular in modern blocks close to South Woodford station, or in the sought-after Churchfields primary schools catchment area.
One-bedroom flats start at £1,100 a month and two-bedroom flats at £1,300 a month. Two-bedroom flats in Queen Mary’s Gate range from £1,450 a month to £1,550 a month.
The most expensive house currently available to rent is a four-bedroom Thirties property in Mulberry Way at £2,750 a month.
Staying power
Estate agent Dan Cantle, manager of the Woodford Green branch of Portico says that if you grew up here, or raised a family here, you don’t leave. “Some people find themselves moving a few doors down the road.”
Postcode
E18 is the Woodford postcode and covers the area closest to South Woodford station; IG8 is the Woodford Green and Woodford Bridge postcode and has Woodford station at its centre; the E4 Chingford postcode takes in parts of Woodford on its western boundary.
Best roads
The Arts and Crafts houses on the Monkhams Estate and a little further north, the Knighton Estate around Knighton Drive, where there are large semi-detached and detached Thirties houses.
Cantle also likes Harts Grove, an estate of more modern houses with Arts and Crafts detailing. An “outstanding” Ofsted rating for Ray Lodge Primary School is increasing the popularity of the area east of the Central line.
Travel
The North Circular rumbles through Woodford creating a lot of motorway hum. The M25 and the M11 are both nearby.
There are two Zone 4 Tube stations — Woodford and South Woodford, both on the Central line with 20-minute trains to Bank and half-hour trains to Oxford Street. An annual travelcard costs £2,076.
Council
Redbridge council is Labour controlled and Band D council tax for the 2019/2020 year is £1,549.98.
Lifestyle
Woodford’s main shopping centre is around South Woodford station, stretching up and down George Lane and along High Road where there are branches of Sainsbury’s, M&S Simply Food and Waitrose.
International Supermarket, a Turkish-owned supermarket, has a particularly good choice of fruit and vegetables.
There is a branch of Laura Ashley Home and Sid & Evie’s is an independent children’s shop selling clothes and toys.
Nino’s is a popular Italian restaurant. Chain restaurants include Zizzi, Prezzo and Pizza Express. Close to the station, Zest is a new salad bar, and Tipi Coffee is an independent coffee shop.
Newcomers include a branch of Slug & Lettuce; Lizard Lounge — a cocktail bar with a cinema on Wednesday nights — and Parlay E18, a bar and grill. The Gallery is a bar and restaurant with a Josper charcoal grill.
On the fast-improving section of George Lane on the eastern side of the station, Kikirocs is a new independent coffee shop working in conjunction with Air Yoga studios.
There are more shops and restaurants in the Broadway around Woodford station. Find here Chrystalls, a traditional pharmacy; Seasons cocktail bar; Belgique, a branch of the Essex chain of patisseries; and a branch of Cook, the ready meals specialist.
There are more shops and restaurants on High Road at the junction with Snakes Lane West, including a butcher and Deli on The Green. Popular Pizzeria Bel-Sit often has queues at the weekend.
The local gastropubs are The Royal Oak in Hale End Road and the Crown & Crooked Billet on Cross Road overlooking Woodford Bridge Green.
Open space
Woodford is surrounded by green space, with Epping Forest offering walks from Wanstead to Epping to the west and the Roding Valley with walks to Ilford to the east. Part of Epping Forest, Highams Park was laid out in the 1790s by Humphry Repton and has a large fishing lake.
Ray Park next to the River Roding houses the James Leal Centre, where the borough’s Nature Conservation Team is based; the centre has a café and soft play area. Elmhurst Park, a Green Flag park in Gordon Grove, is home to the South Woodford Bowls Club and there are popular tennis courts. Claybury Woods and Park in Roding Lane North is famous for its bluebell woods.
Leisure and the arts
Woodford has an Odeon multiplex cinema in High Road. The local theatre, Redbridge Drama Centre in Churchfields, puts on dance, theatre, music and children’s shows.
The Woodford Wells Club in Monkhams Lane has two cricket pitches, 11 tennis courts, four squash courts and an indoor sports hall.
Woodford Green Cricket Club has been playing on The Green since 1735. Woodford Golf Club has nine holes on Sunset Avenue.
The nearest council swimming pool is at Fullwell Cross Leisure Centre in Barkingside. Virgin Active has a swimming pool converted from the former chapel at Repton Park in Manor Road.
Schools
Woodford has a good choice of both state and private schools.
Primary school
All the state primary schools are judged to be “good” or better by Ofsted.
The “outstanding” primary schools are: Churchfields Infants and Juniors in Churchfields; Nightingale in Ashbourne Avenue; Oakhill in Alders Avenue; Ray Lodge in Snakes Lane East and Wells in Barclay Oval.
Grammar
The local council, Redbridge, has selective grammar schools.
The girls’ grammar school, Woodford County High School for Girls (ages 11 to 18) is in High Road, Woodford Green, while the boys’ grammar school is in Ilford. Both are judged to be “outstanding”.
Comprehensive
The state comprehensive school Trinity RC (co-ed ages 11 to 18) in Mornington Road is judged to be “outstanding”.
(co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in St Barnabas Road, and Highams Park (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Handsworth Avenue are rated “good”.
Private
The private primary and preparatory schools are: St Aubyn’s (co-ed, ages three to 13) in Bunces Lane; Woodford Green Preparatory (co-ed, ages three to 11) in Glengall Road; Snaresbrook Preparatory (co-ed, ages three to 11) in Woodford Road, and Avon House (co-ed, ages three to 11) in High Road.
The two private all-through schools are Bancroft’s (co-ed, ages seven to 18) in High Road and Forest (co-ed, ages four to 18) in College Place, Walthamstow.