Author: Wansteadium

Wansteadium regular Clive Power writes with news for sign-misprint aficionados: “As well as changing the attached shop into a Spar (will open in November, they told me inside) with a self-serve Starbucks machine, the petrol-station on Aldersbrook Road is also, perhaps, attempting to change the name of the local area.”

Wansteadium reader Adrian Ward adds: Ad As a local Alderbrook resident (and keen follower of Wanteadium.com) I’d also like to point out that the current staff inside have told me they are all likely to be losing their jobs as a result of the change of management (they didn’t seem too pleased about that), and also the interior is going to be refitted to include… wait for it… a Subway and a Greggs concession, as well as their current Starbucks stand. There will be a new cash machine going in on the outside of the building, too. So that’s what we’ve got the look forward to next time we fill up.

 

  From a now anonymous tweeter…

Geoff Wilkinson writes on Wanstead Daily Photo: “Why is it when we see something old, not necessarily antique, we tend to get all nostalgic? Take this wonderful old VW spilt windscreen camper van, as you know by now I’m not really all that interested in cars but this did tug my heart strings. Visions of the open road, camp fires etc who knows where you might end up..”

This may come as a surprise to some, but the end has arrived for the original Wanstead Kinema with the start of the building’s demolition.

Only those who monitor planning news closely will have realised permission was granted this summer for the knocking down of the building which housed Wanstead’s cinema until 1956, and latterly a snooker hall and then the Nam Am restaurant.

Though the redevelopment means the end of one of the High Street’s oldest buildings, it does mean the creation of  two new four-storey buildings on the site giving a shopfront on the High Street and some housing – three three-bedroom flats, three two-bedroom flats and two one-bedroom flats.

The designs are by Platform 5 Architects from Hackney and seem, when compared to an earlier view of the building, to be not dissimilar.  The architects say the plan has been “carefully crafted to fit into its sensitive context and echoes the vernacular building forms in order to maintain the village character of the street”.

 

The demolition comes after a number of attempts at obtaining planning permission – one of which in 2010 was rejected with the verdict that it involved the “inappropriate and unjustified demolition of a modest and relatively simple Victorian building”. 

Update, Friday: Wansteadium reader AJS Sends this photo and writes: “Not much left of the back hall yesterday..  and agree it’s a shame the plans couldn’t have included a revamped Purbani’s.

 

*Fans of cinema need not be too sad. The spirit of the Wanstead Kinema long ago left that building, and now resides at wansteadkinema.org. If you’d like to get involved in future screenings, please get in contact via that page.
 

According to the Wanstead Society, an appeal against the rejection of  planning permission for the former Joliffe site has been rejected by the Planning Inspectorate. The proposal - nicknamed The Cube  –  would have included a green copper facade and would have comprised a number of flats and shops.

The Wanstead Society opposed the plans, and says that the rejection of the appeal means the developer will have to submit a new proposal with what it describes as “better plans and a good design”. Wansteadium has contacted the developers, Mammoth Texryte inviting them to comment.

 

 

Sorry to have missed out on wishing Wanstead’s butchers a happy 90th birthday, but better late than never.  You can sign our virtual card by adding a comment below… 
(Thanks, Suzanne).