(Comes after our post Great views of Wanstead from above with some video taken earlier by Haz Anwar.)
(Comes after our post Great views of Wanstead from above with some video taken earlier by Haz Anwar.)
Congratulations to Wanstead hair salon Zoology for the opening of its new Colour Lab – something which justifies their inclusion in our occasional highlight of businesses which are making a contribution to Wanstead life.

The flamboyant decor of the Colour Lab is visible from the High Street even for those who are not having their hair colour sorted. The lab comes after Zoology garnered a string of accolades and awards, and after being a presence in Wanstead for 18 years.


As boss Mark Mountney (“chief zoologist”) told us last year, he started his business in 1996, Marks of Wanstead, which was where Envi nails is now. In 2002 they moved into their current spot which was the M11 Link Road office (and before that had at one stage been the Wanstead Library – though we’ve never seen photographic evidence of that… if anyone has any we’d be grateful to see it.)
So hats off to Mark and co – and we’re happy to give you the further accolade of inclusion in  Wanstead is made in Wanstead.



This chilling poster, on display at Wanstead Tube, is the work of an industrious couple of Wanstead creatives, known as Harry and Beatrice.
The couple are a content and production team who live and work here, and who make short films, tv commercials and press adverts as well as posters like the above.
Their guilty secret though is that Harry and Beatrice are actually Ed Webster and Hannah White. Hannah is an actress and writer, and Ed is an art director and producer who spent 11 years at Channel 4 before the pair set up their own business.
In the past few months they’ve shot projects with Penguin books, ITV and Jamie Oliver as well as some art projects, purely for fun.  Below is a sample of their rather smart work, and you can see more on their Facebook page.)
(And should you want to show your support by getting the Karen Rose book you can buy it here.)







The price of school dinners at Redbridge primaries is being frozen at £2 a day for the next six years.
It will mean that when the six years is up, the price will have stayed the same for 10 years. The announcement is the result of a new contract between Redbridge and existing suppliers ISS Mediclean.
There has been a large increase in the number of children having school dinners in recent years – between 2009/10 and 2014/5 there was an 81% increase, though this includes the 2014 introduction of free school meals for every child in reception, year one and year two.
In Nelson New Zealand and see this coin slot that was made in Wanstead! @WeLoveWanstead @lovewanstead pic.twitter.com/EUU0WARsJ8
— Amy Carnelley (@Amy_Carnelley) March 7, 2016
Nice for Wanstead’s Amy Carnelley to be reminded of home while in New Zealand – and funny that it’s in exactly the same way that @jameslongy1 noticed the same thing earlier this year, albeit in a different bit of New Zealand.
Anyone who missed it then would have missed the tale of the charming Essex Engineering and Coin-Op Controls Ltd, Manufacturers of Coin-operated Control Mechanisms, based on Nelson Road, just near The Duke.
Makes you wonder where else in the world Wanstead’s coin-op mechanisms ended up. Also makes you wonder simply where the readers of this site are coming from.
We know from looking at our logs, that while so far this year there have been 58,000 visits to this website from people in the UK, there have been the following visits from elsewhere..
| USA | 983 |
| Australia | 336 |
| Spain | 270 |
| Kenya | 215 |
| Ireland | 133 |
| France | 117 |
| India | 111 |
| South Africa | 105 |
| New Zealand | 98 |
| Japan | 33 |
| Brazil | 19 |
| Barbados | 6 |
| Iran | 1 |
So if you’re outside the UK, let’s have a photo of where you are right now… Send to info@wansteadium.com…
 This is something new. We have launched a new page, #wansteadtravel, which is an attempt to be the most useful thing you can get when gong to work or coming home.
The page includes Tube line updates, tweets about the Central Line, road news and a live webcam from the A406 slip road. If there’s something else you’d find useful, let us know via the usual address, info@wansteadium.com.
And if you’re tweeting, include the hashtag #wansteadtravel to make sure your tweet is included for the benefit of your fellow travellers.
You can find the page at wansteadium.com/wansteadtravel/. Do let us know what you think.