Author: Wansteadium

This website has been on a bit of a work-induced hiatus over the past few months. In that time lots of things have happened which would otherwise have been full-blown posts here… things like Must Wine becoming Can’t Wine. More Italy becoming Zafiro. Hermon Hill being closed for weeks and temporary traffic lights sprouting up everywhere. A TV advert apparently being filmed in someone’s front garden. Rumours that Idris Elba is moving to Wanstead. TV’s Andi Oliver saying in the Guardian that “she loves [Wanstead] so much” because it’s “almost like a little village”. The cafe formerly known as Caesar’s getting another rebranding (actually we might come back to that one). An election candidate for Wanstead Village – yes, Wanstead Village – being exposed in the Times for saying multiple racist things documented here by Hope Not Hate. The second anniversary of Snaresbrook car park standing empty. The Bull getting a serious bit of Ground Force on its front garden. A mysterious green railing being installed on top of Wanstead’s favourite factory. 100 other things besides.

But we’re back now, with a reminder that you can always tell us about things that are going on – just email us at info@wansteadium.com to let us know. You won’t find us on Facebook or Twitter because they are awful companies who do disastrous things to society. But we are on Bluesky, along with some other Wanstead folk. If you have an event you want listed, you can do so here. And if you just want to keep in touch, sign up for our newsletter here.

The excellent folk at Compassionate Funerals have organised a showing of dark comic romcom Harold & Maude as part of the Dying Matters Awareness week.

The showing will be at the Wanstead Curtain on Hermon Hill on Tuesday 5 May. Tickets and more information are available here.

From the Observer

The idea of setting funeral arrangements free to float away on Eagle Pond might be superficially appealing…. but the number of plastic bits and bobs and strange things which go along with the arrangements, and the presence of curious hungry wildlife, means it is not going to be a welcome habit…

Wanstead seriously needs to get a grip on the wave of street chocolating that’s going on. As if this wasn’t bad enough.

Occasional correspondent George C Parker writes:

On Valentines evening at the end of a dusky street, in an archway beneath an East London railway line, a cultural era came to its glorious end.

Closing night at the Wanstead Tap began like so many that had come before it. A crowd assembled, the fairy lights twinkled, a band played, and the stories and reminiscences flowed.

Beside the bar, the chalk scoreboard proudly displayed the names of scores of artistic luminaries to have played, spoken, sung or debated in this snug little speakeasy over the years.

People queued for their drinks and to share a congratulatory word and a hug with patron curator Dan and his family members. All too soon, the bar ran dry, the last song was played and the shutters were rolled for the last time.

After twelve years of happenings, cafe culture, craft beer, artistic exploration, performance, election all-nighters, theatre, food and the spoken word, the Tap had become an inimitable and irreplaceable fixture in East London’s cultural life. We will miss her, but we are grateful that she was here (and grateful too that some of her kit will live on through the Wanstead Fringe). Best wishes to Jane and Dan in their life after Wanstead.