September 2024

After running a repair café in South Woodford for the past two years, Lydia Fraser-Ward is now pleased to help Wanstead residents give their broken items a new lease of life at the inaugural Wanstead Repair Café

Ever lingered over your rubbish bin with a pair of your old favourite jeans, or perhaps a broken toy, and thought twice before throwing them away, wishing they could be revived? Most of us hate to see things we love go to landfill, especially when there’s a chance they can be salvaged and given a new lease of life.

That’s exactly why, for the past two years, I’ve been running a quarterly Repair Café at Woodford Memorial Hall, in partnership with St Mary’s Church Woodford and the South Woodford Society. It’s been incredible to see the local community come together, bringing clothes, electrical items, bikes and even bric-a-brac to be repaired for free.

The South Woodford Repair Café has proven incredibly popular, with residents queuing up to bring an array of gadgets and much-loved household items to be expertly mended. The event provides free refreshments whilst you wait, as well as a number of activities, including creative workshops, information stalls, a seed swap and even a toy swap where people can pick up preloved children’s items for free.

The success of the South Woodford Repair Café has inspired me to expand the idea, and this October, I’m thrilled to be launching a pilot Repair Café in Wanstead. With support from Christ Church, Wanstead Climate Action, the London Borough of Redbridge and the East London Waste Authority, the Wanstead Repair Café will offer electrical, sewing and bike repairs – all completely free. It’ll be held in Christ Church hall on Sunday 13 October from 2pm to 5pm, and I encourage local residents to pop by with any items that need fixing.

To ensure we can help as many people as possible, each family can bring up to two sewing repairs and one electrical repair, but there’s no need to book – just drop in and give it a try!

Of course, none of this would be possible without the incredible volunteers who give their time and expertise. If you have specialist skills in sewing or repair, or if you’d just like to help out with the event in general, I’d love to hear from you!

We’re also offering free table space for local community groups and charities to promote their work, so if your organisation would like to be involved, please reach out. Together, we can keep our beloved items out of landfill and breathe new life into our community.

The Wanstead Repair Café will take place at Christ Church hall from 2pm to 5pm on 13 October. For more information, email lydia.fraser-ward@hotmail.co.uk

Redbridge Council is seeking feedback on its School Streets programme, which it plans to expand to 18 more locations around the borough, including Nightingale Primary School.

There are 21 schools in the existing programme, which restricts non-residential motor vehicles from entering certain roads around schools at the start and end of the school day.

“We encourage all residents to share their views through the consultation to help shape these schemes,” said Councillor Jo Blackman.

Visit wnstd.com/ssp

The Wanstead Fringe is to receive a £3,000 grant from the London City Airport Community Fund.

The money will be invested in the Wanstead Curtain, the hall at Wanstead Methodist Church that has been adapted into a theatre and cinema space.

“The Curtain was one of the busiest venues in this year’s festival, which saw more than 120 events throughout September and record ticket sales. We have no major sources of funding other than our sponsors and members, so this really makes a difference,” said Fringe chair Giles Wilson.

An event at Wanstead Library on 2 October will consider the future of the water industry. It takes place in the run-up to the March for Clean Water in Westminster on 26 October. Paul Kaufman reports

The long list of official March for Clean Water supporters includes the WI, National Trust, RSPB and a host of environmental organisations. The organisers are River Action and Surfers Against Sewage. Feargal Sharkey, former lead singer of The Undertones, now a figurehead for water campaigners, said: “We call on the government to end the environmental devastation being inflicted upon our rivers, lakes and seas. It stops here, it stops today, it stops now. End pollution, end polluting for profit.”

Our own River Roding has the dubious distinction of being a winner on the ‘Top of the Poops’ website. This records that in 2023 alone there were 307 sewage spills lasting 959 hours. 

Local campaigner and environmental lawyer Paul Powlesland discovered in 2021 that a malfunction was sending raw sewage directly into the Alders Brook, a tributary of The Roding. No-one even knew about it. He reported it at the time to both the Environment Agency and Thames Water. Two years later, it had still not been fixed. Paul told the i newspaper: “It had probably been going on for some time, possibly years due to the amount of toilet paper that was embedded in the silt of the brook.” Freedom of Information data shows the regulator failed to visit 90% of reported incidents in 2022, including more than 60% of the most serious incidents.

The English water industry was handed debt-free to private water monopolies, including Thames Water, in 1989. PM Thatcher wiped off £5 billion of debt before the handover. Thames Water now has debts totalling over £15 billion. The argument was that private investment was necessary to fix the crumbling infrastructure. On this measure, the experiment has failed miserably. There has been gross underinvestment. Much of the debt arose to pay dividends to shareholders. Thames Water is now demanding massive price hikes. Consumers are being asked to cough up for their shortcomings.

Speakers at the Wanstead event representing a range of views will examine the issues and the political options.

Water is publicly owned in the vast majority of countries. For the moment, the government is set against re-nationalisation. Its answer is tougher regulation. Campaigners have pointed out that regulation hasn’t worked. Some argue that private monopolies will always put profit before consumers and the environment and, to use the crude but apt expression, more regulation is simply an attempt to ‘polish a turd.’

The future of our water – an event organised by the East London Humanists – will take place at Wanstead Library on 2 October (free entry; doors open at 7pm; event begins at 7.30pm). For more information, visit wnstd.com/water

Campaigners are calling for TfL to reverse the many changes made to local bus routes earlier this month.

“As warned, utter confusion and distress were reported by residents following the changes made to the W12, W13, W14 and 549 bus routes, imposed on us on 7 September,” said Liz Martins, organiser of the Save Bus Routes for Local Residents campaign.

“Now a public meeting needs to be called by our elected representatives to allow residents to state how they are impacted and highlight where the routes need to be amended and extended before the cold weather bites.”

A petition against the changes has been signed by over 5,000 people, with a reduced service for the Nightingale Estate and reduced access to Whipps Cross Hospital seen as critical failings of the new routes.

At a town hall meeting in September, Councillor Jo Blackman said the changes would undermine aspirations to move people away from an over-reliance on cars, but TfL was unable to confirm a timescale for responding to the concerns raised.

Visit wnstd.com/savebuses

An application to build a golf centre on Royston Gardens Open Space (formerly the Kearley and Tonge Sports Ground) has been submitted to Redbridge Council.

The plans for the site – which is adjacent to Wanstead Park – include a nine-hole pitch and putt course, a kids’ crazy golf area, a teaching zone, café, office space and a 45-car parking lot. The application is open for comments until 5 October.

Visit wnstd.com/royston

A small herd of English Longhorn cows – Nina, Mara, Answer and Olive – arrived in Wanstead Park in September to graze over the winter months.

“Grazing is important for Wanstead Park because to mow with machinery would destroy one of the main features of wildlife interest, the Yellow Meadow Ant hills… Please give them plenty of space to do their important work and keep dogs under control,” said a spokesperson for the City of London Corporation.

The cows’ location can be tracked online. Visit wnstd.com/cowlocator

The Wanstead Village Directory and South Woodford Village Gazette have published a new edition of Village Vouchers, a booklet offering savings at shops, salons, cafés, pubs and restaurants across the two areas.

“From free coffee to money off meals, massages and MOTs, there’s something for everyone,” said editor Lee Marquis.

Priced £4 and valid until 31 July 2025, copies can be purchased online and collected from the High Street, with local good causes receiving a donation for each copy sold.

Visit wnstd.com/vouchers

From Paris to Newcastle to Wanstead, Bernie Clarkson now considers herself a local artist, with local scenes like Christ Church Green finding their way into her work

I’m totally passionate about painting and particularly oil painting, and this came about almost by accident. I was incredibly fortunate to live in Paris for four years in my fifties and this is where my life veered off at a totally unexpected tangent.

I’d always loved and made art of sorts, initially training as a fashion designer and then teaching art to lots of different age groups. However, my time in Paris freed me to take up painting, initially for fun, but very quickly it became all-consuming. So, when I returned to England, I was ecstatic to be accepted into Newcastle University’s Fine Art department. Six years later, with a hard-won degree and Master’s completed, I headed to London to be closer to family, not really believing my love affair with painting would continue and flourish. Yet, here I am in my shared studio in Manor Park, living and breathing this amazing subject. 

After a few house moves and renovations, I’m so lucky to now have a home in beautiful Wanstead and I’m more than happy to think of myself as a local artist, taking part in solo and group exhibitions, and thrilled so many lovely people have bought my work.

My daily practice combines painting, stretching canvasses, reading and researching, always looking for inspiration; the north-east coastline is always hovering and influencing my subject and colour choices.

As each painting progresses, it can often change enormously, and when it’s finished, I hope it carries a quiet narrative to the viewer, but also willing a slight tension to make it interesting.

I love the work of the German-American artist Richard Diebenkorn, who was heavily influenced by Matisse, another great love of mine. I had a wonderful mentor at university who helped me so much to explore ideas and dig into history as inspiration, paint and painter, society, breaking rules; there’s always so much to learn.

As a consequence of living through the pandemic and the close proximity of a newly observed nature during the daily rituals of getting fresh air and exercise, I’m finding local and coastal scenes are nudging into most of my work; either as a background to a figure or taking centre stage.

To view more of Bernie’s artwork, visit wnstd.com/bernie

As Wanstead High School marks its 100th anniversary, the PTA are working hard to help improve the school for future generations. Chair of the PTA Dennis Weeks reports their successes so far

We are the Wanstead High School PTA, a group of parents who find a bit of time to help out the local school at a time when they so desperately need it. There are around 30 regular volunteers in our group, and quite a few more occasional ones. We believe this to be an important cause in our community.

We took over in early 2023 after the school invited parents to relaunch the PTA following the closure of the old PTA as a result of Covid. A number of us got together, formed a new committee and began the journey of identifying what was needed and how we could help at the school. 

As you may know, the school is celebrating 100 years of service, and I am sure many of you reading this may well have been a part of that history. Some of the buildings in existence today were part of the original school. Those intervening years have produced some wonderful students and stories that are coming up in the centenary celebrations this month. However, they have also left some tired and distressed areas of the school and a number of limitations for current pupils to endure. It is these types of things we think our PTA can do something about to benefit future generations of students attending our school.

We set ourselves three main objectives. To revamp the school field that is often not in a usable state due to weather effects on the ground. To provide a large canopy shelter in the limited playground area so students can still venture outside of classrooms in inclement weather. To revamp the toilet areas, which would make those featured in escapades on Grange Hill look luxurious. These are our capital project aims and we are very close to delivering the shelter as the first of them. In just over a year, we have raised nearly £65,000 from our events, donations, sponsorships and recycling school uniform via our pre-loved shop. This has been an amazing achievement and a testament to every single volunteer who has helped along the way. We have attracted corporate sponsors to match-fund our efforts and swell our balances thanks to some amazing parents and their companies who provide this charity. One project we are now developing is to obtain and improve the environment at the school by utilising pre-loved equipment and furniture. Just this summer, we asked the community for various items – including a shed, office chairs and filming equipment – and were amazed at the generosity received, with total donations worth up to £100,000.

So much work has already gone into this, so many benefits have already materialised, but there is so much more to do. And we would love to hear from you if you can help us with our aim of making a better Wanstead High.

For more information on the PTA, email dennis.weeks@ptawansteadhigh.co.uk

A reunion will take place at the school on 22 September. Visit wnstd.com/whs100

In the second of two articles, Terry Joyes reflects on his 12-year journey to publishing a book about the history of Wanstead High School, just in time for the school’s 100th anniversary this month

In 2012, I and fellow Wanstead High School alumnus Patrick Renshaw had begun to put the wheels in motion to bring my idea of compiling a history book about Wanstead High School to life. The project was due for completion by 2014 ahead of the school’s 90th anniversary, but we were thwarted by a rigorous Ofsted inspection which caused the anniversary celebrations to be cancelled, and with it, the impetus we had for the project was lost. 

What could revive our lost enthusiasm? Would it be the 95th anniversary in 2019? That proposition died with the advent of Covid. For those of us who lived throughout World War II, it was like facing the aerial weaponry represented by the silent V2 rocket missile; one never knew where and when it would strike. The major social difference was, of course, that segregation turned individuals toward electronic communication; emails did not require social integration. Ironically, in such domestically located circumstances, considerations of the production of a history of the school could be renewed in earnest, with the obvious goal of the 100th anniversary.

Searching through the remnants of the previous book projections, and with the continuing support provided by Patrick Renshaw, I found I had a firm basis on which to fulfil earlier promises. New material was supplied by willing collaborators and it soon became evident that two major themes were emerging: unity and continuity – mostly in positive contexts, but occasionally in the negative, which helped to give the book balance. The rose-tinted views could be questioned and contextualised.

Then, in the summer of 2023, I was deeply shocked and saddened by the sudden death of my prime collaborator and friend, my inspiration, Patrick Renshaw. Entitled The Story of Wanstead High School, the book is dedicated to his memory. It bears his name as co-author and was published over the summer; A4 in size with about 275 well-illustrated pages.

The book is also dedicated to every pupil and member of staff who has passed through the doors and walked the corridors of Wanstead High School since the first individuals – 92 pupils and five staff – gave birth to the original Wanstead County High School, under the leadership and headship of the visionary Arthur Frederick Joseph a century ago on 23 September 1924.

All proceeds from sales of the book will remain with the school; it has been enough for me to enjoy searching through the school’s history and trying to produce a coherent analysis. I wish Patrick were still alive to mark his critical analysis of the book, which, together, we had initially projected 12 years ago.

A reunion will take place at the school on 22 September. For more information and to order a copy of The Story of Wanstead High School by Terry Joyes and Patrick Renshaw, visit wnstd.com/whs100