Unloved and unused, the phone box on Nightingale Green has gone to meet its maker. It would be interesting to know how long a phone box has been on that site, on the corner of Nightingale Lane and Stanstead Road, but hey times move on.
Celebrated Wanstead soprano Lucy Crowe, discussed the nightly open air singing she and husband Joe performed during lockdown on Radio 3 on Thursday. You can hear it below.
Lucy was awarded an OBE for services to music in last year’s King’s Birthday Honours.
(Note to wonderful people at the BBC. We’ve used a clip of this interview for one reason only… that BBC Sounds STILL doesn’t allow you to share an exact point in a radio programme, even after all these years.)
NB to anyone mid-DIY.
You are now only allowed to take the detritus from DIY to the Chigwell Road Recycling Centre by appointment.
The East London Waste Authority announced the move at the start of the year, saying:
From January 2024, a booking will also be required for any vehicle bringing in DIY or renovation waste. This will make it easy for residents to use a new increased allowance of DIY waste, while helping to protect the RRCs from misuse by those who are required to pay to dispose of waste (such as builders).
DIY waste includes rubble, fitted kitchen and bathroom units, structural wood and metal, and soil.
Somehow we missed the 30th anniversary of the felling of the George Green chestnut tree which took place in December 1993 following an epic People-v-Diggers battle which catapulted Wanstead into the national news night after night.
It was all about the M11 link road – what we now know as the A12 – which cut right through Wanstead and Leytonstone, changing these places for ever but also meaning it’s possible to get to and from the A406 and the motorway.
Some years ago there was a hope that the last remnants of the tree, in which protesters lived for months (and which – false urban legend had it – was given its own postcode), would be saved for a memorial. That didn’t happen, but surely something should mark the event
Local artist Andrea Marsh would be grateful to hear from anyone who has mementoes, posters, letters, leaflets, or other archive material to be included in a work marking the event. She can be contacted through us at info@wansteadium.com
Bravo to Don Taylor who, last summer, had an idea: create a charity calendar for 2024 using only photos of Epping Forest taken by local photographers.
“I contacted six photographers, four from the Wanstead area, and they all kindly agreed to submit photographs. Feedback from the photographers led to a better layout and content. We went into print in late August and sales steadily increased and we ended up with just under 500 sold. Advertising was pretty much only by social media and by word of mouth,” he said.
All the calendars sold, and more than £3,000 was raised and shared between the Swan Sanctuary and the Epping Forest Heritage Trust.
