@chingfordlife
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About Chingford
Chingford is a town in the London Borough of Waltham Forest. Bordering Essex it is on the edge of Epping Forest.
It is home to Queen Elizabeth's Hunting Lodge. Originally called the Great Standing it was built for King Henry VIII of England in 1543. It was used as a grandstand to watch the hunting of deer on Chingford Plains.
A granite obelisk at Pole Hill was erected in 1824 under the direction of the Astronomer Royal, the Rev. John Pond M.A., to mark true north for the Royal Observatory based at Greenwich. It was placed on high ground along the line of the Greenwich Meridian so it could be seen and used as a reference point for the observatory. Its location was later recalculated in the 19th century where the obelisk was deemed to have been erected 19 feet west of the true meridian line.
Chingford has until recently been home to one of London's great attractions, Walthamstow Stadium. "The Stow" dog-track was built in 1933 by William Chandler, a street-corner bookmaker and had been owned by his family until its sale in 2008 to property developers.
Famous People
The Kray Twins are buried in Chingford cemetery.
The footballer David Beckham grew up in Chingford. He attended Chingford School and played football for Ridgeway Rovers.
The Apple Mac Designer of the iPod Jonathan Ive was born and lived in Chingford in his early years.