Have you ever heard of Walthamstow’s North Bank House? It is one of the area's remaining 18th century mansions, although it is perhaps easily missed, as it is now part of a cluster of former hospital buildings at the corner of Forest Road and Shernhall Street, better known as Thorpe Coombe Hospital.
North Bank occupied a great location, in what was then a rural part of Essex with views towards the Lea Valley and Epping Forest, yet was also alongside a thoroughfare (Clay Street, now Forest Road).
The three-storey house was originally almost square in plan with basement kitchens, although two-storey wings were later added to each side, one providing family accommodation, the other was a coach house. Opposite was a stable and a cowhouse; the cows grazed in the meadows opposite, roughly where Spruce Hills Road is.