Wansteadium

You may well have noticed that the high stone – the diddy obelisk on the point of Hollybush Hill where it meets New Wanstead – has now been unveiled after some months of refurbishment work.

At night the new setting and lighting makes the stone a vivid sight, and a new plaque which has been erected explains some of the history of the stone. Interesting, for example, to note the highway robbery link so close to the spot where the robbery of Tamara Ecclestone’s boyfriend took place.

The renovations were funded by English Heritage and from the pot of discretionary funding held by the Area 1 committee of Redbridge Council.

Geoff Wilkinson writes on Wanstead Daily Photo: “Photographed this lovely rainbow yesterday from the door of the Gallery in Nightingale Lane, shame they never seem to last for long. Still with the sunshine in the morning and this rainbow in the afternoon it wasn’t a bad day for photography. Still no sign of the pot of gold though.” Elsewhere this week Geoff was opining about the introduction of machines instead of counters into Wanstead’s Barclays. More on that here.

The Evening Standard’s much anticipated Homes and Property supplement about Wanstead is published today. Wansteadium gets a mention which is nice, although it is referred to as a “bulletin board” which is odd.

Anyway, pick up a copy if you can, and we’ll deconstruct it throughout the evening. Tweet @wansteadium or add comments below.

Here goes:

Any photos of The Shrubbery in there? Coolest place to live in the best neighbourhood in London @davidgwynne @Wansteadium

— We Love Wanstead (@WeLoveWanstead) January 29, 2014

Er… no.

@Wansteadium Top fact: "Sir Tony Robinson, who played Baldrick in Blackadder, was a pupil at Wanstead High School."

— Rob Fearn (@Rfearn) January 29, 2014

May be for sale, but has been for a while… How many million pound houses back directly onto the Central Line?

Nutter Lane, Nutter Field, Nutter Bench. Now Nutter House.

Wansteadium reader Dee comments: “All the history Wanstead has and the opening paragraphs discuss Snaresbrook Crown Court. Very bizarre.”

This is nice, kind of.

And good to see @Wansteadium and @MissisBeekeeper mentioned

— Jane Clapton (@janeclapton) January 29, 2014

There’s much interest in the former coal merchants/builders’ office which last week Wansteadium pointed out had been turned into a one-bedroom bungalow which is now on sale for £300,000.

Along the side of the property, behind the building, the land tapers to a longish, thin strip. Since it’s directly on to the High Street pavement and at eye level, it is pretty visible. In this plot, unpromising though it might seem – especially so since the office was empty for so long – there is a little bit of garden which in summer is quite attractive.

How so, one might ask. The answer is Wanstead’s own guerrilla gardener, Marian Temple, one of whose passions is tending unlikely bits of Wanstead in the interests of making them beautiful slices of greenery. Her own garden is the subject of much admiration, as is the well-known garden at the Corner House which she looks after with other volunteers. But less well-known is her freelance creativity.

Who knows, if the vendor of the property should be lucky enough to obtain their asking price, they might just decide they could afford to make a donation to Marian to help buy some bulbs for her next green slice of Wanstead, wherever that may be.

At last week’s Area 1 committee of Redbridge Council – the bit which deals with very local issues for Wanstead and Snaresbrook – it seemed that there were almost as many coppers present as there were residents.

Well, not quite, perhaps. There were seven officers, six councillors, and 20 residents. Ok, there weren’t very many controversial issues on the agenda, but it didn’t seem like very many people. So, Wansteadium mused, which area of Redbridge is the most politicised? After a bit of data crunching (and thanks to the work of the DataShare team at Redbridge), we are proud to reveal the following…

So from that we can conclude that most area meetings get fewer than 50 people turning up, though nearly all areas have occasional larger turnouts – probably when there are issues of controversy. The people of Wanstead and Snaresbrook are either more afflicted with controversy, or are more prepared to get stuck in.

Wanstead is to feature in this week’s Evening Standard Homes and Property supplement. The authors have been soliciting views and tips on Twitter, and Wanstead folk have responded handsomely. (Wansteadium would only take issue with N. Affleck’s phrase “of sorts”.)