…and thanks for all the fish. The Wanstead branch of the restaurant changed hands in February – the one in the City remains – and has revealed what it is to be called. (Thanks to @nick_affleck for the photo.) Welcome and good luck – though isn’t the thought of green fish a bit Cat in the Hat?
On this night in 1940, at 12.43am, German planes dropped high explosives on Sylvan Road, bursting a water main. At 12.20, high explosives were dropped on Hollybush Hill, and at 10.08am an unexploded bomb in large crater which was 4ft deep was dealt with by the bomb disposal squad.
An occasional public service announcement: if you have garden waste, this week (w/c 24 Oct) is your last chance this year to have it collected as part of the routine door-to-door collections. More details on Redbridge-i.
Wanstead’s  Smarter High Street campaign  – which among other things assesses the visual impact of shopfronts – has got its work cut out this weekend.
Firstly, Wanstead Pharmacy has put behind it its Reginald Perrin days, when a falling letter from its sign spells a different name each day. It’s got a smart new sign at last.
Then, slightly further down the street, what is normally a sign of de-gentrification: the addition of shutters, this time to Robins Pie and Mash shop. But since that shop suffered three firebomb attacks in three days last week, no-one is going to think the owners are over-reacting. Unattractive they may be, but no-one is going to criticise.
And finally the covers are off the new face of Hadley House. Tasteful, sober, but not quite Italian chic. L’infinito – purveyors of fine Italian food and Google Translate signs – is now open for business. As is traditional here, anyone who experiences Wanstead’s new gastronomy is welcome to send a review.
Tonight’s Evening Standard is reporting that, despite campaigning against smoking, Redbridge has £1.5m invested in shares in tobacco firms.
The paper says the council “tried to obstruct publication of its holdings in such companies”, and says that £1m of the council pension fund is invested in RJ Reynolds, manufacturer of Camel, and a further £500,000 in other tobacco firms.
This is, it says, in spite of Redbridge having “one of London’s strongest anti-smoking policies”. The council told the paper that it had an ethical investment policy, but did not “fetter the discretion” of its investment managers.
21 October – the earliest frost in Wanstead since records were kept (by this blog, starting in 2009).
