Author: Wansteadium

Vivid photos and memories apparently of Wanstead Fair in the 60s have turned up in a box in an antique sale, and now have ended up online. The My Found Photos blog, run by @Bruce_M_W, features discarded but interesting pictures and tries to discover as much of a story behind them as possible.

After posting several atmospheric shots from an unknown fairground, which Bruce found in a sale in Hitchin, he found some pages of writing among them. They seemed to indicate that the picture were of Wanstead Fair. The writing is jaded, alienated, and clearly of its time – which appears to be the 1960s. One part reads:

Half a dozen assorted cretins spin the cars to the delight of the sex starved girls riding within. The spinner, who collect the fares from the coloured cars and place the money in the corresponding coloured circles in the cash desk (a simple check to stop the spinners stealing), have various dated states of hair, earrings, scattered tattoos, waistcoats or leather studded jackets or just shirts, ill fitting trousers, jeans, crushers, sneakers, winkles, battered hands, bad eyes, heavy smoking and beer drinking regularly. They are paid very little but short change the clientele and place small blocks of wood under the car seats to allow the dropping money to fall to the bottom of the car, to be collected at the end of the day, 18/- a car, 12 cars in all. That money plus numerous combs, buttons, pens, rings, knives, lipsticks, house keys and dirt congregate in the cars and slip to the ground under the waltzer.

The article in full, along with the photos, can be seen at My Found Photos. Bruce writes: “When reading it, he comes across as a bit angry, but it’s important to remember when it was written. I share many of the memories of fairgrounds that are written here, but it is clear how times have changed. I wonder why he kept only this piece of writing in the box and no others. It’s all a bit of a mystery, but a really interesting one at that.”

If by some miracle you can identify photos, writing or even the handwriting, it would be some miracle.

Wansteadium’s food blogger Suki Orange writes:

Now this is what I call austerity dining with a bit of style. An inspired move from Queens British Grill.

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/QueensBritGrill/status/178483679734153216″]

Wansteadium reader Catherine writes: “There has been a film crew set up outside Wanstead Golf Club all day. Could you find out what is being filmed please?”

Answers on a postcard please. Or, actually, via comments or e-mail.

• The commander of Redbridge Police, Detective Chief Superintendent Sue Williams, is inviting residents to ask her questions via Twitter on Wednesday 14 March between 3pm and 4pm. Wansteadium will post some of the questions and answers here in case you miss the event.

• The supposed cinema at Snaresbrook Tube, which has been much tweeted in recent weeks, is likely to have been a touch disappointing to anyone who came to E11 specifically to see it. As hardened commuters from here will know, it’s not quite a cinema, and it’s only when it’s one of the station staff, Malcolm Parker, on rota. Wansteadium has wondered how long it will take someone in head office to notice, but the signs for this charming distraction continuing are good (literally, & thanks to Alan Perryman for the photo).

• Council Tax in Redbridge has been frozen for the third year in a row, following cost cutting by the council.

• While residents are celebrating the news that Wanstead CC’s Overton Drive grounds are not now to be used as a 500-tent campsite for Australians visiting the Olympics, the club itself is having to recalculate without the money this would have brought in. Also it will mean fewer Australians being around Wanstead, which is either a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your point of view.

• Redbridge Book and Media Festival 2012 has been announced – programme here: www.redbridge.gov.uk/bam. This year’s speakers in Wanstead including Julian Clary, Sandy Gall, and Esther Freud.

• BBC Newsnight’s Paul Mason will be talking about his book Why It’s Kicking Off Everywhere at Wanstead Library next Saturday, 17 March, at 7pm. Tickets are £5 and available either from the library itself (020 8708 7400) or Newham Bookshop (020 8552 9993).

• There was a fire in Aldersbrook above a chip shop whose opening was celebrated in Wansteadium last year.

• Photo of the week, as taken by Wansteadium regular @nutterlane Dan.

Suki Orange, Wansteadium’s food blogger, writes: It’s time for another healthy seasonal Wanstead-based recipe from our own nutritionist Karen Poole. I’m pleased so many of you are appreciating her ideas – we’ve had really good feedback so far. Do let us know what you think. Mr Orange and the satsumas will eat crumble for Redbridge given the chance, and I suspect many families are the same.

Perfect pink crumble
Currently in season, rhubarb, once a regular Sunday staple, fell off the radar for a while but I am glad to report it is now firmly back on the table.

This glowing pink vegetable has many health giving properties and has been used in Chinese medicine for centuries. It is very easy to cook and although it only really offers one dish – thankfully it is rather a special one.

Many people are put off by the amount of sugar needed to counteract rhubarb’s notorious tartness but I can give you a few tips to lower the calorie load and up the healthy aspect. In this recipe, the grated ginger adds an extra dimension of flavour, contains vital minerals and is also an aid to digestion.

Please note as well – rhubarb leaves are poisonous – so dispose of them somewhere herbivorous animals can’t get at them.

Ingredients
• 750g rhubarb
• 3 tbsp water
• 12 tbsp caster sugar
• 1tsp finely grated fresh ginger
• juice of a large orange
• 90g butter
• 150g flour
• 100g demerara sugar
• 2 tbsp oats
• 1 tbsp ground mixed nuts

Method
Rinse and chop the rhubarb into two inch pieces.
Put it into an ovenproof dish, sprinkle with the water and the caster sugar and bake in an oven at gas mk4 or 180c for 10 minutes.
Add the ginger and orange juice.
Rub the flour and butter together into a breadcrumb consistency, mix in the sugar, oats and nuts and cover the rhubarb.
Bake at gas mk4 or 180c for 35 – 40 minutes.

Serve with vanilla organic yoghurt.

Healthy aspect
• Potassium – helps to maintain a normal water balance and a healthy heart
• Manganese – aids bone and ligament formation
• Vitamin K – blood clotting and bone density
• Calcium – facilitates muscle contraction and nerve transmission
• Zinc – can reduce lactic acid levels in overworked muscles and enables wound healing
• B3 – stimulates DNA repair and energy production

Tip
Xylitol is a sugar substitute made from birch tree extract with 40% less calories and a GI score of 8 compared to 65. Use it in the same quantity as regular sugar. Fruisana fruit sugar is sweeter than sugar so you can reduce the quantity by a third and has a GI score of 19. The Glycaemic index measures the potential to raise blood glucose and eating foods with a low score could help to reduce the overall glycaemic load of a meal and regulate your glucose levels.

Either one of these options works well in this recipe and both are available at Simple ‘N‘ Natural, 3A High Street Wanstead.

Rhubarb can aid digestion, although eating a lot may have a laxative effect and people on anticoagulants should be aware that vitamin K will be antagonistic to the drug’s purpose.

Nutritionist Karen Poole BA Dip Nutrition CNM MBANT can be contacted at k.e.poole@hotmail.com
www.karenpoolenutrition.co.uk