Grand East London house once home to one of first infant schools

It was a typical gentleman’s red brick house, and was set in large gardens with an orchard, and meadlowland bounded by Hoe Street to the west and to where St Mary’s Road is today to the south.

In the early 19th century the house was one of the residences of the Sims family who also owned a house in London Street. The Sims were actively involved with slavery in Jamaica; merchant John Sims had owned the Holland Estate in Trelawney, and his daughter Frances married James William Freshfield, founder of legal firm Freshfields who had plantation owners amongst their clients, and were involved in later compensation claims. John’s lawyer son Charles James Sims was a resident slave owner and Member of the Assembly for St Andrew. Charles was buried at St Andrew when he died in 1812, although his wife Frances is recorded as living at Church Hill House when she died in 1816. Their daughter Frances Cockburn Sims also owned slaves and was later compensated for enslaved people on Farm Pen in St Andrew. Her older half-sister Mary Sims was born in 1796 to Rebecca Hanlon, a woman of colour. Frances Sims, widow of John remained at Church Hill House until her death there in 1828.

The house was bought in 1830 by Thomas Vigne, whose relatives lived over the road at Rectory Manor, but within a decade the house had been sold to John Nesbitt who leased it to Reverend William Wilson and his family. Wilson was vicar of St Mary’s Church and it was he who founded St Mary’s Infant School. Built in 1828 in the church yard, to the west of the church it was one of the first purpose built infant schools in the country, and was innovative in following the teaching methods of Samuel Wilderspin of ‘instruction by amusement’, advocating ‘brightness and cheerfulness in the schoolroom,’ with a variety of subjects, and regular games and exercise.

1842 tithe map for Walthamstow. Church Hill House and grounds are associated with plots 782-786

Several families lived at the house over the next few decades, including the Thomassetts who were resident in the 1860s until the early 1880s. Henrietta Thomassett of London had married her husband Theodore who was 20 years her senior, in 1856, and they had lived in Leyton before moving to Walthamstow where they raised their children. Swiss-born Theodore Thomassett, who was a merchant operating in the Mediterranean, died in 1879 leaving the widowed Henrietta a substantial fortune. She later moved to a large house in Kent with her by now grown children, including her married daughter Ada and her husband and son, and her solicitor son Victor. She died in 1914 a very wealthy woman.

Ordnance Survey map, revised 1893-4, published 1897, showing where the house stood

By the 1880s the grounds of Church Hill House were being developed with new roads and housing; the Church Hill Estate was divided into lots and sold to developers who built new houses in the former grounds, making Church Hill House far less desirable as a grand residence. In 1890-1 the building was acquired for use as a private girls’ school, Walthamstow County High School for Girls, established a few months earlier at Trinity schoolroom in West Avenue. In 1911 the school was taken over by Essex County Council and moved to purpose-built premises in 1913 - now Walthamstow School for Girls.

A Church Hill House classroom in c1910

In 1917 a meeting to discuss a proposal to establish a memorial to local men killed in the First World War decided that a Walthamstow Town Memorial building be established as an institution to provide physical and educational activities for young men, and Church Hill House and adjacent land was acquired for the local branch’s Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA). Opened in October 1918, activities included gymnastics and football, as well as evening lectures and concerts in a large purpose-built hut to the south of the house. The words ‘Walthamstow Town’s Memorial’ were added along the top of the house in gilt lettering.

Church Hill House

Sadly, this legacy to the fallen was short-lived, and in 1932 Church Hill House was demolished. There is no indication that this grand house with such a fascinating history ever stood there, although its doorcase was retained and relocated to the then-new Vestry House Museum.

Houses on the corner of Folkestone Road and Church Hill, broadly where the driveway entrance to Church Hill House was located

Karen Averby is a seaside-loving historian and research consultant specialising in researching histories and stories of buildings, people and places. She researches house histories for private clients and collaborates in community heritage projects (karenaverby.co.uk). She is also director of Archangel Heritage Ltd, an historical research consultancy providing research services for the commercial heritage sector (archangelheritage.co.uk). Also found on Twitter @karenaverby and @archaheritage