Hoe Street is one of Walthamstow’s busiest streets, heavy with traffic, and lined with shops, eateries and housing. A very different setting to that of the early 19th century, a very rural corner of Essex, with a handful of large mansions with substantial gardens situated at various points along the street. Only two of these large houses survive, Cleveland House at No. 285 and Chestnuts at No. 398, and it is impossible to tell where the others once stood without the aid of 19th and 20th century maps to show their location.

One of these large houses was the Red House that once stood at the corner of Grove Road and Hoe Street, now the site of modern flats. Built in the early 19th century, it was a fine red brick house with large windows and a central front door, with an entrance originally facing Grove Road. Its grounds included a large and beautiful garden, and beyond this lay meadowland stretching to where Pembroke Road now lies.

East London and West Essex Guardian Series:

John Coe's 1822 map of Wathamstow. The original is in Vestry House Museum

It was a family home for many years, and in the early days was owned by the Price family who leased it to Francis Secretan, an insurance underwriter who worked in the city. He and his wife Jane had moved from Hampstead to Walthamstow c1831 with probably eight of their children, and had at least another four whilst living at the Red House. The family left Walthamstow after ten years or so, for a new life in Tunbridge Wells in Kent.

The Walker family were the next family to take up residence at the Red House. Eliza and her city-based iron merchant husband George moved in with their six children and several live-in staff including a governess. The family settled into Walthamstow life very well, and George was elected as an Overseer of the Poor of the parish as well as taking up a churchwarden position at St Mary’s Church. When he died in 1863 Eliza and her as yet unmarried children relocated to Brighton, and despite having moved away, she and at least two of her children chose to be buried in St Mary’s churchyard.

City solicitor William Houghton purchased the Red House from the Walkers as a new family home. He and his wife Emma and their surviving children had been living in Wood Street for some years before the move to the Red House, when the couple were in their early forties. Their time in Wood Street had been marred with sadness, as four of William and Emma’s sons had died in infancy between 1854 and 1860.

Their move to the Red House coincided with the beginnings of huge changes in Walthamstow, as the area began to be developed with streets of terraced houses. Although originally from Wickham in Hampshire, William had moved to Walthamstow as a young man, and became heavily involved in local affairs, including co-founding the Walthamstow Building Society and Literary Institute, as well as taking up the post of Vestry Clerk. After Emma died in 1892 William retired to Bournemouth and the grounds of the Red House were sold for development and new terraced housing was built.

East London and West Essex Guardian Series:

Ordnance Survey map, revised 1914, published 1919

By 1901 the house was home to medical practitioner Dr Harry Challis, his wife Emma, their young children, and their servants, as well as Harry’s widowed mother Mary Ann. Together with business partner Percy Blake, Harry practised medicine from the Red House and premises on the High Street, as Challis & Blake, although the partnership was dissolved in 1913. Harry continued to practice from the Red House and High Street until retirement. The family remained at the Red House until the 1930s, before moving to Wanstead, and then Hempstead Road in Walthamstow where Harry died in 1943.

East London and West Essex Guardian Series:

The site of the Red House at the junction of Hoe Street and Grove Road

The Red House underwent fairly drastic alterations and refacing to accommodate road widening on Hoe Street and was finally demolished in the 1960s. The site was subsequently developed with low rise housing.

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.