Hurrah for the glorious Wanstead 500

500xWansteadium is cracking open the bubble bath, basking in the passing of a glorious tally of 500 e-mail subscribers. Thank you to everyone who has signed up for our newsletter which arrives on mornings when there is something to say, but never more than once per day.

It is free to receive. Remarkable but true. If you’d like to join the serried ranks of subscribers, enter your details on the right hand side of the page.

Domino’s withdraws Cinnamon plan

Cinnamon is NOT open

Domino’s Pizza has withdrawn its bid to convert the former Cinnamon restaurant on Wanstead High Street into a takeaway branch.

The planning document on the Redbridge site states simply that the bid has been withdrawn, without specifying reasons.

The application would have meant a change of use of (A3) cafe/restaurant to (A5) hot food take-away, and other changes including:

  • installation of a replacement shopfront
  • installation of a cycle stand
  • installation of a roof mounted extract duct, fresh air duct, compressor unit and air conditioning unit,
  • installation of a replacement doorway to the rear elevation,
  • installation of a new refuse area,
  • installation of a replacement stairway,
  • removal of an existing ‘lean-to-structure’ and ‘pitched roof’ and
  • the removal of an existing rooflight.

Meanwhile mystery surrounds Costa’s bid to move in to the former Enigma. The company has approved for planning permission to install illuminated signs (something which is anathema to the Wanstead Society), but says it has no firm plans to open a branch here. Very odd.

Celebration of Wanstead cycling

Wansteadium reader, and longtime Wanstead resident, Marcus Tylor offers this video as a celebration of cycling in London. “As a Wanstodian since 1972 I naturally shot quite a bit here recently and in all weathers,” he writes, and invites fellow readers to list the Wanstead locations featured.

Wanstead weekend photo, XXIII

© Geoff Wilkinson, who writes on Wanstead Daily Photo: “Remember [Wednesday] morning, grey, overcast and cold ? Well not at sunrise [on Thursday] when this pictures was taken, these fantastic colours lasted only a few minutes before the sun rose high enough to be hidden by the clouds. I had to take this photograph very quickly, there was not enough time to find a different location, however when I saw the image on the back of the camera I really liked the combination of the sun, power lines and trees.”

Wanstead bees come a cropper


In September last year Wansteadium reported on the thriving bee-keeping culture in Wanstead, and particularly on the honey production of Wansteadium reader MissisBeekeeper and family.

Sad to report but all their bees have died, victims of the prolonged cold weather.

MissisBeekeeper tells us: “The long winter proved their undoing. One beekeeper he knows lost nearly half his hives. Ours starved – they didn’t like the emergency fondant offered and too few fine days for them to go out foraging. It’s been an awful winter for Beekeepers!”

Last summer’s happy crop

Wanstead news roundup: A minor parking breakthrough, and other news

photo• Police are investigating how a 44-year-old man was stabbed on Wanstead High St at 5am on Tuesday. The area was taped off for much of the day. More details at the Wanstead Guardian, which says police believe it was a domestic incident

• A For Sale sign now adorns the premises previously occupied by Santa Fe. And Cambridge Park accountants Tish, Press and Co say they are leaving Wanstead simply because of the difficulty of parking.

• BUT here’s a bit of good news for embattled Wanstead shopkeepers: Westfield NOW NO LONGER OFFERS FREE PARKING (see pic). Up to two hours will now set you back £2.50.

• Nudists took over Wanstead’s cricket ground last weekend for (authorised) naturist camping, in spite of the chilly conditions. Meanwhile the club is gearing up for the start of a new season, with the first games next weekend. Last year, you may remember, Wanstead and Snaresbrook were national club finalists, and they will be hoping to repeat their successes. From next week, Wansteadium will be bringing you regular reports of what’s going on, hopefully at all levels of the club.

• No news yet on whether Costa will, as rumoured, open in the former Enigma premises, though it appears George Lane is to get one.

photo (1)• Is it Wansteadium’s imagination, or are the ‘conservation’ zone signs at the Snaresbrook end of the High Street new?

• Reviews are welcome for the newest (and some would say bravest) culinary venture: a seafood stall next door to Queen’s British Steak House and Grill, called Wanstead Shell Shack. The best of luck to them (though is a PTSD-based pun really good taste?)

• For the avoidance of confusion, and partly because we’ve never thought to say this before, but Wansteadium has no link whatever with the Wanstead Village Directory. That is all.