Wansteadium

The words are there – and the promise of a revival of a great Wanstead culinary name – but somehow the words just don’t make sense…

Geoff Wilkinson writes on Wanstead Daily Photo: “This view is from the High Street looking between buildings at the a roof of a house in Wanstead Place. It reminded me of a scene looking across rooftops from the film ‘Oliver’, it just needs Bill Sykes and his dog fleeing the law.”

Freaky number of mentions for Wanstead in the news this week.

Firstly there was the sad news of the death of actor Paul Bhattacharjee who, it’s reported, lived here.

Then there was the pardon given to the Wanstead men who had been jailed in Dubai after being found with synthetic cannabis.

After that came the grass fires which apparently took 120 firemen to extinguish.

And now comes the tale of Tamara Ecclestone’s husband who was robbed of a £50,000 Rolex and a £20,000 bracelet. The Daily Mail reports
“…he was driving home alone from a friend’s house shortly after midnight on Wednesday when his fuel gauge started flashing, so he stopped for petrol at a garage off the A12 in Wanstead, East London. He had gone to relieve himself in some bushes in a secluded corner when he was approached by two men who he claims threatened him before assaulting and robbing him.”

Some weeks ago Snaresbrook station staff appealed for Wanstead residents to donate flowers for the bed on the eastbound platform. This is the fruit of that plea. Bravo all round.

James Ward, the man who brought us the Larder, is leaving Wanstead and moving with his family to the Sussex coast. The cafe is now to to be run by James’s former business partner Daniel Beharall.

In the eight years since he opened the Larder, the business has expanded to have branches in Bethnal Green and Chingford. But it has also become a central part of the attraction of Wanstead High Street.

Earlier this month Kerrie Dainty, who has run Nice Croissant for the past 15 years, also quit Wanstead.

James said: “For as lovely as Wanstead is – and indeed it has been a fantastic place to be for the past eight years – it isn’t beside the seaside. My family and I are packing our trunk (and our trunks), and moving on to Brighton. The Larder will still remain the Larder – just a different structure. There should be very little disruption and certainly most people will not notice any difference at all. I will visit from time to time when I have time, though we are actually going to open another little café down there on the borders of Hove and Brighton so won’t have a great deal of spare time. This new place isn’t part of the Larder collective, though doubtless will share some genes… It’s a very exciting time. We will of course greatly miss the Larder, Wanstead and all those who sail in her, but these opportunities don’t come along too often and when they do we always try to grab hold.”

First, we refer to @Wanstead_meteo, weather obsessive Scott Whitehead, who this week proposed that Wanstead’s Evergreen Field could be turned into a lido. His thoughts on the weather are:

Today is the 15th day running with no measurable rain – that is old definition of a drought #arid

— Wanstead weather (@wanstead_meteo) July 18, 2013

But then comes this:

Walking to Snaresbrook station, minding my own business, when suddenly a load of sick falls from the trees above me… Wtf ?!

— ALTMAN (@SteveBeatz) July 18, 2013

A variation, perhaps, on this: