Wansteadium reader, and longtime Wanstead resident, Marcus Tylor offers this video as a celebration of cycling in London. “As a Wanstodian since 1972 I naturally shot quite a bit here recently and in all weathers,” he writes, and invites fellow readers to list the Wanstead locations featured.
Wanstead weekend photo, XXIII
Wanstead bees come a cropper
In September last year Wansteadium reported on the thriving bee-keeping culture in Wanstead, and particularly on the honey production of Wansteadium reader MissisBeekeeper and family.
Sad to report but all their bees have died, victims of the prolonged cold weather.
MissisBeekeeper tells us: “The long winter proved their undoing. One beekeeper he knows lost nearly half his hives. Ours starved – they didn’t like the emergency fondant offered and too few fine days for them to go out foraging. It’s been an awful winter for Beekeepers!”
Wanstead news roundup: A minor parking breakthrough, and other news
• Police are investigating how a 44-year-old man was stabbed on Wanstead High St at 5am on Tuesday. The area was taped off for much of the day. More details at the Wanstead Guardian, which says police believe it was a domestic incident
• A For Sale sign now adorns the premises previously occupied by Santa Fe. And Cambridge Park accountants Tish, Press and Co say they are leaving Wanstead simply because of the difficulty of parking.
• BUT here’s a bit of good news for embattled Wanstead shopkeepers: Westfield NOW NO LONGER OFFERS FREE PARKING (see pic). Up to two hours will now set you back £2.50.
• Nudists took over Wanstead’s cricket ground last weekend for (authorised) naturist camping, in spite of the chilly conditions. Meanwhile the club is gearing up for the start of a new season, with the first games next weekend. Last year, you may remember, Wanstead and Snaresbrook were national club finalists, and they will be hoping to repeat their successes. From next week, Wansteadium will be bringing you regular reports of what’s going on, hopefully at all levels of the club.
• No news yet on whether Costa will, as rumoured, open in the former Enigma premises, though it appears George Lane is to get one.
• Is it Wansteadium’s imagination, or are the ‘conservation’ zone signs at the Snaresbrook end of the High Street new?
• Reviews are welcome for the newest (and some would say bravest) culinary venture: a seafood stall next door to Queen’s British Steak House and Grill, called Wanstead Shell Shack. The best of luck to them (though is a PTSD-based pun really good taste?)
• For the avoidance of confusion, and partly because we’ve never thought to say this before, but Wansteadium has no link whatever with the Wanstead Village Directory. That is all.
Wanstead weekend photo, XXII
© Geoff Wilkinson, who writes on Wanstead Daily Photo: “When I bought these at a local shop in Wanstead, I decided to research the history of the hot cross bun on the internet. I could not find a definitive answer. According to one source it was tradition in some countries to mark a new loaf of bread with the sign of the cross in order to bless it and to thank God for it. To me this seems the most likely answer.”