March 2023

In the 12th of a series of articles looking at the redevelopment of Whipps Cross Hospital, Charlotte Monro reflects on NHS funding issues, strike action and the need for improvements in end-of-life care 

Amidst uncertainty over funding for the national new hospitals programme, the Whipps Cross Redevelopment team is still waiting for money to be released for the next phase, the multistorey car park. The underfunding of the NHS over the years is at such a point that impossible pressure has become the norm. 

It has never been more urgent to fight for our NHS. Thousands of nurses, ambulance staff and therapists are taking strike action for this reason. I am inspired by the courage and determination of my health care colleagues who are taking this stand because the shortage of staff means their patients are suffering and they cannot deliver the care they want. Nurses’ real pay has fallen by £5,200 compared to 2010, whilst paramedics’ real pay is down by £6,700. They are asking to be treated as caring human beings and valued for the vital work they do. 

Our campaign for the future of Whipps is not only for the best buildings and spaces to meet our health care needs, but for its dedicated staff, without which there is no future. The work to save the Margaret Centre brings this home. In January, councillors on the Joint Scrutiny Committee discussed a review of end-of-life care in the Whipps catchment area. I was one of five members of the public who addressed the meeting, calling for the Margaret Centre to be reprovided within in the Whipps redevelopment. 

Despite all the evidence gathered by the review from service users, their carers and staff clearly showing how highly valued our end-of-life and palliative care unit in Whipps is, the options proposed did not include reproviding it as a dedicated unit in the new hospital build. It seems there is a missing piece in the report’s conclusions: the expertise that has been built in the Margaret Centre, the understanding of needs and the human-centred care. This must be the launch pad, and the ongoing beacon, for much-needed improvements in end-of-life care. I suggested that a unit next to the hospital linked by a bridge be considered. 

A GP – who said local doctors had not been consulted about the Margaret Centre– added: “The centre provides an invaluable resource for the community, particularly for dying patients. It also provides respite care. For doctors like myself, it’s such a wonderful place to go to and share grief. Yes, some people want to die at home and that’s their choice, but there are some that need this centre.”

If you have experience of end-of-life care or feel strongly about this, make sure you have your say. The review is ongoing with engagement sessions being planned and a consultation to be launched later this year. 

And please support our health staff!

To join the campaign or share views, email whipps.cross.campaign@gmail.com

In the 30th of a series of articles, David Bird discusses the work of Redbridge Music Society and introduces violinist Ana Popescu-Deutsch and pianist Leona Crasi, who will perform in Wanstead this month

One of the core aims of Redbridge Music Society is to promote and support talented musicians, especially those living and working within the borough, in the earlier stages of their careers. This month, Woodford Green musicians Ana Popescu-Deutsch (violin) and Leona Crasi (piano) will give an eclectic recital of popular violin classics and Transylvanian folk music, including Bartok’s famous Six Romanian Dances.

Romanian-British violinist Ana Elisabeta Popescu-Deutsch started violin lessons at the age of six, going on to study at the prestigious George Enescu Music High School (Budapest) and later at the Royal Academy of Music, where she received her BMus (Hons) and MA degrees. During and after her studies, she was a member of the European Union Youth Orchestra and Southbank Sinfonia. A keen performer of Romanian classical and folk music, Ana continues to direct a chamber music series called Enescu & Friends, aimed at introducing audiences to George Enescu’s work in the musical context of his epoch. 

Ana also performs with the Scordatura Collective, a mixed chamber ensemble that promotes music composed by women. She performs in diverse orchestral projects and is frequently a guest violinist in other chamber groups. Ana is part of the Morello String Quartet, a group that has played in numerous venues and festivals across the UK. She is also a committed pedagogue, teaching violin and viola at the North London Conservatoire.

Leona Crasi is a progressive Romanian-American pianist, performance curator and educator based in London. She began to play piano at the age of three, studied in Romania, the USA and in the UK, where she graduated at the Royal Academy of Music (BMus, MMus). Leona has performed internationally as a soloist and chamber player, her performing experience ranging from historical and classical repertoire to noise and jazz improvisation. She has won numerous awards at competitions and festivals across Europe and America.

In 2021, Leona founded the Institute of Contemporary Performance, a collective dedicated to the expansion of contemporary practices in classical music performance. During 2020 and 2021, Leona was part of DNA Contemporary Music Festival in London as a coordinator and performer. She is currently appointed as a cultural officer at the Embassy of Israel.

This month’s recital promises to be a very special evening of music-making. Please come along to experience and enjoy this unique event.

Ana and Leona will perform at Wanstead Library on 14 March from 8pm (tickets on the door; visitors: £12; members: £8). Call 07380 606 767. Redbridge Music Society is supported by Vision RCL and affiliated to Making Music.

Redbridge-based Valentine Singers are celebrating 25 years of choral performances. Their anniversary year begins in grand style in Aldersbrook this month with Music from Vienna. Christine Gwynn reports

To mark the start of our 25th anniversary, Valentine Singers will be hosting a concert of Music from Vienna at St Gabriel’s Church in Aldersbrook. We will be joined by Writtle Singers, the excellent Jericho Ensemble (led by Tina Bowles) and a superb line-up of professional soloists: Anita Wilson, Madeleine Sexton, Bene’t Coldstream and Alistair Kirk. As conductor, I will lead these combined forces in a programme of music by Beethoven, Haydn and Martines.  

If you’re even remotely familiar with classical music, the first two composers will be household names, but maybe not the third. Marianna Martines was born in Vienna in 1744 and spent her whole life there, growing up in apartments in the Michaelerhaus by the central church of St Michael and very close to the famous Spanish Riding School. Other residents in the capacious property included the poet and librettist Metastasio (who played a key part in the education of Marianna and her siblings), the acclaimed singing teacher Nicola Porpora and, for a while, a young, struggling composer who lived in the attic, one Joseph Haydn, who was Marianna’s first piano teacher.

Martines was highly esteemed in her lifetime as a pianist, singer and composer; Mozart was a regular visitor to the family’s musical soirées, often playing piano duets with her.

The work which we shall be performing in Aldersbrook is Marianna Martines’ 1773 Dixit Dominus, a setting of Psalm 110, on the strength of which she became the first female composer admitted (since its foundation in 1666) to the prestigious Accademia Filarmonica of Bologna – a 250th anniversary worth celebrating!  

Though Martines was an active and highly accomplished performer and composer, she never sought an appointed position; it would have been unacceptable for a woman in her social class to seek such employment. Her last known public appearance was on 23 March 1808, attending a performance of Haydn’s oratorio Die Schöpfung in tribute to the composer. She died on 13 December 1812.

The other works in the programme are Haydn’s sparkling Te Deum, written for Empress Maria Theresa, Beethoven’s glorious Mass in C and his serene and poignant Elegischer Gesang, a short elegy composed for the wife of a friend. 

If you haven’t been to St Gabriel’s before, you are in for a treat. It is light and warm, with good, accessible facilities and comfy chairs; refreshments will be available at the interval. The church is on the corner of Park Road and Aldersbrook Road, opposite Wanstead Flats.

Valentine Singers will perform Music from Vienna at St Gabriel’s Church, Aldersbrook on 25 March from 7.30pm (adults: £18; students and those on benefits: £10; under-16s: free; booking required). Visit wnstd.com/vs or call 01277 364 772 

Famous women from Redbridge will be celebrated at an event at Wanstead Library on 21 March.

“You’ll hear about the lives and achievements of Sarah Ingleby of Valentines Mansion, Dr Aimai Cooper-Parsee, the only Indian woman doctor in England circa 1910, actress Greer Gardson and many more,” said a spokesperson.

The free event starts at 2pm and will be hosted by Jef Page, chairman of the Ilford Historical Society

Call 020 8708 7400 

Over-55s poetry group the Redbridge Rhymesters will be joined by pupils from Snaresbrook Primary School at their meeting on 21 March.

“There will be no theme for this session, it will be a free choice, and I am sure whatever our members and the children write about, they will produce some imaginative poetry,” said group founder Alexandra Wilde.

Taking place at Age UK’s Allan Burgess Centre in Wanstead from 10am to 12 noon, the free event is open to any over-55s with an interest in creative writing.

Call 020 8989 6338

Those recently moved to Wanstead and long-term residents alike are invited to join the Wanstead Society committee and help protect, preserve and improve our local area. Eileen Flinter reports

You are more than halfway qualified to join our committee if you are reading this! At present, there are six regular members on the committee, several of us are of long-standing and we are now looking to expand, possibly to double this number, and thus bring some new ideas to the Wanstead Society.

If you live, work, study or regularly visit Wanstead, if you like or, possibly, have even grown to love this area and would like to see the best of it maintained whilst changes and developments chime with the atmosphere and environment that makes it one of the best places to live in London, then you would probably enjoy contributing to our work. 

What do we do? We are lucky to have two committee members who are particularly interested in keeping track of planning applications. They look, but not exclusively, at those applications and schemes which do, or may, impact on the Conservation Area. We are in contact with local councillors and, on occasion, attend council meetings concerning planning issues. And during local elections, we organise hustings.

With the invaluable help of photographer Geoff Wilkinson and the generous sponsorship of Petty Son and Prestwich, we produce a calendar, which is sold from our stall at the Wanstead Festival and also in Memories on the High Street to boost our funds each year. In turn, we have sponsored trees on Christ Church Green and the High Street. We also contribute to the Wanstead Community Gardeners and promote the regular litter picks as well as responding to one-off events, including collecting new socks and underwear for homeless people last winter and contributing to provide food for the swans on Eagle Pond during the avian flu episode. We also contribute articles to this publication and to the local press about our work. We produce publicity materials promoting the Society and have a website that would really benefit from some TLC. And then there are the social events for our members we organise. 

In short, we are involved and work with – and for – the local community over a diverse range of projects. Some are ongoing, such as planning, and others when the need arises.

Maybe there are some things you would like to see more or, indeed, less of, in Wanstead. If so, please consider donating some of your knowledge and time to our committee. We hold meetings at Wanstead House on the last Wednesday of every month (except August and December). Thanks to email, there is no pressure to attend every single meeting. 

Wanstead is changing and we would really welcome new arrivals, whilst always valuing the experience of those who have been involved in the area for many years.

For more information on joining the Wanstead Society committee, email eileenflinter@yahoo.co.uk

Local knitting group Social Knitworks recently celebrated its fourth anniversary.

“Bringing together a diverse group of knitters and crocheters, we support a variety of projects. Beneficiaries of our handmade items include Whipps Cross Hospital, the Magpie Trust and Celia Hammond Animal Trust. And through our sales, we’ve raised around £15,000 for charities, including the Corner House Project, Haven House, CHAOS, St Mungos, Magic Breakfast and St Francis Hospice,” said group founder Liz Hickson.

Visit wnstd.com/knit

Swan rescue volunteers are urging dog owners to keep their pets on a lead when near water birds in Wanstead Park and by Eagle Pond in Snaresbrook.

“As cygnets are being chased off by their parents it makes them vulnerable on the bank, and nesting season is approaching, which makes the swans fiercely protective of their territories. You may feel your dog is no threat, but the swans don’t know that. Any interaction with birds causes massive stress to them, even when there is no physical contact,” said Helen O’Rourke. 

2023 marks 100 years since women were permitted to join the Woodford and Wanstead Photographic Society. To mark International Women’s Day this month, club chair Sue Rosner will be giving a talk about the group’s female members, past and present. Images by club members Rachel Dee Smith (portrait), Carole Milligan (sunset) and Ro Ward (beach scene)

The Woodford Photographic Society was formed in 1893 (Wanstead was added to the club’s name much later) by seven men who met in the coffee tavern by George Lane station, now South Woodford station. But it would be another 30 years before women could join.

Initially, in April 1921, ladies could be invited as visitors to the more ‘suitable’ meetings and the programmes of the time are asterisked with a note which said: “These lectures are illustrated with lantern slides and are suitable evenings on which members might bring their lady friends.” It is interesting to speculate what the ‘suitable’ evenings contained.

At the AGM on 25 April 1923, it was agreed that women could join the club. Miss Gertrude Emma Powers became the first female member later that month. She was born in 1889 in Stepney, so would have been 34 when she joined. In 1911, her family moved to Woodford and Gertrude graduated from the University of London with a BSc (III class), and the following year from Newnham College, Cambridge with a BA (II class). On 22 December 1923, Gertrude married Charles Wood at the church of St Mary the Virgin, Woodford. The couple subsequently moved to Wilderness Corner, Quidenham, Norfolk, where Gertrude died on 18 October 1934. 

In August 1923, Gertrude was followed by Miss R Eastgate (proposed by Miss GE Powers), who became our second female member. Then, in February 1924, Miss Dorothy Norah Cross and her stepmother Grace were elected as members. Norah was born in 1889 in Hackney and by 1901, after the death of her mother, the family had moved to Woodford. She later worked as a school teacher. Little more than a year after joining the society, Norah was elected to the society’s council (what we call the committee today) at the AGM in April 1925, and at the AGM in 1928 she became the society’s first female president. She was still president in 1932. Norah never married, and at the time of her death on 4 February 1957, was living at 54 St Ronan’s Crescent, Woodford Green.

For the first 105 years of the club’s existence, it met in a variety of locations in Woodford. In 1998, we began meeting in Wanstead, initially at the former dance studio Dulverton, and since 2014 at Wanstead House. And so it made sense to add Wanstead to our name, but it was not until 2017 that the name on the club’s chequebook was updated.

I took over as chair from David Tachauer in October 2020, and there have been four female chairs before me. Out of a membership of 50, we now have 17 women members. We meet in person twice a month and on Zoom for the other two weeks. All are welcome to join, but I would still like to encourage more women to come along and take part.

Sue’s presentation on women becoming members of the Woodford and Wanstead Photographic Society will take place at Wanstead House on 13 March from 7.30pm. Visit wnstd.com/wwps

With thanks Alan Simpson for research.

Plans are being made for a series of exhibitions to be located in three London parks – including Wanstead Park – as part of this year’s London Festival of Architecture.

“Running throughout June, each exhibition will display stories and opinions of locals about their relationship with their park,” said a spokesperson for exhibition organisers Eser Gungor Studio. Residents are encouraged to send in their answers to the question: “What does your local park mean to you in your life?”

Email info@esergungor.com 

The Corner House Project – a Wanstead-based initiative that supports the homeless in east London – is appealing for more volunteers.

“Drivers are needed to collect unsold food from the Co-op and deliver it to local foodbanks and hostels. We have a rota and would love to add more volunteers to share the load,” said a spokesperson.

Founded in 2019, the charity aims to ‘relieve hardship and distress of those persons in need by reason of their social and economic circumstances’.

Email lizcalvert@tiscali.co.uk