Vestry House Museum

Vestry House Museum is an unexpected gem, hidden away in a rural corner of this busy East London suburb and historic area of Walthamstow Village, and housing a miscellany of local treasures. It was built in 1730 as a workhouse, as a plaque above the entrance still attests: "If any would not work, neither should he eat."

It later became a police station, then a private house, and opened as a museum in 1931. Grade II listed, the house displays reconstructions of a Victorian parlour from 1890, and a prison cell tableau based on the case of a drunk and disorderly labourer arrested in 1861. Its star exhibit is the Bremer car, built by local engineer Frederick Bremer in 1892 and a candidate for the oldest British petrol-driven car.

Galleries include Domestic Life, which shows 19th-century household utensils and the Costume gallery displaying antique clothing in a magnificent wood panelled room (although the 16th-century panelling is from another house).

Vestry House is very much a local museum and there are regular themed exhibitions and family events. home to a unique museum telling the story of industry, technology and transport in the Lea Valley.