Author: Wansteadium

Wanstead weekly photo, CXXXVI


Geoff Wilkinson writes on Wanstead Daily Photo: “Every time I pass these water meter covers in Nightingale Lane I despair. They are outside a block of flats so I understand there has to be quite a few meters but why oh why didn’t whoever put them in do a neater job? They are just so higgledy piggledy, I know in the overall scheme of world affairs its not a big deal ….. but it just gets to me….”

Buying bits of the Nightingale

Anyone wanting to make their own pub in their shed needs to hotfoot to the Nightingale where they are staging a grand sale of its fixtures. The pub is being renovated in time for a reopening next month.

Plans displayed at the site spell out some of the thinking, including plenty of space for “FOOTBALL/DRINKING BASED PICTURES”. Who knows what they might be.
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The document also introduces (as far as Wansteadium is aware) the word “neuk”. It’s apparently a Scots word for nook. Anyone who can make a link is welcome to do so.
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Good luck to all concerned with the renovations.

What’s going on with the old antiques shop?

A sudden burst of work has been taking place at the old Cottage Antiques shop on Wanstead High Street, the building which is tucked away, almost out of sight, and which seems somehow to have been overlooked from a previous era.

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On Monday trees were cleared from the front, and on Tuesday, hoardings went up, causing alarm in some parts.

The building has not been used as an antiques shop for some years, and was sold recently. The new owner has applied to Redbridge Council for permission to demolish the single storey buildings at the front, side and rear of the cottage. In their place he wants to build a new two-storey extension at the side and convert it into two new homes. As part of the work, he plans internal and external repairs, including replacement of windows with timber sash frames.cottageplanning

Planning permission has not, at the time of writing, been granted (or at least Redbridge’s online records do not state that it has). [See update below] Though clearly old, it is not one of Redbridge’s “locally listed” buildings.

The application can be viewed at the Redbridge website under reference number  0420/15/01

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The site as featured by Google Streetview in July 2014

UPDATE: Thanks to Robespierre who has found the links to the original planning permission which was approved in April this year, and which imposed certain conditions on the scheme, including that the materials used for the external surfaces of the extension should match the existing building, and that trees on the site should be protected.

Inside Wanstead’s new DIY shop – a.k.a ‘The Toolbox’