Andrews’ sign ended in a skip


Bad news for those sentimental about Wanstead heritage: Wansteadium can reveal that the familiar sign on the front of Andrew’s Builders’ Merchant ended up in a skip.

Renovations at the Woodbine Place building are converting it into a fabric shop; its new owners have told the Wanstead Society that they destroyed the old wooden sign.

Last week Wansteadium reported some calls from readers to have the sign preserved. It was certainly a familiar sight, partly because its old style black-and-white paint had remained unchanged for decades and was resistant to any modernisation.

(We will not now be launching an online petition for it to be saved.)

Wanstead gardening: Getting ready for winter

Wansteadium’s gardening blogger, Ron, 90, who has cultivated his own little patch of E11 for more than 50 years, offers his thoughts on approaching another winter.

We’ve got – for the moment – bright blue skies and it’s dry under foot. It’s pretty chilly, yes, but nothing that a good gardening coat won’t solve. So these are ideal days to be giving your garden a good tidy up before we start to get the wintry weather.

First of all it’s a great time of year to give some attention to your lawn. Give it a good tidy up, even round the borders. You’ll probably see gardeners on TV telling you it’s a good time to aerate your lawn – which involves lancing it with a fork or even taking slim plugs of soil out of your lawn, and then filling the holes with sand.

To be honest, I think if you’ve looked after your lawn over the spring and summer, you shouldn’t need to be doing all this business. And this year I don’t think there will be too much moss in lawns because it hasn’t been so wet, so you shouldn’t be too troubled with having to rake it all out. (By “looking after” your lawn, I really mean regular mowing and occasional treatment with Evergreen, which I believe you can buy in the pet shop in Wanstead High Street. Too late this year to do it, but remember for next.)

It’s not too late either to be mowing your lawn – I gave mine a quick trim today – especially if you have a mower with a roller on it. This helps push down the wormcasts which come up after it’s rained; if you don’t push them down your lawn will gradually get very bumpy.

Incidentally, if you’ve got large dips in your lawn you can still sort these out by gradually spreading a mixture of sharp sand and loam on them – allowing the grass to come up. You’ll have to be patient (unless you want to be more adventurous in digging the grass up and filling the hole from underneath) but it will be worth it if you like a flat lawn.

Aside from the lawn there’s lots to be done in the way of cutting back and tidying up. I’ve dug up some border plants which have grown into a clump – it’s a good time to split them into two or more separate plants.

I’ve brought some fuchsias inside now – and if you have any delicate plants you might want to do the same. I lost some last Autumn.

And it’s not too early to be thinking about next year. My neighbour bought some geraniums from the pet shop which had a very pleasant red-orange flower and a crinkled variegated leaf. He said I was welcome to take cuttings, and I now have five new plants indoors which next spring will be going outside. I also planted some wallflower seeds – they are now about an inch high – and some sweet peas too (though they will cost about 10p a go). It’s really not too soon to be thinking about Spring, and somehow that reminds you that this gardening business isn’t just something that stops when the clocks go back. Nature goes on, 12 months a year, whether we’re looking or not.

Wanstead Shops update: An answer for Andrews?

Normally reliable sources have told Wansteadium that the answer to what the future holds for Andrew’s Builders Merchants is… cloth.

Unlikely (and underwhelming) as it might seem, the Woodbine Place premises is to house a fabric retailer and wholesaler. The report is unconfirmed, but if it turns out to be true, you heard it here first.

  • In other news, children’s clothes shop and hair boutique Knock Down Ginger is now also hosting children’s parties.
  • The rather overplayed departure of Picture Perfect is now done. It is to be replaced with a framing shop. (True, but again, underwhelming.)
  • A fridge catastrophe in the Co-op on Friday night led to a run on Greek yoghurt and Frubes.
  • Letting agent Mike Molloy of Martin&co hit the Huffington Post this week.
  • The return of One Deko is imminent. It seems that it will still be selling transparent chairs.
  • New product line at The Larder is right in so many ways.

20111022-153149.jpg

What’s to become of Andrew’s Builder’s Merchants?

No-one seems to know what is to happen to the former Andrew’s Builders Merchants on Woodbine Place.

Renovations are clearly taking place at the boxy little shop, which closed last year after many decades’ service to the people of Wanstead (tap washers and fairy lights, mostly).

Double glazing has been installed, and electrical work has been taking place. But it is the removal of the ultra-distinctive black and white painted wooden sign, a familiar and charming sight for years, which is for many people a real sadness.

Some Wansteadium readers have even suggested launching an online petition to ensure the sign is saved for posterity. One, Dan,  said: “The landmark signage has been removed and it is sad to think that this has been allowed to happen. The high street has suffered badly in recent years and this is another blow to its preservation.”

It is clear, though, that far from being a redundant shell, for the right business this could be just the right opportunity, with high visibility, and lots of people nearby. For Wanstead too it could be a wonderful addition to the ecosystem of the high street. And yet mystery surrounds the plans – a spokesman for Redbridge Council told Wansteadium that it had not been notified of any work at the building.

Even the mighty Wanstead Society has drawn a blank. It has been drawing up suggested plans to tidy up the land at the front, where the pavement is extremely narrow – especially for families dodging buses while walking to the Treehouse Nursery or the library. They are hoping that the accountants THP and the children’s shop Bambini will help in working out exactly who owns which bit of land, and then apply to the council for some maintenance work to take place. But attempts even to find out who is the current owner of the building itself have so far proved unsuccessful.

Anyone with knowledge of plans is invited to contact wansteadium@gmail.com. Discretion assured.

Before

 

Fab photos of Wanstead

Outstanding photographs of Wanstead, taken this week by photographer Gary Lashmar.

Gary says: “I have just moved to the area again after some years with my girlfriend. I am a wedding photographer – although I shoot my weddings somewhat offbeat, in much the same way I shoot my street photography. That’s kind of my default setting.” Anyone wanting to contact Gary can do so via his website, marshalgraystudio.com or on Facebook where you can see more pictures.