Voluntary Place

One of the areas to change in Wanstead is Voluntary Place. Originally a cul de sac with a row of houses either side and several businesses, the area now has a small housing estate.

I remember there being a Timber Yard - Chucks - on the left hand side. On the right hand side was the back entrance to an industrial building which I believe was Rumbellows electrical repair shop.

One piece of information that has come to light concerns Film Processing. The "Kinematograph and Lantern weekly" from 15th July 1909 has an advert for The Angalo-American Film Manufacturing Co. film processing plant in Voluntary Place, Wanstead. Little else is know about this but with both Leytonstone and Walthamstow being centres of early film making, this is not as unlikely as it sounds.

I used to regularly play with friends in the orchard behind the houses in Spratt Hall road, adjacent to Voluntary Place. While there, we could often see Bearmans vans and lorries backing in and out. Bearmans was of course Leytonstone's most famous department store - "the 'Arrods of the East End!" Why their Vans would be garaged up here remained a mystery. A look in the Kelly's Directory for 1954 confirms this as the Bearmans Factory and Garage. Quite what the Leytonstone department store manufactured is unknown. 

Bearmans closed its doors in 1984 having been part of the Co-Op in later years. The Voluntary Place building however is still in evidence today.