When the Forestal administration was revived and the Forest was divided into seven walks. New
Lodge was taken over by one of the walks and named after it. Six more lodges ought to have been
needed. As we shall see, the Great Standing was converted into the lodge for Chingford Walk. In
Loughton Walk, the Chapman & Andre map shows 'The Lodge' outside the Forest, near the present
Buckhurst Hill station. The c.1641 map fails to show it, but names the present Lord's Bushes, close
by, as 'Lodge Bushes'; this is not a misspelling but may well be the earlier form of the name.17
The c.1641 map and Chapman & Andre (Fig. 4) show a Leyton Lodge at the extreme south tip of
the Forest. This would be a good site for the lodge of Leyton Walk, overlooking the great heath of
Wanstead and Leyton Flats. It is not mentioned in the 1598 survey.
The 1725 report, which proposed quite large expenditure on the lodges, twice mentions 'the
preservation of the Game', indicating that their original purpose was still active even at this late date.
Leyton Lodge was ordered to be put into repair at a cost of £152. The one lodge in Hainault Forest
was to be repaired and a second one built.
For Walthamstow, Woodford and Epping Walks, and Wintry Forest, I know no lodges; but since
these had little Forest territory and plenty of houses and inns in which to hold courts, lodges may not
have been necessary.
Fig. 4 A detail from the Chapman and Andre map of 1777 showing the location of Leyton Lodge.
'Queen Elizabeth's Hunting Lodge' and Fairmead Park
The most famous building in the Forest has been called 'Queen Elizabeth's Lodge' since the
eighteenth century. It is neither Queen Elizabeth's nor a hunting lodge, but the Great Standing built
by Henry VIII when he developed a mania for parks late in his life.
A standing was an observation tower, built at a chosen spot in order either to keep an eye on the
general welfare of a park or Forest, or to observe the climax of a formal deer-hunt. A ceremonial hunt
involved no high standards of sportsmanship; its finish was as predictable as that of a horse-race, and
distinguished visitors could gather in a grandstand to watch a large and gory kill, or even to join in
with their crossbows. This was, of course, better arranged in the confined space of a park than in a
Forest where the deer could run away.
14