Author: Wansteadium

Wansteadium reader and Wanstead stalwart Marian Temple writes:

I can’t believe it! Was it really 10 years ago that a group of us got fed up with that sad piece of soil, the front garden of the Corner House Age Concern Luncheon Club. Full of weeds and take away rubbish, right on the High Street. Yeuk! We discussed it at the Wanstead Society and agreed to have a go, treating it as an honorary High Street flower bed. The council were fine with this.

So Wanstead has enjoyed 10 years of a wonderful cottage garden that delights and surprises every year. Being a very old fashioned garden with plants that come up every year and seed themselves, it tends to do its own thing with a bit of constant gentle tweaking. So, surprise plants appear or they come up in an unexpected place. From week to week the garden changes and every year, it’s different.

To celebrate 10 years of this delight, at the end of May, the Wanstead Society celebrated at the Corner House; coffee, tea and the most fabulous cake thanks to Belgique. We invited all those people who over the years have helped us in the garden. Society members and of course passers-by trundled in to enjoy the cake and the display of photos from the beginning in 2003 to now. What a journey! People were also surprised to see there is a cottage garden at the back of the house.

We’ve been working on this for a couple of years. It doesn’t take long for these plants to do their stuff. Little did we imagine ten years ago when we started hauling out all the bits of rubbish and digging in compost from our own garden heaps, that ten years down the line we’d still be at it. Every moment of working on this not so sad patch of soil now, has been thoroughly enjoyed and the passers by love it. Hard to imagine Wanstead without it. Here’s to the next ten years!

If you’d like to help with this garden and other patchwork pieces we look after, please ring Mat on 0782 180 8692. No experience necessary and a good way to learn about this old fashioned kind of gardening. Sometimes we just need a bit of strength. Is there anybody out there who would be good on a ladder putting up trellis for a going to be rampant rose??? We’d love to hear from you.

Suki Orange, Wansteadium’s food blogger, writes:

I know, I know, I’ve been slacking on my duty to test and blog about Wanstead culinary developments. Actually, to be honest, I’ve still been doing the testing, naturellement. It’s the blogging bit which has eluded me a bit. I’ve had the Wanstead Shell Shack on my to-blog list for a while, so I’m particularly grateful to David Plane (@planey2k), a Wansteadium reader who is more usually blogging about the markets and golf, for stepping up (and thanks to his wife Lesa for giving a human face to the photographs). David writes:

The contrast between the Wanstead Shell Shack and Queen’s British steak house could hardly be starker. Yet the latter has recently begun to share its grounds with the former and they complement each other well.

Both are fine establishments, don’t get me wrong, but whilst the BQ is an indoor dining experience where you would easily expect to pay £50-75 a head for juicy red meats and bold red wines, the Shell Shack is a down-to-earth, family-run (literally – mum, dad and young daughter) cockle and mussel stall.

The Shell Shack has more than a twist of lemon though – fresh anchovies marinated in garlic or chilli, lobster tails neatly presented amongst other seaside favourites, jerk salmon served with fluffy rice and chargrilled vegetables – all reasonable priced and served on an outdoor deck adjacent to its upmarket carnivorous neighbour.

We paid £11 for lunch, including a drink, and thoroughly enjoyed the genuine nature of the patrons, the quality of the snacks and the fact it provides a pleasant alternative to the cafes and patisseries that adorn Wanstead High Street, just a few minutes’ walk away. The solitary and minor criticism was the leafy green garnish, presumably picked from a packet to the periphery of my plate masquerading as the advertised “side salad”. For me, a proper portion of this popular accompaniment needs to include iceberg lettuce, red onion, celery, at least one chopped-up tomato and a peppery leaf like rocket or watercress. Fortunately, a complimentary tower of slightly buttery rice was provided as a “welcome to the shack” extra – though I can’t guarantee this will be given to every lucky diner

When I offered a tip, the owners refused, instead telling me they’d prefer I spread the word about their place, which has been open for the past two months – “this is our ninth week”, the guv’nor proudly informed me – and return for lunch again soon. Consider this blog the keeping of the first of those two promises – I don’t intend to break the second one.

The Shell Shack is open from Thursdays to Sundays and the car park plays host to a hand car-wash, which could be well worth taking advantage of as an alternative to the Jet garage further down towards the Green Man roundabout. The Jet lads give you an excellently washed motor, but with no crayfish to munch while the shampoo is applied to the bonnet, I might be taking mine to the rather more appetising Shell Shack in a fortnight’s time to see if the car wash is as pleasing as the grub.

…or maybe their own weight…

Evidence, as gathered by Wansteadium reader Geoff Elton.

Our man with the liniment writes:

The Herons’ 1st team will want to forget this weekend, after losing to South Woodford in the Premier League and to Sawbridgeworth in the first round of the Conference Cup.

Haseeb Chaudhri’s six wickets enabled the 2nd team to get one back against South Woodford. In the corresponding 3rd team match David Gibbs, taking time off from his day job (he’s the minister at Wanstead’s Grace Church), scored a half-century and felt the power of the Lord (in this that was Alan Lord) who cleaned up with several economical wickets.

Hadleigh held the upper hand against the Herons’ 4th XI, but the 5th team were led to a convincing win over Harold Wood thanks to superb bowling from youngster Afrasiyab Malik.

Wanstead Women blazed a new trail with a very successful Whit weekend of touring the West country, some cricket having interrupted the merriment.

More details as ever at Wanstead and Snaresbrook Cricket club site.