A talk entitled “Hitchcock’s Leytonstone” was given by Gary Lewis at the club’s Partners’ Lunch on 3rd December. Welcomed by club president Arnold Verrall, Mr Lewis captivated the 73 diners with a fantastic, lavishly illustrated presentation demonstrating an encyclopaedic knowledge of Leytonstone and all things Hitchcock. He traced Alfred Hitchcock’s early life and deep connections with the area, where the director was born on 13 August 1899 at 517 High Road. His parents, William Hitchcock, a greengrocer, and Emma Jane Whelan, from an Irish Catholic family, had married in Forest Gate in 1887. The family moved between Stratford and Leytonstone, giving Hitchcock a secure, hardworking, middle-class upbringing supported by his father’s well-established shops. The earliest surviving family photograph from 1900 shows Hitchcock’s parents and siblings; Alfred, then an infant, remained upstairs with a nanny. He later attended Mayville School and St Ignatius College, where strict discipline and a constant sense of anticipation helped shape his understanding of tension and timing. A famous childhood episode - being briefly locked in a police cell at age five “to teach him a lesson”- left him with a lifelong distrust of authority, a theme central to many of his films featuring innocent men wrongly pursued. Hitchcock’s fascination with transport began early; he memorised tram and train timetables and later wove rail travel into films such as The Lady Vanishes, Sabotage, Strangers on a Train and North by Northwest. Leytonstone’s rich cinema culture also influenced him. Picture houses including the Gaiety, Palace Electric Theatre, Premier Electric and Academy exposed him to storytelling on screen and later showcased his early successes, including The Pleasure Garden and The Lodger, which featured his first cameo appearances. Today, Leytonstone proudly celebrates its most famous “Essex boy” through murals at the Underground station, artworks near the site of his father’s former shop and a blue plaque marking his birthplace. Although Hitchcock left after marrying Alma Reville in 1926, his creative legacy remains deeply embedded in the story and identity of Leytonstone.
Epping Probis Testimonial: Wednesday, December 3rd 2025
