Friday Hill is a housing estate in
Chingford
Chingford is a suburban town in east London, England, within the London Borough of Waltham Forest. The centre of Chingford is north-east of Charing Cross, with Waltham Abbey to the north, Woodford Green and Buckhurst Hill to the east, Walt ...
(in the
London Borough of Waltham Forest
The London Borough of Waltham Forest () is an Outer London, outer London boroughs, London borough formed in 1965 from the merger of the municipal boroughs of Municipal Borough of Leyton, Leyton, Municipal Borough of Walthamstow, Walthamstow an ...
; OS Grid Reference ), named after the hill of the same name, lying north of Chingford Hatch. It takes its name from a John Friday who held land there in the fifteenth century; prior to this, it was known as Jackatt Hill.
Friday Hill House, on the crest of the hill, designed by the architect
Lewis Vulliamy
Lewis Vulliamy (15 March 1791 – 4 January 1871) was an English architect descended from the Vulliamy family of clockmakers.
Life
Lewis Vulliamy was the son of the clockmaker Benjamin Vulliamy. He was born in Pall Mall, London on 15 March 17 ...
(1791–1871), was built in 1839. It served as the manor house of the Heathcote family, replacing an earlier Jacobean house on the site (built in 1608). The manor house had farmland of . Louisa Boothby-Heathcote (1854–1940), who had succeeded as
lady of the manor in 1915, was the last resident of the house. After the 1939-45 war, the estate was sold to
London County Council
The London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today ...
who built the large housing estate.
The house was used by the Chingford Community Association from the late 1940s until 2006 when the London Borough of Waltham Forest Council's Adult Education Service (CLaSS) took it over, displacing the community centre to a timber panelled building in the grounds and facing Weale Road to the rear. The house was used for Adult Education until 2012 when the Education Service consolidated into other buildings and Friday Hill House was put up for sale. It is a Grade II
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...
.
According to legend, King Charles II is said to have knighted a loin of beef ("
Sir Loin") at Friday Hill; however, there are other places that also claim this honour, and the story is generally assumed to be apocryphal. The pub on Friday Hill, now called The Dovecote, in the past has traded as "The Sirloin" (before the estate was sold) and Little Friday Hill House.
The pop group
Friday Hill took its name from the area, the group's members having grown up here.
Areas of London
Districts of the London Borough of Waltham Forest
Chingford
{{london-geo-stub