The actor attended what is now known as Larkswood Primary School
By Waltham Forest Echo

Leslie Phillips at the BAFTAs in 2007 (credit: Caroline Bonarde Ucci)

Famous actor and ex-Chingford local Leslie Phillips died at home this week at the age of 98.

Leslie was best known for appearing in Carry On films and voicing the Sorting Hat in the Harry Potter movies.

Although born in Tottenham, he was brought up in Middleton Avenue in Chingford after his family moved to the area when he was seven.

He attended what is now known as Larkswood Primary School and officially reopened the school after it was rebuilt in 2007.

As reported in the Guardian Series, he told Larkswood pupils about narrowly escaping a caning by the then-headmaster for allegedly stealing plants.

He said: “Somebody else had taken them and I had found them dumped in the middle of New Road and I was trying to return them.

“[The headmaster] went to his office and he got his cane. He did not believe me and asked me to bend over. I was in quite a fright and I ran out of the room and he ran after me with his cane.

“He did catch me but said that, because I had made such an effort to escape, he believed me and did not cane me.”

Leslie’s agent Jonathan Lloyd confirmed the star died peacefully in his sleep on Monday after a long illness.

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