The wait for the verdict from Redbridge planners on the application to build flats on the Evergreen Field on Wanstead High Street goes on…
Originally scheduled for the autumn, decision day was put back until the start of January, and now is due at the end of the month. Whatever decision the planners come up with is bound to be contested, either by the developer or by the rest of Wanstead*. This is what 2024 is going to look like.
(With thanks to the public-spirited knitter of Hermon Hill)
4pm Crib Service for younger children at Christ Church
4pm Nativity Service at Wanstead United Reformed Church, Nightingale Lane
4.30pm Children’s Carol Service at Grace Church, Wanstead House
5pm First Mass of Christmas at Our Lady of Lourdes
6pm Family communion for all the family at Christ Church
7pm Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes
9.30pm Carols followed by Midnight Mass at 10.00 p.m at Our Lady of Lourdes
11.30pm Midnight mass at Christ Church
9.30am Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes
10am Christmas Day service at St Mary’s, Overton Drive
10am Christmas Day service at Wanstead Baptist Church, Wellington Rd
11.15am Christmas Day Service at Wanstead Grace Church, Wanstead House
11.30am Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes
(Please report any more to info@wansteadium.com or add in comments below.)
Wanstead is going to miss Sumo Fresh when it closes on Saturday. The restaurant is closing after ten years serving noodles, sushi and other favourites, and is apparently to be replaced by a curry house in the New Year, though its sign leaves open the possibility of continued takeaway service..
Here is how we reported its opening in 2013, with a long list of favourable reports from customers.
Thank you to all at Sumo Fresh for your service over the years.
Wansteadium reader Tom D writes:
On 4th December the residents of Woodlands Avenue received the sad news that one of their most unusual residents – a White-Cheeked Turaco known to everyone as ‘Bob’ – had passed away.
Nobody knows quite when Bob appeared in our area, but he’s been stealing blueberries and unsuccessfully trying to charm local chickens for well over a decade. His ‘whoop whoop’ call was a regular sound of summer evenings.
Bob must have escaped from captivity, but successfully survived many winters in the local area.
He’d been taken ill a few months ago, with problems breathing, and was staying at the South Essex Wildlife Hospital in the hope he’d recover – and he’d started to make good progress.
As he’s non-native and shouldn’t have been in the wild in the first place, it wasn’t clear whether he’d ever be able to return to the area he’d have known as ‘home’, but sadly that’s no longer a question. The vet performed a post-mortem and he had a hard/diseased liver and gall bladder, which looks like the result of a condition he’d had for some time.
Bob gets mentioned in Wikipedia – but clearly many people think he’s theirs.
A GoFundMe raised over £1500 to cover the costs of his treatment at South Essex Wildlife Hospital – donations in his memory would, I’m sure, continue to be welcome.
