Aldersbrook
Aldersbrook is the name given to an Edwardian housing estate in North-East London. It is named for the Alders Brook, a small tributary of the River Roding. It is bound by Aldersbrook Road to the south, Bush Wood to the west, Wanstead Park to the north, and the City of London Cemetery and Crematorium to the east. It is wholly in the postcode of E12, although half of the area is in the London Borough of Redbridge, the other in Newham borough.
As described above, it is surrounded on all sides by open space or parkland, making it a desirable "leafy" place to live in an otherwise dense urban area of London. Northumberland Avenue and Aldersbrook Road, in particular, have housing frontage built on one side of the road, affording views of Wanstead Park and Wanstead Flats, respectively, to the properties there. Perhaps reflecting the generally pro-Temperance Edwardian era in which the estate was laid out, there are no public houses at all in the area, save for the bar of the Courtney Hotel, which is at the extreme south-eastern corner of the area.
There is a school, Aldersbrook Primary School, two churches, one Anglian and one Baptist, and a library on Park Road, which seems to keep being threatened with closure but always remains open after campaigns by the locals. There is a short strip of shops on Aldersbrook Road, in the south-eastern corner of the estate, and a convenience store on the Brading Estate, behind the Anglican church.
See also http://www.wren-group.net/LOCATION_FILES/ALDERS_BROOK/Aldersbrook_Estate_text.htm (includes photos).