Leyton, United Kingdom

Numerous Roman coins, together with "bitts of silver with Saxon characters" were also turned up. A later account speaks of "a large arched gate with mouldings, and the portal to a large gate 9 or 10 feet high, 5 or 6 feet broad, the wall 4 feet thick or more," all at a depth of 6 feet. Foundations also occurred in the ploughed fields then adjoining the garden on the north and west, but nothing was observed on the south and east.

From Anglo-Saxon times, Leyton has been part of the county of Essex. The name means "settlement (tun) on the River Lea" and was also known until 1921 as "Low Leyton".

The Domesday Book of 1086 lists six estates or manors at the vill of Leituna or Leintuna in the Becontree Hundred of Essex. There were 51 households recorded across the six Leyton manors at that time.

The ancient parish of Leyton, also known as Leyton St Mary or Low Leyton, was in two parts. The main part included the settlements of Leytonstone and Leyton itself (historically known as Low Leyton). The detached part of the parish to the north included the area around Lea Bridge Road. The two parts were separated by a long, thin exclave of Walthamstow parish, known as the "Walthamstow Slip". To the south, the parish of Leyton had anciently included the manor of Cann Hall, which was transferred to the parish of Wanstead sometime prior to the 13th century.

Leyton's parish church of St Mary the Virgin was largely rebuilt in the 17th century.

A local government district was created in 1873, covering the parish of Leyton or Low Leyton and the Walthamstow Slip. The order creating the district called it "Low Leyton", but by 1875 the district was being called just "Leyton" in official documents. The district was extended in 1875 to also include the Cann Hall area of Wanstead parish to the south, also known as the Wanstead Slip. The Walthamstow Slip was transferred to the parish of Low Leyton in 1878.

Local government districts were reconstituted as urban districts under the Local Government Act 1894. The Leyton Urban District comprised the two civil parishes of Cann Hall and Leyton or Low Leyton. The ambiguity in the name of the latter parish was resolved in 1921 when the name was confirmed to be just Leyton. Leyton Town Hall on Adelaide Road was built in 1895 to serve as the council's headquarters. In 1926 the urban district was incorporated as a borough, becoming the Municipal Borough of Leyton.

In 1965, the borough of Leyton was abolished and was combined with that of Walthamstow and Chingford to form the London Borough of Waltham Forest, within the new county of Greater London. Although Leyton did not become officially part of London until 1965, the borough formed part of London's built-up area and had been part of the London postal district since its inception in 1856 and the Metropolitan Police District since 1839.

The main route through the town is the High Road, which forms part of the ancient route to Waltham Abbey. At the top end of the High Road is a crossroads with Lea Bridge Road and Hoe Street. This junction and the surrounding district is known as Bakers Arms, named after the public house which has now closed down. The pub was named in honour of the almshouses on Lea Bridge Road built in 1857 by the London Master Bakers' Benevolent Institution.

During the 17th and 18th centuries, Leyton was a "pretty retiring place from London" for wealthy merchants and bankers; in 1766 there were said to be 50 or 60 gentlemen with houses in the parish. Leyton's development from an agricultural community to an industrial and residential suburb was given impetus by the arrival of the railway. First at Lea Bridge Station in 1840, then at Low Leyton in 1856 (now Leyton Underground). Finally Leyton Midland Road opened in 1894, after an elevated line had been built on brick arches across the already developed streets. However, not all the green spaces were lost, 200 acres (81 ha) of Epping Forest within Leyton's borders were preserved by the Epping Forest Act 1878. In 1897 Leyton Urban District Council purchased the land for a formal park close to the town hall; it opened in 1903 as Coronation Gardens, named after the coronation of King Edward VII. In 1905, the "Lammas land", common pasture land on Leyton Marshes, was purchased by the council for use as a recreation ground.