Re-visiting

On the wildest and wooliest of days, which also happens to be the winter solstice, I ventured back to Wanstead, but spent a lot of time in a nice cafe sheltering from the downpours. In the Park it was dark and gloomy and an absolute lack of information, so I never found the ancient sweet chestnut trees, or located exactly where the house had been. Once it was one of England's finest houses, owned by Robert Dudley, earl of Essex, and then owned by the Child family who had connections with the East India Company, so you can imagine the wealth. The gardens were laid out in a Versailles-esque fashion. But in the 1820s there was a family & financial crisis and sadly the house demolished. The gardens have disappeared except for the ornamental lakes and some very significant trees (which I couldn't find, tsk).