Wansteadium

The latest in our occasional series Wanstead is Made in Wanstead (subtly named to remind everyone of their part in sustaining Wanstead) is Valentine’s themed.

Daisy Hughes is the relatively new owner of the flower shop now known as Daisy (previously Flora). She writes: “I bought the shop in October 2014. I’d been working for the previous owner for about five years and when she said she wanted to sell I jumped at the chance. I love my job and am very lucky to be able to do something that I love so much.

“Over the past year I have changed the shop a little and introduced more modern and slightly different flowers. We still have all our regulars coming in and lots of people just come in for a chat which is great as we feel we are very much part of our lovely community. I have lived in Wanstead all my life and seen it change.  The high street is a great place but we all must support it.”

 

 

Not everyone likes the idea of drones, but there’s one thing they’re definitely good for: aerial photographs. Haz Anwar has posted on YouTube a video taken on George Green with a drone which gives excellent views of the green looking towards Cambridge Park.

It makes Wansteadium wonder… obviously there have been photographs of George Green taken from the sky. Just last week Tim Peake took a photograph from space which clearly showed Wanstead Flats (if you looked closely enough). But has a film of George Green ever been made from a few hundred feet high? Ever?

Well, whatever. Enjoy.

(Users of iPhones will need to click here to see the film.)

Have you noticed, above the sound of the wind and rain, an increase in aircraft noise in the past few days? Or conversely have you noticed much less noise than normal?

If you have, the reason might be a change in the way planes from City Airport are being routed. The airport has introduced new technology which makes planes fly along a much more accurate path, meaning they do not divert and so – in theory – fly over fewer houses. The flipside of that is that they fly over the same houses more often.

The changes were debated more than a year ago, though many campaigners felt there was not enough public consultation. And the more accurate flightpaths came into effect last weekend, hence the possibility of changed noise overhead.

The map below which we ran on Wansteadium in 2014 shows the difference between the two routes (plotted as accurately as we could manage). The lighter-shaded shapes show the former, larger, area which was flown over. The darker lines show the more accurate routes. (If you want to know the detail of why there are two different directions, it’s all to do with which way the planes use the runway, depending on the direction of the wind.) The clumsy “W” is Wanstead, more or less.

There is more detail in the article we ran in Nov 2014, which you can find here. And if you’ve noticed a difference either way, do get in touch.

The rainstorm which hit Wanstead on Sunday night was a belter – although no trace of it was left by this morning.

As measured by Scott Whitehead, resident Wanstead weatherman who tweets as @wanstead_meteo the peak was 40mm/hour. Though not historically high – he says he’s seen twice that level in summer downpours – he did tweet that he couldn’t remember such noisy rain.

 

We’re not sure why anyone would go to the trouble of putting this video together but they have, and if we don’t appreciate the rather random nature of facts, pictures and weird synthesised voice, then no one will.
Particularly enjoyable are the way the voice says Wanstead, and the year 1824. And in true clickbait style, you’ll NOT BELIEVE point six!!!

(If you’re an iPhone user, you will need to click here.)

If we were to find fault with the video it’s that the facts are just too darned interesting. Surely we can, together, come up with more boring facts than the six the robot chose??

Wanstead Wildlife Watch -The Squirrel of Wanstead Did you know? A squirrels front teeth never stop growing #wanstead #wanstead_e11 #london #eastlondon #wildlife #squirrel #ilovesquirrels #wansteadwildlifewatch #fact #teeth #didyouknow

A photo posted by Your Guide To Wanstead (@wanstead_e11) on Jan 31, 2016 at 2:05am PST

Another treat from @wanstead_e11 on Instagram. Remember, you can submit your photos for Wanstead Weekly Photo by tagging Wansteadium on social media or email us at info@wansteadium.com.