Category: Wansteadium

Redbridge councillors have approved a plan to fill in a gap on Wanstead High Street with new flats above the Wanstead Barber Shop and the former health food shop.

The development will mean three one-bedroom flats but will combine the two shops into one property. It’s not clear yet what the implications will be for the barber.

The developers say the design would “match the style of the existing adjacent Victorian three storey terrace premises (1b and 3 High Street) with a tiled pitched roof, facing brickwork elevations and sliding sash style windows with stone heads and cills to openings”.

It’s good to give credit where’s it’s due, so here’s a nod to the appropriate parties in Redbridge and its contractors who planted the areas near the Duke earlier this year, after a long-awaited reconfiguration to the troublesome junction. It looks right smart.

And that’s saying nothing of the week -in, week-out tending conducted on dozens of other green spots around Wanstead by our favourite group of people, the Wanstead Community Gardeners. One of their most recent projects has been the gardens at the Methodist Church on Hermon Hill, which is shortly to be the site of many Fringe events at the Wanstead Curtain.

Wanstead Fringe and Wanstead Cricket Club have announced a new partnership which, among other things, will see more Fringe events taking place at the club’s ground.

In a statement, the Fringe organisers said:

“We’re really pleased to announce a new partnership between Wanstead Fringe and Wanstead Cricket Club. The groups have shared a lot over the years – the club’s Overton Drive ground has been the site of many events including our first ever open air Kinema – and the new partnership will see more to come this September.

“While the Fringe’s goal is to support and encourage the arts and culture in Wanstead, the Cricket Club has always believed that cricket is about more than just what happens on the pitch – both share the vision that their activities are about community, connection and supporting the place we call home. Both organisations are not-for-profit organisations, and any money they raise goes back into their activities to support the community.

“Giles Wilson, Wanstead Fringe chair said: “We’re very grateful to Wanstead Cricket Club for their support in helping us bring another Fringe festival to life this September. Overton Drive has been the site of some of our most memorable events, and we’re thrilled to be deepening our relationship with the club through this new partnership.”

We have a few traditions here. The annual Cherry Pey day which celebrates the inscription on the side of the George and Dragon used to be marked here religiously when the sign was in danger of disrepair. Now things have been stabilised thanks to the pub’s renovations we somehow omitted to mention it.

But we still honour the tradition of celebrating the sighting of any hedgehogs. This character was spotted in Wanstead Park Avenue by regular correspondent George C Parker, whose daughter believes the animal has no eyes. We await further intelligence on the matter.

Made you look

A grass fire on 14 acres of Wanstead Flats on Friday needed 70 firefighters to bring it under control. No one was injured.

London Fire Brigade commander Darren McTernan, who was at the scene, said: “Crews have been working hard, in hot, arduous conditions to bring the fire under control. 

“We deployed a wildfire response vehicle to the incident and also had Wildfire Support Officers at the scene, to support the Incident Commander. They also worked closely with partners from City of London Corporation.”

The new vehicle carries 475 litres of water and has special equipment to tackle fires on open ground.

A spokesman for the brigade asked people not to use disposable barbecues during the current heatwave.