Wansteadium news and events roundup – and a free gift

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• Plans to install a cycle lane across the middle of Christ Church Green, which had been opposed by some users of the park, were criticised at the Area One committee on Monday. More details from Wanstead Guardian.

• The number of 18-24-year-olds registered as being out of work in the Leyton and Wanstead constituency rose from 100 in January to 245 in September, according to the ONS.

• Shops in George Lane, led by Suzanne Bennett of Sid and Evie’s, are planning price cuts on Saturday 3 December as part of a campaign to persuade locals not to do their shopping at Westfield.

* Could the Olympic torch relay come down Wanstead High Street? The final route is not being announced until the Spring, but the torch will be making its way from Waltham Forest to Barking via Redbridge on 22 July next year, and the council is planning to put 48 Olympic banners on lampposts on the High Street and Cambridge Park. So it’s a maybe.

• And the best news of all is that, though the renovations at the former Andrews’ Builders’ Merchants are going on (the iconic wooden sign sadly ended up unloved in a skip), Wansteadium is pleased to announce that you can now build your own, so long as you don’t mind it being about two inches tall, made of cardboard, and self-assembly. Collect one of these exclusive, limited edition (and yet somehow free) postcards from the Larder. Hurry while stocks last.

 

Anyone can add an event to the Wansteadium Events calendar by sending details to events@wansteadium.com. Wansteadium now has more than 1,000 regular followers in Wanstead so it’s a great way to let people know what’s going on.

[google-calendar-events id=”1″ type=”list” title=”Events on” max=”10″]

Wanstead’s Co-op snobbery

A delicious slice of Wanstead history is revealed in the Leyton-based site Across the Divide: Wanstead folk in the 60s didn’t want to be seen in a Co-op.

Margaret Wilks, writing about shops on Leytonstone High Road, said:

“Bearmans used to have a fantastic Father Christmas. But you had to be middle class to shop in there. They had a lovely tea place downstairs with all the cake stands, and they brought out your tray with your little cups and saucers. The co-op took it over in the late 60’s. It was kept quiet for six months, my mother in law worked there. They kept it quiet because they had so many account holders there, as soon as that came out everybody cancelled. People from Wanstead and Woodford did not deal with the Co-op! It was called Pioneer, for a short while, so that it didn’t sound like Co-op. It closed within six months. People just didn’t go in there.”

Ironic now that any lingering snob value would, out of Wanstead’s two supermarkets, work in the Co-op’s favour. (Well-spotted, Grouchotendency)

Wanstead property update: One reason Wanstead houseprices might go up

Wansteadium’s property blogger George C Parker writes:

Look out Wanstead estate agents! There’s a new fox on our blocks. Householders have recently been leafletted with enticing introductory offers by the newly-established Stratford branch of Foxtons.

While the Mini-wrangling marketeers have both admirers and detractors, nobody can deny the reach and the buzz that their business has built up over recent years. I’d bet my last Monopoly fiver that these guys’ arrival on our doorstep will increase the exposure of Wanstead properties to a greater number of interested buyers.

Lucky for them that they’ve managed to kick off with a property that simply deserves to be seen by the widest possible audience – take this beautiful Park Road home in Aldersbrook – a stunning adaptation of the classic Edwardian terrace. Four bedrooms, two bathrooms, gloriously sleek open-plan living, and a spiffing little garden room at the end of your sylvan glade. Most habitues of the Foxtons website will be goggle-eyed at the value that exists in this part of town!

The Grass is Sometimes Stepney Greener
People often ask me at cocktail parties: “George, with all the techno-distractions like e-mail, online messaging and Blackberrys, how does a mogul like yourself find the time for all the, er, mogulling that has to be done?”

Draining my glass and reaching for another stiff Tom Collins from the waiter, I always reply that the answer is a good invigorating run. There is no overload of meeting requests and message that cannot be overcome by simply lacing up the trusty Dunlop Green Flash, firing up Churchill’s Greatest Speeches on the iPod and beating the bounds of one’s beloved Wanstead.

Normally I just shoot around our excellent parks until the internal fog clears, and I am ready to deliver another commercial blockbuster of a decision. However, on occasion I require extended periods of rumination and have been known to pootle right across the Flats and all the way up to the City, a solid jog of about an hour from Wanstead.

In recent times this route has kept me up to speed with the incredible transformation of Olympic Stratford, and also the parallel decline of less topical parts of the East End such as downtrodden Stepney. Until now that is! Thanks to the English Heritage High Street 2012 programme a row of once-grand shopfronts (described in the article as ‘opposite the landmark former Wickham department store’) are being restored to former glories.

Having jogged thence from E11, my interest was naturally piqued by the similarity of these buildings in age and standard to those in Wanstead High Street between Santander and 62 Spice. As these proud properties regain their poise and elegance, I returned to the site and produced a ‘then and now’ photograph, above, showing the incredible effect that the work is having on improving the character of the area (and the desirability of the flats above the shops).

The place will look a million dollars, soon enough! Supporters of the Wanstead Smarter High Street Campaign take courage!

Dedication time
Finally, I wish a warm welcome to reader Aadil who is sagely leaving South East London behind and moving up to Wanstead’s greener pastures this month. Thanks for the e-mail!