Many pubs have come and gone in Essex, but they have never and will never be forgotten. It is quite a well known fact that many roundabouts are called after landmark pubs – and this is the case for this very busy roundabout in Essex.
Cooks Ferry is a junction on the North Circular Road serving the Lea Valley, Chigwell. The junction is a roundabout interchange with Lea Valley Viaduct overhead – and has a fantastic history, that not many people know about.
Cooks Ferry is indeed named after a once-popular pub, named the Cook’s Ferry Inn, which was part of Essex when it was constructed. Boak and Bailey, a beer blogger, said that the old pub seems to have been built in the 18th century as a waterside pub and was a local landmark throughout the 19th century.
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It was also popular with anglers. In the inter-war years, it was decided to build a great north circular road to connect newly populous outer London neighbourhoods, open up space for industry and provide jobs.
In 1927, the stretch between Angel Road, Edmonton, and Billet Road, Chingford was opened. As a result of this, the rebuilding of the Cook’s Ferry Inn was made necessary by the fact that the new road was higher than the narrow old lane it replaced.
After World War II, like many of these hard-to-fill inter-war pubs, it had become ‘scruffy’ and morphed into a music venue. Then, in the 1960s, it became associated with ‘beat music’, mods and pop music, with performances by bands such as Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull and The Who.
Finally, in the 1970s, the North Circular was widened and the pub was demolished. Now, the spot where it stood is all concrete flyover and brambles – but its name lives on in the name of the roundabout, and its bus stop!