Author: Wansteadium

Self-service checkouts… in Wanstead Library??


Redbridge Council has announced that Wanstead Library is to shut for six weeks after Christmas to allow the installation of self-service checkouts. These will allow books to be taken out, renewed, returned, and for fines to be paid, thus at a stroke avoiding the terrifying risk of a librarian’s raised eyebrow at a badly-overdue book. At Gant’s Hill library, where these checkouts have already been introduced, apparently 80% of people (or “customers”, as Redbridge calls them) use the machines.

A promised gain which may well offset any resistance to the machines – the council promises the library will be able to open an extra day each week, meaning an end to the rather quaint “Closed Wednesday” tradition.

There is, however, one fly in the ointment. In its statement announcing the temporary closure, the council says:

We apologise to customers for the disruption caused and hope they will continue to use other libraries, or renew their items online during this time.

This appears to mean that books taken out before the closure will have the standard three-week loan period, and that they will have to be renewed online or at another branch in the meantime. This could be bad news for the technophobic, Wanstead-bound, offline or plain disorganised, who – it appears – will be lumped with a £4.20 fine (20p x 21 days) when the library eventually reopens. At least they won’t have to contend with any eyebrows when paying it.

See Wanstead on film

[picappgallerysingle id=”9990618″]Mike Leigh’s new film, Another Year, which is going on release today (Friday) is set in Wanstead. The film, starring Jim Broadbent, Lesley Manville and Ruth Sheen, was filmed in a house in St Margaret’s Road, also using the front of the house and garden as locations, and on the allotments.

These clips on Film4 give a taster of the tone of film, which will be shown in Enfield, Holloway Road and the Barbican (full listings for Friday from Google here)

Here’s a taste of the film’s entourage on Wanstead Flats during filming last October, taken by Peter Aylmer and featured on his website. In a memorable quote which gives a vivid a taste of Mike Leigh’s film-making style, an actress on the film told him what was going on.

“It’s the new Mike Leigh film,” she told him.

“Has it got a title yet?” asked Peter.

“No,” she said, “it hasn’t even got a story.”

Leigh himself told the Guardian last week:

“I remember when we were shooting the scene in Happy-Go-Lucky where Poppy goes to visit her pregnant sister in Southend. I said to Dick Pope, my director of photography, ‘This is the last time I stand outside a suburban house.’ But then came Another Year and we were shooting in Wanstead. Dick turned to me and said, ‘I thought you said that was the last time you’d shoot outside a suburban house.'”

So, as is Wansteadium tradition, your reviews of the film are welcome, especially if they focus on the role Wanstead plays. To kick off, here’s Wanstead stalwart @dollycreative ‘s verdict.

Wanstead is perfect for a bitter-sweet Mike Leigh film set in a nice house in a conservation area, but still in E London http://is.gd/gIsoaless than a minute ago via webGabrielle Collard
DollyCreative

Choice tweets about Wanstead, XXIII; Where the Apprentice and Wanstead meet

This looks like the stuff they sell in my local designerwear outlet, Judith of Wanstead. #apprenticeless than a minute ago via HootSuiteKate Williams
KateVWilliams