February 2023

Residents who oppose Pocket Living’s plans to build flats on Snaresbrook Station car park have drawn attention to the rejection of a similar proposal in Brent last month.

“The Planning Inspectorate upheld Brent Council’s decision, and we need to learn from this. There’s a failure to meet housing mix requirements, and road and fire safety concerns remain. This scheme is deeply flawed,” said a Real Snaresbrook campaign spokesperson. Redbridge Council will make a decision this month.

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Trees for Cities volunteers joined Vision RCL’s nature conservation rangers for a community tree planting day in Roding Valley Park last month.

“Although we experienced freezing cold temperatures, it was a lovely sunny day, and we successfully continued with planting the area near Charlie Brown’s Roundabout,” said Tajinder Lachhar.

Two new woodlands are being planted in the park, which will grow to provide a natural barrier against pollution from nearby roads and provide habitats for local wildlife.

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Anyone fancy a Wanstead Beer Festival? Councillor Paul Donovan raises a glass to the ongoing success of beer festivals and invites responses from anyone who would like to see Wanstead on the beer festival map

Beer festivals have grown in popularity over recent years. Many are run by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA). They offer a chance for people of all ages, shapes and sizes to come together and enjoy a variety of beers. There is also often entertainment, with many bands taking part in the festivals.

The biggest event held annually is the Great British Beer Festival, which draws thousands of people into Olympia over a five-day period in August. Brewers from all over the country provide a broad range of beers, from heavy imperial stouts to the lighter blondes (closer to lager). There are also cider and perry bars.

The serving of the different beers is a mass volunteer operation – often done by heroic CAMRA members. There are also a variety of food outlets, providing anything from pasties and hot dogs to Indian street food.

A beer festival closer to home is the Epping & Ongar event in July. This has the added attraction of being held at the Epping Ongar Railway, so beers can be enjoyed whilst travelling on steam trains.

Every beer festival is different. Another July favourite is the Ealing Beer Festival, held in Walpole Park. A number of marquees are erected within the park. With the sun shining, it is a great place to have a beer. By contrast, Norwich has an October beer festival in the historic St Andrews Halls.

Another winter local festival is the Pigs Ear event, held in Hackney at the end of November and organised by the East London & City CAMRA branch. It is an excellent occasion, with more than 3,000 attending over the five days last year. East London & City Camra branch, though, are old hands, the most recent event being its 38th.

Another excellent event last year was the Wandsworth Common Halloween Beer & Cider Festival, held at the historic Royal Victoria Patriotic Building. What Wandsworth showed was how an event can be run in a relatively small space. It also had a personal favourite, The Councillor beer, brewed especially for the event by the Sambrooks brewery.

So, what about a Wanstead Beer Festival? There are certainly a number of open spaces and large buildings that could host such an event. There are plenty of real ale fans in Wanstead, as witnessed by the variety of beers stocked in our local pubs. And our excellent transport links would make it easy for people coming from outside the area to attend.

Around the time of the Wanstead Fringe and Wanstead Festival maybe? If there is sufficient interest, then Wanstead can surely put itself on the beer festival map.

To register your interest in a Wanstead Beer Festival, or to get involved in organising one, email beer@wnstd.com

Following the recent death of Shirley Edrich, who lived in Wanstead for over 50 years, her daughter Carole Edrich reflects on a life of teaching, a life of learning and a life well lived

A long-time Wanstead resident, Shirley Edrich lived in Selsdon Road with her husband David and children for over 50 years. They’d walk through the Green, past Lewis Marine, visit Matthews the Chemist, Vanes the Stationers, Rollys, Dunhams the Drapers, Trevena, Woolworths, the Garden Centre and the Wanstead Wool Shop, which she loved.

She once told me one of the things that attracted her to this area were the gardens and trees lining the roads, but only after moving in did she realise that none were on her road. She saw the Queen’s visit, Dunhams the Bakery change to Nice Croissant, the treeing of Felstead Road, the building of the library and Wanstead High’s science block. Having expected the motorway to be created in time to block the road and give my brother and I a safe space to play, she was bemused by Swampy’s campaign against it years later.

She taught biology and history at the Edith Cavell in Hackney, which was where she met David. She also reviewed books, was an O and A level examiner and lectured nurses on hygiene and birthing. She once said to me laughingly that, while she was qualified to do so, at the time she had no idea how it felt.

She and Dad read for Redbridge Talking Books (ponderous machines with three settings delivered weekly to the borough’s blind) and inevitably ended up coordinating it. A keen bridge player, she started at Wanstead House, press-ganged Dad into teaching and played in clubs and with local friends around the neighbourhood. This supplanted sailing at Walthamstow Reservoir but never replaced her golf. For years, she visited the homebound for chats and company, keeping up with friends in similar straits.

Deeply sensitive and too old-school to show it, with Dad she lost a part of herself. At 80, she complained her friends were getting too old to walk and hike with her, and grieved for each friend she lost. Easily 20 years older than most of them, she outlasted all but a few.

At Wanstead House and environs, she learned woodworking and carving, upholstery, crochet, art and crafts and even Italian. Later, she enjoyed local U3A events. Until her stroke two weeks before the first lockdown, she went to a West End play once a week. 

She was one of a kind, got arrested for kissing her Greek fiancé on a pyramid after the war (she had given up waiting for Dad who had to telegram her money to pay for her fare home). At 90, she still harangued anyone who encroached on her property, had a near-eidetic memory and worked on her antiquarian book business well past her first stroke. The last food she enjoyed was a banana from Harveys and a pastel de nata from City Place. Other favourites were fruit tarts from Le Bakerie and strawberries from The Co-op. She will be missed.

Obituary submissions for local residents are welcome. Email editor@wnstd.com

A photography exhibition documenting the use of Wanstead Park for daily exercise during the COVID-19 pandemic will open at the park’s visitor centre this month.

“Many people slipped into a routine during lockdown; same place, same time and often the same conversations,” said photographer Russell Boyce. “The photos are portraits of people on their daily exercise, accompanied by a snippet of the conversations overheard while walking in the park.”

The images were all taken during the two weeks leading up to Boris Johnson’s ‘roadmap out of lockdown’ announcement on 22 February 2021.

Overheard in Lockdown – which is supported by The Stow Brothers, Epping Forest and the City of London Corporation – will be on show outside the Temple for six weeks from 11 February.