694A, 696A, 698A, High Road, Grade II listed buildings.
Late 18th century Georgian terrace erected for wealthy merchants and businessmen. Extensive grounds now largely developed in the 19th and early 20th century. 694A once the home of Benjamin Cotton.
Waltham Forest Heritage
Researching Benjamin Cotton we find that he was a wealthy administrator at Trinity House, which to us seems insufficient to justify his name on a plaque.
Site: Georgian Terrace - Leytonstone (1 memorial)
E11, Aylmer Road
This wall is the south-west end wall of a terrace of 3 houses. Maps from 1863, here and here, show that the houses had extensive rear gardens to the south-east, and their front gardens ran up to the High Road. The wall with the plaque belongs to what is now addressed as 694a High Road E11.
Leyton History Society has "These are Georgian houses including Carlton House, once a Conservative Club. Shops were built in their front gardens facing the High Road."
The three houses, numbering from the west, now have the nos: 694a, 696a and 698a High Road E11. That's Leytonstone. Confusingly the addresses 694, 696 and 698 High Road E10, also exist, in Leyton. We bet they get each other's post.
The house 694a was for sale in 2024: "... the last undivided Georgian house of this stature in this part of London. ... grand Georgian townhouse was built circa 1740. Carlton House is of such proportions and opulence that for the best part of a century, it was the Salisbury Club, a Conservative gentlemen's club." The photos of the interior are disappointing - it has probably been reconfigured, possibly multiple times.
The classically-styled front part of the commercial premises built on the corner plot in 694a's front garden were occupied by a branch of NatWest bank until about 2016. The red brick building behind that (but still in the front garden) is labelled on Google maps as 'Salisbury Club Billiards'. The two buildings together are currently (2024) for rent as Carlton House, but beside the gate you can see in our photo there is a 'Carlton House' sign, and another sticking out from the wall near the blue plaque, which suggest to us that the Georgian house with the porch is also Carlton House - very confusing.
London Picture Archive has a 1977 photo and refers to the Georgian house as Salisbury Club. But see Salisbury Snooker Club.
Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of plaquesoflondon.co.uk
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