Historically, it was part of the ancient parish of Leyton in the Becontree hundred of Essex. The first documented evidence of settlement is from the 14th century, describing a hamlet at 'Leyton-atte-stone'; a reference to the Roman milestone located within the area,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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At the northern end of Leytonstone High Road is The Green Man, a public house, with an eponymous nearby gyratory road junction system under which the A12 runs.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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The main thoroughfare, Leytonstone High Road, is part of an ancient highway from Epping to London, on the borders of Epping Forest. A small hamlet at Leytonstone had existed since the early 14th century, when it formed part of the parish of Leyton St Mary. The name Leytonstone, originally "Leyton-atte-Stone", comes from nearby Leyton ("settlement (tun) on the River Lea") and the Roman milestone called the High Stone.
The milestone still stands at the junction of Hollybush Hill (the A1199 road with Woodford) and New Wanstead (the A113 road with Woodford Bridge), near the eastern bounds of the parish. It is a restored 18th-century obelisk set up on an earlier stump, traditionally described as a Roman milestone, possibly marking an extension of the Roman road from Dunmow to Chigwell into London.<ref name=Powell1973>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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}}</ref> Two of the obelisk inscriptions are still just legible, others not:
"To Epping XI Miles through Woodford, Loughton"
"To Ongar XV Miles through Woodford Bridge, Chigwell, Abridge"
Other Roman archaeological features have been found in nearby Leyton, including "a Roman cemetery south of Blind Lane, and massive foundations of some Roman building, with quantities of Roman brick... discovered in the grounds of Leyton Grange."<ref name=Kennedy1894>J. Kennedy A History of the Parish of Leyton, Essex Phelp Brothers, Leyton (1894), digital copy at [archive.org].</ref>
Leytonstone remained largely rural until the opening of the railway at Leytonstone station in 1856, which gave quick and easy access to Stratford and central London. This, with increased availability of office and industrial work, had transformed the area into a suburban dormitory town by the end of the 19th century.
However, the forest land in the north and east of Leytonstone escaped development following a prolonged public campaign, when the Epping Forest Act 1878 preserved more than 200 acres (80 hectares) of open space for public use.<ref name="Powell1973"/>
In 1898 the department store Bearmans, opened by Frank Bearman to sell furniture and clothing, was the first store outside central London with an escalator.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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20th century
In the mid-1990s, the M11 link road (A12) was built through the area, despite a long-running protest by locals and road protestors. This and other protests led to the policy, Roads for Prosperity, being abandoned.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> From 2001 to 2013, artists ran the 491 Gallery, a squatted social space in a building next the A12, which hosted events from exhibitions to gigs.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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Leytonstone Arts Trail is an annual arts festival which started in 2008, where locals and artists display art in their windows and local venues.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
The Green Manroundabout and public house at the north edge of Leytonstone, with associated statue and mosaic; it remains a signposting-point on the A12.
Leytonstone is the birthplace of Sir Alfred Hitchcock. The entrance to Leytonstone tube station has mosaics of scenes from his films. Next to his birth site at 517 Leytonstone High Road, the building has been painted with a mural of birds, repeated in the pavement outside. A pub at 692 Leytonstone High Road was renamed The Birds, in reference to his film The Birds, which was based on the novella by Daphne du Maurier.
Independent Buildings on Church Lane, an art deco building and clock constructed by a local newspaper in 1934, replacing the Gaiety Cinema. The adjoining Seascape House is of matching architectural style.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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Leytonstone and Wanstead Synagogue, a post-war building in the art deco style on the corner of Fillebrook Road and Drayton Road; built in 1954 by the local Jewish community.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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Leytonstone Mosque, a 1970s adaptation of an 1880s church hall that was originally part of St John's, provides worship for up to 1000 male Sunni Muslims and a range of religious education for young boys.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
Leytonstone House is an eighteenth century, Grade II-listed<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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}}</ref> The first known occupants of the house were Philip Sansom (1786- 1845), his wife Elizabeth, son Henry and daughter Elizabeth. Philip Sansom was a founding member of The Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade (aka The Anti-Slavery Society) alongside William Wilberforce (1759–1833), Thomas Fowell Buxton (1786–1845) and others.
Between 1840 and 1867 Thomas Fowell Buxton's son, also called Thomas Fowell Buxton (1822–1908), lived in the house with his wife Rachel Jane Gurney Buxton and large family. An account of the day-to-day life of the family was written by their daughter Elizabeth Ellen Buxton (1848–1919) which includes many drawings of the house, garden, family and friends.<ref>Ellen R C Creighton: ‘Ellen Buxton’s Journal 1860 – 1864’ (1964) and ‘Family Sketchbook a hundred years ago’ (1967).</ref>
It was also the home of the Liberal Party MP Sir Edward North Buxton (1812–1858). His third son, also named Edward North Buxton, along with his brother Thomas, argued alongside the City of London Corporation for the preservation of nearby Epping Forest for public use, leading to the passing of the Epping Forest Act 1878.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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}}</ref> In 1867 the house was purchased by the Bethnal Green Board of Guardians to use as a workhouse school, named The Bethnal Green Schools for the Juvenile Poor, an industrial school and home for children under the age of fifteen. The original outbuildings of Leytonstone House were demolished, with the house itself retained as an administrative centre. Temporary iron school buildings were erected, which were all replaced by permanent blocks by 1889. The schools became the London County Council's in 1930, and operated until 1937 as the Leytonstone Children's Home, and then Leytonstone House Hospital until it closed in 1994. The site was subsequently redeveloped, and the house and half of the school blocks remain today as a mixture of commercial and residential use.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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Wallwood Farmhouse, near the Welsh Church on Leytonstone High Road, was built on the Wallwood Estate in the 1600s when the area was rural. it was owned in the early 19th Century by William Cotton, son of Joseph Cotton and father of Agnes Cotton, philanthropist.<ref>An Account of "Wallwood", Leytonstone, from 1200-1960 by Frederick Temple
Reprinted in 2009 by kind permission from Part H, Vol. 1, Third series, Transactions of the Essex Archaeological
Society (1964) (introductory note last revised November 2007)
By Leyton & Leytonstone Historical Society
Number 5 in The Great Houses of Leyton and Leytonstone Series
</ref>
Harrow Green Library, an art deco building opened in 1939 and closed in 2011 due to funding cuts; now run as a volunteer library in the same building, renamed The Junction.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
Leytonstone War Memorial and Gardens revealed in 1925 in remembrance of people of Leyton and Leytonstone who fought in The Great War and World War II; sited in the middle of Harrow Green, which is also the site of the modernist-style Wesleyan Christian Centre, built in 1959.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
The Red Lion, which has had a public house on the site since 1670. The current building is from 1891, having been restored as craft beer pub, ballroom and hotel; currently owned by the pub group Antic London.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
Whipps Cross University Hospital is set for redevelopment to include a brand-new hospital, along with new homes and other communal facilities. It was selected as one of six UK hospitals to receive a share of £2.7 billion of initial government funding in 2019.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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Whipps Cross Lido was a swimming pool dug in 1905, updated to a chlorinated facility in 1937 and closed in 1982. Some remains of the building and access road can be found near Hollow Pond on Leyton Flats.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
Leytonstone Fire Station, in Leytonstone High Road, was a Victorian building that was replaced in February 2016 by the current building.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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Pastures and Good Shepherd Building in Davies Lane are, respectively, the location of a 17th-century house, the home of Agnes Cotton, and a Children's Home founded by her. Both were threatened with redevelopment but saved by community protest in April 2021.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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West Ham Union Workhouse, whose buildings still remain in south Leytonstone, was originally part of the village of Holloway Down, located between Harrow Green and the Thatched House junction.
Leytonstone belonged originally to the ancient parish of Leyton in the Becontree Hundred of Essex. It became a separate ecclesiastical parish in 1845.<ref name="Lon Ency">Template:Cite book</ref> The parish of Leyton formed part of the West Ham Poor law union. In 1894 it became part of Leyton Urban District, which was incorporated in 1926 as the Municipal Borough of Leyton.
Leytonstone became part of the London Borough of Waltham Forest in 1965 when Greater London was created.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Within the borough, it divides into four council wards, each with three councillors: Forest ward (Whipps Cross area, parts of Upper Leytonstone as far as Grove Green), Leytonstone ward (the rest of Upper Leytonstone, the town centre, Bushwood and Ferndale areas), Cathall ward and Cann Hall ward (South Leytonstone areas).<ref name="leytonstonetoday">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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Leytonstone tube station is in London fare zones 3 and 4 on the Central line of the London Underground, and serves as the last stop before the line splits into the Fairlop Loop and the branch to Epping (Zone 6). Since 2016, night tube trains run on Friday and Saturdays on the Central line every 10 minutes between White City and Loughton (in Essex) or Hainault via Leytonstone.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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Leytonstone Bus Station stands either side of exits for Leytonstone tube station; key routes include the 257 to Stratford, the W15 to Hackney, and the night bus N8 to Tottenham Court Road.
From 25 October 2021, Leytonstone will be in London's Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ); which is to be expanding from central London up to the North Circular and South Circular roads.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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Davies Lane Primary School, first opened in 1901 as a board school. In 1948 it became a junior and infants school, merging into a single primary in 2004.
Leytonstone Leisure Centre on Cathall Road provides a gym and 25-metre main pool, sports hall, fitness studios, and a children's soft-play area.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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Wanstead Flats has 60 football pitches, including eight full size pitches. This facility is overseen by City of London Corporation and amateur football teams play every Sunday.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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The North Star on Browning Road is home to the North Star Velo cycling club.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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In The Bed-Sitting Room (1969), Spike Milligan created the (fictional) closest heir to the British throne after the outbreak of nuclear war as "Mrs. Ethel Shroake" of 393A High Street, Leytonstone. She appears in the final scene of the play.
Deep End, a 1970 British-German drama starring Jane Asher with a soundtrack by Can, was partly shot on Cann Hall Road and Cathall Road Baths (built 1906, rebuilt later in 1977).<ref>Deep End filming locations at IMDb</ref>
Ashley Banjo (born 1988), dancer and choreographer, was born in Leytonstone.
David Beckham OBE (born 1975), former footballer (England, Manchester United, Real Madrid, LA Galaxy, AC Milan, Paris Saint-Germain), was born in Leytonstone and grew up in Chingford.
Harry Kane (born 1993), footballer (England, Tottenham Hotspur and Bayern Munich), was born in Leytonstone and grew up in Chingford.
James Bevan (1858–1938), captain of the Welsh rugby union team in its first international match, died in Leytonstone
Stuart Freeborn (1914–2013), Star Wars make-up artist who was most famous as the designer of Yoda; born in Grove Green Road, had a Blue Heritage Plaque placed on his former home in December 2015.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Graham Gooch (born 1953), OBE, cricketer, former captain of the England cricket team
Philip Samson (died 1815), prominent abolitionist, made Leytonstone House his home from 1795 until his death. A wealthy London merchant and banker, he was one of the 12 founding members of the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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June Sarpong (born 1977) MBE, television presenter
Rita Simons (born 1977), actress, singer and model
Halszka Wasilewska (1899–1961), soldier, daughter of Leon Wasilewski, spent her infancy here before becoming a decorated major in the Polish Armed Forces
Leon Wasilewski (1870–1936), Polish political activist and editor lived in Leytonstone in 1898–1903
Douglas Webb (1922–1996), dam buster and photographer
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