Are you interested in the social life of Walthamstow?
A special public meeting will be held at the above on Monday 6th June 1921, commencing at 8 p.m. precisely, for the purpose of furthering the promotion of this Club. Tickets may be obtained from the Secretary at Orford House or Members of the Committee.
That is how the club first introduced itself to the village, calling a public meeting at the house for eight o'clock precisely.
The new identity asks the same question a hundred years on. Its job is to bring new members through the door and give the club a look as good as its history, using nothing that wasn't already on its walls.
Orford House is an East London working-class members' club, and a proper throwback to the past. A members' club since 1921, a bowls green since 1925: honours boards in gold leaf, darts and snooker upstairs, and three generations sharing the garden on a summer evening.
It sits in the heart of Walthamstow Village, a short walk from the Victoria line, on one of the best-loved streets in East London. The neighbourhood has changed around it. The club hasn't, and it still keeps its history on the walls.
There's nothing wrong with the look it has. This is a theoretical redesign: a more classic identity that leans into the club's history rather than anything modern, built from what's already on its walls.
I'm Cash Collins, an American from Barnwell, South Carolina. I moved to London for work and found my way to Orford House, about ten minutes' walk from my front door.
I spent my whole childhood on a baseball mound, so a game of weight, line and a repeatable delivery made me fall in love with it straight away. The bowls club took me in, and Walthamstow has felt like home ever since.
I drew the owls, traced the letters and built this identity as a member, for the members.
Nothing was invented. Every letter, colour and shape in the new identity was found in the members' bar, on the green or in the club's own kit bag.
The story of the house, from 1802 to 1921, lettered by hand and framed in the members' bar. It set the tone: this is a club that keeps its history on the wall.
The club's name in Margaret Goble's calligraphy. Each letter of the new wordmark is traced from hers, then cleaned up just enough to hold its shape on a shirt or a phone.
Gold leaf on dark oak, an owl at the top. The gold and the owl-over-a-name arrangement run through the whole system.
A quatrefoil badge on a members' scorecard holder: gold owl, teal field, redcurrant ring. It became the shape of the new bowls crest.
Navy, mustard and red. The palette comes straight from the shirt the team plays in, with the teal of the old badge.
Framed menus and toast lists from the club's annual dinners. Their small capitals and centred, generous layouts set the type for everything around the name.
John Woodley came to Walthamstow from Orford in Suffolk in 1838, named the house after the town he had left behind, and brought his family crest with him, which happened to be an owl.
The tawny is London's own owl, a bird of woods, parks and big old gardens whose numbers in the city appear to be growing, and Epping Forest is only just up the road from the club.
I drew it myself in navy line and old gold and kept it a little unpolished on purpose, because it should look like it has always hung on the wall of a members' bar.
Walthamstow sits a short ride down the Victoria line from both Tottenham and Arsenal, so the owl stands on its bowl the way the Spurs cockerel stands on its ball, and the bowl is redcurrant, the colour Arsenal wore for their farewell season at Highbury.
73 Orford Road
Walthamstow Village, E17 9QR
