A HISTORIC Victorian townhouse is set to be demolished and replaced with a block of nine flats.

The former care home, in Cambridge Park, Wanstead, is one of the largest of its type still left in the street - which used to be flanked by similar buildings until one side was demolished to make way for the M11 link road in the early 1990s.

Residents living in nearby Highstone Avenue and Chestnut Drive say the house is a landmark, and should have been converted rather than demolished.

Mark Aziz, of Highstone Avenue, said the house deserved to be listed not destroyed.

He said: "The council should have listed it or protected it some other way, because it is one of those big Victorian buildings which define Wanstead.

"This area used to be full of big family houses like that but when any come up for sale they are just knocked down to make way for flats.

"There aren't that many big Victorian buildings on that scale left in Wanstead, and when they pull it down that bit of history will be lost for ever."

Mum-of-one, June Burchill, of Chestnut Drive, said parking in the area was hard enough without an influx of extra residents.

She said: "It's a nightmare here in the mornings and afternoons because of the primary school.

"This will just make things worse."

The developers have yet to comment.