Leyton is a suburban area of east London and part of the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It borders Walthamstow and Leytonstone in Waltham Forest, Stratford in the London Borough of Newham and Homerton and Lower Clapton in the London Borough of Hackney. The district includes part of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park although it is predominantly residential. It consists mainly of terraced houses built between 1870 and 1910, interspersed with some modern housing estates.
The Leyton Leisure Lagoon on the High Road, close to the Bakers Arms crossroads, is the nearest council-owned swimming pool. There are cinemas in nearby Stratford — the Stratford Picturehouse and the Vue multiplex at Westfield. Stratford East is the nearest theatre.
Fancy a pint? One of London’s best pubs – the King William IV on Leyton High Road – which brews its own beer on site it’s the perfect place to go. With an exterior covered in flowers this is a good looking pub from the outside, while the lush interior of King William IV didn’t disappoint either.
Schools in Leytonstone fall under the Waltham Forest Local Education Authority. Primary schools standout, as being particularly good, of note is the outstanding Newport School.
Leyton is on the Tube’s Central line, with journey times to Bank of 15 minutes, Oxford Circus 23 minutes, and Canary Wharf 17 minutes. Leyton Midland Road is an Overground station on the Gospel Oak to Barking line.
This area can boast of an ice rink and a riding school. Eastway sports centre offers a wide variety of sports facilities. Hackney Marsh is to the west and Epping Forest to the east.
There are local shops along the high road, the shops are predominantly independent but, with the exception of the restored shops at the southern end of the High Road and a number of ethnic stores with good selections of fruit and vegetables, the appearance is tatty and down-at-heel. Standing out are Afters ice cream parlour in the High Road and Hornbeam in Hoe Street, a vegetarian café which runs a book group and poetry and open-mic nights. The Westfield shopping centre is one Tube stop away in Stratford.