The second power cut in a week made shops, banks and cafes on Wanstead High Street close for the second time in a week. Faulty electrical equipment led to the cut, and workers from UK Power Network could be seen outside the NatWest trying to fix it.
By early evening the UK Power website had put back its expected time of repair until 7pm, though this had been extended already several times during the day.
A similar outage on Christmas Eve also led to shops closing.
Some shops were helped to keep open by the Nationwide sharing cables with their neighbours.
