Category: Wansteadium

Geoff Wilkinson writes on Wanstead Daily Photo: “If you live in Wanstead you will recognise this lovely old building on Church Path. I have photographed it before, it’s I & K Brown one of Wanstead’s garages. I was taking a fresh look at it because it’s most likely to be knocked down and replaced with houses. The price of progress I suppose, I’m pleased with the picture anyway.”

The Wanstead Kinema is returning NEXT WEEK to kick off the second Wanstead Fringe which starts on Saturday 6 September. And with a new venue, it may have found its spiritual home – it’s going to take place in the gardens of Christ Church on the High Street. Tree-covered, sheltered, slap bang in the middle of Wanstead… what more could an open air cinema want?

The film will be the brilliant LEGO MOVIE, and will be the first big event of the week-long Fringe. More than 25 events will take place at locations across Wanstead – the full programme is now available online at the Wanstead Fringe website, pictured, where tickets for many of the events can also be bought. Printed copies will be widely available over the next few days.

The Fringe includes music, drama, comedy (featuring Arthur Smith), photography, talks, wine-tasting, food events, more music, craft workshops – and several different kinds of talks. It’s much bigger than last year’s Fringe, and once again is taking place with the financial support of Petty Son and Prestwich.

With a weather forecast which is looking good for next week, the Kinema should again be a magically atmospheric event. You are advised to book early though since places are limited. Prices are £5 for adults and £2 for under-16s (part of this is for membership of the Wanstead Kinema film club). You can book tickets at this page.

And here’s a taster of the film…

After a summer with barely a single reported sighting of hedgehogs in Wanstead, this tweet is welcome news indeed.

Just spotted this little guy in Wanstead park #hedgehog #wansteadpark pic.twitter.com/Ei8S4llmx6

— Nicola MacCarthy (@nicolamaccarthy) August 23, 2014

Wansteadium is delighted to announce it now has more than 1,000 e-mail subscribers – people who receive a daily newsletter from us whenever we publish new items on this blog. For us this feels like a bit of a milestone, and we’re grateful for everyone who has signed up and continues to read the site.

Actually, there are at the time of writing 1,056 subscribers.

Expect further improvements to the newsletter in the coming weeks, including a digest of forthcoming events from the Wanstead Social Calendar (as so ably managed by her excellency Stephanie Pettigrew, Wanstead’s social secretary), and new items from Wanstead Talk.

And if you haven’t yet signed up, you can do so by entering your details below.

Redbridge councillors have discussed a proposal which would allow the density of housing in Wanstead, Woodford to quadruple between 2015 and 2030. The local development framework, which sets the priorities and goals for planning and building, is currently being formulated and one of the options considers, according to the Wanstead Guardian “large-scale developments in traditionally suburban “major corridors” in Woodford Green, South Woodford and Wanstead”.

Now Wansteadium has a passing interest in the activities of local councils, but doesn’t pretend to understand what all this really means. It is though a fair bet that many of the people who read this site (whether residents, experts or indeed councillors) do know what, if anything, this means. They are welcome to elucidate matters using the form below.

These are great days for children’s reading in Wanstead.

The inspired summer reading project, which is being run at Wanstead Library as it is in many other libraries around the country, has successfully captured many children’s imaginations. And this weekend Wanstead gets its own “Little Free Library”, a charitable project which encourages children to swap their books and take one away for free.

Each Little Free Library – and there are several around London and the rest of the country now – operates from a residential area and is designed especially for the location. Wanstead’s is being installed this weekend in the garden of Overton Drive resident Fiona Tonkin – hence the name above the door. It has been decorated in an Epping Forest style by artist Gabriela Castellanos.

#tonkinlodge is being collected tonight for installation tomorrow by @LFLProject #lfl #LittleFreeLibrary #Wanstead pic.twitter.com/Jbtky2lqUx

— grela (@grelaarts) August 14, 2014

The summer reading scheme, Mythical Maze, has successfully introduced a bit of social gaming into going to the library. The task children have for the summer holidays is to read six books, and to be able to talk about what they have read. With each completed book, they are closer to reaching the target of the end of the maze. As the chart in Wanstead library shows, many children have already completed the task – in fact some finished it in the first few days of the summer holidays.

Any children not yet under way still have time to take part – but should be aware that the library will be closed before the end of the holidays for a new roof to be installed.