Category: Wansteadium

Things are changing in Snaresbrook. The last remains of Bombetta have, sadly, been removed from Station Approach. On the other side of the High Street there is the positive development of the former Keaton’s office becoming occupied by a new gym, and a generally good feeling about the row of shops – not least Buller & Rice and the impressive SP coffee shop.

However the notice at the station outweighs them all. The development planned for the car park is fiercely opposed by residents who say it is far too big and too tall for the space it will sit on. New homes are needed and welcome, but building developments have to be appropriate to the space they want to occupy.

A note from our sponsor – the full World Book Day 2024 range is available now on the Wanstead Bookshop shelves in City Place Coffee.

The specially produced editions are £1 each, or FREE with the World Book Day tokens children receive at school. 

The Highstone is back, having been knocked over in a road crash some months ago. There are some signs of repair visible. But it’s good to have it back. History of the highstone is here.

Very sad to see some nitwit has defaced the nightingale mural at the top of Nightingale Lane. It’s amazing, in a way, that the bird has survived since Sept 2021 untouched. But here’s hoping former glory can be recovered.

The nightingale arrives

A planning application to put a five-story apartment building on Highstone Avenue, off Cambridge Park, has been rejected by Redbridge planners.

The rejection read: “The proposal, by reason of its scale, massing, cramped layout and close proximity to the Victorian host building, in the context of the two storey houses on Highstone Avenue and Chestnut Drive, would be harmful to the appearance of the streetscene and an overdevelopment of the site.”

It also said that the proposed flats would “provide substandard residential accommodation as there would a significant number of flats with substandard private balconies by area and depth, and no communal amenity space provided for future occupiers either”.

Five-storey surprise

Unloved and unused, the phone box on Nightingale Green has gone to meet its maker. It would be interesting to know how long a phone box has been on that site, on the corner of Nightingale Lane and Stanstead Road, but hey times move on.