Year: 2012

Is Costa coming to Wanstead?

Rumours abound that Costa Coffee is coming to Wanstead.

A planning application for the Enigma Hairdressers at Clockhouse parade to change its use – which would allow it to prepare and serve food – is currently being considered by Redbridge Council. Enigma is believed by Wansteadium to be closing at the end of January, and rumours circulating around the High Street are that a Costa branch will be taking its place.

The application is made by a firm of planning consultants who list their previous clients as including B&Q, Sainsbury’s, several banks and other clients. Costa (or its parent company Whitbread) is not listed, but with 1300 branches around the country it would be no surprise if they were interested.

Wansteadium has contacted Costa to ask them if the rumours are true. We’ll let you know what they say.

Wanstead News: Parking, speeding and bins

In a Wansteadium first, we live-tweeted the Area One committee, the Redbridge Council meeting which is focused on Wanstead and Snaresbrook. It was held amid heated scenes at the Wanstead Church School on Monday evening.

Wanstead news roundup, 24.11.12; Wanstead’s grip on power, and the future of ironing

• Wanstead’s role in the running of Redbridge Council has increased with the appointment of Wanstead Conservative Councillor Alex Wilson to the Redbridge ‘cabinet’ – the executive part of the council. Now three of the nine councillors on the cabinet are Wanstead Conservatives (Alex Wilson, Thomas Chan and Michelle Dunn) following the resignation of Cllr Sue Nolan, who is admittedly a Snaresbrook councillor. (If you’re expecting Wansteadium to assess whether this shift in the balance of power is going to have big effect on the governance of Redbridge, you must be new here.)

• So it may or may not be good news for residents of Wellington Road who are planning to be out in force at the Area One committee on Monday evening – after they got word that their campaign to stop or slow through-traffic had not succeeded. Motorists coming down Hermon Hill cut down Nelson Road and go on to Wellington Road to avoid the traffic lights at the junction with the High Street. Except on Mondays when the bin lorry completely blocks the road, and said motorists curse, slam into reverse and retrace their tracks. Residents say 60 cars a day speed down the road at up to 70mph.

• Congratulations to Keatings Jewellers on Wanstead High Street which is celebrating its 25th anniversary. And congratulations also to nearby Santa Fe which has marked its 20th anniversary.

• And at the other end of the High Street, it’s reported in the Wanstead Guardian that the owner of the buildings which house Snaresbrook Cars and the much loved Ironing Board outside Snaresbrook Station has applied for permission to demolish the buildings and put the business into temporary cabins. More here.

• Meanwhile reviews of the delicacies on offer at BBQ Express, Wanstead’s favourite talking point, after it apparently opened. The tweet and photograph below were posted on Friday night by Uzii Shaban who uses the hashtag #boss. But Uzii seems inadvertently to have posted a picture of a different branch of BBQ Express since as we all know, Wanstead’s sign now has no flames and is not illuminated as in the picture. Maybe the photo of the real thing just didn’t do it justice.


• And finally, the new subscribers keep on coming. At the time of writing there were 352 people who had signed up to receive Wansteadium by e-mail. Each morning, on those days when we have published a new entry, they get a beautiful and fascinating e-mail with which to wow their friends and colleagues. You can join them by signing up here.

Welcome to Wanstead’s new weather site

It’s a big welcome to a new weather website for Wanstead, wansteadweather.co.uk, run by @wanstead_meteo, aka Scott, whose tweets will have become familiar to those of you who keep an eye on the right hand side of Wanteadium pages.

His new site, drawing on gauges, meters and whatnot at his home in Aldersbrook, displays a huge amount of observation material and Scott’s tweets also offer his thoughts about what is in the pipeline. As well as having launched his new site, he will be writing regular articles here on Wansteadium too.

It seems clear that as affordable technology makes very localised monitoring possible that the weather can become more of an obsession than it already is. Wansteadium, for instance, has long harboured ambitions to map the microclimates of Wanstead (is the Nightingale Estate colder than the Counties? Are roads around Wanstead Park frostier than those in Snaresbrook?), and Scott confirms there is something to get one’s teeth into here.

“I’ve lived in the area since around 1997 and only realised that Aldersbrook, where I have been since January this year, is in a frost hollow,” he says. “The other night it was 1.7C colder here than in Woodford Green and probably Wanstead village too, though there’s no way of checking. The other night there were thick fog patches on the Flats yet nothing elsewhere. Very eerie.”

We’ll let you know if we get a microclimate scheme off the ground, but in the meantime, Scott has some data about windchill, solar radiation and evapotranspiration which you may be interested in.

Wanstead parents: Time to get stories straight

The next couple of weekends will see assorted Christmas fairs and sales in Wanstead schools and churches (see inchoate list below). In an act of some one-upmanship, the Wanstead Church School fair on Saturday is to have some real reindeer. Wansteadium wonders if it might be wise for parents of impressionable children to agree on a line to take against toddlers’ inquiries for a range of questions, since curious (and devious) youngsters will no doubt seek verification from their peers and consistency may bolster parental solidarity. Obvious contenders for agreeing a line on include:

  • Are those really Santa’s reindeers?
  • Can they really fly?
  • Which one exactly is Rudolf, and why isn’t his nose red?
  • Are they the same ones they had at Westfield?

Answers welcome below. And please send details of any other fairs etc to events@wansteadium.com. And remember, you can always add details of any event in Wanstead to the Wansteadium Calendar.

Wanstead Church School Christmas Bazaar
Saturday 24 November 11.00AM – 2.30PM
New attractions for 2012: Meet the reindeers and Christmas owl. Visit Santa in the winter wonderland grotto. Christmas choir performing
Visit our famous cake stall/mulled wine/crafts/chestnut and marshmallow BBQ/games/treasure hunt/face-painting/amazing sample sale/nearly news toys and books/Chocolate and booze tombola/Grand Draw Entrance from the High street £1 Adults Children free

Wanstead High School PTA Book Sale
Wanstead Library Saturday 24 November 2.00pm – 4.30pm. Books on sale at bargain prices.