TRANSPORT AND POSTAL SERVICES.
In
1707 John Gibson of Walthamstow ran a stagecoach service between Walthamstow and Leyton, (fn. 1)
perhaps the business in Marsh Street sold in 1758
by Joseph Schooling. (fn. 2) Schooling's business was
probably bought by Francis Wragg, who was rated in
Marsh Street from 1759 and was certainly operating
coaches by 1761. By 1826 Wragg's coaches ran seven
times daily to London. After 1840 the Wraggs also
ran a horse bus service to the railway station at Lea
Bridge. Wragg's coaches still ran five times daily to
Leyton, Lea Bridge, Stratford, and London in 1863,
but ceased operating soon after 1870. (fn. 3)
A branch railway line from Lea Bridge to Shernhall Street was opened by the Great Eastern in 1870,
with other stations at St. James Street and Hoe
Street. (fn. 4) In 1872 the Great Eastern line from
Bethnal Green through Hackney Downs and Clapton was linked to the Walthamstow line at Hall
Farm junction. It was continued to Chingford in
1873, when Wood Street replaced Shernhall Street
station and Hale End station (Highams Park from
1894) was opened. In 1885 a northern spur linked
Hall Farm junction with Coppermill junction on the
Broxbourne line. The Chingford line was electrified
in 1960, when the northern spur was removed; the
Lea Bridge spur was removed in 1967. The Midland
railway's Tottenham and Forest Gate line, completed in 1894, had stations at Blackhorse Road and
Walthamstow (Edinburgh Road). It became dieseloperated in 1960. London Transport opened the
Victoria underground line between Warren Street
and Walthamstow in 1968, with stations at Hoe
Street, renamed Walthamstow Central, and Blackhorse Road. The line was completed to Victoria in
1969.
Horse trams were operated in Lea Bridge Road in
the 1880s by the Lea Bridge, Leyton and Walthamstow Tramways Co. (fn. 5) From 1889 they continued
beyond the Bakers Arms to the Rising Sun in Woodford New Road. (fn. 6) That route was taken over by
Leyton U.D.C. in 1905. (fn. 7) The Walthamstow district
council opened an electric tramway system in 1905
on four routes: Forest Road; Lea Bridge Road to
Higham Hill; Hoe Street to Chingford; and Woodford New Road to Woodford. An agreement made
with Leyton and West Ham in 1909 for interrunning
from Chingford to Stratford ceased in 1917. In
1924–32 the council modernized the system and
renewed interrunning with the Leyton tramways. (fn. 8)
The Great Eastern London Suburban Tramways
& Omnibus Co. (later the Great Eastern London
Motor Omnibus Co.) was formed in 1900, to take
over the operation of a horse bus service which the
tramways company had instituted between Hoe
Street station and Stratford in 1889. (fn. 9) The Great
Eastern company began running motor buses from
Stratford to Walthamstow in 1905 via Hoe Street
and High Street to St. James Street. In 1911 the
company was merged in the London General Omnibus Co., which extended the service within the
district and also provided a through route from
Walthamstow to Elephant and Castle. (fn. 10) In 1933
Walthamstow's trams and buses were taken over by
the London Passenger Transport board. (fn. 11) In 1936–7
trolley buses replaced trams, (fn. 12) and in their turn were
replaced by diesel buses in 1959–60. (fn. 13)
There was a postal receiving office in Walthamstow in 1684–5, where the London Penny Post
delivered and collected letters once a day. (fn. 14) By 1799
there were three daily deliveries. The receiving
house, which was in Marsh Street by 1803, was
called the Western office in 1820, when there was
also an Eastern office in Wood Street. An office
listed in 1823 at Thomas Godfrey's (fn. 15) may have been
at Whipps Cross, where a third office is listed from
1839 to 1866. (fn. 16) In 1856 Walthamstow became part
of the north-eastern (later eastern) London postal
district. In 1869 the Marsh Street office was moved
to Markhouse Lane (St. James Street) and a new
one was set up in Orford Road, where a telegraph
office was opened in 1870. (fn. 17) In 1914 a branch office
was opened at no. 244 Hoe Street. It moved to its
present premises at no. 197 Hoe Street in 1933.
Additional branch offices were later opened in St.
James Street (1950) and Wood Street (1951). Since
1917 most of Walthamstow has been in the postal
district of E. 17, with small parts in E. 4, N. 17, and
Woodford Green.
The National Telephone Co. opened a Walthamstow exchange in Priory Avenue and call rooms in
1897. (fn. 18) The exchange was moved to Hoe Street in
1909 and taken over by the G.P.O. in 1912. In 1934
many subscribers in the north were transferred to
Larkswood exchange, Chingford. Walthamstow
exchange closed in 1940 when the balance of subscribers was transferred to the Keystone exchange,
Leytonstone. That exchange closed in 1958 when
the Coppermill exchange, which opened in 1954 in
temporary premises in Jesse Road, Leyton, moved,
to a new building in Hoe Street. (fn. 19)