| Summary : London Underground station. From a junction with the existing line at Leytonstone some 2.5 miles of new tube were constructed beneath Eastern Avenue to join up with the LNER Hainault loop at Newbury Park. Works were suspended at the outbreak of war in 1939 and the tunnels under Eastern Avenue found alternative uses, partly as air-raid shelters, and from March 1942 as a 'tunnel' factory for the manufacture of aircraft components. The Newbury Park via Wanstead route had been planned to open in June 1941; platform tunnels and escalator shafts had been started, but no work had been done on the surface before the outbreak of war. Temporary buildings were erected for the use of the tunnel factory. Wanstead finally opened as a Central line station on 14th December 1947. The relatively spartan looking station had a purpose built vent tower flanked by low entrances and a ticket hall adapted from wartime construction for the tunnel factory. The exterior was faced in light grey granite aggregate render to sill level and cream spar above, with imitation joints hammered into the ticket hall walls to match the blocks forming the tower. A robust wall of steel louvres surrounds the upper escalator shaft beyond the hall. |