Coordinates: 51°37′52″N 0°00′58″E / 51.631°N 0.016°E / 51.631; 0.016

Chingford is an area of north east London in the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It borders Essex to the north, Woodford Green to the east, Walthamstow to the south and Edmonton to the west. It is situated 10 miles (16 km) northeast of Charing Cross. Landmarks in the west are the William Girling and King George V reservoirs, known together as the Chingford reservoirs, and the River Lea. To the north lies Epping Forest which is in Essex but is maintained by The Corporation of the City of London.

The River Ching runs through the area, and the town of Chingford is close to a number of crossings of that river. However old maps and descriptions give a name for the settlement long before the river has a name and it is likely that the name of the river as "Ching" arose long after the settlement was named. It is also thought that similarly to how Kingston upon Thames appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as Chingestone and Chingetun(e), with ching being old English for king, that Chingford could relate to the King's river, and Kings Ford. This idea is compounded by the Queen Elizabeth Hunting Lodge and links to royalty using the area for hunting in centuries gone by.^{[citation needed]} However the most generally accepted explanation by place name genealogists is that the settlement's name comes from an origin of "Shingly Ford" -- that is, a ford over a waterway containing shingles.