• Wanstead’s own star media lawyer, Mark Stephens, onetime defender of Wikileaks among other causes, has received his CBE from Prince Charles.
• Firefighters rescued a dog which had fallen into a freezing lake in Wanstead Park on Friday. They later asked dog-owners to make sure their animals kept away from frozen water.
• The exact changes have not yet been announced, but Wanstead Library is to have reduced opening hours from April as part of council cuts.
• Lovely tale from the Wanstead Guardian about the member of station staff at Snaresbrook who has converted a little office on the westbound platform into a little steam train museum, complete with videos playing. More details here.
• Congratulations to James Ward of the Larder on the opening of the first part of their third venue, the historic Butler’s Retreat in Chingford Plain. More details here.
• An example of political education in action, as revealed by one Wanstead teenager last week. Mr Cryer can console himself that she went away knowing more than when she came in. (Anonymised to prevent blushes.)
• Thursday sees the return of the Wanstead Comedy Night, once again at Bar Room Bar. The line-up and details are available from the Wanstead Comedy Night website. As in previous months, we will hope to have some of the best one-liners, half remembered, on Friday. (Volunteers welcome.)
Plenty of people were sad when Wanstead’s charmingly odd Andrews Builders Merchants shut up shop. Like something from the Two Ronnies, it stood out alone, boxy and weird with a painted sign from decades past.
The sign survived the shop by a year or so, but ended up in a skip during renovations by the shop’s new owner, who was unaware of the sentimental attachment many in Wanstead had for it.
There is, though, a happy ending to this story. With high streets beset by chains, charity shops and closures, to say nothing of shop fronts with garish internally illuminated Perspex boxes, the curiosity of the spot has been – remarkably and wonderfully – preserved.
So welcome, everyone, the Wanstead Fabric Merchants. Congratulations to Geoff Rosenberg and family, the enlightened proprietors who employed Wanstead’s one-woman-smarter-high-street campaign, Gabrielle Collard, to design the new shop front.
While the painted window design gives the new shop a cool edge, the new sign could be a definition of sympathetic redevelopment. Wooden, with the same proportions, similar wording and style, yet with reversed colours to emphasise the changes.
All in all, a good day for the character and diversity of Wanstead. Let’s hope Geoff’s bravery is rewarded.
Send your pictures of Wanstead in the snow to wansteadium@gmail.com
To get the snowball rolling is this cracker from Richard Chambury (whose Autumn photos were such a hit here).
Wanstead Flats by Martin Warne – @mwarne
The Shrubbery by Pete J – @PeterJQJ
And two nice jobs from Neil Perry – @NPPhotographer
From Jillian Steggle
From Avril Rodriguez-Dixon
And Churchill with his traditional mohawk, from Paul Glynn
Wanstead Berries from C to the H – @EDMI_Podcast
These four from Keng-Gah, “on Sunday afternoon after crumble and custard at Queens”.
These two of Hollow Pond from Susannah Davies.
Above and seven below from Nicolle French.
And last word, for now, from Nice Croissant Kerrie. Thanks to everyone for sending photos in.
Saturday night Central Line passengers were stranded outside Snaresbrook as snow brought the line to a standstill, forcing the train to be evacuated. The passengers had to walk along the tracks, according to tweeter @naomibridge and others.
@ stuck on a central line train between Snaresbrook & s woodford for over an hour babies crying having to walk on tracks Video of passengers leaving the train is here.
I'm about to walk on train tracks from Snaresbrook to South Woodford. So it's a 10 minute walk to south woodford. Guys in walking on train tracks. Toes are gone. http://t.co/Brjtq6v3 Stuck on Central line tube between Snaresbrook and South Woodford, loss of transaction brilliant! Good job Olympics are not in the winter! @ between Snaresbrook and South Woodford, about to take a leisurely stroll on the tracks. Nice
More than one Wanstead resident will have pondered whether there is the chance of a quick buck by renting out their home during the Olympics. I must confess I have myself. But take a look at this listing, as spotted by reader Wansteadium Janah, who says “Have you seen this?? £60,000 a week! In Aldersbrook!” You might note, on your way to the floor as you pass out, that the house has 16 bedrooms and maid service. But still.
I’m happy to be able to clear up a quandary for fellow reader Catherine, though, who was mystified by a story in the Wanstead Guardian a couple of weeks ago. “The 19 January edition features a front page article about renting homes during the Olympics. It mentions that a home in Thyme Avenue is asking for £10,000 a week. Having lived in Wanstead all my life I was surprised to have never heard of the road. I went to Google Maps and was surprised to The Avenue named as Thyme Avenue. I don’t think the road has undergone a name change but how could Google and The Guardian get it all Pete Tong?”
Well I can clear up one thing. There is not, nor ever has been, a road called Thyme Avenue there. I checked with Redbridge Council who very helpfully confirmed that “The Avenue in Wanstead has always been known as The Avenue ever since its creation circa 1897″. I can’t clear up how Google invented a name – and even less how our own local paper would fall for it. The council has contacted Google to have the mistake corrected.
Friends, I live to serve.
• Residents of Wellington Road and Nelson Road are collecting signatures asking for traffic calming because of the number of motorists who cut the corner from Hermon Hill to the High Street. Wansteadium reader Caroline said: “The speed of traffic is particularly dangerous for children and elderly residents; the road is also used by children to get to Wanstead Church School and other local schools. Remember we also have a stream of ‘L’ drivers trying to negotiate the road.”
• Weird goings-on at the Ilford Recorder. Some Scientologists came to Wanstead at the weekend to talk to people in the street about their church. The paper’s website ran a story, and some people on Twitter objected to it. It then disappeared, like it never happened.
• Wansteadium reader @Lornamedia has blogged some thoughts about cancer which it’s hard to ignore (even though that might be an easier option).
• Another quaint Wansteadium tradition maintained for another year: observing the healthy growth of mistletoe on trees in Wanstead. Last winter (and the winter before) it was a single sprouting which got noticed – this year a tree on Ashbourne Avenue clearly has five separate growths.
• More good news for Wanstead, following our upbeat retail roundup last week. Design company iwantdesign has moved into Wanstead from oh-so-trendy Brick Lane.
• Good luck to ace Larder baristrix Katherine whose band Bleech starts a nationwide tour next week. You can see tour dates and listen to songs from their EP Deadhead here.
• Thank you to all the new followers of Wansteadium – now more than 800 on Twitter, more than 300 on Facebook, and 270 (atow) who are receiving us by e-mail. You’re all welcome.
It’s been a hard few months on Wanstead High Street, with several closures and not a lot seeming to be going on. But suddenly there are three shoots which hopefully mean better times to come.
The first is the visible sign of a new restaurant in the former Cooks/Seasons spot. As the photo attests, it is to be called Provender Cafe Bistro, and if its website is anything to go by (they usually are an indication of a discerning nature, of course), it could be pretty swish. Lunch options have been feeling a bit limited in Wanstead of late, and so with 80 seats to be available here, it’s surely a good thing. The only downside is that the Snaresbrook end of the High Street seems ill-fated, but if Provender can become a destination that will surely help.
The second is a new dress shop coming to Wanstead. Dress2Party is advertising for staff for a new branch (it has them in Mill Hill and Cheshire) and bills itself as specialising in dresses for birthdays, proms, weddings and bar mitzvahs. It seems likely that the shop will be opening in the former Knock Down Ginger location.
The third is taking shape at Wansteadium’s spiritual home, in the former Andrews’ Builders’ Merchants. As we first revealed, it is shortly to become a fabric shop. Some impressive work has taken place to renovate the site, including the long-overdue making up of the pavement into Woodbine Place.
*Plans to introduce cycle lanes across the middle of Christ Church Green – from the High Street to Woodbine Place - have been dropped by councillors. Redbridge has been given a £250,000 grant by TfL to promote cycling. Wansteadium readers may well have ideas for how the money could be spent (via the comments form, if you please).
* Anyone planning ahead for street parties for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee can now apply for permission to close roads via the council site. Organisers of the Big Lunch – a collective picnic – are planning their event to coincide with celebrations on for Sunday 3 June.
*A new display has been installed in Wanstead Library. It’s of Ethiopian coffee pots, and tells the story of the significance of the Ethiopian coffee ceremony. Wansteadium reader Peter Chamberlain is responsible for the display, and writes that the pots can be bought for £12 each, of which £2 is paid to the potter in Ethiopia, £1 for transport, and the remaining £9 to Save the Children. He can be contacted at pjchamberlain@ntlworld.com.
*British Transport Police have issued a CCTV image of a man they want to question in relation to an assault on a 34-year-old woman at Snaresbrook station on Christmas Eve.
*Redbridge has a plan to offer to rehouse pensioners whose own houses are now too big for them, and in return take on the letting of those houses to families. The plan is not yet in action, but has won praise from the government this week.
*Wanstead cafes are expected to see a surge in bewigged fellows lunching this week. Suggestions for what a judge might eat for lunch are welcome.
The Sun is reporting today that police are investigating whether the food served to judges at Snaresbrook Crown Court could have been spiked with urine. It reports:
It is feared someone with a grudge against the justice system has launched a grubby revenge campaign. Traces of urine are believed to have been found in soups, salads and sandwiches…
Food safety officers and police are investigating, the paper says.
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