Roll Up Roll Up

A History of the Wanstead Flats Funfair

"There is no other fair like Whit Monday's on Wanstead Flats. Here is a square
and more of open land where you may howl at large; here is no danger of losing
yourself, as in Epping Forest; the public houses are always with you; shows, shies,
swings, merry-go-rounds, fried fish stalls, donkeys, are packed closer than on
Hampstead Heath; the ladies' tormentors [hand-held pumps] are larger, and their
contents smell worse, than at any other fair. Also, you may be drunk and disorderly
without being locked up,-for the stations won't hold everybody,-and when all else
has palled, you may set fire to the turf."

Published by Leyton & Leytonstone History Society

A5 pamphlet, 24 pages