Category: Wansteadium

*Plans to introduce cycle lanes across the middle of Christ Church Green – from the High Street to Woodbine Place -  have been dropped by councillors. Redbridge has been given a £250,000 grant by TfL to promote cycling. Wansteadium readers may well have ideas for how the money could be spent (via the comments form, if you please).

* Anyone planning ahead for street parties for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee can now apply for permission to close roads via the council site. Organisers of the Big Lunch – a collective picnic – are planning their event to coincide with celebrations on for Sunday 3 June.

*A new display has been installed in Wanstead Library. It’s of Ethiopian coffee pots, and tells the story of the significance of the Ethiopian coffee ceremony. Wansteadium reader Peter Chamberlain is responsible for the display, and writes that the pots can be bought for £12 each, of which £2 is paid to the potter in Ethiopia, £1 for transport, and the remaining £9 to Save the Children. He can be contacted at pjchamberlain@ntlworld.com.

*British Transport Police have issued a CCTV image of a man they want to question in relation to an assault on a 34-year-old woman at Snaresbrook station on Christmas Eve.

*Redbridge has a plan to offer to rehouse pensioners whose own houses are now too big for them, and in return take on the letting of those houses to families. The plan is not yet in action, but has won praise from the government this week.

*Wanstead cafes are expected to see a surge in bewigged fellows lunching this week. Suggestions for what a judge might eat for lunch are welcome.

The Sun is reporting today that  police are investigating whether the food served to judges at Snaresbrook Crown Court could have been spiked with urine. It reports:

It is feared someone with a grudge against the justice system has launched a grubby revenge campaign. Traces of urine are believed to have been found in soups, salads and sandwiches…

Food safety officers and police are investigating, the paper says.

Last year Wansteadium featured some stunning photos of Wanstead taken by photographer Gary Lashmar (aka Marshal Gray). He and his partner Claudia Carter are planning to take a Wanstead-related photo every day for a year , and Wansteadium will be featuring a regular selection. Here is the first.

Gary says: “I took two images of this lady. One was candid in which she was straight faced. But as soon as she saw me she gave me the biggest smile ever. It totally melted my heart.  Not all folk are as willing to be photographed. I’ll treasure this picture forever.”

Gary’s blog is at Marshal Gray Photography.

Wansteadium, for one, did not really expect the police to be tweeting about this sort of thing. But it will answer some people’s questions.

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A bumper crop of news from Wanstead this week.

• Popular Wanstead cricketer Mervyn Westfield has become the first British player to be convicted of spot-fixing, after admitting being bribed to bowl badly deliberately when playing for Essex against Durham in a game in 2009. He will be sentenced next month; reports say he is likely to be banned from playing or coaching cricket at any level. (BBC report)

• Thousands of pounds of cosmetics were stolen from Boots in Wanstead High Street on Tuesday night. More details here.

• New plans for the redevelopment of Wanstead’s old cinema site, kitschy kalled the Kinema, have been submitted. You can see what they would look like here (pdf).

• Redbridge Council is inviting residents once again to make suggestions about how it could make budget savings. Incidentally, the council is proposing a zero rise in council tax for the third year running.

• And final word goes to the Wanstead Guardian story about . . . well, we’ll let them tell you.

A SWAN left to bring up his son alone after his partner was savaged to death by an out-of control dog, found happiness with a new female and her four cygnets.

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Readers of Wansteadium, many of whom experience Snaresbrook station as a daily delight, are invited to help poor old Ollie Durham out of his misery. Reply by comment, by tweet (with #wansteadium) or by email – wansteadium@gmail.com. It’s the kind thing to do, friends.

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Wansteadium reader Sally Humphreys writes: Snaresbrook Is a delightful old fashioned station with a nice garden (and loos). I live just off Hermon Hill opposite the old hospital and if Snaresbrook did not exist I would have a long walk every day to catch my tube to work – either to South Woodford or Wanstead.