This area of north-east London is sandwiched between the river Lea and the spectacular Epping Forest. Because of its difficult geographical location, it was ignored by the early railway companies and therefore not taken up by developers who had built rapidly on adjacent areas. In this way Chingford remained a rather isolated and inward looking community that was in the twentieth century developed as mainly a middle-class enclave, desirably placed next to an abundance of open space. This new history includes many illustrations which have not previously been published.