Beer and circuses

IMG_0277Belated congratulations to Wansteadium reader (and sometime cricket correspondent) @nutterlane (Dan Clapton) on the successful launch of the Wanstead Tap, a kind of virtual microbrewery which had its first outing at this weekend’s Wanstead Farmer’s Market.

Rather than brewing his own, Dan sold a range of bottled beers which are made within a Volvo ride’s distance of Wanstead, including Little Brew from Camden Road, Pressure Drop from Bohemia Place (E8), Hackney Brewery American Pale Ale, Night Watchman from the East London Brewing company, the London Fields brewery, and the Wildcard Brewery from Higham Hill.

We’re pleased to report it was a sell out (in a good way). This could be a green shoot of economic recovery.

Hurrah for the glorious Wanstead 500

500xWansteadium is cracking open the bubble bath, basking in the passing of a glorious tally of 500 e-mail subscribers. Thank you to everyone who has signed up for our newsletter which arrives on mornings when there is something to say, but never more than once per day.

It is free to receive. Remarkable but true. If you’d like to join the serried ranks of subscribers, enter your details on the right hand side of the page.

Domino’s withdraws Cinnamon plan

Cinnamon is NOT open

Domino’s Pizza has withdrawn its bid to convert the former Cinnamon restaurant on Wanstead High Street into a takeaway branch.

The planning document on the Redbridge site states simply that the bid has been withdrawn, without specifying reasons.

The application would have meant a change of use of (A3) cafe/restaurant to (A5) hot food take-away, and other changes including:

  • installation of a replacement shopfront
  • installation of a cycle stand
  • installation of a roof mounted extract duct, fresh air duct, compressor unit and air conditioning unit,
  • installation of a replacement doorway to the rear elevation,
  • installation of a new refuse area,
  • installation of a replacement stairway,
  • removal of an existing ‘lean-to-structure’ and ‘pitched roof’ and
  • the removal of an existing rooflight.

Meanwhile mystery surrounds Costa’s bid to move in to the former Enigma. The company has approved for planning permission to install illuminated signs (something which is anathema to the Wanstead Society), but says it has no firm plans to open a branch here. Very odd.

Celebration of Wanstead cycling

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

© Geoff Wilkinson, who writes on Wanstead Daily Photo: “Remember [Wednesday] morning, grey, overcast and cold ? Well not at sunrise [on Thursday] when this pictures was taken, these fantastic colours lasted only a few minutes before the sun rose high enough to be hidden by the clouds. I had to take this photograph very quickly, there was not enough time to find a different location, however when I saw the image on the back of the camera I really liked the combination of the sun, power lines and trees.”

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!”

Last summer’s happy crop