Author: Wansteadium

There are still a few tickets left for this weekend’s Wanstead Beer Festival, which looks like it is going to be another hugely successful event. More than 50 beers from around the country will be available, including local tipples. There will also be cider, gine, wine and soft drinks; happily food will also be served. All funds raised go to local good causes.

Paul Donovan, one of the organisers, said: “We hope to get even more people attending this year. The first two years certainly proved the popularity of a beer festival in Wanstead, so come along and share a beer with friends and neighbours.”

Tickets are available here.

We hoped some clarity would be coming out of Saturday’s public meeting with councillors discussing Redbridge’s decision to introduce permanent market stalls on Wanstead High Street. There was clarity, but not the kind we were hoping for.

It was hoped the Redbridge leader Cllr Kam Rai would attend, but he didn’t.

There was no indication that Redbridge has any intention to listen to Wanstead residents, and certainly not to run a proper consultation on the issue.

In our editorial last week we said we feared Redbridge would squander public trust on the issue. Equally hard to figure out is why the ruling Labour group seems prepared to throw its three faithful councillors under the bus.

Some snapshots from the 2025 Wanstead Fringe festival. (You can send any more images to info@wansteadium.com)

Wansteadium very rarely writes editorials, but here is one. The reason? It’s becoming obvious that Redbridge is not going to rethink its decision to put permanent market stalls on Wanstead High Street. But it should.

The decision is against the wishes of the people who live here. Wansteadium understands applications have been discussed for a florist and part-time stalls selling souvlaki and jerk chicken, as well as the seven-day-a-week fruit and veg stall outside the George and Dragon.

A public meeting discussing the issue is being held on Saturday 27th at 4pm at Christ Church which it is hoped councillors will attend; further light might be shed on the matter then.

But responses to letters show Redbridge considers it has done nothing wrong in the process, and, in our view, continues to hide behind a consultation which was so ineffective as to be worthless.

There are a number of ways Redbridge could have consulted council tax payers if it had really wanted to. Let’s just note down a few.

• Perhaps a mention in one of the fortnightly emails which are sent out to residents by council leader Kam Rai?
• Maybe a couple of paragraphs in Redbridge Life, the 28-page newspaper the council sends to every house in the borough four times a year?
• Why not a press release to media organisations announcing the consultation?
• Failing that, they could have put public notices on lamp posts?
• Or maybe a sign in the two public noticeboards on Wanstead High Street which Redbridge owns

And yet the biggest reason the council should urgently reconsider is actually something else. It is that Wanstead people feel so strongly that they have been ignored that there is a risk of Redbridge squandering public trust, of undermining the relationship the council itself has sought to foster with residents. Put simply, this is not the time in our nation’s politics to allow that to happen: public bodies need to cherish all the trust they can get.

The mighty Wanstead Fringe ends this weekend, but there are still events you really shouldn’t miss.

On Friday night, marking the end of a magnificent season at Wanstead Cricket Club, the editor of Wisden (Lawrence Booth) and the Telegraph’s cricket correspondent (Nick Hoult) will be discussing the impact of Bazball, Ben Stokes and the forthcoming Ashes. Cricket-lovers should not miss it (the bar will also be open). More details here.

On Saturday there is another chance to experience LINKED, the audio trail linking lamposts along the A12, created in response to the building of the M11 Link Road. People who did the trail last year were completely fascinated by it – headsets can be collected from the foyer of Wanstead Library from 11am until 5pm. More details here.

And the festival finale sees the return of the Natural Voices choir on Saturday evening, singing a joyously uplifting collection of modern songs. The Fringe began in music at St Mary’s three weeks ago and it’s appropriate to finish there too. More details here.

You can see full listings for the end of the Fringe including performances of Constellations at the Wanstead Curtain and an end-of-festival party at the Duke here.

The cultural riches on display during this Wanstead Fringe have been a delight, and there are some highlights for this weekend which should not be missed.

FRIDAY
Quiz addicts, crossword fans, and anyone amused by the weird corners of British life should come to the library this evening to hear Alan Connor, author of many books including The Traitors quiz book. Richard Osman is a fan, and Rory Cellan-Jones described him as “the man with the contents of the Oxford English Dictionary stored just above his left eyebrow… and he’s quite funny too”. 7.30pm at Wanstead Library.
Tickets here.

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FRIDAY AND SATURDAY
Andrew Atha has been a Wanstead Fringe hit with two of his previous plays – Robot Penguin and The Strangelmans, and tonight at 7.30pm at the Bull his new play BRAINS opens. It’s a zom-com and promises to be great fun. There are also performances at 2.30pm and 7.30pm on Saturday.
Tickets here.

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SATURDAY AND SUNDAY
All Rest, the immersive opera in the grounds of St Mary’s graveyard, was the standout hit of Fringe 2024, and its creator Simone Spagnolo has come up with something even more creative for this year. It’s Reveries, again at St Mary’s. It’s an immersive audio play, with live music combined with a headphone experience. People are coming from across London to experience this, so don’t miss out. (Wireless headphones will be provided.)
Tickets here.

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And a reminder to parents that the Family Book Day is taking place in the Library on Saturday featuring authors Sophy Henn, Darren Chetty and Wanstead’s own Crystal Sung. It’s free and there are more details here.