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the history of Leyton and Leytonstone
from . dot to … dots – with plenty of spaces
1688 to 1727, the reigns of William and Mary, Anne and George I
the design of houses for the wealthy (continued)
Leyton Grange House is described elsewhere on this website. It may have been comparable to Argill House at Richmond, Danson House in Bexley and Mount Clare at Roehampton. The location of the house itself was only a hundred yards or so down Grange Park Road. A map drawn up in 1860, and John Roque’s mapping of the 1740s, make it look as though the track that became Church Road once ran within feet of the church and was diverted slightly to keep it a little further from the house as well as enlarging the churchyard. The orchard of the Grange extended behind the church.
Leyton House looking down Capworth Street from Church Road (to use modern street names) was remodelled around 1700, probably by the father of the David Gansel who built the Grange House. (Eagle House in Mitcham is 3 stories, 7 windows across and built in 1700 - comparable to Leyton House.) By the 19th century it was brick, 3 storeys high, with a central section of 3 bays (windows) flanked by sections 2 windows wide. and a scrolled pediment to the central doorway. The front of the house faced a walled forecourt with wooden entrance gates on the east and two flanking stable blocks 1. In 1770 the courtyard in front of the house was a harmonious composition in Classical architecture, the house at the centre of a colonnade and a stables or similar building to the left and right in the centre of flanking walls.
A house comparable to Leyton House is Rangers House between Blackheath and Greenwich Park, built soon after 1700 (the curve-fronted wings are later), but that has Portland stone dressings around the front door.
1 Leyton House and the Walthamstow Slip by David Ian Chapman published by Leyton & Leytonstone Historical Society