We are Hunter Locksmiths, a mobile auto locksmith covering Leytonstone and Leyton, from the Bakers Arms down to Leyton High Road and out to the edge of Epping Forest at Hollow Ponds.
Cars and vans are what our vans are built around rather than a sideline to house locks. Lost car keys, keys that will not turn, immobiliser faults and vehicles that will not open are the everyday work, seven days a week and at any hour.
What We Get Called To In E11
Street parking, mostly. The terraces either side of the High Road have almost no off street parking, so cars sit on permit bays all week and get used hard at the weekend. That means lockouts during the unload, keys shut in boots, and barrels that have been stiff since the spring finally refusing to turn.
Whipps Cross is its own category. Hospital visits run long, the car park fills, and people come back hours later to a car that will not respond. The same goes for the Central line stations at Leytonstone and Leyton, where cars are left for a full working day.
Hollow Ponds and the forest edge give us the other kind of call. Keys lost on a walk, usually with no realistic chance of finding them, which is fine because we do not need the original key to make a new one.
Leyton also runs on vans. The industrial units off Argall Avenue and Lea Bridge Road are full of trades whose vehicle is their income, so van keys, deadlocks and slam locks are a regular job here rather than an occasional one.
Leytonstone is part of our wider East London coverage, so Wanstead, Forest Gate and Walthamstow are all on the same run.