Geoff Wilkinson writes on Wanstead Daily Photo: “I have been seeing these Post Office vans darting around Wanstead for some time. They have Post Brenhinol on one side and the more traditional logo on the other. Are these vans used in both England and Wales or is there some other reason ? Not that I mind, I think our ‘posties’ do really well, it gives Wanstead an even more  unique feel.”
There are two big events today which demand your attention – as well as second chances to indulge in yoga sessions among the trees (10.30am & 11.30), and walking and talking and learning how to take better photos (2pm).
The first big occasion is the Mad Hatters Tea Party Meets Teddy Bear’s Picnic: of all the events of this first Wanstead Fringe, this is the first big family get together. From 12.30pm people will be gathering on Christchurch Green for picnics, hat-wearing and Teddy Bear encounters. Bring a cake if you can, and share it in a spirit of neighbourliness.
And though the conkers won’t be bashed at this first Fringe (next year, conkers, we’ll get you next year), there WILL be petanque. As this tweeted picture shows, Matt – one of the picnic catalysts – spent much of last night preparing the ground for communal petanquery. Come along and try out your hand.
@Wansteadium preparing the court for petonque tomorrow! #WansteadFringe #gettingdark pic.twitter.com/Ju1Ym4Azfl
— Matt Keen (@Matt__Keen) September 7, 2013
Then later in the day – from 6pm at Bar Room Bar – there will be a Soul, Rare Groove, SKA and Reggae evening thanks to The State We’re In. Those suffering modlife crises are welcome, of course, but this won’t just be for them. Come along and hear some cool tunes.
*Thank you to everyone who stopped to chat at our Wanstead Fringe stall on the High Street during Saturday. If you didn’t get a programme and a badge, you can still pick them up in the Larder.
*Sales of tickets for the open air cinema are selling strongly. Though the Wanstead Cricket Club pitch at Overton Drive  is magnificent and large, there is a legal limit on the number of people who can attend, so if you are keen to be there, we do advise you go and book tickets now.
*And we haven’t yet had much chance to talk about our grand finale event which will be taking place next Saturday night. What better way to mark a Fringe than with comedy? This is a special one-off Saturday night appearance of the Wanstead Comedy Night. You will definitely want to get tickets for this sorted asap – they are £10, which is a small price to pay for being able to see great comedy acts from the comfort of your own Wanstead.
*For daily updates on the Fringe, sign up for Wansteadium e-mail newsletters, follow us on Twitter or Facebook.
So here we are, the FIRST DAY of the first Wanstead Fringe. And it’s a busy old day for activities, as any visitors to the High Street will find out. There will be a Wanstead Fringe stall on the High Street – come along and say hello and pick up a free badge (don’t say we never spoil you).
Here’s a quick rundown of today’s events, with some pointers to plan for tomorrow.
Pop Up Drinkable Courtyard
What better place to start than the Time for Tea tearoom opposite Snaresbrook Station. Designers Pocket of Green have created a marvellous experience in the tearoom courtyard which is well worth a visit. And they are offering one visitor a prize of a small cloud pruned tree in a stylish black boulder pot.
Tree Yoga
If larger trees are your thing, Katriye Ibrahim is running open air yoga sessions on Christchurch Green. There are three sessions today – 9am, 2pm and 3pm.
Wanstead Art Trail
The Art Trail begins today as well as the Fringe, so there is no shortage of absorbing art to enjoy at shops and cafes all over Wanstead. Pick up a programme at most shops. And there is a day of arty workshops at the Wanstead Library – details here.
Photowalk
The first of photographer Geoff Wilkinson’s photo walks will take at 2pm from his gallery on Nightingale Lane. Ring Geoff to check late availability of places on 0797 466 2881
Vintage Fair
While all this is going on, the increasingly popular Wanstead Vintage Fashion and Brocante Fair is taking place in the Christ Church Hall. It offers men’s and women’s clothing from the 1920s to 1980s, along with jewellery and homeware.
DAY TWO
Day Two, that’s Sunday 8 September, looks like a cracker too. As well as a second chance to experience Tree Yoga and Geoff’s Photowalk, there will be a great family event taking place on Christchurch Green – a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party Meets Teddy Bear’s Picnic. Bring your picnic from 12.30 – or whenever you can make it – and wear either a hat or bring a Teddy Bear. We had hoped to stage a Conker Tournament, but nature seems to be against us on this occasion and the conkers haven’t yet fallen. But there will be petanque and any other games you care to bring along. Why not bake a cake and share it with someone?
Later in the day, from 6pm at Bar Room Bar, there is an evening of Soul, Rare Groove, SKA and Reggae, brought home by The State We’re In.
We’ll be bringing you a daily update here on Wansteadium during the Fringe, so keep in touch. You can get daily e-mail newsletters by signing up here. And don’t forget to book tickets for the Open Air Cinema on Friday – tickets really are selling fast, which is a very gratifying surprise for everyone involved.
And one other thing – do please tell your friends and neighbours about the Fringe. Tweet about it, mention it on Facebook. And do send us photos so we can keep a record of this pretty nifty moment in Wanstead history.
Wansteadium is delighted to confirm what should be one of the undoubted highlights of the Wanstead Fringe: the return of cinema to Wanstead!
For some years Wansteadium has harboured a desire to bring an open air family film to Wanstead, and that is exactly what is to happen on the evening of Friday 13 September when a screen will go up at Wanstead and Snaresbrook Cricket Club in Overton Drive.
It all seems like a decent way to mark the end of the first week back at school and at the same time cling on to the last vestiges of the summer of 2013. And by a curious coincidence, the event will mark – to the month – 100 years since cinema first came to Wanstead.
So we will be showing Despicable Me, the 2010 animated film starring Steve Carell. Bring cushions, picnic blankets, some nibbles, and perhaps a jumper as well. The club’s bar will be open, and lattes, cappuccinos and hot chocolates will be served from the boot of a VW Beetle. It will be an atmospheric and memorable evening for adults and minions alike.
Since we are expecting this to be a popular event, we recommend you go over to the Wanstead Fringe website and book tickets now so that you can be sure to get in. The site accepts cards and PayPal. Tickets are £5 for adults and £2 for children.
But why, you may be asking, is it Kinema? The answer lies in Wanstead’s own cinema which, according to the Cinema Treasures website, opened in October 1913. It was in what is now the former snooker hall next to the George (left), and though it was at first called the Wanstead Empire, it became the Kinema in 1930.
It closed in 1956 – its last film was Laurence Olivier in Richard III – and since then the building has been used as a bowling alley, a nightclub (“Night-owl”), a bingo hall, gym and now snooker hall.
So Wansteadium is proud of its Kinema project to bring back films to Wanstead. Like the Fringe itself, this is just a start – and with the right backing from the kind of people who read this blog, who knows what might happen?
Big thanks will be due to the officers of the Wanstead Cricket Club for their support, and to Petty Son and Prestwich for their serious generosity.
Wanstead-based thriller writer Anya Lipska (star of one of the Wanstead Fringe events) reveals how East London inspired her debut novel Where the Devil Can’t Go
Creating a vivid sense of place is hugely important to a crime writer, and I consider myself very lucky to live in Wanstead. Not because its leafy streets, lakes and parks are exactly alive with colourful villains and grisly murders. In truth, the recent armed robbery that sparked a Flying Squad lockdown of the High Street was the only excitement I can recall in my 13 years living here – unless, of course, you count the recent fracas over the Controlled Parking Zone… But Wanstead does lie a stone’s throw from settings that offer rich material for the crime writer in search of inspiration. Ducking and diving Cockney villains might have relocated to Essex mansions or villas in the Costas, but the East End is still a bubbling stewpot of characters from different walks of life, and from all over the world, trying to make a living – and not always legally.
The hero of my debut novel is an émigré Pole who settled here twenty-odd years ago and who acts as a fixer and private investigator for East London’s Polish community, which became one of the UK’s biggest immigrant groups after Poland joined the EU in 2004. I’m British born but having a Polish husband gave me a privileged ‘in’ to this world, allowing me to discover where East London’s Poles hang out, their culture, food, and way of life.
When I started writing the book, Stratford was in the grip of the Olympic building boom, and one of my favourite local sources of inspiration was Londek, a Polish café/restaurant near Maryland station. There I was able to eavesdrop on Polish builders as they filled up on the comfort food of home while swearing their faces off (if you’re among Polish workmen, listen out for Koor-vah – which literally translated means ‘whore’ but which has become an all-purpose swearword used as a conversational condiment) In the evening, Londek attracts a more middle class crowd – watch how many Poles dress smartly for dinner even in these informal surroundings! (Brits are among the regulars, too, and since you can BYO booze, it’s a good value night out.) I also spent weeks tramping the Thames towpath east of Tower Bridge seeking a moody location for a key scene in which the body of a dead girl is found washed up on the foreshore. I started the search on the Isle of Dogs but the Docklands development renders the area a bit soulless. Further east, I discovered that beside the Thames Barrier, at low tide, great gleaming mud banks are revealed – the perfect atmospheric spot for my dead body.
Another revelation was the semiderelict areas around Trinity Buoy Wharf (worth a visit for its arts projects). This is old industrial London, yet to be fully redeveloped, poised between the old and new, which somehow lends it a watchful, sinister quality.
On the east side of the wharf, I found Leamouth, the deep and spooky-looking brick-lined channel where the River Lea enters the Thames, which provided the setting for my denouement.
What about a mention for dear old E11, you might ask? Wanstead does get one namecheck in my book – my heroine, a young rookie detective wakes up there the morning after a badly-behaved evening, and dismisses it as ‘a burb full of twee shops selling vintage crapola.’ Well, we don’t want everyone discovering East London’s best-kept secret, do we?
Anya will be taking part in the East End Crime Night at the Larder on Thursday 12 September when she and fellow crime writer Barbara Nadel, author of the Hakim and Arnold novels, will be discussing their work and reading from their books. All are welcome from 6.45pm for a 7pm start.
The full programme for the inaugural Wanstead Fringe is now available. You can download it here in PDF format (or by clicking on the image), or just go over to the fringe website www.wansteadfringe.org where you can also buy tickets where necessary.
