Tag: wansteadflats

Wanstead news roundup, 30.6.11; Parking, unpaid council tax, Wanstead Flats’ approval

• More than £4m of council tax payments went uncollected in Redbridge in the last financial year, the Evening Standard has reported. It makes a total of £16.1m uncollected since 1993. Redbridge was 14th in a table of all London boroughs.

• A debate about the strongly-opposed plans to introduce pay-and-display parking in central Wanstead and residents’ permits in surrounding roads will now take place at Redbridge Borough Council, following the presentation of petitions with more than 4,000 signatures. Details in the Wanstead Guardian (but not on its website).

• MPs have passed plans to site a temporary Olympic police base on Wanstead Flats (see here at BBC Democracy Live). Campaigners say they will now seek judicial review.

• The fledgling Wanstead TV will be holding a webcast on Sunday from the High Street during the Farmers’ Market. It will be available on the Wanstead TV website at http://e11.tv/jGyq2W

Wanstead news roundup, 24.11.10; After the sauna? Plus more UFO madness, and Christmas


• Wansteadium reader Jana writes:

Has it reopened? The ‘Wanstead Sauna‘ sign has recently been replaced by one that says something like ‘Men’s Grooming Centre’… Now, I might be reading too much into this.. but… hmmmm. Perhaps a male Wansteadium reader can pop along to see what’s on offer and report back!

• Internet apparently consumed by Wanstead UFO madness, which you read about here first (or possibly second).

• Chemical spill was sugar

• Photos from the Take Back Wanstead Flats event held on Sunday are on Flickr here.

• A shrewd move from Wanstead children’s clothes and shoe shop Knock Down Ginger – from the New Year it will be offering children’s haircutting too. Meanwhile, the Robins Pie and Mash shop has reopened after being attacked by arsonists.

• The Wanstead Christmas lights are being switched on this Friday evening at 4.30pm on George Green (outside Wanstead Tube). Children, a tree, the Salvation Army band, and even (according to current forecasts) the possibility of some snow.

Write your own joke

It’s write-your-own-joke time. Submit them in the usual manner (Twitter, Facebook, or via Comments.)

The raw materials: A pile of white powder is discovered first thing one morning by a forest ranger by the side of a tree on Wanstead Flats. Once alerted, the authorities take it seriously. Three nearby roads are closed. The experts come in. Warnings of a chemical spill spread. Friday morning traffic is badly disrupted. Two hours later, the chemical tests show the substance was sugar.

See Wanstead on film

[picappgallerysingle id=”9990618″]Mike Leigh’s new film, Another Year, which is going on release today (Friday) is set in Wanstead. The film, starring Jim Broadbent, Lesley Manville and Ruth Sheen, was filmed in a house in St Margaret’s Road, also using the front of the house and garden as locations, and on the allotments.

These clips on Film4 give a taster of the tone of film, which will be shown in Enfield, Holloway Road and the Barbican (full listings for Friday from Google here)

Here’s a taste of the film’s entourage on Wanstead Flats during filming last October, taken by Peter Aylmer and featured on his website. In a memorable quote which gives a vivid a taste of Mike Leigh’s film-making style, an actress on the film told him what was going on.

“It’s the new Mike Leigh film,” she told him.

“Has it got a title yet?” asked Peter.

“No,” she said, “it hasn’t even got a story.”

Leigh himself told the Guardian last week:

“I remember when we were shooting the scene in Happy-Go-Lucky where Poppy goes to visit her pregnant sister in Southend. I said to Dick Pope, my director of photography, ‘This is the last time I stand outside a suburban house.’ But then came Another Year and we were shooting in Wanstead. Dick turned to me and said, ‘I thought you said that was the last time you’d shoot outside a suburban house.'”

So, as is Wansteadium tradition, your reviews of the film are welcome, especially if they focus on the role Wanstead plays. To kick off, here’s Wanstead stalwart @dollycreative ‘s verdict.

Wanstead is perfect for a bitter-sweet Mike Leigh film set in a nice house in a conservation area, but still in E London http://is.gd/gIsoaless than a minute ago via webGabrielle Collard
DollyCreative