I used to live at 151 Hainault Road Leytonstone with my late Aunt and Uncle, so these streets are well known to me, I had another Aunt and uncle who lived in Twickenham Road Leyton, so just round the corner, we are Irish immigrants but this is my childhood in Leytonstone and my life until I reached my thirties, so many happy memories and my cousin owned the three black birds on Leyton High Rd. gone now for redevelopment but many many good memories. Thank you for posting the video.

Thanks John for keeping the walks going during these difficult times. The online maps are fascinating.

I was born 70 years ago in Leyton. So many memories.

Thanks John, brought back memories. Bombed out of King Edward Rd as a baby and played on the bomb site opposite 42 Norlington Rd. Lived at 589 Leyton High Rd and played on the bomb site and half destroyed buildings opposite. Went to Oxford and Elson House school and Leyton County High, roamed the forest on my bike. Sweet times.

You have made me remember so much , there used to be 2 milk yards in Hainault road , United Dairy’s , and Hitchmans Dairy , we used go there when we were on school holidays to work with the milkman for a day for 10 bob. The Heathcote and the Northcote , my dad sncc dc Grandad

Just found your channel while on lockdown. Extremely informative and entertaining, so much so that I have spent 3hrs watching previous uploads... Stay safe

What a great resource you found online. Short but sweet walk.

Thank you John, stay safe on your walks! All the best!

Love your vids but also watching them again with my grandmother. She's 95 and grew up in Leyton then moved to Leytonstone in the 60's so knows all the sights. Its a great walk down memory lane for her.

A very interesting walk John thank you. When my old man came back from the war they gave him a terraced house 98 Bristol road E7. It was newly built having taken a direct hit from a bomb. All our bricks were bright and clean whereas 96 and 100 just had a few new ones to replace the damage edges so to speak. Anyway great work my friend in these strangest of times.

I was born in dunedin rd leyton 59 years ago im my nans front bedroom.Good memories.

Bit "28 Days Later" at the moment John! I used to live in Walthamstow and was a Warner lad. My road had a bunch of "new" Warner buildings in it which I was told was the result of a V Weapon strike. You could certainly see scars on the buildings opposite. My back garden in Woodford also used to have the remains of an Anderson shelter in it. Strange days then, strange days now. Take care.

Fantastic video John. Been watching your work for over a year now. You make Sunday’s so brilliant. Looking forward to getting the family out on a long walk once all this virus goes. Nothing beats the joy of putting one foot in front of the other.

Great. As an old resident of Hornchurch , I have cycled through Leytonstone hundreds of times. I love looking at the (still) beautiful old houses.Thank you from Australia

Thanks John, love the way you have adapted in these times.

Wow ! I grew up in Leyton and Leytonstone and still live there , I never knew a lot of this History, great video .

I've lived in this same little area of Leyton literally my entire life (in my 40s now) and I must say, I love it here. Thanks for the interesting video - much appreciated.

hi john loved your video of the leyton area .....just thought you might like to know that my nan lived in claude rd at no 87 when i was a kid . before the flats were built i played with my friends on the bombsite you are explaining about. i lived with my parents in sedgwick rd and then moved to a flat in brunswick rd. i also remember swimming at the whipps cross lido in the summer of 1967/68 .......the shame of it is that both of my schools i went to are now demolished which were ruckholt manor in oliver rd and tom hood grammer keep safe ..many thanks graham

Loved this one. Old stomping ground. Love those style housing, they say "home" to me.

Another lovely walk down memory lane for me.I lived just off Francis Road in Oakdale Road and I always remember a large bomb-site in Sidmouth Road. I used to frequently cut through an alley opposite Francis Road Primary School which led into Sidmouth Road when going to games at Leyton Orient F.C. I think there must have been about 12-15 houses completely demolished by bomb(s). Never been there since I moved but probably new houses or flats on that site. You have given me lovely 1/2 hour or so walks which have helped pass time whilst in isolation and I play them over and over again.Thank you so much for that.

Genius Idea,, I was so pleased to see your video pop up!

Thanks John I used to live in Leyton for 30 years

Just coming upon your older videos now. Nice to see local LBWF history.

Thank you so much for sharing your neighborhood with us. Please do more of these.

Fascinating and brought back so many memories of my life up to 1966, when I moved away. We lived in Leyton Park Rd, where there was a bomb site at the High Rd end all the time I was there. Remember the bomb site in Twickenham Rd , near Newport Rd school which I attended, which we played on many times. Norlington Road, was where I served an apprenticeship at Copeland & Jenkins, as a toolmaker. Their main factory was in Church Rd, called Electron Works, from memory. hey made mica insulators for radio valves, but moved on when these declined withe advent of the transistor. Think they moved away in the 60's to Wellingborough. Also flew model aeroplanes on Wanstead Flats, that you described on another walk and remember the barrage balloon, training TA's in parachute jumping. One guy flying the, lost a model in the direction of Wanstead Park. Approx 6 months later he had a call from a local, who had seen it land on the island, in the middle of the lake. In the winter when the lake froze over, he walked across and retieved it!!!

Thank you for this John! We’ve just moved to Dawlish Road and have been exploring the local area. Thank you for the map references! We are just loving your videos.

Brilliant walk, fascinating information and history, keep up the great work John 👍👍

Great short walk share.. thanks. I really appreciate the online resources too!

Beautiful video, beautiful neighborhood. Cheers from Brazil

This is so different from American cities. While some of the larger cities have 'brownstones' galore, most Americans desired a bit of land so they could, of all things, grow grass! My spouse is of that ilk, grass to him being the only good/right thing to grow. He even had white gravel put in all the beds around the house, supposedly to prevent rot on the wooden bits. Personally, I think it was because he hated my hours of joy weeding and planting. I needed to be cleaning in the house, I guess. (I think I missed the memo about woman's work as a girl.) Any way your videos give me a quiet restlessness that is refreshing. Thanks for sharing. Stay safe.

Thanks for another great video again John. Something weirdly reassuring about the knowledge that the ancient past is just below our feet - helps keep these strange times in perspective! Keep up the good work on your corona walks!

Hi John. Have managed to find your youtube channel by chance. Have watched a few of them now. Especially the ones around High Wycombe, as I also studied at the college there, and went out for walks all the time. I congratulate you on your approach and presentation of these walks. Excellent job, keep it up .

Hi John, thank you so much for taking us along and sharing your daily exercise walks with us! I'm just catching up on some of your video's, so I'm catching up and starting with the latest one! This is really interesting, I love the history and with the restrictions now, it makes you look at everything so differently, and I think, gives you more appreciation of where we live and our surroundings. I have to say I like your street views so much more than mine, you have so much more history and I think the architecture is beautiful! So, really great video John, looking forward to see where your next adventure will take us! 😊 Stay safe...take really good care!

Great what we can find near us that we never thought it was there! Inspiring video like every week. Wish you all the best!

So glad I discovered your channel - love your spirit of exploration. Keep up the great videos.

Great history of the area so glad we still get to see you on a walk even if it just locally

Thank you John! It's very interesting. Now I will learn English from your videos😊

Oh I wish I could walk around London. I was constantly looking up at buildings and dreaming about history when I lived in Lower Clapton - how I would have loved the online resources available now! Love the sound of that book on street names - I might have to get that. Thank you for taking us on your walk! I’m looking forward to the next one. Stay safe!

This is a great idea. I'm going to try this approach in my own neighbourhood for one of my next Corona walks.

Coronawalk, a new term. I am watching this on the exercise bike 😝😊

Best cuppa and quarter of an hour of the day...cheers John👍🏻

Excellent John. Love the bomb sites website. Thank you for continuing to make great films under the difficult circumstances. Dave 👍

Nice one John. Yet again. Thank you. I used to live in Oliver Close, Oliver Rd in one of the tower blocks. Then I moved to Church Rd and then to a bedsit above the dry cleaners by the lights on Leyton High Rd. Nice memories. Thank you.

It is great that you can still find some interesting walks. Thank you. Logan & I cannot travel to the Forest at the moment (would involve a car journey alas) - making do with walking "around the block"!

i spent most of my memorable life in LEytonstone. Stratford atc. now live in Doncaster. Oh My God. London is eye candy! It is very Grim up north

Great video John, thanks for posting

What a great video, John. I stumbled on your channel purely by chance last week and have to say that your videos provide a fascinating insight to the parts of (Greater) London that are unknown to us outsiders from the Midlands. I have plenty to catch up on during the next three weeks (possibly more) of continued lock-down. I think the term 'Corona walk' meaning a one hour free drift on foot could catch on and stick after all this is over. Cheers 👍🏼

Thank you so much for another wonderful walk

As always, so interesting. Take care out there. Thank you for the map link.

John, you made my evening! I'm researching my family (James Henry Edwards, a green grocer, and his family) who were living at 70-72 Leyton Road from at least 1877-1881 so it was super awesome to watch your video tonight. Thank you sooooo much. I'm from South Africa so it's highly unlikely I'd ever get to see the area myself. Thanks also for all the links...I'm off to go check them all out with a super big smile!!!

You covered some roads I've used quite often - and never knew of the bomb sites or artefacts discovered there. Thanks for taking me back without having to leave my house!

David Boote gives an excellent walk detailing the attacks of the Zeppelins in the area John and this would make a very interesting stroll. I enjoyed this walk very much. Well done.

Thanks John, very interesting. Grew up in that area, lived on Richmond Rd and St Marys Rd in my younger days, went to both Norlington and Newport schools. Fascinating information, keep it up.

I lived on Morley Road around 7 years ago. It’s crazy to see that I lived right where the bomb fell and I had no idea... Thank You for the info!!!

I will have to look up those bomb websites, I wasnt aware of them and they would have been very handy for me a few years ago when I was trying to follow the damage in the Grove Green Road/ Norlington area. I never managed to establish whether or not the 491 Gallery site was hit, I suspect it probably was but would love to know for sure!

Good one john interesting history of your area leyton look forward to more hopefully when this virus is gone stay safe atb

Absolutely fascinating

Rode my motorcycle to London in 1981,at the time of the Charles and Di wedding,camped at Hackney Marshes campsite.

Another fascinating video, John. I went to Norlington School from 1956 to 1960.

Interesting video! I'm Romanian but decided to settle in London and I lived in many parts of it so far and I still consider each day out on its streets a blessing! Been living in East London Studios for a month and a bit and it was a good settlement for starting to discover the area.

Nice alternative to your regular peregrinations across the wilds. Mind you, "Corona Walks" conjures up an image of two old alchies on a canal towpath fluffing the words to My Way.

Earlier this year I had started completing walking down all the roads near me (not far away in Walthamstow) within the four square main roads, and this has reminded me to definitely get that completed in the next month :)

Regarding Norlington School, TV star Jonathan Ross went there too, as well as his brothers (Inc. Paul Ross). I went there in the early 1980s. By the way, I heard the sad news recently, that the local Beat Bobby around Leyton, John Taylor, who was often seen at Leyton Orient Football Club on match days (He retired after getting his Long Service Award (going by memory), back in the mid-1980s) passed away last year. He was such a kind and caring man. RIP John Taylor ☹️

Great walk, thank you - I always enjoy the urban ones! As we are not allowed to go out at all for exercise, I walked on the spot as I watched your video, and got in 16 minutes of exercise. A bit up-and-down though - I now feel quite dizzy, haha.

Thanks John, interesting to follow you as you walk.

thanks for that walk buddy. see you soon an hopefully fully out an about.

So much memories thanks man

Thanks, this was really interesting. I live on Huxley Rd

I really enjoyed this walk John. I just wrote a similar blog post about re-connecting and re-observing in detail our local environments. Great resources too, the archaeology maps etc. Cheers, and good luck for the next ones. Kate A Hardy. :0)

Brilliant...really enjoyed it John. Be Safe and Carry On.

I am from the US but I vacationed I'm England a few years back. I shacked up with a Leyton bloke for a bit and we would go to a pub called Bootlaces (I think). Ever heard of it? Also, I had the beast meal ever in Leyton! Fish and chips 😋

Keep on keeping on John. Good to see the videos. You inspired me to make art videos and were kind enough to share a few tip too. Just launched it this week. Many thanks to you...

Great stuff John.

Great video, I grew up in Sunnyside road 70`s to 80`s . Our house was built 1870 ( I remember it written on the glass above the front door). We had a coal cellar . i remember getting depressed when the new next door neighours covered their`s in stone cladding! The satelite dishes sadden me too. My family were from Hackney and Leyton was regarded as posh . My nan and grandad kept and ate rabbits , he was one of 8 brothers and said the first one up in the morning got to wear the shoes...he also said theres no such word as cant.

fantastic walk, you are a lucky man!

Wow thanks for that I have lived in Francis road I have lived in Leyton my whole life

Thank you, John. I have only recently discovered you! This video reminds me of my time in the area in the 1970s, when I lived in Walthamstow and had many friends in that part of Leyton whom I spent a lot of happy times with, ringing the bells of St. Mary's, Leyton and enjoying a beer afterwards in one of the local pubs, now mostly gone, I think. There is a medieval bell (the 7th) in the church tower which dates to around 1380 and must count as one of the oldest artifacts still in regular use locally?

Thank you John. Great video proving we are only really limited by our imagination. We have a 2 Km exercise limit from home here in Dublin. I'm going to do as you suggest and look for as much micro history or interest as I can as I cycle the area.

Great video John 👏👍🏻

Im actually bloody obsessed, you make my area feel like a village in Runescape haha. Nostalgia.

Interesting history John....thank you....stay safe x

Great video, I live around the corner from you 😀

funnily enough, I was speculating just the other day (on my own corona walk) as to what had happened for those modern-ish homes to be built between Claude and Murchison Roads and turns out my guess was correct! v interesting to see how quickly this area was thrown up by developers in early 20th as well.

John, Can you do a little video starting at the High Street & walking up Church Road. My Grandma lived on the left side of Church Road roughly opposite the big Wire Works. I would love to see this.

I was told Johnathon Ross also went to norlington :)

Must admit my corona walks have already become a bit perfunctory. Thanks for reminding me they needn't be. Take care John.

You had my attention as soon as you said map 🤣🤗💜

Maybe one of your greatest walks, John. Traversing a microclimate (your neighbourhood) in a rich manner is very rewarding viewing. Many thanks!

brilliant...keep it up very proffesional

Much needed. Thanks 🙂👍

Anothe great post, thank you! I used to work for WF libraries and when at lea bridge library we had a framed bomb map of leyton which Vestry house museum grabbed so I know it's there if you ask to see it! I will, if I see you, buy you a drink (preferably at the northcote)...good work, good stuff x

Excellent walk thank you for sharing. Where I live in West Virginia the local area has many associations with George Washington when he was a land surveyor, Edgar Allen Poe who was a frequenter of a local tavern and Belle Boyd the legendary spy from the Civil war

Brilliant john😁👍👏👏👏

Wow thanks for that I live on Francis road

Hello John , thanks for the video , I know this area quite well , I went to cann hall road school , Leytonstone, and when I left I went to George Mitchell school , but my 2 best mates went to Norlington road school , both boys schools then , and they were as hard as borstals then

Great stuff John...you could always do an enactment of Xavier de Maistre's "A Journey Round my Room".

Sorry hit the send button again!!! Had a few beers in the Northcote in my early teens in the Disco upstairs, and while it’s on my mind I had better mention that I met my wife on the coach and horses by the orient , on the 6th June 1977 , we had the 7th off because of the silver Jubilee , that why I sent out that night !!

Wow you must live around the corner from me matey as you walked past my house in Norlington Road twice,The white van cant be missed lol Interesting walk and adds to the knowledge. According to a source, I was told the whole of the estate was given to one firm to develop. The top-end by the white van was built 1902 and have covenants on them to not sell beer or to run a fairground. The first homes of Norligton( 2-10) and when built were facing open ground The overseers were a well-known firm who then parcelled out the land for development. They also built houses on the estate. In fact, built the houses from the corner of Norlington/Twickenham down Norlington to Newport, In reality, the family kept several homes in their ownership and they still rent them out, although the family moved its base to Jersey many years ago. The boundaries between Leyton and Leytonstone run down the centre of Norlington, The odd numbers are Leyton, In days gone by the rates were cheaper than the Leytonstone side! LOL Interesting walk and I want to know where you go to get the book on street names please, The factories down the bottom are all that left of a mini commercial area and on the plan are due to be developed for housing as there are several acres of land in these buildings. Did you notice the odd one-off bungalow as you walked down Norlington? One lady I used to work for said she remembered coming home from work and seeing the bomb damage, It was a daylight sneak bomber raid which caused the damage. That hall you saw with salvation on it is because it was the salvation Army hall. Up to a few years ago, they had an offshoot meeting place running there, as I remember going because they ran children meetings and playgroups from there. Anyway thanks once again. I must remember to keep an eye out for you as you go past lol By the way I think there is a whole series in exploring the areas that can be undertaken here!

good to see you in good health.

That was cool man thanks