Wansteadium

Belatedly we discover a racehorse in the US by the name of Wanstead. How the existence of this animal could have escaped Wansteadium’s notice is a mystery – we have some of the finest Google alerts going – but it seems we have.

So we’re sad to report that this fine beast, a six-year-old gelding, ran in a race at the Aquaduct racetrack in New York on Saturday, but broke its right front leg and fell at the start of the race. It was put down there and then. Or “euthanized”, as the Americans put it.

Commiserations all round. It would have been fun to have a horse to follow.

This weekend had meant to be the start of the cricket season, but it turned into a bit of a non-starter. Sanjay Batra, of Wanstead and Snaresbrook Cricket Club, writes: “The season started less with the sound of leather on willow and more with the sound of the club treasurer’s head smashing against the clubhouse bar, as the weather put paid to all Wanstead cricket this weekend: two home games, two away games and the women’s 6-a-side tourney.” Details of the season’s fixtures are at the club website.

Belated congratulations to Wansteadium reader (and sometime cricket correspondent) @nutterlane (Dan Clapton) on the successful launch of the Wanstead Tap, a kind of virtual microbrewery which had its first outing at this weekend’s Wanstead Farmer’s Market.

Rather than brewing his own, Dan sold a range of bottled beers which are made within a Volvo ride’s distance of Wanstead, including Little Brew from Camden Road, Pressure Drop from Bohemia Place (E8), Hackney Brewery American Pale Ale, Night Watchman from the East London Brewing company, the London Fields brewery, and the Wildcard Brewery from Higham Hill.

We’re pleased to report it was a sell out (in a good way). This could be a green shoot of economic recovery.

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Domino’s Pizza has withdrawn its bid to convert the former Cinnamon restaurant on Wanstead High Street into a takeaway branch.

The planning document on the Redbridge site states simply that the bid has been withdrawn, without specifying reasons.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