Snaresbrook is one of those place names that doesn’t really exist. The suburbs of South Woodford and Wanstead blend seamlessly into one another with the station here serving the western end of the latter’s high street. Type Snaresbrook into Google and gives you either the nearby crown court or a lazily estimated pin drop on a housing estate just off of Woodford High Road. Snaresbrook: It’s Just A Figment Of Your Imagination.

The station which opened in 1856 still retains its original station building and is the oldest on the network to do so (don’t forget how many times we’ve debated what constitutes oldest…), an accolade it shares with Woodford.* It first carried the name Snaresbrook & Wanstead, a far more appropriate moniker, but these were the days before actual Wanstead station was a thing. It’s a glorious example of an Eastern Counties Railway station and it predates TfL, and London Transport, and British Rail, and the LNER, and the GER quite considerably! I particularly love the numerous cubby-hole type entrances underneath the bridge on Wanstead High Street.

Well done Snaresbrook, for a place name lost in history, you’ve done rather well.

*Though the example at Woodford has seen a more modern style reception bolted onto the front.

Image copyright A Carter – CallingAllStations.co.uk

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