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Snaresbrook

Snaresbrook’s name derives from a corruption of Sayers Brook, a tributary of the River Roding that flows through Wanstead to the east.

Snaresbrook was a coaching halt on the road to Epping - horses were changed at the Eagle Hotel.

Snaresbrook’s most notable building is Snaresbrook Crown Court. It was opened in 1843 as an Infant Orphan Asylum by King Leopold II of Belgium, and later became a school. It was designed by Gilbert Scott and William Bonython Moffatt. The Merchant Seamen’s Orphan Asylum was built in 1862 and later served as a convent and then a hospital.

Despite being on today’s London Underground, Snaresbrook station actually predates it. The station was opened by the Eastern Counties Railway on 22 August 1856 as part of the Eastern Counties Railway branch to Loughton, which was eventually extended to Epping and Ongar in 1865.

The New Wanstead estate was laid out south of the station and the remainder of the area filled out during the remainder of the nineteenth century, culminating with the Drive estate, which was begun in 1896.

The station was transferred to form part of London Underground’s Central Line from 14 December 1947. This formed a part of the long planned, and delayed, Eastern Extension of the Central line that was part of the London Passenger Transport Board’s New Works Programme of 1935 - 1940.

The station is a fine survivor of a Victorian suburban station, with later additions, and includes a brick built station building as well as extensive cast iron and timber canopies to the platforms. A small secondary ticket office, serving the westbound platforms, was constructed in c.1948 but this is now unused. Also of note, dating from the same date, are the examples of the concrete roundels (some combined with lamp posts) found on the platforms.

Snaresbrook’s conser­vation area stretches all the way along Hollybush Hill and Woodford Road into South Woodford.

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