Author: Wansteadium

One of the joys of Wanstead, regular readers will need no telling, is that it sits near a wonderful cusp of urban and rural. Every time you turn a corner, there’s another bit of Epping Forest peeping through. Sun shining through green is among many people’s perceptions of what makes Wanstead Wanstead. Outside the thrum of the city, you can at last hear the birds singing as they have for thousands of years.

But at four o’clock in the morning? That’s pushing this whole rural thing to the limit.

Among recent arrivals at a house on Hermon Hill, one Wansteadium reader has informed us, is an ostentation of peacocks who are – as is their wont – vocal, day and night.

This is what they sound like, our correspondent (who wishes to remain anonymous) attests. This recording was made in the early evening on Monday.

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Our reader writes: “These birds make a rather loud squawks at all hours of the day and night. With the recent hot weather it’s made it difficult to leave our windows open at night, as the loud squawking is enough to wake up even the deepest of sleepers.

“The noise has become a hot topic of conversation around this part of Wanstead. Just a couple of years ago a neighbour (possibly the same one) bought some cockerels who would be crowing every morning at dawn. If I’m not mistaken they were stolen.

“I do wonder if owning peacocks in a such a residential area is wise, as it really does affect a lot of people when they are making noises pretty much 24 hours a day.”

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[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/historybeagle/status/207866155040387076″]

It sounds amazing, but police have confirmed that 10 days ago a lead roof was stolen from Wanstead police station in Spratt Hall Road. A police spokesperson told the Wanstead Guardian the theft took place on the night of Saturday 12 May but that the roof had now been repaired. No arrests have been made.

Insert jokes in the comments below, before Radio 4’s News Quiz gets there.

It doesn’t seem possible, but it’s about to get harder for Wanstead residents to collect letters and parcels which have not for whatever reason made it through their letterboxes.

The sight of people heading to Leytonstone’s Royal Mail sorting office clutching a “Sorry you were out” card has become familiar on Saturday mornings, since between 9am and lunchtime is the only time outside office hours that the collection office is open.

But from next week the car park at the office will be closed to the public. A sign in the office says it is “due to H&S and Yard RISK ASSESSMENT”.

With no options nearby for parking, this means Wanstead people will either have to walk, go by bus or Tube, or have someone wait in the car while they go and collect the item from the office. The area outside the office is clearly a no parking zone.

Theoretically there are other options for undelivered mail, such as a redelivery, or the item being left at a Post Office branch. But – anecdotally at least – it seems these are rarely used successfully because of difficulties in getting through on the phone line.

Many Wanstead residents will wonder whether it would be better for undelivered Wanstead mail to be routinely left at the Wanstead Post Office. Wansteadium will be writing to the Delivery Office Manager to make this suggestion.

• The rather novel parking regulations recently introduced on roads south of Christ Church Green, which mean that both sides of Spratt Hall Road are reserved for residents’ parking (even though there are houses on only one side) resulting in the road being virtually deserted for several hours each day, even as Wanstead retailers cry out for customers, are apparently to be reviewed.

• Bus arrival information boards have been installed at some bus stops in Wanstead, though it seems their use is mostly observational rather than forecasting… ie if you’re waiting for a W12 it might or might not take the six minutes the sign indicates. It might come right away, or it might be stuck at six minutes for the next 10. Other reports are welcome.

• On an incidental but unrelated note, the newly completed pavement on the south side of Wanstead High Street is a very nice job indeed.

• If you want to collect a bit of Wanstead history, you might like to buy the pews currently being removed from the former Cambridge Park Methodist Church, which is being converted into a nursery. They’re on sale on eBay here.

• Richard Foster (@fozzie23) sends this photo of what promises to be a new tapas restaurant in the place of the missed El Toro Loco on Cambridge Park. Dama De Elche basically translates as Benidorm Bird, but actually refers to a statue from the fourth century BC.

• Two crime updates. Beware number plate thiefs – people removing plates so they can steal petrol from filling stations. There’s been a spate of thefts in the Counties roads. And there’s a report from one Wansteadium reader a daylight mugging taking place in Sylvan Road.

• And hedgehog update no. 1: Stavros Fotiadis writes that he saw a hedgehog on Friday afternoon at the north side of Wanstead Park, near Royston Gardens. He says: “A man I crossed paths with warned me his dog had just had a close encounter with a hedgehog. A couple of hundred yards further I came across the young hedgehog on the track, immobilised and listing to one side. Have a bad feeling it had been critically mauled, there was nothing I could do.”

• Facebook might be worth a hundred billion dollars. But that doesn’t mean there are never technical hitches. So if you are among the 300 or so people who “liked” Wansteadium on Facebook and thus got our updates in your newsfeed, you will need to “like” us again. It’s easily done…