St James Street
St James Street, Waltham Forest
A station and street situated at the southern end of Blackhorse Road in west Walthamstow
Walthamstow’s first St James’s church was erected in 1842. A replacement was built in 1902 and demolished sixty years later. The site is now occupied by a health clinic.
Much of the area was developed by the local builder Sir TCT Warner during the 1890s. It was called the Clock House estate after the Warner family home, a Regency style villa erected in 1813, part of which is still standing at the corner of Mission Grove and Pretoria Avenue, near the top of the map below. Warner’s houses were built to a high standard with distinctive external features, including a letter ‘W’ on many of the properties. Some of the estate was acquired by the council in the 1960s and Leucha Road is now a conservation area.
Low Hall sports ground and St James Park lie to the south and south-west of the station, respectively. The former has a grade II listed Victorian engine house that was remodelled in 1897 to take a pair of Marshall steam engines, which are still in working order. The Pumphouse is currently revamped as a steam and transport museum, “interpreting the nationally important steam and transport first achievements of the Lea Valley Corridor.” It is open to the public every Sunday, and admission is free (which is a rarity for small museums nowadays).
The former St James Street library at 7–11 Coppermill Lane is now The Mill, a vibrant, community-run centre for a wide range of local groups, events and activities.