Author: Wansteadium

Last year Wansteadium featured some stunning photos of Wanstead taken by photographer Gary Lashmar (aka Marshal Gray). He and his partner Claudia Carter are planning to take a Wanstead-related photo every day for a year , and Wansteadium will be featuring a regular selection. Here is the first.

Gary says: “I took two images of this lady. One was candid in which she was straight faced. But as soon as she saw me she gave me the biggest smile ever. It totally melted my heart.  Not all folk are as willing to be photographed. I’ll treasure this picture forever.”

Gary’s blog is at Marshal Gray Photography.

Wansteadium, for one, did not really expect the police to be tweeting about this sort of thing. But it will answer some people’s questions.

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A bumper crop of news from Wanstead this week.

• Popular Wanstead cricketer Mervyn Westfield has become the first British player to be convicted of spot-fixing, after admitting being bribed to bowl badly deliberately when playing for Essex against Durham in a game in 2009. He will be sentenced next month; reports say he is likely to be banned from playing or coaching cricket at any level. (BBC report)

• Thousands of pounds of cosmetics were stolen from Boots in Wanstead High Street on Tuesday night. More details here.

• New plans for the redevelopment of Wanstead’s old cinema site, kitschy kalled the Kinema, have been submitted. You can see what they would look like here (pdf).

• Redbridge Council is inviting residents once again to make suggestions about how it could make budget savings. Incidentally, the council is proposing a zero rise in council tax for the third year running.

• And final word goes to the Wanstead Guardian story about . . . well, we’ll let them tell you.

A SWAN left to bring up his son alone after his partner was savaged to death by an out-of control dog, found happiness with a new female and her four cygnets.

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Readers of Wansteadium, many of whom experience Snaresbrook station as a daily delight, are invited to help poor old Ollie Durham out of his misery. Reply by comment, by tweet (with #wansteadium) or by email – wansteadium@gmail.com. It’s the kind thing to do, friends.

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Wansteadium reader Sally Humphreys writes: Snaresbrook Is a delightful old fashioned station with a nice garden (and loos). I live just off Hermon Hill opposite the old hospital and if Snaresbrook did not exist I would have a long walk every day to catch my tube to work – either to South Woodford or Wanstead.

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It’s our annual New Year public service announcement.

Redbridge Council will collect your Christmas tree from outside your house, and take it away for composting. And the best bit about it is that you can request the collection online by entering your details at this page: Request Green Waste Collection. Once booked, trees should be collected within 10 days, though you will have to leave the tree at the edge of your property.

That won’t please the excessively houseproud, but is better than getting old fir tree resin smeared on your jeans.