Author: Wansteadium

A bit of quick organising and enthusiasm from Wanstead resident Lisa Scott is resulting in a huge communal picnic on Christchurch Green this Sunday afternoon.

Wansteadium reader Lisa writes:

“The Big Lunch is a very simple idea from the Eden Project – www.thebiglunch.com – and the aim is to get as many people as possible across the whole of the UK to have lunch with their neighbours in a simple act of community, friendship and fun.

The Big Lunch Picnic will take place on Christchurch Green in Wanstead from Midday – 4pm. The picnic aims to bring together the local community, celebrate what is great about Wanstead and have some fun on a Sunday afternoon. This Big Lunch Picnic will have a local and green theme and Wanstead residents are encouraged to bring along their best seasonal dish to share, a big rug to sit on, games etc and their own plates, cutlery and cups to reduce waste and the clear up after. The picnic will start at 1pm with activities after.

We do need locals to help out, so if you have a few hours to spare or anything else that will help to make the picnic a huge success, please e-mail Lisa on biglunchwanstead@gmail.com with offers of help or any questions.

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The former Cambridge Park Methodist Church is, a year after its closure, finally on the market. Agents Cluttons are inviting bids, saying:

Being sold with the benefit of vacant possession, the site has potential for multiple uses including residential and alternative community use such as a nursery, healthcare or public hall…Cambridge Park Methodist Church presents a rare opportunity for a house builder, developer or any individual interested in former church sites. The site – with or without the existing buildings – has great potential both as a residential conversion or a business or community venture subject to obtaining the necessary consents

Developers have already expressed interest too, and so for many it will feel like there’s an almost grim inevitability that this site – so easily accessed from Christchurch Green – will end up as flats. Though charming inside, as the gallery of images above which we originally ran on this site last year shows, the existing property doesn’t immediately seem  to have the potential that the halls formerly belonging to the United Reformed Church on Grosvenor Road had. They were converted into a private nursery’s breakfast and after school club last year – very sympathetically. Many in Wanstead will be hoping for some sort of public use for the site.

Public service time again. Rubbish and recycling collections this week hit by the bank holiday, will be as follows:

Due day                      Will be collected
Monday 30  May         Tuesday  31  May
Tuesday 31  May        Wednesday 1 June
Wednesday 1 June        Thursday  2 June
Thursday 2 June        Friday    3 June
Friday 3 June        Saturday  4 June
Monday 6 June        All collections return to normal

Much celebration on Friday afternoon at the end of half-term before exams – Wanstead High Street a-buzz with demob happy folk for whom revision is a task for another day. Today, however, is Saturday.

Wansteadium welcomes our new regular property blogger, George C Parker, who writes:

What colour would Wanstead be on the Monopoly Board?

Young and old will remember squabbling over late rent or parking fines one Boxing Day or other. Speculate, accumulate, buy, sell, shuffle deviously, give Granny the wrong change when she lands on your Northumberland Avenue (Aldersbrook reference!) etc.

Since Monopoly originated in the time of the Great Depression, books have been written on the game’s best strategies, the best house rules, and the longest games ever played (70 days, according to Guinness).

Maybe your kids may one day learn that once upon a time ‘property’ was not even a dirty word! Or perhaps their kids – who knows?

Anyhow, this is Wansteadium, and as the 5,000 people who visit this site every month know, Wanstead is a charming and green suburb of East London with unbelievable access to Central London, the City and Canary Wharf, to say nothing of Stanstead, the Olympics or the oodles of green space on our doorstep.

If the venerable board were redrawn again, where would Wanstead fit in?

Looking closer at our best cards:

Housing – premier cru. Wanstead’s avenues and red brick fortifications are a bastion of respectability and desirability.

Primary schools – sought after. Major high school – probably not an academy specialising in the green cross code ..

High Street – Could go either way, though my sunny optimism makes me feel things are about to take off. Four months from the opening of Westfield, residents aspire to a rearguard action from Wanstead landowners and commerce. Nattier shop fronts are needed, and those clever 30 and 60 min parking spots like they have in Sydney (though the council’s plans aren’t popular). We could have more alluring nicknack shops proffering wares unimaginable in the homogenous bowels of the great conquering retail beast .. couldn’t we?

Christchurch Green – Ostensibly one of the crown jewels propelling Wanstead into the dark greens or at least yellows. Realistically on some mornings,  a neutral observer might assume it was some kind of recycling centre for the world’s greatest litter pile (Rats? Kids? Yogi Bear? Theories differ as to who is responsible for the mess.)

But back to the game .. as die is cast and banknotes distributed, what colour would you expect to find Wanstead in? And would you build your hotels there?

Finally what would be the Community Chest and Chance Cards? “Support local butcher/baker (currently no incumbent candlestick maker) premium £50?” Or maybe “Visit Wanstead Sauna pay £100 fine .. (for parking on double yellows outside of course).” At least we are handy for Snaresbrook County Court after landing on Jail…

You can contact George via georgecparker[at]wansteadium.com