Pimp Hall Nature Reserve

Pimp Hall Nature Reserve is on the site of the C16th Pimps Hall, gardens and farm. In c.1270 it was part of a new manor created near the edge of the Royal Forest of Waltham consisting of 250 acres of farmland, woods, and hedgerows. It was at various times known as the manor of Gowers and Buckerells, or Pimps, after different tenants. The name Pimp Hall originates from Reynold Pympe who was lord of the manor in 1500. In 1538 the manor was owned by Sir George Monoux, one-time Lord Mayor of London and a benefactor in the area, responsible for founding a school and almshouses in Walthamstow village, next to St Mary’s Church (q.v.). He sold the estate to the King who soon after Monoux's death sold it into private hands once again. The timber-framed Hall was probably built at the end of the C16th and it was used as a working farm until 1934, when it was bought by Chingford Council and the site divided between allotments, a council-run nursery, and a small park, Pimp Hall Park (q.v.). Unfortunately, Pimp Hall farmhouse became derelict and was gradually demolished between 1936 and 1939.

The council nursery grew a wide range of produce here, with its accounts for 1948-9 listing cucumbers, leeks, potatoes, brassicas, celery, tomato plants, onions, runner beans, marrow plants, lettuce, geraniums, dahlias, chrysanthemums, cut flowers, floral baskets, ferns, palms, shrubs, privets, tree stakes and pea sticks. Some of the produce was sold to the Civic Restaurant and the Parks Department was often praised for the quality of the plants it displayed. The British Fuchsia Society wrote a letter of congratulation about exhibits saying, 'We would have liked to award some token of our appreciation for the outstanding effort that was made at the Ridgeway Park Show, 1953'.

In 1979 the LB Waltham Forest decided to centralise its horticultural services at Hawkwood, although it continued to keep the Pimp Hall site mainly for trees. The remaining buildings in the farmyard, which had been used for storage, had fallen into a poor state of repair and in 1980 the council decided to restore them. However, although the C17th timber-framed dovecote was restored between 1980-82, the C17th timber-framed barn was only made safe. In September 1985 restoration work began under the auspices of the Community Programme but was never completed and the barn only survived until it was blown down in gales in January 1990. The dovecote is still standing, with 5 tiers of nesting holes catering for some 250 nests and  further restoration work took place in 2017/18. 

Since the former nursery was turned into a Nature Reserve, the footprint of the Hall and Barn have been marked out on the ground in gravel. The aim of the Nature Reserve has been to re-create a small area of natural landscape, with some feeling of the former farmlands with grass areas and woodland. A few mature trees survive including yew, oak and willow. It was winner of the Wild Flower and Environment Trophy in 1997. The nature reserve is now jointly managed by the Friends of Pimp Hall and Nature Reserve alongside The Conservation Volunteers (TCV) and LB Waltham Forest. In 2015 Heritage Lottery Funding was received to establish a wildflower meadow and since then the reserve has gone from strength to strength with monthly outdoor work days led by the Friends Group. Activities/groups also meet at the Learning Lodge coordinated by the Hornbeam. The nature reserve has two ponds, a dipping pond and a wildlife pond, the latter improved in 2017. Pimp Hall Bee Project was set up in 2015 to coincide with the planting of the wildflower meadow and has 2 beehives in the nature reserve and others in the adjacent allotments.