The Evaluative Report
Name: Rafal Jaroslaw Wasek.
Pathway: Architecture (BaADE Y1).
Date: 20/11/2007.
Tutor’s Name: Andrew Sides.
Scavenger Game individual report
This report will present places of interest in the E17 North East London area and explain how web, library and on site research helped with constructing a group scavenger game. The scavenger hunt game encourages students to explore possibilities offered by one of the biggest European metropolis called London. London comprises of the City of London and 32 boroughs. 13 boroughs are in Inner London and 19 are in Outer London. The 8 million citizens create huge scope to play but also its physical scale creates issues such travelling time. The Walthamstow area is one of the biggest post codes in London and has lots to offer. As an initial exploration point we concentrated on researching using the web and library before we wandered around by walking.
The Walthamstow area is an interesting place but not an area where students seem to like to go to. The first priority was finding out information about the area. The beginning of Walthamstow is recorded in 1075 as Wilcumestowe ("The Place of Welcome"). Later in the XI century the name was changed to Wilcumestow and it was called this up to beginning of the 19th century. The E17 area covers around 4,342 acres (1,757 ha) making it one of the biggest post codes in London. Though not a fancy part of London the area has lots places of interest such as the William Morris Museum, Pump House Museum, and the Vestry house museum.
An interesting place inside E17 is the old part of Walthamstow, called Walthamstow Village (picture 1). Part of the area contains amazing cross sections of interesting buildings from present developments through to Victorian villas and pubs. The Victorian buildings present interesting decorative fixtures like ridge tiles or fibrous plaster trusses (picture 2,3). The area also contains a Georgian infant school and workhouse, an ancient XV century house and a XII century church called St Mary’s. All these places make this small E17 area charming and unique, more than adequate to compensate for the rough bus station and train station area.
1. Walthamstow Village.
2.Roof Ridges.
3.Fibrous plaster Trusses
After learning about the historical background and layout of the area, the next essential step to create a challenging game was recording and taking photos. The group was one of the first groups from the course to have concentrated on the Walthamstow village (picture 3). East from the entrance of the Walthamstow library the first interesting building was spotted. This building was a corner 5 story grey detached building with an unusual top floor as a balcony. The side of the building contained emblems of Waltham Forest borough (picture 4).
4.Walthamstow Emblem
Soon after Vestry Road there were additional places of interest (see picture 3 for their locations in the village):
- Monoux Almshouses 1.
- St Mary’s Church 2.
- Former Infant school 3.
- Squires Almshouses 4.
- Vestry House Museum 5.
- National Spiritualist Church 6.
- The Ancient House 7.
- 10 Church Lane 8.
- The Chestnuts 9.
The most interesting place of all was Vestry House Museum. As well as having interesting history books the group also collected information about notables living in Walthamstow such as: Grayson Perry, Barltrop Robert, Wellum Geoffrey and many others.
We used our photographic evidence and our book and web research as a base to create the scavenger game. The small area of the E17 has much to offer even if limited to Walthamstow village itself. The walthamstow village gave us lots ideas for the scavenger game. Creating the scavengers game and clues then became the easy part of the project.
Bibliography:
Mander David. –Walthamstow past.
Map Resource: -Waltham Forest, G. Barnett and Son. Ltd.
Victorian Society, -Victorian housing in Waltham Forest Leaflet, Designed by Chris Spencer, Illustrations by Guy Osborne, Young and Martin ltd.
Osborne Guy, -Millennium Heritage Trial no3 Leaflet, LBWF Publication services.
Osborne Guy, -Oxford Road, Conservation area, Design and illustrated by Chris Spencer, LBWF Planning and & Transportation.
Osborne Guy, -Walthamstow Village Conservation Area Leaflet, Design by Chris Spencer, LBWF Planning and Transportation.
Web Sites:
W.R.Powell . (1973). A History of the County of Essex: Volume 6. Available: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=42777. Last accessed 19 november 2007.
Time to focus on Walthamstow: http://www.walthamstow.towntalk.co.uk/about/index.php
The Brief history of Walthamstow:
http://www.musicland26.freeserve.co.uk/walthamstow.htm
