Category: Wansteadium

The Wanstead Fringe takes a turn towards the creative industries on Wednesday.
Mark Stephens is one of the most well-known Wanstead residents from his work as a media lawyer and regular appearances on TV news. His work has put him at the heart of some of the most controversial news stories in recent years, and he will be discussing some of this with Rob Fearn, also from Wanstead, who is one of the editors on the Guardian’s G2. The event will take place at the Larder from 8pm.

Further up the High Street at the Oxfam bookshop, local crime novelist Anya Lipska will be in discussion about the work & pleasures of writing and reading about crime. Doors open at 6.45 for a 7pm start.

* A note about Thursday’s events: there are still some places left for the Tales of the Unexpected event where experts from Majestic Wine will be demonstrating – via the medium of taste – some under-appreciated wines. Book tickets here. Thanks to skilful scheduling it should be possible to enjoy the wines at Wanstead House and then wander down to Wanstead Golf Club in time for the first of the Wanstead Fringe comedy nights with headliner Arthur Smith.

With this wealth of events going on, we should also remind you of the Wanstead Restaurant Week, in which four go-ahead establishments are offering £15 fixed price Fringe menus. Ideal for just before or just after an event. The restaurants in question are Manor House, Long Horn, Sumo Fresh and from tonight The Duke.

On Tuesday evening the discussion of the years of the anti-M11 link road protests revealed that some of the fault lines the road created are still alive. Archive photos and videos at the event, held at the Wanstead Tap, showed the occupation of houses on Claremont Road and the trees on George Green, as well as the evictions which followed. Many of those who took part in the debate had been present at the protests, but the tension between local protesters and those who came from elsewhere to take part is still clearly felt since the discussion was heated at times.

The sense that Wanstead had done not too badly out of the road, whereas Leytonstone was much more seriously affected, is clearly felt strongly by many. One participant said that the protests hadn’t all been in vain, even though the road was built, since anyone who now enjoyed walking across George Green was only able to do so because of the demos. Without them the road would not have been covered over with the restored green, he said.

Twenty years ago Wanstead and Leytonstone were the centre of a national anti-road campaign focusing on the building of the M11 link road. It was a highly charged campaign, which included long-term tree-dwelling on George Green – which famously led to a widespread belief that the tree had been granted its own postcode.

Memories of the event are to be discussed on Tuesday evening as part of the Wanstead Fringe. The evening will be held at the Wanstead Tap (details on this page and on the Wanstead Fringe app – iOS and Android) and by hosted by local author John Rogers.

But as a taster, Wansteadium is honoured to be showing these photographs from the time, taken by the late John Harrison of Reydon Ave. Our thanks to his family for passing them on to us. There will be more photographs displayed as part of the event.

A competition for Wanstead Fringe week: name the location of the backgrounds used in the Fringe programme and site. Answers to info@wansteadium.com. The prize will be a Cherry Pie.

The trend for people telling stories, which has been much celebrated by American events like The Moth, reaches Wanstead on Tuesday evening with the Time for Tales event for the Wanstead Fringe. Marian Temple, the national local treasure who regenerates odd parcels of common ground into flowerbeds, is leading the event which is being held at Time For Tea at Snaresbrook. The idea is that people come along and tell their stories to an engaged and friendly group of people. The stories can be fictional, true, rehearsed or free-flow. Details of the event are on this page on the Fringe website and on the Fringe app (iOS and Android.)

This is the 100th Wanstead Weekend Photo published on Wansteadium, taken from the Wanstead Daily Photo blog. What started for Geoff Wilkinson as a year-long exercise has gone far beyond its original ambition. Congratulations to him – and also for the successful craft and photography events he, Lynn and Danielle have been holding as stalwart supporters of the Wanstead Fringe. The above remarkable photo was taken at Saturday night’s Kinema.
PS. For this landmark week, we dropped the Roman numeral. It may return next week.

The Wanstead Fringe got off to a triumphant start on Saturday, with the return of the Wanstead Kinema. It was a perfect balmy Saturday night at a perfect venue – and was sold out too. Particularly pleasing was the staging of the first Wanstead Conker Challenge, brought to fruition by an early chestnut harvest and the cubs of 21st Epping Forest South.

Wanstead Kinema is awesome. And no rain this year! pic.twitter.com/XJO3xt548N

— Wanstead Fringe (@WansteadFringe) September 6, 2014

Fab evening last night watching The Lego Movie at #WansteadKinema. More screenings please! @Wansteadium @TheWansteadtap

— Martin (@MartinTalbot) September 7, 2014

It came after the day’s other activities also went off with a bang, including craft workshops and tree yoga and the start of the Wanstead Restaurant week. Across the other side of the Flats, the Wanstead Tap was sold out with a gig by Kitchen Sink Drama. It was a pretty full-on day.

Sunday will be just as busy with an extra near-impromptu event – petanque on Christ Church Green. The informal family tournament will start at 2pm, and last a couple of hours. If you have a nice set of Boules, please bring them along. All players under the age of 16 must be accompanied by an adult.

Also on Sunday afternoon is The State We’re In – a celebration of vintage soul, jazz, ska, and rocksteady at Bar Room Bar.

More details of the events are at wansteadfringe.org