Wanstead

 

Construction of the station had started in the 1930s, but was delayed by the onset of World War 2. Wanstead was not opened until 14 December 1947. The station buildings, located opposite The Green, were designed by architect Charles Holden, like many other stations on the branch. It kept its original wooden escalator until 2003, one of the last underground tube stations to do so. The town has a largely suburban feel, containing open grasslands such as Wanstead Flats, and the woodland of Wanstead Park (part of Epping Forest). The park, with artificial lakes, was originally part of the estate of a large stately home Wanstead House, one of the finest Palladian mansions in Britain, from its size and splendour nicknamed the English Versailles, and the architectural inspiration for Mansion House, London. It was demolished after the bankruptcy of the owner, William Wellesley-Long, in 1824.

 

In 1707 the astronomer James Pound became rector of Wanstead. In 1717 the Royal Society lent Pound Huygens's 123-foot focal length object-glass, which he set up in Wanstead Park. Pound's observations with it of the five known satellites of Saturn enabled Halley to correct their movements; and Newton employed, in the third edition of the Principia, his micrometrical measures of Jupiter's disc, of Saturn's disc and ring, and of the elongations of their satellites; and obtained from him data for correcting the places of the comet of 1680. Laplace also used Pound's observations of Jupiter's satellites for the determination of the planet's mass; and Pound himself compiled in 1719 a set of tables for the first satellite, into which he introduced an equation for the transmission of light. The station has been extensively refurbished since 2006, with the original platform wall tiling, that had become badly damaged, being replaced. It is typical of it's kind featuring two escalators descending to a hall with eastbound trains to the right and westbound to the left. The station has wi-fi, escalators and a car park.

 

Connections: London Buses routes 66, 101, 145, 308, W12, W13, W14 and night routes N8 and N55 serve the station.

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