Category: Wansteadium

The Wanstead Society has announced it is closing because of a lack of volunteers.

The campaigning group was established in 1997 with the goal of saving the Evergreen Field from development. But with planning permission having been granted by Redbridge Council for a block of flats on the site, the society has decided it’s time has come.

“We feel that we have outlived our usefulness,” a newsletter told members. “We have continued to raise a variety of issues with the Council, principally around planning laws being broken, but are ignored. There comes a time when even the most hardy of organisations has to know when it’s time to go, and our time has come.”

The group does however take pleasure in its successes, which it lists as including:

• Raising money for bins, benches and trees on the High Street
• Helping set up and fund the Wanstead Community Gardeners
• Opening up the once-bricked up flower beds by Wanstead Station
• Helping establish the Wanstead Festival and sponsoring the Wanstead Fringe.

MPs have backed a bid to give protected status to pie and mash, citing the strength of its regional heritage and distinctive characteristics.

Richard Holden, MP for Basildon and Billericay, mentioned Robins Pie & Mash, which has been namechecked in the national press during the debate, saying:

This debate points to something wider about British culinary heritage, about how we view food in Britain, and perhaps a little bit about how we view our own food in this country. That is something we need to look at again. We need to look at how we can celebrate it more. I hope that, as hon. and right hon. Members have mentioned, other parts of the country will look at how we can champion their local food produce—yes, in order for it to be recognised locally, which is a nice thing, but also for the broader economic narrative, whether that is exports or tourism.

I thank my pie and mash shops in Basildon and Billericay for putting up with me invading them over the last few weeks, particularly Robins, which has had the national media with it over the last couple of days. To everyone, I say: get out there—try that pie and mash. To the Minister, I say: I hope we will be able to get this status. I hope that at the end of this process, we can say to him, “Yes, Pie Minister.”

Full report from the BBC here.

No sooner than it started, the Great Squat of the George appears to be over. The paper covering the windows, along with the hand-written notices asserting legal rights to squat are, as of Monday afternoon, no longer.

Workers arrived on Monday morning to put up scaffolding and by later afternoon were well under way with moving furniture out of the pub and storing it containers in the car park at the back of the pub, presumably to make way for redecoration.

Just days after Wetherspoons closed the George pub, squatters have moved in and told people that there is nothing anyone can do about it.

The Wetherspoon signs were removed within 24 hours of the pub closing at the start of last week. It had just been announced that the pub had been taken over by Urban, a small chain which operates 50 other pubs in London.

But by the weekend, squatters had got access to the building and covered up the windows with paper and signs declaring their legal rights. This did not, however, stop scaffolding being erected on Monday.

Longtime readers will remember the squatting in the former Barclays Bank, which was empty for months while Sainsbury’s decided if it was going to turn it into a mini-supermarket. In the end it became Gail’s.

And going waaay back to 1968 (even before Wansteadium existed) the Hollies, the small block of flats on the crossroads of the high street with New Wanstead, was the target of the London Squatter Campaign which was demonstrating against ‘luxury flats lying empty for years’. For a while, apparently, Wanstead was a cause célèbre.

Buildings standing empty for years is hardly the case with the George, however, which was empty for just a matter of days.

Wanstead residents fighting against the reorganisation of bus routes are hoping a meeting with a TfL official might lead to a breakthrough.

A “schemes design officer” is to take part in a meeting on Tuesday evening (22 Oct) at Christ Church after reviewing how the new routes and timetables are working.

There are reports that TfL wants to relocate the zebra crossing outside the former NatWest because of the difficulty for larger buses in turning down Nightingale Lane. And at a busy junction on Elmcroft Avenue, pictured, the bigger vehicle has had trouble making the turn.

Bigger buses are necessary because TfL has made the route once-per-hour rather than three or four times. But the reduction in services has massively reduced the usefulness of the service for school and work purposes.

The approval of plans to turn the former Wanstead Youth Centre into an education hub has only highlighted the need for regular transport options.

A spokesperson for the Save Our Local Bus Service Campaign said: “People can’t get to food shops, hospitals, schools …. Timetables weren’t made available anywhere for the once an hour buses that run through the Nightingale Estate, and the way the route is full of bottlenecks, that service can never be reliable. Local people can’t get information on where the new routes run because TfL is so confused itself by the complex routes.”

The meeting will take place at 6pm.

The George in Wanstead has been bought by independent London pub chain Urban Pubs and Bars, just days after Wetherspoons unexpectedly announced the much-loved pub was to close this Sunday.

The pub will be renamed The George and Dragon, reverting to the name it had until 1904. In a statement Urban Pubs & Bars said:

“We are delighted to be able to rescue this much loved pub, a place that has been part of Wanstead’s history since 1716.

“Following some refurbishment work the pub will reopen as a great London traditional pub serving great food including a range of delicious Sunday roasts and a wide selection of beers. We look forward to seeing you soon.”

Though many drinkers had been dismayed by Wetherspoons’ decision, the news that the George will be remaining as a pub, rather than being converted into a sports bar or restaurant, will be welcomed.

Urban Pubs and Bars runs 52 pubs in London, including the Red Lion in Leytonstone and the Bat and Ball in Stratford.

Councillor Paul Donovan, who had led a campaign to try to persuade Wetherspoons to change its mind, told Wansteadium: “It’s sad to see the George go but I’m pleased that it will continue as a pub.

“Also, it’s encouraging that the new owners, Urban Pubs & Bars, are reverting to the original name of the George & Dragon. The big issue of course is cost. Wetherspoons offered cheap food and beer, which will no longer be the case. So, on the plus side the pub remains, on the minus the bargain food and drink are no more.”

Update 1800 The Duke issued a statement to its customers:

We’ve been contacted a few times on ‘what can you do’…Well, no one can compete with a £2 pint, madness. Short of trying to out bid Global Mutual US investment co, who have backed Urban Pubs and Bars and are buying up as much property as they can (as evidenced by The Red Lion and Clapton Hart in recent weeks) and out pricing the independent operator – we can certainly offer to continue the community spirit!