A late afternoon wander across Wanstead Flats across traces of ancient usage and possible Roman routes.
Resist the lure of The Golden Fleece, where I haven’t been for years, and get drawn down The Chase that appears as a remnant of old country Forest Gate.
Loop around Alexandra Lake through sunset into gloom and to The Red Lion and a few magickal pages of Alan Moore’s Voices of the Fire.
I love Wanstead flats. Didn’t there used to be anti-aircraft gun emplacements? Also, I recall being told it was the destination for lorry loads of snow cleared from the roads in ‘63.
In 1977, I was a snot-nosed audit clerk and I worked on the audit of a haberdashery supply company in a building on Aldersgate Street that overlooked the development of the Barbican, the site of which still showed signs of Blitz damage. Those offices were next to the HQ of the London Salvage Corps (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Salvage_Corps) but are now swanky lawyers offices.
The “head clerk” was a chap who I thought was ancient but he would have been younger than I am now. He worked there during the war and quite often, during the Blitz, did not get home to Forest Gate and instead took shelter in the Tube at what is now St Pauls, (I think it was called Post Office in the war). He would then send his mother a telegram in the morning to say he was ok!
He told me that on Wanstead Flats there were a number of AA guns and in the evening he had some role as part of the Home Guard in supporting the gunners as they awaited the Luftwaffe.
A few years later, I lived on Capel Road and tried to imagine what it must have been like for that young man in the 1940s as the serachlights scrolled the sky and the guns opened up.
Some years ago, John did a film of a walk on the Flats and located mooring rings for Barrage Ballons. I must dig that out on YuoTube and explore the Flats again.
I can’t comment on the snow in 1963.
Could you say where it is on map so I can do it ?
You need to get on Capel Road, E7. By public transport it is around the corner from Manor Park Station.
Capel Road is at the bottom of the Flats. The pub John mentions, the Golden Fleece is there.