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Walking routes · London

Walthamstow: the market, the village and William Morris

East London's E17: one of Europe's longest street markets, a conservation-area village with a workhouse museum and a 15th-century house, a neon warehouse, and the Georgian house where William Morris lived from 1848 to 1856.

Best time: Saturday, when the market is in full swing and the Ravenswood bars are open

The route, stop by stop

  1. 1
    Walthamstow Central

    Victoria line terminus. 0 min.

  2. 2
    Walthamstow Market (High Street)

    Street market since 1885, about 500 stalls along almost the whole High Street; billed as the second-longest outdoor market in Europe. Saturdays are crowded. Walk west and back. 45 min.

  3. 3
    Vestry House Museum

    Grade II building of 1730 built as the parish workhouse, later a police station; now the local history museum of Walthamstow Village. 30 min.

  4. 4
    St Mary's Church, Walthamstow

    The village church, founded in the 12th century. 10 min.

  5. 5
    The Ancient House

    A 15th-century timber-framed hall house opposite the church, restored in 1934 and 2002. Orford Road, the village's café-and-pub street (the cat-friendly Nag's Head is Time Out's pick), is right here. 15 min.

  6. 6
    God's Own Junkyard

    Chris Bracey's neon collection, one of Europe's biggest, free to enter, with the Rolling Scones café inside. On the Ravenswood Industrial Estate, where Mother's Ruin distillery's Gin Palace bar opens at weekends. 40 min.

    Warehouse packed with neon signs made by the late Chris Bracey, with a cafe-bar; a local weekend outing that few visitors reach.

  7. 7
    William Morris Gallery (Lloyd Park)

    The Georgian Water House where William Morris lived 1848-1856: his textiles, wallpaper, coffee cup and the satchel he used for radical pamphlets. 60 min.

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