Woodford Green is an area of Woodford in

East London East London is the part of London, England, east of the ancient City of London and north of the River Thames as it begins to widen. East London developed as London Docklands, London's docklands and the primary industrial centre. The expansion of ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, within the

London Borough of Redbridge The London Borough of Redbridge is a London boroughs, London borough established in 1965. The borough shares boundaries with the Epping Forest District and the ceremonial county of Essex to the north, with the London Borough of Waltham Forest t ...

. It adjoins

Buckhurst Hill Buckhurst Hill is an affluent suburban town in Epping Forest District, Epping Forest, Essex, within the Greater London Urban Area and adjacent to the northern boundary of the London Borough of Redbridge. The area developed following the opening ...

to the north,

Woodford Bridge Woodford Bridge is part of the East London suburb of Woodford, in the London Borough of Redbridge. It is located on an old road between Chigwell and Leytonstone. Notable features Its notable features include St Paul's Church, Woodford B ...

to the east,

South Woodford South Woodford is an area of East London, England, within the London Borough of Redbridge. It adjoins Woodford Green to the north, Walthamstow Walthamstow ( or ) is a town within the London Borough of Waltham Forest in east London. T ...

to the south, and

Chingford Chingford is a suburban town in east London, England, within the London Borough of Waltham Forest. The centre of Chingford is north-east of Charing Cross, with Waltham Abbey to the north, Woodford Green and Buckhurst Hill to the east, Walt ...

to the west.

Epping Forest Epping Forest is a area of ancient woodland, and other established habitats, which straddles the border between Greater London and Essex. The main body of the forest stretches from Epping in the north, to Chingford on the edge of the Lond ...

runs through Woodford Green in the west of the area, north-east of

Charing Cross Charing Cross ( ) is a junction in Westminster, London, England, where six routes meet. Since the early 19th century, Charing Cross has been the notional "centre of London" and became the point from which distances from London are measured. ...

. It was a hamlet in the

ancient parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

of Woodford, in the historic county of

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

, becoming an

urban district An urban district is a division generally managed by a local government. It may also refer to a city district, district, urban area or quarter Specific urban districts in some countries include: * Urban districts of Denmark * Districts of Germa ...

in 1894. For administrative purposes, this merged with the Wanstead Urban District to form the Wanstead and Woodford Urban District in 1934. In 1965, the urban district became part of the

Toponymy

The locality takes its name from the ''Green'', an area of open common land—a part of Epping Forest—beside which the area first developed.

Politics

Woodford Green is part of the Parliamentary Constituency of Chingford and Woodford Green, represented since its creation in 1997 by

Iain Duncan Smith Sir George Iain Duncan Smith (born 9 April 1954), often referred to by his initials IDS, is a British politician who was Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition (United Kingdom), Le ...

, leader of the Conservative Party from 2001 to 2003. He was Secretary of State for Work and Pensions from 2010 to 2016. Duncan Smith is a successor of Sir

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...

, who was also MP for this area and is commemorated by a statue on Woodford Green erected in 1959. In the 1920s and 1930s,

Clement Attlee Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee (3 January 18838 October 1967) was a British statesman who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955. At ...

, later Labour

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

from 1945 to 1951, lived in Woodford Green, the seat of his political adversary, Winston Churchill. A Blue Plaque records the fact on a house in Monkhams Avenue.

Sylvia Pankhurst Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst (; 5 May 1882 – 27 September 1960) was an English Feminism, feminist and Socialism, socialist activist and writer. Following encounters with women-led labour activism in the United States, she worked to organise worki ...

lived in Woodford Green from 1924 to 1956, originally in the High Road, and from 1933 in Charteris Road. In 1935, Pankhurst commissioned and dedicated a memorial in Woodford High Road to the victims of

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

aerial bombing An airstrike, air strike, or air raid is an offensive operation carried out by aircraft. Air strikes are delivered from aircraft such as blimps, balloons, fighter aircraft, attack aircraft, bombers, attack helicopters, and drones. The official d ...

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

, known as the Anti-Air War Memorial.

Sport

Cricket

Woodford Green Cricket Club was founded in 1735. It plays alongside the High Road. The club has teams for all age groups with the senior teams playing in the Hamro Essex League.

Athletics

Woodford Green with Essex Ladies is one of the leading British athletics clubs and is based at Ashton Fields. The club topped Division 1 of the British Athletics League for the first time in 2005.

Education

Primary schools

*Avon House Preparatory School (Independent) *Churchfields Infants School *Churchfields Junior School * Bancroft's Preparatory School *Ray Lodge Primary School *St Antony's Catholic Primary School * St Aubyn's School * Woodford Green Preparatory School *Wells Primary School
Woodford Green Primary
*St. Joseph's Convent School *Roding Primary School

Secondary schools

Bancroft's School Bancroft's School is a co-educational private day school in Woodford Green, London. The school has around 1,100 pupils aged between 7 and 18, around 250 of whom are pupils of the Preparatory School and 850 of whom are pupils of the Senior Sch ...

, Woodford Green, (Independent) * Trinity Catholic High School * Woodbridge High School * Woodford County High School for Girls

Special needs schools

*Hatton School

Demography

Woodford Green is represented by the Monkhams electoral ward in the London Borough of Redbridge. It ranks as one of the highest income areas of Greater London.

Notable people

, Labour

(1945–1951) * Nick Browne, cricketer * Philip Burnell, cricketer *

Sir Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...

, Conservative Prime Minister (1940–1945, 1951–1955) * Harris Dickinson, actor *

Lynn Fontanne Lynn Fontanne (; 6 December 1887 – 30 July 1983) was an English actress. After early success in supporting roles in the West End theatre, West End, she met the American actor Alfred Lunt, whom she married in 1922 and with whom she co-starred i ...

, actress * James Hilton, author *

Alfred Horsley Hinton Alfred Horsley Hinton (1863 – 25 February 1908) was an English landscape photographer, best known for his work in the pictorialism, pictorialist movement in the 1890s and early 1900s. As an original member of the Linked Ring and editor of ''T ...

, photographer *

Stuart Kuttner Stuart Kuttner (born 1939 or 1940) is a former newspaper editor. He worked as the news editor for the ''London Evening Standard'' before joining the ''News of the World'' newspaper in 1980 first as a deputy editor, then as managing editor. He he ...

, managing editor of the ''

News of the World The ''News of the World'' was a weekly national "Tabloid journalism#Red tops, red top" Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published every Sunday in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the world's highest-selling ...

'' *

Barry Lamb Barry Lamb (born 9 May 1963 in South Shields, England) is an English experimental musician. Biography Barry Lamb is an English composer, author and musician. He was born in South Shields, but lived in Holland-on-Sea during his secondary scho ...

, experimental musician, composer * Louisa Leaman, author * Michael Norgrove, boxer *

Kele Okereke Rowland Kelechukwu "Kele" Okereke (born 13 October 1981), also known :wikt:mononym, mononymously as Kele, is an English singer, songwriter, and musician. He is best known as the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of the indie rock band Bloc Part ...

Bloc Party Bloc Party are an English Rock music, rock band that was formed in London, England, London in 1999 by co-founders Kele Okereke (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, piano, sampler) and Russell Lissack (lead guitar). Their first four albums all featur ...

musician *

suffragette A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...

* Gipsy Smith, evangelist *

Tony Robinson Sir Anthony Robinson (born 15 August 1946) is an English actor, author, broadcaster, and political activist. He played Baldrick in the BBC television sitcom ''Blackadder'' and has presented many historical documentaries, including the Channel ...

, actor and TV personality * Alan Thurlow, organist * Kate Williams, actress, Woodford resident during the making of the TV series ''

Love Thy Neighbour Love Thy Neighbor or Love Thy Neighbour may also refer to: Film * Love Thy Neighbor (1940 film), ''Love Thy Neighbor'' (1940 film), an American film * Love Thy Neighbour (1967 film), ''Love Thy Neighbour'' (1967 film), a Danish-German comedy fil ...

'' * Tulay Goren, a 15-year-old Turkish Kurd who was murdered by her father in a so-called

Honour Killing An honor killing (American English), ''honour killing'' (Commonwealth English), or ''shame killing'' is a type of murder in which a person, usually a woman or girl, is killed by or at the behest of male members of their family or their male ...

for having an affair with an older man from a different branch of Islam.

Transport and locale

Roads and buses

The A104 runs through Woodford Green and forms its High Street while Chigwell Road, the A113, runs along the east side with Broadmead Road connecting the two. Woodford Green is served by Woodford tube station. Various

London Buses London Buses is the subsidiary of Transport for London (TfL) that manages most bus services in London, England. It was formed following the Greater London Authority Act 1999 that transferred control of London Regional Transport (LRT) bus s ...

routes also connect Woodford Green with nearby major towns:

Nearest places

Woodford Wells Woodford Wells is a small settlement on the edge of Epping Forest, in Woodford, East London. The area lies about north-east of Charing Cross. The name is shown in the Chapman and Andre 1777 map of Essex, and shortly after on an Ordnance Surve ...

Wanstead Wanstead () is an area in East London, England, in the London Borough of Redbridge. It borders South Woodford to the north, Redbridge to the east and Manor Park to the south, with Leytonstone and Walthamstow to the west. It is located 8 m ...

Loughton Loughton () is a suburban town and civil parish in the Epping Forest District of Essex. The town borders Waltham Abbey, Theydon Bois, Chigwell, Chingford, and Buckhurst Hill, and lies north-east of Charing Cross. For statistical purposes ...

Leytonstone Leytonstone ( ) is an area in East London, England, within the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It adjoins Wanstead to the north-east, Forest Gate to the south-east, Stratford to the south-west, Leyton to the west, and Walthamstow to the nor ...

*Roding Valley *

Barkingside Barkingside is an area in Ilford, in the London Borough of Redbridge. It includes the major road junction of Fullwell Cross, which also gives its name to the locality near that roundabout. The area is situated 10.6 miles (17km) north east of Ch ...

Chigwell Chigwell is a town and civil parish in the Epping Forest District of Essex, England. It is part of the urban and metropolitan area of London, and is adjacent to the northern boundary of Greater London. It is on the Central line of the Londo ...

Walthamstow Walthamstow ( or ) is a town within the London Borough of Waltham Forest in east London. The town borders Chingford to the north, Snaresbrook and South Woodford to the east, Leyton and Leytonstone to the south, and Tottenham to the west. At ...

Highams Park Highams Park is a district in the London Borough of Waltham Forest, England, near Epping Forest and 8.1 miles (13 km) northeast of Charing Cross. Historically, in the county of Essex, it was traditionally part of Walthamstow parish and mun ...

Clayhall Clayhall is a district of Ilford in the London Borough of Redbridge in east London, England. It is a suburban development. The name is derived from an old manor house that stood within the current area. It is first mentioned in a document of 1203 ...

The nearest

London Underground stations The London Underground is a rapid transit, metro system in the United Kingdom that serves Greater London and the home counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire. Its first section opened in 1863, making it the oldest underground metro ...

are Woodford,

and

Roding Valley Roding may refer to: * River Roding, Essex and Greater London, UK * Roding Automobile, an automotive manufacturer based in Germany * Roding, Germany, town in the Upper Palatinate of Bavaria * Roding, sound produced during the mating display of snip ...

on the Central line.

References

{{LB Waltham Forest Areas of London Districts of the London Borough of Redbridge