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.