Tour de France 2014… how close to Wanstead?

That’s the question the noble cyclists of E11 have been asking themselves. The Tour next year will be starting in Yorkshire and then making its way down to the Olympic Stadium, before heading off to France – a route which could (depending how you went) include Wanstead High Street.

Ah well, relax, it’s not happening. As a detailed map on the British Cycling website shows, and in red below, the tour will be coming down the A104 (Woodford High Road), then Lea Bridge Road, joining Leyton High Road and on to the A12. No cigar but it is close.

(Thanks, @mattgubbins)

Psst. Wanstead’s NatWest is 100

IMG_0106NatWest in Wanstead celebrated its 100th anniversary on Tuesday, but they really don’t want you to make a fuss.  There were crisps, olives, and chocolate cake on offer for customers who happened to go into the branch, but it sounds like a rather low key affair, with certainly nothing stronger on offer than fizzy water. All in the interests of not offending the taxpayer, perhaps who do – after all – own 82% of it.

And the lowest key thing of all seemed to be that customers weren’t told the event was happening. Someone somewhere  “didn’t think it was worthwhile telling people”, a normally reliable source has told Wansteadium. And any leftover food was thrown away at the end of the day.

But since it is an asset we all own, and January is desperately in need of reasons to celebrate, Wansteadium would like to propose a toast (in water, with a Hula Hoop thumb-ring): “Wanstead NatWest.”

Evergreen Field developer: ‘We will continue fighting with the public for 20 years’

More outspoken words from the would-be developer of the Evergreen Field on Wanstead High Street.

Dalbir Singh Sanger has this week has released images of his proposed development which would include seven houses, two flats and two shops as well as a space which he says could be used for occasional markets.

But he told the Wanstead Guardian:

“I need to make money off the site and we can’t leave it empty. If you go down the road a little bit there is a five-storey block of flats. There is space on the land for 50 flats, we are only proposing nine units. If these plans aren’t accepted, we will just continue fighting with the public for the next 20 years and going round in circles.”

In October, Mr Sanger was equally outspoken, telling the paper:

“The field is fenced off and isn’t benefiting anyone and hasn’t done for 15 years. It is a waste of land and we are trying to bring it back to the community. What we are saying is lets get our head together and work something out. If they don’t want what we propose when we put in our application, we will go to appeal.

“If worse comes to worse we will grow our own vegetables there. There are so many things that we can do there which will be an eyesore to local people. ” [Our italics]

Redbridge Council has previously said that housing would not be permitted on the site, and the Wanstead Society has made a proposal for mixed community use.

newwansteadtalk
 

You can discuss the Evergreen Field development on the Wanstead Talk discussion forum

 

 

Wanstead Hair Street

photo (38)

Just like Hay-on-Wye suddenly found itself the centre of a multitude of second hand bookshops, so Wanstead is becoming a centre of barbering.

The A1 Hair Dresser in the formerly-demolished-but-now-rebuilt Chocolate Shop (right) has been the subject of much conversation in its first couple of weeks (commenters on this site have called it “an utter disgrace on the high street” and “appalling”).

Another barber’s has opened at the peak of Hermon Hill in a former bookmakers

And now change is afoot in a longstanding barber’s on the High Street.

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photo (39)The barber shop at the Snaresbrook end of the high street, cunningly known as “The Barber Shop”, is to have a pretty major-sounding refit after it changed hands. Motorbiking 77-year-old Alan Wiseman, who has run the shop for the past 20 years, has now retired after spending many decades cutting hair. The new owner is Emma Huseyin, who has been working at the shop for the past six years.

Her aim over the next three months is to “transform it into a traditional barber shop, offering hot towel shaves with 1950s style chairs, reclaimed wooden floorboards and a ‘heritage’ shop front to give it that Wanstead village feeling”.

For that many people will thank her. For others, of course, the defining Wanstead experience is to be had at the Wanstead Hairdressers on Woodbine Place. But there are plenty of heads to go around, even without a Hay effect.

Wanstead weather: Cold signs

Warnings abound of snow on the way. Hardcore Wanstead weatherman Scott Whitehead writes on his blog,

There has been much talk of severe weather arriving from this weekend onwards, with some chatrooms on the web ramping up rumours of a repeat of the severe winter of 1947. Whilst it is going to turn cold, with the possibility of snow increasing from Sunday onwards, it is far too early to make predictions of a repeat of the famous ’47 winter which did not really get going until well into the second half of January. Indeed, records from Camden Square show that this week in 1947 would be remarkably mild – with a mean maximum of 10C while nights were a mild average of 5C. So what has the seven days got in store? With unprecendentedly low confidence in weather forecasting models it is hard to pin down exact values on temperatures and weather much beyond Sunday. At the time of writing we can expect maximums to gradually creep downwards through the period – giving an average of 2C by the week’s end. Minimums are forecast to average -1C – so plenty of frost around. It currently looks like any precipitation on Saturday will at least start as rain though there is the chance this will turn to snow by Sunday morning to give a covering. Far more snow looks likely from Monday onwards.

You can follow Scott on Twitter where he is @wansteadmeteo