Author: Wansteadium

Wanstead’s Grand Prix bid apparently still going

Some months ago there was mystery over a bid which came from a Wanstead company to bring Formula One to the streets of London, culminating at the Olympic Stadium. For a couple of days there was fascination with the notion, but then F1 bosses appeared to downplay their involvement in the scheme and it seemed to go quiet.

Wansteadium was much interested in who the firm was, since we couldn’t find any mention of a company by that name in the official register of companies, nor could we find any other evidence that they existed. They also didn’t appear to have a website, which we thought odd.

Now at least on that last point there is some movement. We have been directed towards this website which, because of a confidentiality agreement, gives little away but does at least demonstrate that the bid is still alive.

We’re still interested in knowing who exactly are the Wanstead folk behind the bid. (Maybe it’s you and you’re reading this. If you are, this is for you.)

The late Chicken Spot: This is getting humiliating…

It’s one thing to have a controversial new shopfront just yards from your proud “Conservation Area” notices. But it’s another for people from out of town to start taking the mickey. Enter, fellow hyperlocal blog Love Loughton.

Meanwhile Wansteadium reader John posits that perhaps the sign is a tribute to 007? A Skyfall publicity stunt, perhaps?

Fellow reader Clive writes: “Subtlety clearly isn’t the look the owners of the shop are after, but that’s not to say the sign doesn’t have something to say. My initial reaction was that the grey bars looked like a shopfront shutter which had got jammed halfway down. But now it’s obvious that they are actually supposed to be the barbecue itself, with the flaming letters being the meal. I feel a bit embarrassed for not realising this until now. But then it’s perhaps easy to be dazzled.”

Clive raises a good point. Other interpretations which have a deeper appreciation of the semiotics are welcome.

Ralph Wansteadman

Wansteadium reader Jim Cactus writes:

Ralph Steadman – the illustrator and cartoonist best known for his long working relationhip with Hunter S. Thompson that heralded ‘gonzo’ journalism, in Rolling Stone magazine and in the novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Illustrator of material as diverse as Alice in Wonderland, Animal Farm, a set of stamps, the Oddbins catalogue, the poster for Withnail and I, Private Eye, The Independent, The Telegraph, and a host of other things. One of the Greatest Living Englishmen.

Anyway, turns out Ralph – a famous scouser – spent his formative years in Wanstead. Lived in Herongate Road in the early 60s, and went to study art at East Ham technical college. I heard it from the horse’s mouth on Monday. I was gobsmacked. There should be a blue plaque!


In Steadman’s 2005 book Untrodden Grapes he confirmed Jim’s tale. He wrote: “The first wine label I ever produced, I did for myself. I was living in digs at the time, a rented room opposite an open common called the Wanstead Flats, in the eastern suburbs of London. My landlady allowed me to brew my own evil concoction in a conservatory to which I had access from my room through a French window at the back of the house. It was springtime and my juices were rising. I needed to create something to remember the precarious times spent in a series of terrible rooms I located with tiresome frequency, each with a 100 percent beaten-pewter landlady as a fixture.”

Formative indeed. Anyone in Aldersbrook able to shed more light is welcome to contact us. There’s more on Ralph Steadman and his new book Extinct Boids which is being published on Thursday here from the FT. If you are really moved you can buy the book from Amazon by clicking here.

Wansteadium quiz, I

The first in an occasional series of Wanstead-based quiz questions. Answers using the comment from below, please, or by reply to @Wansteadium on Twitter using the hashtag #WansteadiumQuiz. Now the question.

If Wanstead is Beijing, what is Snaresbrook?

And here come some answers:

No. Next!

No, no and no. Next!

Anyone fancy some guerrilla recycling?

Intriguing little sign nestled under the newspaper rack in Wanstead Libary. It rather appeals to Wansteadium’s sense of community spirit.

But if this is going to work really effectively, it will need more Wansteadium readers to take any already thumbed magazines out of their Blue Box, and instead take them to the Library on their next trip. Think of it as guerrilla recycling.

The Lady’s not for burning

 

Letter to Wansteadium: Books for Africa

Dear Wansteadium
In August 2013, a team of twenty Guides from East London will volunteer on a two-week safari adventure to Zambia and Malawi. We will be working with The Book Bus, a charity which aims to improve literacy rates amongst the world’s poorest people, by providing children with books and the inspiration to read them.

Malawi is the world’s thirteenth poorest country with a literacy rate of just 63% and one in six children affected by HIV/AIDS. The Book Bus has been working in Malawi since 2010 and works with a cluster of ten rural schools. The main problem with the children learning to read is overcrowding- some classes contain up to 100 pupils, so those who fall behind go unnoticed. When we volunteer with The Book Bus, we will travel each week day to visit the schools. We will work with small groups of children to ensure that they all receive the support they need.

The trip will cost £2,500, and to raise money we are holding a table top sale in St Gabriel’s Church Hall in Aldersbrook on Saturday 13th October, 10am-1pm. There will be toys, games, clothes and books on sale, as well as tea, cakes and a raffle.