A trendy new sign

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Wansteadium has form for obsessing about signs on Wanstead shops, as regular readers will know. But Wanstead Hairdressers on Woodbine Place is one of those iconic establishments where change -happily – happens glacially. A visitor from 50 years ago could still recognise the place.

The new window sign is accompanied by the refurbishment of some old and cool barbers’ chairs, and go with the green glass fittings which were installed a couple of years ago.

 

Oh yes… house prices, 1987-style

In our write-up of the 1987 Evening Standard profile of Wanstead which we ran on Saturday, we neglected to muse too much on the price of property. That was clearly what interested a lot of people though. Just to recap on the figures…

1987property

Let’s try to add some up-to-date figures, though of course it’s a bit tricky to compare like with like. We’ll do our best.

  • A two-bed Victorian terrace in Cowley Road sold in Feb 2016 –£625,000
  • A three-bed 1930s terrace in Addison Road sold in October –£642,600
  • St Mary’s Avenue is a bit hard to compare, because there just aren’t many sales at all. A seven-bed detached house there sold in October 2015 for £1.9m; a three-bed detached house sold in 2011 for £1.6m.

 

 

 

 

A slice of Wanstead, 1987-style

Evening Standard 1987Regular Wansteadium contributor Marcus Tylor found this old page of a 1987 Evening Standard at the bottom of a cupboard. It paints a fascinating picture of how the paper saw Wanstead 30 years ago, and being published shortly after the great storm shows evidence of fallen trees on St Mary’s Ave.
The opening sentence – saying that Wanstead people were sorry their postcode was E11 and not one in Essex – is just one of the observations which feels rooted in the 1980s. As is this line about meetings at the golf club:
golf
Some things – like the debate about parking in central Wanstead – were concerns then as now.
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The piece drips with interesting lines – do share any that particularly intrigue you.  You can see a higher resolution image of the page by clicking or touching this link.

Guerrilla gardeners put down roots

wansteadcommunitygardenersThe much-celebrated guerrilla gardeners, who cultivate and plant on odd bits of unloved ground all around Wanstead, are going legit.

Now officially known as the Wanstead Community Gardeners, they have a new home  on the web – and we’re delighted that it’s here on Wansteadium.

You can see more of their work at their page, and find out how to get in touch with them. Details of when they have their working parties will be listed on the Wanstead Social Diary.

01 Fountain bed group