January 2026

One writer, one Interrail pass and a wildly over-ambitious, 37-stop journey to test railway accessibility in Europe. Wanstead-based travel writer Carole Edrich presents the first instalment of her Big Rail Story

It doesn’t take a genius to predict that writing about a 17-day, 37-stop rail tour in one feature might be a challenge. With 1,000 words for everything, no context, introduction or ending, just the trip in its entirety, that’s 13 words per theme. So, I’m clearly not a genius!

I’ve wanted to cover railway accessibility in Europe for a very long time. Desperately, passionately and ultimately impractically. I’ve been working on it for years. Luckily, I have a Schrödinger’s travel column. I might know the locations and even the theme, but like the cat in the box, until the piece achieves its final form, it exists in a superposition of witty narrative and total disaster. There’s literally no way of knowing what the content will be.

I did it! Rail Travel as a Radical Form of Self-Care was in Disability Review Magazine last month. In my head (and all the filing), it’s called Big Rail. I’m not a genius, remember? If I am, it’s the kind of genius who plans a 37-stop trip without considering her word count.

This is the beginning of a much longer series where I’m not stuck to 13 words for each station and each trip between them, where I can explain how smells alone make Brussels North feel rather scary and Brussels South like a trip to a favourite aunt. This is the fuller memorandum, and where the Big Rail Challenge story begins.

I’ve never understood why people get super-early flights. They have to start far too early, spend more money than they’ve saved on the flight on the taxi to the airport, travel with other tired and moody people and can’t properly appreciate their first day in a new place. I thought of this when booking Eurostar. Deliberately got the second train out of St Pancras so I could comfortably get there by Tube.

On the day, there was a Tube strike. I told myself I’d walk to Stratford Station, but found myself booking a cab. Consoled myself with the knowledge that since my first-class, 14-travel-day Interrail pass included – and cost the same as – a return Eurostar trip, all other travel would be free. I was wrong. Magnificently wrong. Wrong in ways I had never imagined. Genius? Me?

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Nine in the morning at St Pancras International is where past tense ends and present begins. Where plans meet reality. Where the route I spent over five days researching meets Europe’s incontrovertibly inconsistent interpretation of ‘accessible’, ‘on time’ and ‘destination’. Where 13 words per segment is as far from my mind as it’s possible to travel. The most mindful, mindless, meandering, muddled, marvellous train trip of my life. My Big Rail Story starts here.

For relevant links to the places, to read more of Carole’s work or to listen to her podcast, visit wnstd.com/edrich

In the third of a series of articles featuring images by the Woodford and Wanstead Photographic Society, Anuraj Theivendram explains his passion for canine portraits

As publicity officer of the Woodford and Wanstead Photographic Society, I’ve felt privileged to share stories in this series about how photography connects us with our community. In earlier articles, I explored how images can celebrate local heritage and inspire creativity within our club. In this article, I highlight a passion that has personally brought me both joy and purpose: volunteering my photography skills at two remarkable dog shelters, Love Underdogs and All Dogs Matter.

Love Underdogs began after witnessing the harsh conditions faced by dogs in Romania, inspiring a mission of compassion and change. With the support of UK volunteers and Romanian partners, they’ve given countless dogs a second chance, turning despair into hope. Their team provides veterinary care, behavioural support and lifelong rescue backup, ensuring every dog has the best chance of finding a loving home.

All Dogs Matter is a dog rescue and rehoming charity working across London to transform the lives of unwanted and abandoned dogs. Guided by care, commitment, collaboration and determination, their team and volunteers ensure every dog, regardless of age or breed, has the chance of a safe and happy forever home.

At its heart, photography is more than documentation; it is an art form that reveals emotion, character and story. Through light, composition and patience, my objective is to capture portraits that show each dog not simply as an animal in need, but as an individual with personality, resilience and charm. Volunteering in this way has been deeply rewarding. It’s a privilege to use my photography skills to help these underdogs shine, and to support shelters that believe, as I do, that all dogs matter.

If this series has inspired you with the power of photography, why not join the Woodford and Wanstead Photographic Society? Whether you’re a beginner or seasoned photographer, we offer a welcoming space to learn, share and make a difference through images.

For more information on the Woodford and Wanstead Photographic Society, visit wnstd.com/wwps

January is often called ‘divorce month’ because of a spike in divorce enquiries. Benjamin Carter of local solicitors Edwards Duthie Shamash explains what to expect from your first meeting with a divorce solicitor

It is generally recognised that divorce or separation is one of the most stressful events that can take place in someone’s life, with only the death of a spouse or close family member being ranked higher.

You can get divorced in England or Wales if all of the following are true: you’ve been married for over a year, your relationship has permanently broken down and your marriage is legally recognised in the UK (including same-sex marriage).

The process will very often involve interaction with a divorce solicitor and the purpose of this article is to set out what might be expected during that first meeting. As a first point, it should be stressed that most divorce solicitors are easy-going, sympathetic and understanding. Your solicitor will tell you what you need to bring to the meeting; this is normally just your passport and a bank statement for ID purposes. It is also helpful if details of your assets can be prepared in advance and set out on a single side of paper.

One of the first things your solicitor will be thinking about is whether there are protective steps that need to be taken. This may include an application for a non-molestation injunction order if you feel there is a risk your spouse’s behaviour is deteriorating to such an extent you need protection.

The other issue will be whether the family home is in joint names. If it is in the sole name of your spouse, this should ring alarm bells; your spouse could seek to raise further funds by way of remortgage or even try to sell the property without your knowledge. To protect your position, your interest in the property should be registered with the Land Registry.

If there is a risk your spouse may be seeking to transfer assets out of the jurisdiction of the court or trying to diminish the value of any assets, then consideration will need to be given to the making of an application to the court for a financial injunction order, whereby your spouse’s assets are frozen.

Your solicitor will generally be unable to give a view as to what the outcome of your case might be in terms of how the assets may be divided until such time as they have full disclosure of your spouse’s financial circumstances. This may be disappointing but such a view cannot be given without a clear picture of the overall wealth of the family.  Any agreement as to how the assets are to be divided must be set out in a court order before the deal becomes binding.

It is also necessary to start the divorce process itself, which will lead to a final order of divorce. This can now be done online via the gov.uk website.

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 Parish of Wanstead choir is running a composition competition to mark their 150th anniversary.

“You are invited to submit an anthem of three to five minutes, with the text to be chosen by the composer. It should be suitable for a number of occasions throughout the church year. The first performance will be at Evensong on 12 July, when we’ll be celebrating our 150th anniversary,” said Alison Wells.

The winning anthem will receive a £1,000 prize.

Closing date is 28 February.

Email wansteadparishchoir@gmail.com

Derek Long tells the story of East Side Jazz Club, which started in 1994 under the leadership of former Wanstead resident Clive Fenner and has gone on to become a well-respected venue on the London jazz scene

Once upon a time, some 30-plus years ago, there was a philosophy lecturer who decided he wanted to learn to play drums. He started playing in the 70/80s blues/rock genre, but always wanted to play jazz, so he signed up for lessons. After a lot of hard work, he had the confidence to play in public.

The next move was to find a way of playing club dates, but he had trouble getting gigs with existing bands. He took a crazy leap of faith and organised a ‘club’ of his own; a room at the Heathcote Pub in Leytonstone to play with friends and colleagues, with a hope that people might want to come and listen.

That was Wanstead resident Clive Fenner, who for many years lived in a flat above the ladies dress shop on the High Street. He started his club on a very low budget with his own drums and a piano with a German-sounding name that was actually made in China, but the musicians he brought built that gig in the Heathcote into a popular local event. Until, so the story goes, the pub decided his patrons were too interested in the music and not spending enough money at the bar! So, he moved to a larger room at The Lord Rookwood pub by Wanstead Flats, and East Side Jazz Club became a regular Tuesday night gig there for over 10 years. Many Wanstead residents, fans from the Essex fringes and beyond came to see great musicians play to a live audience.

Clive was a hustler and persuaded some of the best musicians in the field to play with him, as long as he could always be on drums. Most famously that included local superstar Kenny Wheeler, a world-class flugelhorn player.

After several years of successful gigs, The Lord Rookwood closed down in dubious circumstances; padlocked, with the piano inside, requiring a cleverly mounted expedition to rescue it. Clive eventually settled on a new venue, the Ex-Servicemen’s Club (now The Social) on Harvey Road, Leytonstone, and it has since grown to be a well-respected venue on the London jazz scene.

When Clive sadly died some four years ago from prostate cancer, a group of his friends decided the club couldn’t die with him, and East Side Jazz is now more active than ever. It will be part of the London Jazz Festival this year, booking top UK and European players, plus young musicians starting their careers, every Tuesday night. That old Chinese piano has been replaced by a beautiful Yamaha that sounds great every time it is rolled out. In 2026, the club will be hosting musicians at the top of the UK jazz list, including Tony Kofi, Zoe Rahman, John Etheridge and many others.

Getting to the club from Wanstead is very straightforward, just a single stop away on the Central Line or 100 yards from the W13 bus stop on Harvey Road.

For more information on East Side Jazz Club events, visit wnstd.com/jazz

Local singers are invited to join the Parish of Wanstead choir for an Easter event.

We invite members of the community to join us for a performance of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater in St Mary’s Church on Good Friday. This is a beautiful piece, a setting of a 12th-century hymn depicting the agony of Mary at the crucifixion. All voices welcome, we just ask you to commit to three of the four rehearsals, which will be on 19 February, 5 and 19 March and 2 April,” said Alison Wells.

Email wansteadparishchoir@gmail.com

When Wanstead resident Paul Hollins started digitising his family’s video tapes just over a year ago, he didn’t realise it would turn into a business with a mission to help local residents protect fragile memories

If there’s one thing many of us have learned over the last few years, it’s that the small, everyday moments often become the most precious. A wobbly camcorder clip of Christmas morning. A family holiday filmed on VHS. A wedding video tucked away in a drawer. These recordings aren’t just old tapes. They’re living snapshots of who we were, and they’re worth protecting so they can be enjoyed by future generations.

The challenge is that the media we relied on in the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s wasn’t built to last this long. Magnetic tapes slowly degrade over time. The binder that holds the magnetic layer can break down, tapes can stretch or stick, and if they’ve been stored in lofts, garages or damp cupboards, mould can become a real issue. Many people are surprised to learn the expected lifespan of tape was often quoted as around 10 years in ideal conditions. Now, we’re regularly dealing with tapes that are 30 to 40 years old. In some cases, a tape might play once and then fail, which is why acting sooner rather than later matters.

DVDs can also be vulnerable. Disc rot is a gradual deterioration of the disc’s layers, sometimes due to manufacturing issues, but also accelerated by heat, humidity or tiny cracks. It can show up as freezing, pixelation, missing sections or a disc that won’t read at all. If a DVD holds the only copy of an important family event, that’s a risk most of us would rather not take.

There’s another practical reality, too. Working machines are getting harder to find, and the era of widespread servicing and repair has largely faded. Even if you still have a player, it may not be running at its best. Many households simply don’t have the equipment anymore.

That combination of emotional value and technical fragility is exactly why I set up Tape Transfer Pro here in the local area. It began when my brother and I discovered some tapes belonging to our late mother. We were close to throwing them away, but curiosity won. Hearing her voice again was a proper stop-you-in-your-tracks moment. I started digitising my own family archive, then neighbours and friends in Wanstead, South Woodford and nearby areas asked if I could help with theirs.

The goal is simple: remove the stress from the process. People shouldn’t have to post irreplaceable tapes across the country and hope for the best, or hand them to a high street counter without knowing who will handle them or when they’ll be returned. Keeping transfers local, handled carefully and personally, makes a real difference. Because in the end, this isn’t really about formats. It’s about protecting memories now, so your kids and grandkids can press play later and feel like they were right there with you.

For more information on digitising old video tapes, visit tapetransferpro.com

In the 50th of a series of articles, David Bird discusses the work of Redbridge Music Society and introduces Redbridge Music Service, whose students will be performing in Wanstead this month

Two essential aims of Redbridge Music Society are to promote up-and-coming young musicians, especially those residing within the borough, and to bring a diverse range of musical styles and genres to the people of Redbridge.

Both aims will be realised when the students of Redbridge Music Service put on a recital in the Churchill Room of Wanstead Library this January.

Redbridge Music Service is based at the John Savage Centre in Hainault, and throughout its long existence has nurtured numerous talented young musicians, very many of whom have gone on to pursue careers in music.

Redbridge Music Service is part of the East London Music Alliance (ELMA), held in high esteem for its provision of exceptionally high-quality music education. ELMA’s vision is to establish opportunities for students of local music services to progress and create music together, especially via live performances. To this end, Redbridge Music Service provides a wide range of instrumental and vocal tuition in schools throughout the borough, even at nursery and reception level, with instruments being available for hire from the service’s instrument centre.

Redbridge Music Service also provides opportunities for its students to perform music together, and every year presents over 50 local concerts, ranging from those at the John Savage Centre to public recitals, such as our Wanstead Library event and other major events at Redbridge Town Hall. Every two years there is also the highly successful and well-renowned Redbridge Schools’ Choral Festival at the Royal Albert Hall.

Being involved in musical activities and the acquisition of performance skills can be very beneficial for a young person’s development, and learning to play a musical instrument can significantly improve important developmental qualities, such as self-confidence, imagination and creativity, memory and co-ordination skills and communication, team and social skills, skills which also greatly benefit other areas in the school curriculum.

Redbridge Music Service encourages its students to explore music from a wide range of historical periods and genres, and this will be evident at the recital at Wanstead Library when the students will perform an eclectic mix of music and musical styles. Their recitals are a standard annual feature in Redbridge Music Society’s calendar and are always popular and well-attended events.

Please come along and support Redbridge’s young and home-grown musical talent!

The recital will take place at Wanstead Library on 20 January from 8pm (tickets on the door: £9). Call 07380 606 767. Redbridge Music Society is affiliated to Making Music.

Redbridge Council has issued a statement in response to requests for additional signage on Chigwell Road for the Nightingale Primary School Streets scheme.

“Although it’s not possible to install the exact signage being requested – due to the confusion it may cause drivers as the proposed placement of the signs is two junctions away from the scheme – we are exploring alternative solutions. This will take some time to investigate as we may need to use non-standard signage that would need to comply with regulations.”

A freedom of information request has revealed that £116,369 in fines has been generated by the Nightingale Primary School Streets scheme, which residents claim is poorly signposted.

The scheme – in place since March 2025 – prohibits traffic from entering parts of Ashbourne Avenue and South View Drive during school start and finish times.

“There is no proper signage on Chigwell Road to warn drivers in advance and the signs on the side roads don’t make it clear which are restricted. It’s a cash cow,” said a resident.

Despite some progress, Redbridge Council still falls short on key biodiversity commitments, prompting fresh demands for a nature emergency motion, says Councillor Paul Donovan

So, how has Redbridge Council risen to biodiversity challenges over the past few years? When first elected for Wanstead Village in 2018, Councillor Jo Blackman and myself sought to raise environmental issues up the council agenda. We were starting from a very low mark.

Jo and I were on the Nature and Environment Task and Finish Group. This group took evidence, did some site visits and came up with a plan. Among the recommendations was a review of the Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINC) around the borough, the implementation of grow zones (wild areas), the phasing out of pesticide usage, managing sites as wetlands for biodiversity and promoting wildlife corridors. A new Urban Landscape policy was adopted. We also brought a Climate Emergency motion to the council in June 2019. This was duly passed.

There have been successes. Grow zones have extended, with 10,000 square metres covered. Another 400,000 square metres have been given to wild space. Some 850 tree pits have been adopted in the last year, with 7,000 trees planted in the same period. Less encouraging is the failure to take forward the SINC recommendations. There has been increasing involvement from residents and groups operating on a voluntary basis. The likes of the Wren Wildlife Group, Wanstead Community Gardeners and River Roding Trust have all done a lot. This, though, is an emergency, demanding responses at least on a par with COVID. Obviously, the response thus far is nowhere near that level. National government could help by making the need to address biodiversity and climate emergencies a statutory duty on councils.

Things need to change. There are two initiatives that offer hope. The first is the London Local Nature Recovery Plan, which offers guidance on how things should progress. The second is a call for a nature emergency motion to be passed by the council. This would offer measurable benchmarks which must be met. Things like committing to 30% of council land for nature recovery by 2030 and the extension of the duty on developers to provide 20% biodiversity net gain in their projects. The culture also needs to change, so the comprehensive nature recovery strategy is embedded in all elements of the council. A petition calling for just such an initiative has collected over 1,500 signatures and will be presented to the council in January. The May elections are another opportunity to make clear to those seeking office how important it is to address the environmental emergencies.

Given the political will, garnered from grassroots pressure, we can really accelerate efforts to confront these crises. All is not lost, with many positive things going on, but time is running out; more is needed and fast.

For more information on declaring a nature emergency, visit wnstd.com/ntem

Wanstead resident Suzi Robinson has been commended for her work with Redbridge Council’s domestic abuse service Reach Out.

“This is truly a community award as we couldn’t do what we do without those who support us week in, week out. Every single thing we have ever asked for, the community has provided. It is truly heartwarming. Thank you, Wanstead, for continuing to support all we do. You are all amazing,” said Suzi, who was honoured at the service’s annual conference last month.

Visit wnstd.com/reachout