New house in Wanstead: Reviews invited…


Architecturally-minded readers of Wansteadium are invited to comment on the new house which has been built next door to the former United Reformed Church hall on Grosvenor Road. To the untrained eye there is nothing cheap about the new house, but your comments are invited, either in the comments field here or via wansteadium[at]gmail.com. Please state, if e-mailing, if you would rather remain anonymous.

UPDATE: Wansteadium regular @nutterlanedan tweets:

@Wansteadium looks like a slightly shrunken mini house…not entirely convincedless than a minute ago via Twitter for iPhone

Vote: What’s Wanstead’s best Indian?

With the much-acclaimed Tiffin Tin moving in to Wanstead, it’s time for the inaugural Wansteadium poll. Restaurant or takeaway, where do you think you get the best Indian meal in Wanstead?
[polldaddy poll=3562198]

Choice tweets about Wanstead, XVIII; the future of cricket?

3 members of the Wanstead cricket club under 15’s selected for the England unde 15’s. How good is that!!less than a minute ago via Twitter for iPhone

Snaresbrook and Wanstead Tube offices – proposed new hours

[picappgallerysingle id=”8642566″]Earlier this month the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, announced a plan to significantly cut the hours of opening of ticket offices at Tube stations. With more people using Oyster cards and ticket machines, he said, there was less need to have offices open – in fact only 5% of journeys now began with someone buying a ticket from the office.

The details of proposed hours are dramatic. As the table shows, weekday opening at Wanstead will be three-and-a-quarter hours, and just an hour-and-a-half at Snaresbrook. Weekend opening is either one or two hours.

[table id=7 /]

The mayor’s plan emphasises that there “will always be staff present at every station to help passengers” and that no ticket offices will close completely. And as the full list of proposed closures demonstrates, the two E11 stations are by no means alone. However passengers at Snaresbrook have been signing a petition against the closures, with opponents producing the pictured leaflet (click to enlarge).

Site of Wanstead’s new bookshop

Wanstead’s new bookshop, exclusively revealed by Wansteadium earlier this week, is to be in the former World Choice travel agent in the middle of the High Street, the Wanstead Guardian says. Of the vacant shops in Wanstead, this seems to be by far the best placed; it’s large and appears to be in good condition. It’s also probably the best option for other traders since it will help attract shoppers into the middle. (Well, shoppers who like second hand books, anyway.)

Rumour: New ironmonger for Wanstead?

Wansteadium rarely deals in rumour. But a reliable source happened to fall into conversation with a stalwart Wanstead acquaintance who said they had written to upmarket ironmongers Robert Dyas to suggest they should consider opening a branch in Wanstead. The company, the report says, replied that they were in fact considering doing such a thing.

And the signs seems promising at least. Earlier this week the company announced that its dire £10m loss in 2008-9 – which had many fearing for its future – had turned into a £2.7m profit in the year to the end of March. The company’s boss even said that confidence had returned and that it was planning to open six new stores in the year ahead.

With the loss of Woolworths and Andrew’s Builders’ Merchant there is certainly a Robert Dyas-shaped hole on Wanstead High Street which most people would undoubtedly be delighted to see filled.