Rumour: Foxtons coming to Wanstead?

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Rumours are rife that an upmarket estate agent – possibly the controversial Foxtons – is to open a branch in Wanstead. It’s thought that the venue will be the new shop & flats complex built on the corner of Station Parade and Hollybush Hill – a building that Wansteadium likes to think of as Wanstead’s Flatiron.

If the rumours are true – and being sited between Wanstead and South Woodford would make the spot a good one for an agency – it would mean that an alternative plan to use the vacant ground floor for a family-friendly cafe and restaurant would be scotched. But it could mean much else besides, not least that the Foxtons Minis which are a familiar site in gentrified parts of London might also become familiar here too.

A new upmarket agency may also have an effect on house prices, though levels in Wanstead have anecdotally outperformed the market in recent years in any case. But if it were Foxtons it would certainly herald some uncomfortable times for other estate agents in the area, since it is known for proving vigorous competition, such as offering zero percent commission deals when new branches open.

Last year the FT reported on the opening of branch in Hackney, and on Foxtons expansion tactics. The paper reported:

“One former senior Foxtons employee describes the tactic as ‘genius’ and says it has been key to helping the company win market share from rivals for years.’You get a market share on day one and are into profit by month four,’ the person says. ‘It feels like you are giving it away, but you are not going to make any profit in the first three months either way because you wouldn’t get the instructions, so you might as well use the time to get a market presence. It works very well and everyone benefits. Well, maybe not the competition.’”

Of course the rumour may not be true. We have e-mailed Foxtons to ask and will update if they respond.

Wanstead Park Grotto clearing

The area around the historic grotto in Wanstead Park has been overgrown for some time. Work is now under way to clear it, which has already improved some views of the site. Large sycamore and yew trees are to remain, but other vegetation is to be removed, including dead trees, once it’s clear there aren’t bats in them.

For more details on the clearance work, see the Friends of Wanstead Parklands website here.

Wanstead, Wanstead, Wanstead

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Channel 4’s Location Location Location returned to Wanstead on Tuesday night, as young couple Anisha and James attempted to find a 3 bedroom house for less than £425,000. They said they wanted to avoid suburbia and stay “in the creative buzz”. For the duration of the 4OD window, you can see the programme here if you missed it.

They started in Wood Street (which Phil Spencer said was “an area popular with young creatives”), then moved to Leytonstone (“an area to get their creative juices flowing”), then a new build on Wanstead Flats, about which househunter James said: “This is busting my noodle.” He wasn’t very comfortable with buying a new house.

They remained undecided for a while. Spencer’s advice was that he had always bought houses for location. The couple’s budget restriction prevented them from getting in to more central parts of Wanstead (three bedroom houses for £425k are now hard to come by) In the end they chose the new Wanstead Flats house, and got it for £420k.

There were a few sightings of Wanstead – including some shots which looked a lot like Sylvan Road. But otherwise (and unless Wansteadium blinked), anticipated shots of the Orange Tree did not materialise.
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Pictures: Channel 4

So, erm… what to do with Christmas trees this year?

It’s been Wansteadium’s practice on Twelfth Night to refer readers to the excellent Redbridge-i page where one could – with pretty much a single click – place an order for your Christmas tree to be collected from your front garden. It’s always been a great service, and much appreciated by many households.

This year, extra funding was secured by the council to extend the weekly collection of green garden waste to an all-year-round service. (Wansteadium did wonder privately just how much garden rubbish is produced in January and February.) But it seems the move has had an unintended consequence: you can now only have your Christmas tree collected IF IT IS SMALLER THAN 10cm IN DIAMETER and 122cm LONG. Here are the site’s actual words:

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Now these are days of austerity, but just how many Christmas trees fit this bill is open to question. None, one would guess. Which means that to be eligible for Christmas tree collection – following this improvement in service – one must take a saw and chop one’s tree into small chunks. If, heaven forfend, the trunk of your tree has a wider diameter than 10cm, then doorstep collection does not from this year seem to be option for you. Instead the council asks you to bring your tree to Chigwell Road Recycling Centre. (It doesn’t say which bus routes serve it, unfortunately.)

UPDATE 2pm:

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