Author: Wansteadium

Geoff Wilkinson writes on Wanstead Daily Photo: “At first glance when you look at this picture you will probably think that at last I have slipped off the edge. It looks like a very poor quality photograph indeed. I however like it. The story is, there’s always a story, one of our three local Wanstead garages is closing to make way for a housing development. Sadly it’s located in a really great old building on Church Path which will have to go as I understand it. Fortunately I have photographed the exterior, which you can see here. As I passed by the other day, the doors were firmly shut although I am not sure if they have finally closed. I noticed through the rain splattered windows these two old fashioned oil cans crying out to be pictured. So here you are, garage oil cans through a dirty, rain splattered window. I still like it. I & K Brown, a Wanstead institution, you will be sorely missed by many residents.”

Wanstead Comedy Night returns on Thursday evening with headline act Daniel Simonsen.

Tickets are £10. Doors at Wanstead Golf Club open at 8pm. To reserve tickets call Jon on 07950 759587.

The site of the British Queen pub – until earlier this year the Queens British Steak House – could be converted into flats after a run of unsuccessful reinventions.

An application currently before planners (Redbridge ref: 2908/14) is seeking permission to convert the pub building into four self-contained flats, and to construct a new block of flats on the car park. In total there would be 10 two-bedroom flats, and two three-bedroom flats.

The Queen’s British Steak House restaurant closed down in the spring having changed hands a number of times since its days as the British Queen pub. Records for the pub on that site go back at least until the 1870s and possibly further. It is currently being used as a branch of Grill Garden.

The planning documents say the goals for the scheme are to “redevelop an unviable commercial site into high quality residential accommodation” It would, the application says, make “a positive contribution to the surrounding street environment and residential area” and “fill an incongruous gap” in the street.

It would also, it says, “preserve a characterful Victorian building for future generations”.

A number of residents have objected to the scheme on grounds including that it would “ruin the character of the Wanstead area” and create noise and disturbance. One resident does “welcome the new development… as an opportunity to tidy the area up as local residents have put up with an awful lot of inconvenience and noise from the British Queen over the years” (a sentence which, outside the context of New Wanstead, would possible constitute treason).

The issue of parking does pose some problems, though, since the plan includes only 10 parking spaces and one disabled space for the entire development.

Geoff Wilkinson writes on Wanstead Daily Photo: “I really don’t mind taking pictures when it’s raining. Combine that with evening light and you quite often have a recipe for success. So when it rained yesterday I grabbed my camera and shot out of the Gallery. I didn’t have to go very far, coming along Nightingale Lane was this mother pushing her baby in a buggy, I thought it made a lovely rainy night picture.”

PS. No prizes to anyone for not spotting our Roman numerical error last week: CVIX does not compute.

Wanstead’s first crowdfunded Christmas tree has arrived and is now in place. The traditional switching-on ceremony will be at 4pm on 29 November. (Photo: Katie.)

Resurfacing is starting on Wanstead High Street. A time for cool heads and patience probably.