Now 2011 is out of the way, you might be interested in how many people read Wansteadium last year, and what they were reading.
Our readership figures (recorded by Google Analytics) were:
64,028
visits in total, from
26,096
different people (“unique visitors”).
There were an almighty
113,191
pageviews in the year.
Far and away the biggest story of the year for us was the summer rioting, with the tension in Wanstead High Street and trouble in South Woodford leading thousands of readers to come over two days. The top 10 most read pages (excluding index pages) was:
1. South Woodford hit – Wanstead nervous (July)
2. Wanstead driving test routes mapped (May 2010)
3. Review: The Larder in Bethnal Green. Yes. Bethnal Green! (April)
4. Hadley House, arrivederci (October 2010)
5. Reviews of Wanstead’s new steakhouse (September 2010)
6. Turkish delight reviews (October)
8. At last – a buyer for Andrews’ Builders Merchant (April Fool)
9. Nice Croissant gets dissed (May)
10. Wanstead’s Massage surprise (December 2010)
Thank you to everyone who’s read Wansteadium in the past year. It’s been great fun putting it together, especially welcoming new voices like George C Parker, Suki Orange and gardener Ron. There’ll be more property, food and gardening in the year to come, but if you are interested in joining their ranks (we’re particularly interested to hear from people with a passion for books, culture, cricket and parenting) then please do drop us a line at wansteadium@gmail.com.
It’s always sad to see something you admire fail, so I’m sorry to see the Green go. But of course I wish Zainab well. I can’t help thinking, though, that from a customer’s point of view, we just don’t need any more choices for Indian restaurants in Wanstead. I know I’ve said it before, but what we could really do with is something a degree or two more mainstream – though with two restaurants closing in the past 18 months this does not appear to be the ideal spot. Â There’s clearly a demand for weekend lunches – just look at the Cuckfield on a Sunday after Desert Island Discs. Wanstead is brimming over with young families and not many places for them to eat comfortably together. At the risk of looking spurned, I’ll repeat my invitation to Strada. It’s a chain, yes, but it might be just want our menu needs.