Wansteadium

More than a hundred street parties are due to take place across Redbridge to mark the King’s coronation with several happening in Wanstead.

• If things happen the way they usually do, Wanstead will have front row seats for the flypast – probably some minutes before 2.30pm. As ever, photos are welcome to info@wansteadium.com
• The biggest single event here though will be taking place on Christchurch Green on Sunday in aid of Tin in a Bin. Details below.
• Wanstead CC will be playing in the first of an annual Coronation Cup.

Wanstead climate action campaigners, who have been quizzing fellow residents for the past few weekends, are gearing up for big protests in central London over the weekend.

More than 100 organisations including Extinction Rebellion, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth are staging the lawful, peaceful protest this weekend. Wanstead campaigners are focusing on calling on the Treasury to cancel global debt for poor countries so they can respond to climate change. On Saturday there is a march for biodiversity. Wanstead campaigners are leaving from Wanstead Tube at noon on Saturday. More details can be obtained from  Wansteadclimateaction@gmail.com.

Anyone looking for a way into (or perhaps out of) the Matrix should look no further than the end of South View Drive.

Wanstead Park’s bluebells are on the brink of their magnificence. The warnings to visitors of the damage that can be done by stepping off the path have been reinforced – though are still not clear enough for some.

Each year some of the bluebells are damaged by people treading on them, or other bulbs beneath the surface which are not visible, usually for reasons of Instagram. New signs put up by the Epping Forest managers explain the damage but are still not quite explicit enough for some park lovers who have added their own messages.

Meanwhile the Wanstead Art Group is starting a weeklong show and series of bluebell related events at nearby St Gabriel’s church. Details below.

Photos – thank you to Andrew Burns

Police officers rode in the driver’s cab of a Snaresbrook-bound train on Monday afternoon to see if they could spot a suspect who they thought was hiding by the side of the track.

The suspect had been chased by officers on to the platform at Leytonstone, where he jumped on to the track in front of the train which was waiting in the platform.

While other officers hunted in the area around the Leytonstone station, two officers got into the driver’s cab as the train was then inched along the line so they could see if he was hiding in the undergrowth by the side of the track. Passengers were kept in touch with events by the driver’s announcements.

Steep barbed-wire fences line the edge of the overground track so it was not clear where the suspect could have escaped to. Despite the search he was not immediately found, and the train then went on to Snaresbrook as planned where the officers got out to return to Leytonstone.