Waltham Forest: 45% of homes built before 1919

Church of All SaintsGrade II* listedABC CinemaGrade II* listedSquires AlmshousesGrade II listedOrford House Social ClubGrade II listedChurch of St John the BaptistGrade II listed+10See all photos

Photos from Wikimedia Commons and Geograph, copied to our own server, each credited to its photographer with its licence; names open the building’s page or its official list entry.

Historic England lists buildings in three grades: Grade I for buildings of exceptional interest (about 2.5% of all listed buildings), Grade II* for particularly important buildings of more than special interest (about 5.8%), and Grade II for buildings of special interest (about 91.7%). Listing protects the whole building, inside and out.

Every entry on the National Heritage List for England whose point lies inside the ONS 2022 built-up-area boundary. One list entry can cover a terrace or a group of buildings. Neighbourhood dots: the population-weighted centre of each Census 2021 output area, coloured by its neighbourhood’s (LSOA’s) share of homes built before 1919 (Valuation Office Agency, March 2025).

Historic England’s conservation areas layer, supplied by councils (incomplete in places, so a page fact, never graded). Hectares are the part of each area inside the built-up area.

The first 14 entries were listed in 1951. 39 came in 1987, in the national resurvey of the 1970s and 80s. Only 9 have been added in the last 15 years.

1 registered park or garden

Two measures, each ranked against every UK town of 1,000 or more, with protected heritage counting twice as much as the age of homes. Protected heritage counts each listed building by its grade (Grade I three points, II* two, II one), each scheduled monument and battlefield two, and each registered park or garden by its grade; it is ranked both per 10,000 residents and as a total, so a village with one fine church doesn’t outrank a historic city. The second measure is the share of homes built before 1919, from the Valuation Office Agency’s council tax records. History is a character grade: it describes the town and isn’t part of the overall grade.

25% of homes are Victorian or older, against 16% across England and Wales. The busiest period since was 1900–18, which added 21% of today’s homes.

Valuation Office Agency, council tax stock of properties by build period, 31 March 2025, for the neighbourhoods (LSOAs) that make up the town, split by where their residents live. Homes with no recorded build period (1,087 here) are left out; 1939–44 is not a period in the data.

Edward Forster

Cotton Oswell

William Morris

Tom Hood

Morell Mackenzie

John Kemp Starley

Charles Cunliffe

Gulielma Lister

George Head Barclay

Gerald Fowler

Louisa Martindale

Hilda Martindale

Thomas Griffith Taylor

John Drinkwater

Muriel Lester

Reader Bullard

Wallace Akers

Jack Tresadern

Leonard Hussey

Alfred Hitchcock

175017751800182518501875190019251950

Alfred Hitchcock1899–1980 · British filmmaker (1899–1980)

William Morris1834–1896 · Textile designer, artist, writer, printer (1834–1896)

John Kemp Starley1854–1901 · British businessman (1854-1901)

Thomas Griffith Taylor1880–1963 · British geographer, anthropologist and world explorer. (1880–1963)

John Drinkwater1882–1937 · British writer (1882–1937)

Leonard Hussey1891–1964 · British explorer (1891–1964)

Gulielma Lister1860–1949 · English mycologist, botanist and scientific illustrator (1860-1949)

LM

Louisa Martindale1872–1966 · English surgeon (1872-1966)

Everyone born in Waltham Forest → Birthplaces from Wikidata; portraits from Wikimedia Commons.

Old houses are part of Waltham Forest’s character: 45% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town. In all there are 113 listed buildings, including William Morris Gallery. Its older streets lie in 14 conservation areas, the first designated in 1970. Of the 58 people born here before 1900, the best known include Alfred Hitchcock (1899), William Morris (1834) and John Kemp Starley (1854). Otherwise the figures are ordinary: per resident it sits near the middle of UK towns.