Wanstead establishments including the Orange Tree, Zainab, Gezi Park, Provender, Biketrax, the Larder and the Cherry Tree cafe are among the shorlisted contenders in Time Out’s Love London Awards. Unfortunately to take part in the vote – which is arranged by postcode – one must pretend that they are all in Leytonstone. But if you can put that aside, you can vote online here.
Sure to become the most tweeted/Instagrammed/Facebooked Shopfront in Wanstead.
Wansteadium feels bad about this. The Rio shoe shop has closed and no one seemed to notice. Â It was a smart, if somewhat pricey, shop with very friendly staff, and it added to the diversity of Wanstead High Street. It will be missed. The shop nearly closed this time last year but staggered on for another 12 months. Â Longstanding residents: Please use the comments to piece together a lifespan of the spot, ie what was there before?
No, not some trendy new faux-quaint drinking establishment, but actual birds and actual mammals, actually walking. We’ve featured these curiosities on Wansteadium before but have never told the definitive story behind them. If they are yours please get in touch at info@wansteadium.com.
A conker reward to Rosemary Thomas for the filming.
Geoff Wilkinson writes on Wanstead Daily Photo: “Looking at this picture it reminded me of a  rolled up hedgehog or porcupine. Not of course that there are any porcupines in Wanstead but there is the occasional hedgehog.”
The Larder has a new neighbour – an undertaker. The former Blush Temples florist, which has been on the verge of closing for months, has finally been taken over and renovation work is now going on.
A sign in the window says that A&C Tadman funeral directors will be opening there soon. It seems to be a pretty classy sort of affair, though, with proper East End pedigree dating from the 1840s. According to its website, horsedrawn carriages seem to be something of a speciality. It also seems to be an undertaker of choice for television companies wanting vivid scenes.
There is a really fascinating tale behind the reinvention of East End undertakers, which was memorably told in a lengthy article in the Economist newspaper last Christmas. You can read it here – it certainly repays the effort.
