A book launch for Wanstead House: East London’s Lost Palace by Dr Hannah Armstrong will take place at Wanstead Library this month.
“Hannah will become a virtual tour guide, leading attendees through the different rooms of Wanstead House, which was demolished in 1824… She will bring the atmosphere of Wanstead’s lost palace alive again,” said Giles Wilson of Wanstead Bookshop, which is hosting the event on 31 March from 5pm (talk starts at 7.30pm; booking required).
Visit wnstd.com/bookshop
“I look forward to my walks and feel more confident talking in a group… Getting out greatly improves our mental health and well-being… It is great to meet others locally.” These are just some of the comments from those taking part in our Wanstead walks.
I founded Walk It Out back in April 2021, aiming to empower young females and women in Redbridge to improve their health and well-being, to raise awareness through female empowerment and, most importantly, to tackle crime in the borough. What a journey it’s been – a successful one. I wanted to share this update with you since my last article in the Wanstead Village Directory, and to reach out to more females.
We are running several activities across Redbridge and our park walks include a Saturday morning event in Wanstead where females come together to walk for an hour, getting their 6,000 steps in, socialising and sharing experiences. Joining is free and easy; contact us for an enrolment form.
The Walk It Out mission is to strengthen the voices of females, reduce anxiety, teach new skills and build confidence in females to stand up for themselves at home and in public. Since launching the group, we have already helped so many women in so many ways, from getting back into education and work, becoming healthier and better role models to reminding them of their rights as women.
I have been thanked by the Mayor of Redbridge for all the work I have been doing in the community, which was a proud day for me, and I have also been nominated in the Mayor’s Community Awards 2022. Helping females and seeing the positive effects has really inspired me to continue helping the group grow, so we can continue improving the lives of women.
We have recently been working with local police, teaching females to be assertive, encouraging them to feel confident in reporting crime and discussing safety issues.
We are in the process of applying for funding so we are able to run activities, such as self-defence classes, and we welcome any donations to our JustGiving page. The Redbridge Local Lottery has chosen us as one of the organisations they support and we have also been acknowledged by Redbridge Council, now appearing in their Families Information Direct (FiND) service.
We are now looking for more volunteer mentors and admins to join our team, which can be applied for through Redbridge CVS. If you want to feel inspired, motivated and empowered, contact us. The best project you’ll ever work on is you!
For more information on how you can join a walk or support the Walk It Out initiative, call 07437 517 177, email contactwalkitout@gmail.com or visit the Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages.
The first in a three-part series of seasonal walks along the Roding Valley took place in February.
Hosted by Vision RCL’s Nature Conservation Team, the winter walk started at Ray Park in Woodford and followed the Roding south to Wanstead
“These walks are about exploring the length of the river and surrounding green spaces. Do join us for our spring walk on 7 May. Details of our summer event will be released soon. Sign up to our newsletter for more details,” said Anna MacLaughlin.
Register for the spring walk here.
Sign-up to the monthly Nature Conservation in Redbridge newsletter here.
Villa d’Este in Tivoli, near RomeThe Renaissance was a ‘rebirth’ of the culture and art of the ancient civilisations of Greece and Rome; gardening during this period (15th and 16th centuries) saw a rediscovery of the classical approach to gardening, with designs uniting house and garden.
The Villa d’Este outside Rome is one of the gardens created in this period with its famous water gardens with fountains, spouts, waterjets, waterfalls and basins created by hydraulic engineers. In England, the garden of Hampton Court was developed by Henry VIII to rival the French Renaissance garden of Fontainebleu; he spent the equivalent of £18m improving the house and developing the garden. Features of Hampton Court and other Tudor gardens included a privy garden, or private garden, next to the house, topiary shapes made of hawthorn and rosemary and the knot garden made up of rectangular beds planted with evergreen, some complicated, some very simple. This was the time of the rise of the town garden; examples in London include the development of the gardens of the Inns of Court and gardens of mansions, such as Somerset House and palaces, St James, Whitehall and Lambeth.
The 16th and 17th centuries in England were relatively prosperous, with houses built outside town walls. Often, it was the wives who were responsible for the gardens; rearing livestock and growing vegetables and fruit. In the 17th century, the first botanical gardens were created: Oxford in 621 and Chelsea (the Physic Garden) in 1673. These were established by apothecaries to grow plants for medicines.
Nearer home, in 1714, Richard Child commissioned the leading garden designers of the time, George London and Henry Wise, to design the gardens at Wanstead House. They paid careful attention to planting plans and bought plants from the famous nursery at Brompton Park in Fulham, which they part owned. The formal gardens included parterres and mazes, with a pair of mounts arranged symmetrically on either side of a grass ride. After Wanstead House was rebuilt as the first Palladian mansion in the country, a vast new lake system was introduced. It is suggested that William Kent, another leading garden designer, was also involved at Wanstead.
Kent was one of the originators of the English landscape movement, a move from formal to more natural designs, but including lakes, classical buildings and bridges, influenced by landowners returning from the Grand Tour. Kent’s masterpiece was the garden at Rousham in Oxfordshire. A generation later, Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown became a leading designer of the English landscape movement; his work depended on a simple formula of trees, water and terrain. Audley End and Chatsworth are two examples of his work.
Ruth will be giving a presentation on the history of the garden at Aldersbrook Bowls Club on 8 March from 7.30pm (visitors: £5). Visit wnstd.com/ahs
A rescue package of works to restore Wanstead Park’s historic Grotto will begin this month.
“The Grotto was damaged by fire in 1884 and while it has had patchy repairs over the past 138 years, it has been badly declining and is on the Heritage at Risk Register. The edges of the landing stage have been crumbling. Major stones have been dislodged and the banks are now collapsing,” said a spokesperson for the Heritage of London Trust, which has raised £24,000 for the first phase of this project.
Visit wnstd.com/grotto
©Stanley Bragg ArchitectsA statement from Councillor Jas Athwal, Leader of Redbridge Council, on the delayed construction of Wanstead’s swimming pool:
“I am delighted to announce we now have a new schedule in place to deliver the swimming pool. Work is already underway and due to be completed by the end of 2023… The work we are carrying out will give local people access to a new 25m swimming pool and a new dance studio to complement the existing gym, badminton and squash courts at Wanstead Leisure Centre.”
Routemasters on show in Wanstead in 2011. ©Peter OsbornIconic Routemaster busses will return to Wanstead on 26 March for the London Bus Museum’s Route 101 running day.
Buses will depart every 10 minutes from Woodbine Place (10am to 5pm; free) and follow the original route – which was initially numbered 54 but changed to 101 in 1914 – to North Woolwich, via Manor Park, East Ham, Beckton and Cyprus (Royal Albert Dock). Routemasters were used for the 101 service from 1971 to 1982, and in December 2005, the route was diverted to Gallions Reach.
Visit wnstd.com/101
Nepal is a country in the Indian subcontinent and the Himalaya forms its northern border with Tibet. Its history has been filled with political instability and its geology unpredictable. Despite all this, the people have remained hospitable and welcoming, and the mountain scenery awe-inspiring. The people of the Himalaya belong to a variety of ethnic groups: Gurungs, Sherpas, Rais and a bewildering variety of other Tibeto-Burman nationalities.
I first visited Nepal in the mid-eighties and made a trek in Annapurna district. Since then, I have returned many times and trekked in the Solu Khumbu, Langtang and Annapurna districts on many occasions. Over the years, I’ve seen many changes with roads making ever deeper incursions into the mountains and hotels becoming increasingly sophisticated. The hospitality remains the same and the scenery is always spectacular.
For many years, I recorded my experiences with a trusty Pentax K1000 camera. Analogue moved to digital, and so did my photographic endeavours, but on the last couple of treks I decided to take a drawing book and water colour box to supplement my photography.
All the paintings in the exhibition were made in London using my own photographs and the visual notes I made while trekking. However, perhaps the most important references were the memories of these experiences.
When I was a student, drawing and painting the landscape was an important aspect of my work, and over the past couple of years that interest has been rekindled. I’ve always maintained an interest in the genre through looking at paintings, natural history and essays on aesthetics. Burke’s work on the sublime and the beautiful played an important role in my consideration while engaged in these paintings.
The paintings are concerned with elements of formal composition and the notion of the picturesque, with a reference to foreground interest and the inclusion of features such as habitation, architecture and cultural references in the form of prayer flags and chortens (Buddhist commemorative monuments).
The Himalaya has a limited reference to the context of the European landscape tradition. Explorers such as Joseph Hooker and Edward Norton made topographical renderings of the mountains. Edward Lear painted Kanchenjunga from Darjeeling. William Simpson made descriptive watercolours and Nicholas Roerich engaged the viewer in his mystical and romantic vision.
As Nepal was a closed country until the mid-20th century, it received few visitors, and those permitted entry were limited in their movement outside the Kathmandu valley. Photography became the preferred medium for travel and expeditions and, as a consequence, Nepal’s Himalaya has been largely neglected as a subject for painters.
Landscape painting is just one aspect of my interest in the visual arts; portraiture, the figure and narrative are also important parts of my work.
Chris’s exhibition of Himalayan landscapes will be on show at Wanstead Library until 20 March. For more information, visit christhomasart.co.uk
A public meeting to discuss the various uses of Christ Church Green has been rescheduled and will now take place at Christ Church on 12 March at 2pm.
The meeting – originally prompted by Vision RCL’s plans to install a café kiosk on the green as well as their authorisation for a Christmas tree market last December – will be attended by Wanstead Village councillors as well as the Deputy Leader of the Council, Councillor Kam Rai, who is responsible for parks in the borough. “Christ Church Green is one of our most popular green spaces. I look forward to speaking to residents,” said Councillor Rai. Event organiser Colin Cronin is keen to ensure the debate is community focused: “This is not a political meeting, nor a kiosk debate. It’s an opportunity where we can all find common ground to work with Vision, overseen by our councillors, for the better of our green.”
No booking is required.