Author: Wansteadium

Wanstead news and events roundup, 8.1.12

• There are plans for more phone masts in Redbridge, including one near Snaresbrook primary school. While some people still have concerns about health, but the demand for mobile phone coverage continues to grow. A BBC survey last year of areas without reliable 3G coverage found a sizeable gap around Hermon Hill (pictured) which a new mast might address.

• Parents wanting their children to enter primary schools in Wanstead have until next week to submit their application (via www.redbridge.gov.uk/eAdmissions). As these figures below from the 2011 entry show, Wanstead schools are much in demand. The main criteria for application to non-faith schools are whether children have siblings already at the school, and how close they live to the school. Though each of Wanstead’s two faith schools technically will admit children not of their faiths, the figures show that for Our Lady’s, out of 60 children, 36 were baptised Catholics and 26 who were baptised Catholics with siblings in the school. For Wanstead Church school, out of 30 children enrolled, 27 came from families ‘at the heart of the Anglican church’, two from families ‘committed to the Anglican church’ and one who had a sibling in the school.

• The Wanstead and Woodford University of the Third Age, for people who are retired, semi-retired or no longer working full-time is holding its inaugural meeting on Tuesday.

• A beagle which was found in Wanstead earlier this week (and about which there was much tweeting) has been reunited with its owners.

Anyone can add an event to the Wansteadium Events calendar by sending details to events@wansteadium.com. Wansteadium now has more than 1,200 regular followers in Wanstead so it’s a great way to let people know what’s going on.

[google-calendar-events id=”1″ type=”list” title=”Events on” max=”10″]

Wansteadium’s Most Read in 2011

Now 2011 is out of the way, you might be interested in how many people read Wansteadium last year, and what they were reading.

Our readership figures (recorded by Google Analytics) were:

64,028

visits in total, from

26,096

different people (“unique visitors”).
There were an almighty

113,191

pageviews in the year.

Far and away the biggest story of the year for us was the summer rioting, with the tension in Wanstead High Street and trouble in South Woodford leading thousands of readers to come over two days. The top 10 most read pages (excluding index pages) was:

1. South Woodford hit – Wanstead nervous (July)

2. Wanstead driving test routes mapped (May 2010)

3. Review: The Larder in Bethnal Green. Yes. Bethnal Green! (April)

4. Hadley House, arrivederci (October 2010)

5. Reviews of Wanstead’s new steakhouse (September 2010)

6. Turkish delight reviews (October)

7. About Wansteadium

8. At last – a buyer for Andrews’ Builders Merchant (April Fool)

9. Nice Croissant gets dissed (May)

10. Wanstead’s Massage surprise (December 2010)

Thank you to everyone who’s read Wansteadium in the past year. It’s been great fun putting it together, especially welcoming new voices like George C Parker, Suki Orange and gardener Ron. There’ll be more property, food and gardening in the year to come, but if you are interested in joining their ranks (we’re particularly interested to hear from people with a passion for books, culture, cricket and parenting) then please do drop us a line at wansteadium@gmail.com.

Green fish and scram

Bye bye the Green, hello Zainab

So farewell then, Wanstead’s Green Fish restaurant.  Even though the blackboard outside still proudly advertises a £16.95 Sunday lunch special, there’s a “closed” sign on the window, and the decor is being removed. It’s a little over a year since the restaurant opened.

Soon to fill the Cambridge Park spot once occupied by Applebees is – wait for it – an Indian restaurant to be called Zainab (the name feeling perhaps a bit more E20 than E11?).

Fans of Indian restaurants in Wanstead are becoming slightly spoiled for choice. Nearby there’s Purbani, Cinnamon, 52Spice, Bipasha and The Lane, with the Tiffin Tin delivery mopeds never far from sight. Some might event think a bit more diversity in menu choices would be a good thing; the market however seems to be able to support the current number of players even though some rarely appear to overflow with diners.

One Wansteadium reader tweeted his reaction:

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/pvmullen/status/151430372872294402″]

Ironically, the Southend Echo seems to be hinting at a similar but slightly different situation there, as Robins Pie and Mash announces another branch there. Once councillor told the paper: “It is another pie and mash establishment. We already have one or two in the town.”

Suki Orange, Wansteadium’s food blogger, adds:

It’s always sad to see something you admire fail, so I’m sorry to see the Green go. But of course I wish Zainab well. I can’t help thinking, though, that from a customer’s point of view, we just don’t need any more choices for Indian restaurants in Wanstead. I know I’ve said it before, but what we could really do with is something a degree or two more mainstream – though with two restaurants closing in the past 18 months this does not appear to be the ideal spot.  There’s clearly a demand for weekend lunches – just look at the Cuckfield on a Sunday after Desert Island Discs. Wanstead is brimming over with young families and not many places for them to eat comfortably together. At the risk of looking spurned, I’ll repeat my invitation to Strada. It’s a chain, yes, but it might be just want our menu needs.