Things you didn't know about... Leyton

Leyton is on the Greenwich Meridian
The Meridian is the line at which longitude is measured at nought degrees. Greenwich Mean Time is measured from it. Leyton has "Meridian Markers" built into the pavements.

Leyton's football club was sold for a fiver
Leyton Orient was founded in 1881. The club is usually known just as "Orient". In 1995, the owner sold the club for just £5.

Leyton's river can be spelt in three ways.
Leyton actually means "town on the River Ley". Ley was the medieval spelling, and the name has now pretty much disappeared. Nowadays the name "Lea" is used for the "natural" river that flows nearby, while "Lee" is used for the canalised section.

Deaf people get a special welcome in Leyton pubs
The Baker's Arms (which also gives its name to an area of Leyton) has an evening set aside for deaf people. The pub hires a barmaid who can do British sign language for the night. Most pubs are so noisy that such a service would be useful anyway!

Leyton offers more exotic fruit and veg than anywhere else in Europe
...thanks to New Spitalfields market, which was relocated to Leyton in 1991. On the City of London website, Spitalfields is described as one of London's "younger" markets, merely dating back to 1682!

Daniel Defoe wrote about Leyton
In very complimentary terms as well. The author of Robinson Crusoe visited Leyton in 1722 and reported it full of "handsome, large houses, from 20 pounds a year to 60 pounds".

A 555 partnership together at Leyton
Essex County Cricket Club played at Leyton until 1933. One of the greatest batting performances of all time took place there in 1932. Unfortunately, it was Yorkshire players Percy Holmes and Percy Sutcliffe who scored the runs (a record that lasted for 44 years), not players from the Essex team.

Leyton's higher hopes
Leyton was originally called "Low Leyton" because it was situated in the Lea Valley. When the Great Eastern Railway built a station here in 1868, the locals persuaded the railway to drop the "Low".

The Danes invaded Leyton
But not recently—this was in 896 (Leyton's a pretty ancient place). They sailed their fleet up the River Lea and established a settlement.