Category: Wansteadium

You’ve got to feel for the soon-to-be tenants in the new women’s clothes shop which is about to open nextdoor to the Tool Box. Having spent significantly on modernisations to the shop, including a completely new shopfront and shutters, they were hit with some low-level graffiti which, though relatively easy to remove, is a pain they could probably have done without.

• And in a separate note, the vegan chalk protester who bedecked the pavement outside the Ginger Pig with animal torture rhetoric over Christmas, and who last week did the same to the paths on Christchurch Green, has made their point.

Commuters going back to work on Monday via Snaresbrook station have a new coffee shop to welcome them. White Tulip stealthily got set up in the spot latterly filled by the lamented Ironing Board but which has been empty for a year.

People who dislike chains may note that it is a single site enterprise. As is our tradition, we wish the team behind it the best of luck.

Thanks to Terence Manning for coming through with the listing of shops in Woodbine Place in 1963, taken from Kelly’s Directory from the time.

It gives us some more information about the shops and offices in Kerry Renshaw’s photograph, and includes the intriguing fact that the alley between Wanstead High Street and Woodbine Place is actually called Dark Alley. Who knew? Does anyone still use this name? (The name is confirmed by this Redbridge document, where its alternative name “Footpath 122” is also used.)

Dark Alley isn’t perhaps the most enchanting name, being something more likely to be heard in a police report. But it’s worth remembering that all of Wanstead used to be referred to as Sleepy Hollow (according to Winifred Eastment’s Wanstead Through The Ages).

There is another minor mystery about the alley – there is a wooden sign saying “Communicator” screwed to the wall. What’s that about?

Happy New Year to all Wansteadium readers, and thank you for continuing to read our little website.

We hope you’ve enjoyed it. And because we love traditions, here is our rundown of the year’s biggest stories.  In total Wansteadium had more than a quarter of a million page views this year, with 122,000 visits.

1 The mystery of Saddam Hussein’s Wanstead bench (November)

2 The Wanstead pool is coming! And that’s not all (March)

3 Nightingale on the Green is now open (July)

4 Aeriel photo shows Wanstead Flats danger (July)

5 The Nightingale: This really doesn’t look good (February)

6 Wanstead Starbucks to close (August)

7 The new Nightingale takes shape (June)

8 Wanstead: ‘Too Towie to be hipster’ (March)

9 You’ll love this or hate it (July)

10 New names (February)

11 Farewell Loon Yee (September)

12 No fireworks for Wanstead Flats, as festival opposition organises (November)

13 Vive la revolution (June)

14 Breakthrough at the Larder (June)

Here is the final part of the sequence.

(Congratulations to reader David who on Friday correctly identified the final number. We won’t spoil the surprise by telling you why.)

The second power cut in a week made shops, banks and cafes on Wanstead High Street close for the second time in a week. Faulty electrical equipment led to the cut, and workers from UK Power Network could be seen outside the NatWest trying to fix it.

By early evening the UK Power website had put back its expected time of repair until 7pm, though this had been extended already several times during the day.

A similar outage on Christmas Eve also led to shops closing.

Some shops were helped to keep open by the Nationwide sharing cables with their neighbours.