i always find it comforting when you are enjoying a beverage at the end of your walk

The way snow illuminates things from below is fascinating. Distant views appear closer, especially when the sun catches them. It's as though the landscape has shrunk to an intimate scale. Doesn't seem very long since you were on your midsummer rambles.

I was thinking earier today "there won't be a John Rogers walk this week because of the snow!" Good thing I checked...a truly great video full of lots of information about Wanstead Flats.

I love that shot of the kid's bright yellow trainers amongst the monochrome waterfowl.

I thought I knew Wanstead Flats, but I'd never noticed the barrage balloon posts.Over in Roding Valley Nature Reserve you can still see what apparently were the barrage balloon steel hooks, bedded into concrete.The area was Raf Chigwell during the war.Thanks for the video, can't wait for the next.

When i was a kid i used to love ice scating on the pond when it froze and during the summer we used to get huge blocks of Styrofoam and raft across it. Also those metal stands were actually used as scratching posts by the cows that used to always be present until the terrible culling for mad cows disease.

Lovely video! Thanks for taking me along on your winter wander!

Used to watch the remote controlled planes on the flats by centre road , over the road from the fairground site , and lots of old men with remote controlled boats on the pond at the top of cann hall road , we made up names for all of the areas of Wanstead flats, we didn’t know the ponds , and some parts of the forest there had names!! There was a natural spring on the flats just opposite alders close , maybe the source of the aldersbrook , when we were over there in the middle 60s on a hot summers day we drank the water , from the spring , there weren’t any shops open in those days on Sunday , in fact there wasn’t ship like there was today , the paper shops closed at 2 pm , supermarkets didn’t really exist like they do today , only shop open was the off license from 7pm to 10pm , always run by a grumpy old man , we would collect bottles we found in the forest , which had a deposit on the usually sixpence (a tanner) and usually paid an arrow root biscuit from a big jar on the counter , they didn’t have many sweets, but they were to dear so us , only one type of crisps Smith’s plain crisps with a twisted piece of dark blue paper containing salt , the off licence was in Cheney’s road off of cann hall road . Got a bit side tracked then , anyway we continually exploded the flats , over to the pond with an island that we called the sand hills pond because there were two sand hill next to the pond , it was by wanstead Park Avenue, by the Greater London cemetery , days and days in wanstead Park cycling , swimming in the first pond you come to from Blake hall road , the next big pond with island , we used to wade or swim across to the islands , I think there were 2 islands , then fishing in the next pond , there was a green tea hut there , and through a bit more forest to the ornamental water , and the haunted ruined boat house , I have lots of more things to say about the forest , but it will be sending you to sleep , oh just a couple more things , we used to give names to trees we like to climb in the forest , my friend mark utton fell out of a tree , and said his wrist hurt , we told him to shut up , we were full of human kindness NOT ! Any way when he went home his mum took him to the hospital and he had broken it the clumsy prat! I was in the local paper the guardian and independent , on the front page , because of what I found in the forest by the hollow ponds , just opposite Davis lane , my name was mentioned because I was only 12 but that’s another story .

Some of my earliest memories are of playing in the snow with my brother on Wanstead Flats - in the early 1950's. Winters always seemed very snowy then. I've even got a photo somewhere of me peeping out of my pram in a very wintery Flats landscape. Thanks for all your wonderful videos, John! I really do feel as though I'm walking along with you - and it's great to revisit my childhood haunts around Walthamstow and Leytonstone, living as I have done for the last 35 years in Berlin.

The snowball fight looks like a flicker book animation in the real - love it. Another great video.

Thank you. I like the shots of the train and tracks and of course the bare trees, all watched from my warm bed in L.A. My mum made some of those barrage balloons in the 1940s and they used to use the remnant silk/material to make underwear. :)

Wanstead is such a magical place, but particularly so when it snows! Looks wonderful! We enjoyed an hour or so in Valentines, which we live next to, which was also looking very festive and wintery that Sunday. :)

JOHN SNOWS YOU KNOW THE BEST LOCATIONS WITH THE SNOWS. AN INTERESTING VIDEO WALK AS ALWAYS FROM THE LEYTONSTONE LAD !!!.

hi John as a kid i love going to Wanstead Flats and i enjoy your vids i don't live in the east end anymore and a really good pub on the Flats is the golden fleece

I went to high beech at the same time plenty of snowmen plus dogs playing the snow...

The final couple of shots of the tower blocks were great! Another lovely film John, thanks!

thanks john learnt a lot watching that top stuff as usual have a great christmas mate

I always knew it as "If you see a rook on it's own - that's a crow. If you see a load of crows - them's rooks". Totally agree about the Essex Serpent - fantastic book

I walked last week from Thames River Lea mouth under district line bridge its an experience when the train passes above, then through 3 Mills film Studio very interesting grade 1 Tidal Mill lovely old buildings, nice café for coffee break there then along canal to Stratford Olympic Park to Hackney Wick just on Bridge by canal you can see remains of GHQ line WW2 pill box and tank traps graphiti tagging painted but still interesting then one stop over head back to stratford, well worth the walk if you in Bow area

Fantastic John just so fantastic!

I was in Walthamstow yesterday watching the snowball fights Oh as an artist I use fingerless gloves all the time, and they keep your hands just as warm as other gloves. I think hands get cold as the blood passes over the veins in the back so keep that bit warm and the fingers stay warm.

Hi John. Many years ago the bunker had an open day. From memory it was all on one level and I don't recall going down into the bowels of the earth. More of a really heavily reinforced building with blast doors. Quite different to the three level one at Kelvedon Hatch. Best, Richard

Really enjoyed the walk and information. Thank you for sharing John, Take Care.

Thank you John !

great video once again gentle relaxing, great ending in the warm café with the empty plate and cup, finished the video nicely thanks john for all the effort you put in to these amazing videos for us to watch

beautiful

I said to my better half - I bet that John Rogers does a snow video - and she says if he does he better add music with jingly bells - so thats a fail! However the learned mentions of the topogeometry of the metallurgy balloon inserts satisfied my academic interests - ta!

I sat by Alexandra Lake watching the birds and suddenly a tufted duck disappeared underwater as if grabbed from below. In the Summer, during a drought, the water level was low and the lake was separated into two sections by a huge submerged tree trunk: I saw an eel or pike - maybe 4 or 5 ft long and 1 ft thick - slide and splash over the log. Monster. Thanks John; much appreciated :D

Thank you john for another great video, Wanstead flats and park is a special place for me as I grew up and live there, you are a trooper for doing the video that cold sunday! btw the over ground bulit nuclear bunker was at the bottom of empress ave by horse stables but got knocked down about 20 years ago to build flats sadly, wish they didn't as could of made a great museum

Another great video. I was more of a Hollow Ponds and Eagle Ponds Kid.

I love your videos...despite living in NZ. If I (hopefully) return to London soonish. I'll use your book and trek about. Great photography,commentaries and accompanying music . All the best for 2018.

Capel road now gone was a decent pond with s bandstand...

I live really close to we're you were filming!

Just after ww2 were prefabs on flats which were removed.. underground bunker is opposite Aldersbrook Estate by bus stop..

Great video as always, The Bunker you mentioned was a surface block house in Westmorland cl it was demolished in June 2000 to make way for Mark Wade cl. I have some photos of it being demolished.

Hey John you are tremendous in your videos, it's like walking with a friend...Hey you.. have you done gypsey rod Smith stone yet in south woodford...It's very calming with a beautiful setting, yet makes you feel such mystery and wonder!

The cafe at the end - is that the Egyptian / Moroccan / Turkish place where they do great sandwiches ? Next to a chemist ? What's the name ? Give them a shout out they make very good sangers fresh 4 da ladies and there's big discussions .Maybe pkk freedom fighters ? Maybe just blokes , but like Evin in dalston and Boscanova in boscombe ( home of the mighty cherries ) it is a great cafe full of regular people needing snacks and drinks, and people and friendly staff . I loves me a good caff ending knowing you've treated yourself to sumfin tasteeeee, gawd bless ya and merry Christmas John ! Hope your family has a great Christmas

Love this John would have been great to know we're the house stood very interesting history to wanstead house supposed to be modelled on palace of Versailles

I've always had fingerless gloves...we've had no snow up here although it's been about -6.

Quite unexpiring, well, that's until John walks it and wakes it all up.

Was a bit gruesome what I found in the bushes behind the tea hut at the hollow ponds . It was the head of a murdered woman !!!!! She had been cut up and disposed of in different parts of the forest , I was about 12 years old at the time , and my name “wasn’t” mentioned in the papers , I had to go home and tell my dad , who told the police

Did those private flats ever get built?