June 2024

Mark Nicholas founded the Laugh-Able comedy night in 2019 to give acts with disabilities and mental health conditions a platform. This month, he will launch Fest-Able – a festival of 16 shows – in Wanstead 

When I first started comedy five years ago, I vividly remember being booked with another performer who was forced to drop out because they couldn’t get their wheelchair into the venue. Having a disability myself (autism), I was sympathetic to the cause, and upon investigating the comedy scene further, I found this was a common barrier to many acts with physical disabilities. 

So, I set myself a mission to change this! With the help of a lovely London promoter and local advocacy project, One Place East, and with the support of Redbridge Libraries in providing an accessible venue, the Laugh-Able comedy night was born on 8 November 2019. 

Our first show was a huge success! A 50-plus audience turned up to see so many wonderful acts with different disabilities, including our headline act, Aaron Simmonds. Aaron, and many others, were very impressed with the accessibility of the night and how many other disabled folk came out to support this event. Although, Aaron did comment that Ilford station itself was not accessible!

Even during the pandemic, we continued to provide incredible nights via Zoom in which we attracted TV comedians such as Rosie Jones!

Coming out of Covid, I continued to work with One Place East and Redbridge Libraries to achieve several funding bids to deliver comedy workshops to local residents with disabilities and mental health conditions, which has led to said residents performing in our monthly showcases. In 2022, this was formally recognised by the European arts organisation Amateo.

After the pandemic, the decision was made to move the Laugh-Able events from Redbridge Central Library to Wanstead Library, something that has been a big hit with local residents, as demonstrated in May 2023 when Robin Ince headlined to a 60-strong audience, our highest attendance yet! Robin said of the night: “What’s nice is a comedy club where people don’t feel they have to put themselves into a shape of what a lot of comedy clubs expect… and it meant they could be themselves… it has a great playfulness to it.”

This month, we are embarking on our most ambitious project yet: Fest-Able. A festival of 16 shows, showcasing professional and the most up-and-coming acts with disabilities or mental health conditions on the comedy circuit. I’ll be opening the festival on 3 July with my first ever hour-long show (Mark Nicholas: This Isn’t The Autistic You Are Looking For). Another notable performance will be Live At The Apollo star Spring Day, who will be bringing her show EXvangelical to Wanstead on 22 July. I look forward to seeing you all there!

Fest-Able will take place at Wanstead Library from 3 to 31 July (tickets: pay what you can). Visit wnstd.com/fest-able

Tickets for the second annual Wanstead Beer Festival are now on sale.

“Last year proved so popular that tickets sold out a week early. So, don’t miss out this time,” said a spokesperson. The event on 12 October will take over the halls of Christ Church from 12 noon to 10pm, offering real ale, craft beer, cider, gin and wine. Tickets are £10 each (including a commemorative glass), with all profits donated to charity.

Visit wnstd.com/beer

Four homes across Aldersbrook and the Lake House Estate will open their gardens to the public on 7 July as part of the National Garden Scheme.

“The diverse garden at 19 Belgrave Road is busting at the seams with plants. At 4 Empress Avenue, the garden is divided in two, with a cutting bed and wildlife areas. 1 Clavering Road features a kitchen garden and chicken coop. And 39 Dover Road has an Edwardian layout,” said a spokesperson. The gardens will be open from 12 noon to 5pm (tickets: £10).

Visit wnstd.com/ngs 

The City of London Corporation is planning work to improve the waterscapes in Wanstead Park.

“The first part of our project will see the creation of a new reed bed at Heronry Pond. Work is due to start here after the nesting season in the early autumn. This new reed bed will also help improve biodiversity and mitigate the impact of climate change,” said a spokesperson.

The Heronry Pond was constructed between the 1720s and 1740s alongside the other ornamental lakes around the southern and eastern sides of the park.

In the third of a series of articles charting the experiences of a Wanstead-based travel writer, Carole Edrich talks about deadlines, dining out and Dutch art, and teases her Wanstead comedy night this month

While freelance journalists occupy the same place in editors’ priorities as the Taliban give to women’s football, columnists are different. Like seagulls, they get everywhere, do what they want, and often leave others to sort out their doings. 

I’ve always wanted a travel column. Not needing commissions means I could be more strategic and arrange trips that would feed both the column and my stand-up events, like the one coming up in Zoology. One recently landed! It hit like a gift from one of those seagulls. Hard and sudden and a total surprise. BlowUp The Hague, I decided, would make a perfect start. It fit my target demographics, would make for great stand-up material and have me home with loads of time to write before the deadline. 

But within hours of the trip’s confirmation, Editor-Arcee called to ask if I could deliver it three whole weeks earlier. My mouth said: “Yes, of course!” while my head was going ‘aaargh!’ and I went into such a big spin that it took some days to locate my wits, put them back in their place, and decide on my column’s new theme.

Around The World in 18 Plates would have me eating out in London as research, which would be fun to do with my friends. We visited Badiani Gelato (smooth, traditional, tasty Italian yum in Canary Wharf), Paro in Covent Garden (an East Ender’s spicy ode to Calcutta with stops at Iran, Goa and Bethnal Green) and Elondi (a perfectly portioned, mouth-wateringly wonderful Sunday lunch in a light and airy spa-like haven in Stratford Westfield). However, despite the magic words ‘press’ and ‘urgent’ and more than 50 emails, my gastronomic research moved forward at a similar speed to that of a heavily drugged snail. 

I changed the theme again to ‘getting lost in London’, filed to my deadline, and hated every word. Next morning I woke up in a sweat, worked on it until I only hated every other word, and submitted the new, marginally less awful version at OMG in the morning. 

I went to BlowUp The Hague anyway. It’s not a series of Dutch demolitions or a vivid explosion of tulips but an annual arts festival. This year, a lush, environmentally sensitive, temporary pontoon gallery of inflated sculptures by great Dutch designers. I’ll use it – and the vibe of the city – as a metaphor for the Dutch approach to sustainability. And there was gin.

From perfect start to perfect storm, I got the thing written on time. That’s not the end of the story. To discover the last twist, taste four great wines and hear more of my mad travel experiences, come to Zoology on 9 July.

Carole will host a wine tasting, travel and comedy event at Zoology, 145 High Street, Wanstead on 9 July from 7pm (tickets: £25).Visit wnstd.com/9july

Volunteers are needed to help run this year’s Wanstead Fringe.

“The Fringe will run for three weeks from 7 to 28 September, and we need 73 fabulous volunteers to help with a multitude of tasks. From fundraisers and administrators to photographers, technicians and event stewards, there’s so much to get involved with. Will you become one of the magnificent 73?” said a spokesperson.

Visit wnstd.com/wfvol

A local swan rescue volunteer has been praised for her work by the BBC Springwatch Wildlife Hero Awards.

“I’ve been a rescuer for The Swan Sanctuary for many years, and through this I have built up a great network of supporters. This year, many of them messaged to say they had nominated me for the award, and I was greatly surprised when the Springwatch team got in touch to say I was on the shortlist!” said Gill Walker, who was one of 32 finalists from over 1,750 nominations.

To report an injured swan, call 07970 404 866

The first female Superintendent of Epping Forest has been appointed.

Jacqueline Eggleston was awarded the role last month, having been part of Epping Forest’s senior management team for the last nine years. “I’m delighted to move into this prestigious and historic role. Like all of our fantastic team here, I love Epping Forest and am passionate about protecting this internationally significant and special landscape,” said Jacqueline.

The Superintendent is responsible for managing a budget of £31m over the next five years.

For more information on future Social Walking events and to take part, email lizzieofizzie@gmail.com

Planned future walks include the 6-7 mile Oak Trail, a circular walk from Theydon Bois. This will take place on Sunday 14th July and will be timed to be back in Theydon Bois for 2.30pm to enjoy the annual Theydon Bois Donkey Derby.

A planning application to build a block of flats on Evergreen Field was approved earlier this month, with developers looking to start work later this year.

The site – a patch of fenced-off land on Wanstead High Street, next to Christ Church Green – has not been used since 1967, when two homes that stood there were demolished.

The approval paves the way for the construction of a four-storey development, including a children’s day nursery on the ground floor and 24 flats above. A new public open space equating to just under half the total site area will also be created.

We would like to thank Redbridge Council officers, councillors and the public for their input into the planning process. Following clearance of any planning conditions, we are hopeful works will start later this year or early in 2025,” said a spokesperson for Caerus Developments.

Voters will go to the polls on 4 July for the General Election. The UK is divided into 650 constituencies, with Redbridge covered by four of them: Ilford North, Ilford South, Leyton and Wanstead and Chingford and Woodford Green.

The Wanstead Village Directory presents statements from all eight candidates standing in the Leyton and Wanstead constituency, which has been expanded following a boundary review in 2023. The whole of the Wanstead Park and South Woodford wards – parts of which were previously within Ilford North or Chingford and Woodford Green – are now included. The revised boundary means an additional 3,900 households are now voting for the Leyton and Wanstead MP.

Polling stations open at 7am and close at 10pm, and for the first time in a general election, photo ID is required to vote in person.

Parliamentary candidate for Leyton & Wanstead

I’m Councillor Shanell Johnson, the independent candidate for Leyton and Wanstead. I have lived locally for over 30 years and I love our area deeply – it has shaped who I am. I left a major party because I was deeply disappointed with its stance on the ceasefire in Gaza, the overdevelopment at Snaresbrook car park, the closure of Wanstead Youth Centre and just not listening to local concerns. I want to hold regular community assemblies to listen. I will be available to truly serve our home and bring back local grassroots politics.

Parliamentary candidate for Leyton & Wanstead

Brexit is the single biggest problem undermining our society. It’s the engine behind the cost-of-living crisis; it’s reducing our ability to live, work and travel abroad and it takes away from the next generation the educational opportunities we could all enjoy through the Erasmus programme. By the big parties not mentioning Brexit, we have one of the most dishonest elections ever seen. That’s why I’m putting myself forward: if elected, I will ensure parliament has at least one voice calling out Brexit for what it is: a con!

Parliamentary candidate for Leyton & Wanstead

I am standing for mental health services, equality and human rights, and tackling the environmental crisis. I believe improving air quality is vital. I’m against the expansion of the Edmonton incinerator and extending the operating hours of City Airport. I have been in the UK for 10 years. In 2021, I began playing for Leyton Orient women’s team and quickly grew to have a local connection. Leyton and Wanstead are great places to live but our area has been neglected for years by politicians who don’t listen to the needs of the residents.

Parliamentary candidate for Leyton & Wanstead

With 30 years as a lawyer, I have given extensive pro bono legal advice to the local community and am therefore in an ideal position to understand local issues. I have actively supported ceasefires and peaceful solutions in conflict zones, advocating for humanitarian efforts to alleviate suffering. I advocate for a safer community through a tougher stance on crime, while emphasising rehabilitation. I am a kickboxing coach and have been instrumental in getting youths off the streets and improving their discipline.

Parliamentary candidate for Leyton & Wanstead

I was a partner in a 12-partner firm of chartered accountants before spending several years running my own practice. The following are some policies I believe are essential to reclaim a broken Britain: lift personal tax allowance to £20,000; scrap energy levies and net zero, slashing energy bills and saving the average household £500 per year; no more NHS waiting lists, cut office waste expending money saved on front line staff; tax breaks for medical staff; and illegal immigrants to be detained and deported.

Parliamentary candidate for Leyton & Wanstead

I’m so proud to be part of the Leyton and Wanstead community. If elected, I will work hard for the people and the planet and ensure that all in the area are listened to. I will be pushing for every single home in Leyton and Wanstead to be retrofitted and insulated so that we do not have to worry about energy bills going through the roof. I also know that communities here in Leyton and Wanstead are affected by the situation in Gaza. Therefore, I will continue to call for a ceasefire, an end to arms sales and the release of all hostages. 

Parliamentary candidate for Leyton & Wanstead

Born in Zambia and raised in London, I come into politics having served 24 years in the RAF. During my service, I advocated for greater diversity in the armed forces, delivered humanitarian relief in Haiti and the Philippines and led the 2021 air evacuation of Afghanistan. I am passionate about education and opportunities for our young people in Leyton and Wanstead. If elected, my top priorities will be the delivery of a new Whipps Cross Hospital and ensuring the next generation have the same opportunities I was given.

Parliamentary candidate for Leyton & Wanstead

As your Conservative candidate, I aspire to create visible positive change, especially in the less well-off parts that have been neglected. I would use my business experience to grow the business networks and bring new investment to create jobs and apprenticeships for young people. I have a big heart for young people and I would focus on their needs as they are tomorrow’s leaders. I will also focus on rebuilding Whipps Cross Hospital as well as creating visible policing to deal with ASB and crime to ensure residents can feel safe. 

A hustings for the General Election will take place at Wanstead Library on 24 June.

Attendance on the panel has been confirmed by the following party candidates for the Leyton and Wanstead Constituency:

• Calvin Bailey (Labour)
• Tara Copeland (Lib Dems)
• Gloria Croxall (Conservative)
• Charlotte Lafferty (Green)

“A hustings is a time-honoured way for an electorate to get to know more about candidates by quizzing them and hearing them speak alongside each other at a live event. Notably, not one of the eight candidates for this constituency have stood here before. This hustings should therefore be of interest both to local residents and to anyone intrigued by the fast changing political landscape,” said a spokesperson for the East London Humanists, which is organising the event.

Doors open at 7pm and the event begins at 7.30pm.

The event is free and open to all. Questions can be submitted in writing on the night.

Making a will is incredibly important both for your peace of mind now and for planning for the future, says Anna Orpwood from local solicitors Edwards Duthie Shamash

A carefully drafted will can save considerable sums of money in inheritance tax and give you peace of mind that your wishes will be carried out after your death.

Most of us would rather not think about our own death and maybe this is the main reason why over 60% of us haven’t made a will. There are also many misconceptions that stop people from making a will. The belief that “everything I have will automatically go to my wife” is a common misconception, or that “my estate is too small” or “it is too expensive.”

There is also a misconception that will writing is something you should do later in life. Having a will is important at all stages of your life. For example, young parents with children should be aware of the importance of ensuring there is a guardianship clause incorporated into their wills, meaning peace of mind for a young family. For a married couple, careful drafting of a will can also ensure inheritance tax is kept to a minimum.

A will is the only way of ensuring the people you want to benefit from your estate actually do inherit it. If you die without making a will, the intestacy rules apply in an arbitrary manner. This may lead to your spouse having to share your estate with your children, whom you may not have intended to benefit straightaway. Under a carefully drawn will, you can set up trusts for beneficiaries under age or for beneficiaries with disabilities.

At present, the intestacy rules do not recognise cohabitees. If you live with your partner and die without having made a will, your partner will not automatically inherit any of your estate – there is no such thing as a “common-law wife”. Your partner may have a claim on the estate, but this is expensive and a situation that should be avoided.

Homemade wills – which should only be used in the most straightforward of circumstances – can be disastrous, leading to considerably more expense than is needed. It is also worth noting that will writing companies are unregulated and do not offer the same consumer protection a solicitor does, backed by professional indemnity insurance and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

A carefully drafted will drawn up by an experienced solicitor can save considerable sums of money in inheritance tax and give you peace of mind in ensuring your wishes will be carried out. Time, however, does not stand still and it is necessary to keep your will under regular review.

Edwards Duthie Shamash is located at 149 High Street, Wanstead, E11 2RL. For more information, call 020 8514 9000 or visit edwardsduthieshamash.co.uk

The Wanstead Wildlife Weekend is the perfect opportunity to experience the fine array of butterflies and moths that Wanstead Park is blessed with during spring and summer, says Tim Harris from the Wren Wildlife Group

The reason butterflies thrive here is the rich variety of habitats. Chocolate and cream Speckled Wood butterflies can be seen flying low in sun-dappled woodland glades on warm days, while Purple Hairstreaks (bottom left photo) are denizens of the high oak canopy, often visible only when the sun catches their wings as they flit through the foliage. 

Wanstead Park’s untidy scrubby areas, especially where there’s plenty of brambles, attract Green Hairstreaks, Marbled Whites (centre photo), Gatekeepers (bottom right photo) and Ringlets. Then again, the open grassland between the tea hut and the Temple has its own suite of specialist species, including the skippers, Small Coppers and Small Heaths. Occasionally, a wanderer from further north in Epping Forest – such as a Silver-Washed Fritillary (top left image) – finds its way here in high summer. A surprise visitor is always possible if you keep searching. 

This diversity has been recognised by the Big City Butterflies project, which is working with the Wren Wildlife Group to monitor these beautiful insects. Volunteers will go out every week over the summer months to count numbers and species, with the findings being fed into a national database. Over time, this information will contribute to finding out how our butterflies are faring nationally – and inform conservation measures to help them. 

Children are naturally drawn to the beautiful colours and graceful flight of butterflies and, with that in mind, the Wren Wildlife Group’s Wildlife Weekend this month (22 and 23 June) will feature a butterfly trail. Just turn up at our information tent by the Wanstead Park tea hut and ask for a children’s butterfly pack.

Wanstead Park is also renowned for butterflies’ close relatives, the moths. More than 700 species have been spotted locally, and for those prepared to leave the comfort of their beds early on the Saturday morning of the Wildlife Weekend, the contents of a light-trap will be revealed at 6am. We are hoping for a repeat of last year’s event when one of the moths lured to the light was a magnificent Large Emerald (top right photo) – the first ever recorded locally.

For more information on Wanstead Wildlife Weekend events, visit wnstd.com/wild24

As part of the Wanstead Wildlife Weekend, James Heal will be exploring the mysterious world of plant galls

What do the Magna Carta, the American Declaration of Independence, the notes of Leonardo da Vinci and the music of Bach all have in common? An answer (there may be more) is that they were all written with ink made from plant galls. More specifically, the ink made from marble galls caused by the wasp Andricus kollari.

A plant gall is an abnormal growth produced by a plant under the influence of another organism. It involves enlargement or proliferation of host cells and provides both shelter and food or nutrients for the invading organism. This definition is from British Plant Galls by the renowned cecidologist, Margaret Redfern.

I am a local amateur naturalist with an interest in a range of different invertebrates. I’m not quite a pan-species lister (someone who records wildlife across all the taxa), but I do have an interest in a range of different groups: birds, bugs (Hemiptera, the ‘true bugs’) and plant galls are probably my three favourite groups of organisms to record and study.

Take an oak tree (Quercus robur or Quercus petraea). You may have noticed the hard spheres of marble galls (the ink producers) on retarded saplings (they seem to do less well on healthy, mature trees), strange sticky growths on acorns (knopper galls caused by the wasp Andricus quercuscalicis) or small, colourful discs on the underside of oak leaves caused by one of three different wasps in the genus.

Gall wasps (think tiny black or brown flying creatures, not big yellow and black ones) create some of the most elaborate galls. How about Robin’s pincushion? The messy explosion of red, orange and yellow hairs on roses. But wasps are not the only gall causers. The entire study of plant galls is named after a family of gall midges (flies): cecidology from Cecidomyiidae, and there are many midge-induced galls including the ‘pocket and stitching’ type galls on ash leaves caused by Dasineura fraxini. 

Gall wasps and gall midges are small insects, but some large gall structures are caused by truly microscopic invertebrates, including gall mites. Have you ever seen pointy red nail galls on lime (Tilia) leaves? If you haven’t, they are just starting to develop now and can be found, for example, on the long avenue of lime trees stretching from Bushwood down towards Davies Lane in Leytonstone. They are caused by the mites Eriophyes tiliae. Inside each nail gall are hundreds of hairs with a hairy opening on the underside of the leaf. Inside the gall, amongst those hairs, live miniscule, worm-like mites.

If you would like to discover plant galls for yourself, I encourage you to get closer to plants, particularly the leaves (but certainly not exclusively leaves, as galls also affect buds, fruit, catkins, flowers, twigs, roots and even the trunk). And if you would like to learn more techniques for finding and identifying them, I will be leading a walk focusing on galls (and other invertebrates that we might find on plants) on Saturday 22 June as part of the Wanstead Wildlife Weekend. 

I will leave you with one final fact about plant galls. Believe it or not, even plants can gall other plants. The most famous being mistletoe (Viscum album), which grows on trees of various species and derives all of its nutrients from them.

For more information on Wanstead Wildlife Weekend events, visit wnstd.com/wild24

A variety of nature-themed events will take place in Wanstead Park and on Wanstead Flats this month for the annual Wanstead Wildlife Weekend.

“The Wren Wildlife and Conservation Group was founded in 1972, and we’ve spent the last 52 years helping to promote and protect the wildlife of the Wanstead area and its surrounds, and helping to bring the people of East London closer to nature. This month, we continue that tradition by inviting you to discover what’s living on your doorstep!” said a spokesperson.

The weekend of activities begins on 22 June, with an early morning moth trap reveal, followed by a workshop on bees, a lichen walk, a spider hunt, pond dipping and a butterfly trail for children. A live display of British wildlife will also be on show at an information tent by the park’s tea hut.

For a full itinerary, visit wnstd.com/wild24