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!

Hackney exhibition in Wanstead

The Eightyfour gallery in Nightingale Lane – up until now exclusively a photography gallery – is from this weekend hosting a show by Hackney artist Remlap.

The show includes some of the pictures above, and focus largely on city landmarks, some well known, some not. Art magazine Glass has said of the show:

The ethereal and haunting beauty of the style pervades the work and gives the viewer a unique vision of a city in a continuous state of death and rebirth. As a resident of Hackney and the now infamous Pembury estate, Remlap is a first hand witness to the violence and destruction of his local community and the tension that followed the recent riots and death of Mark Duggan. The ‘ghosts’ of the title refer to that tension and air of uncertainty. Remlap sees this as a spectre haunting the city.

The show opens on Saturday 12 November, from 2pm until 8pm, when people are invited to go along and meet the artist. The show continues until next Saturday, 19 November. More details from the gallery on 020 8530 1244.

 

Nail bar opening still on for 11/11

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The re-opening of a Wanstead nail bar is still planned for the day when the nation pauses to remember the war dead, but will not be until after the two minutes’ silence at 11am.

Wansteadium reported yesterday that flyers were being handed out for the renovated high street shop, announcing the opening for the 11th of the 11th at 11am.  The sign at the shop, in the former Horsfall and Wright premises, this morning indicates it’s all going still going ahead on Friday, but a posting on the shop’s Facebook page clarifies that it will be after the silence.

 

Any information can be sent to wansteadium@gmail.com