Features

Wanstead Park swan couple Bonnie and Clyde were separated over the summer following an incident in which Clyde broke his wing. Helen O’Rourke updates on the sad separation

The first-ever Wanstead Beer Festival is nearly upon us. If you haven’t got your ticket, get one now, says organiser Paul Donovan, who hopes the event will become an annual fixture

The Walthamstow Green Hopped Pale Ale will be one of the many beverages available at the Wanstead Beer Festival on 14 October, says organiser Paul Donovan

A botanical spectacle in an Aldersbrook front garden has been the cause of much excitement, says Alice Batsford, proud owner of the Aldersbrook Agave My husband, son and I (and now joined by our newborn daughter) moved to Aldersbrook just over a year ago, and the garden was one of the first things that caught our attention. The people who lived here before us were very green-fingered, especially when it came to growing more unusual, tropical plants.  The Agave in the front garden was impressive back then, but over the last few months has become a real spectacle in the area. Over the course of a week, it suddenly sprouted a spear and since then has grown progressively taller, now standing almost as high as the house with some large yellow flower heads.  Agaves are usually found in North and South America, Mexico and the Caribbean. Given the weather conditions of where they are usually grown, they are rare to see in the UK – especially in flower. They are monocarpic, meaning they only flower once in their lifetime (usually when they are between 15 and 20 years old) and will die after flowering. They are a distant relative of the asparagus family,...

Liz Martins from the Save Our Wanstead Youth Centre campaign group welcomes the council’s new plans for the venue’s future, but explains why their work is far from over

The Leader of Redbridge Council, Councillor Jas Athwal, explains the decision to convert Wanstead Youth Centre into an education and youth hub, and why it must temporarily close in order to do so  

Chainsaw artist Marshall Lambert has created three new wood carvings for the play area in Wanstead Park, a place he used to visit as a child. Photo by Geoff Wilkinson I was born in the East End some 60-odd years ago, and as an urban kid, I found the parks and green spaces I fell in love with offered an entirely different playground to my usual surroundings. Many years later, just as the new millennium dawned, I found myself mooching around Hainault Forest and happened across a guy carving the woodhenge that was to be placed around the forest for people to find as they explored the woods. He had started the project carving the life cycle of a frog, and although it was rough cut and nowhere near finished, I was very impressed with his work. In conversation with the artist, he suggested I could carve if I chose to. But my thinking at that time told me I couldn’t do such an artistic thing. Plus, how could I afford tools? So, that was that. Roll on 2014 when, by chance, en route from a family visit to a volunteer group at Audley End House, I saw Andy Butcher’s version...

Madeline Wong is an artist from Hong Kong now living in Wanstead and applying her passion for painting old buildings to the landmarks she is discovering here

Derek Inkpin from local solicitors Axiom DWFM takes the law seriously, but even he knows sometimes the law can be an ass… especially if you get a bit tipsy in a pub

Wren Wildlife Group member Nick Croft shares his experience of breathing life back into Cat and Dog Pond on Wanstead Flats. Additional words by Tony Morrison. Photo by Mary Holden

In the second of two articles looking at the work taking place to improve Wanstead Park, the Friends of Wanstead Parklands’ chairman Peter Brimson expresses concerns over the condition of the park’s lakes

The Aldersbrook Horticultural Society’s new season of talks kicks off this month with a presentation by Danny Clarke, aka The Black Gardener. Here, Ruth Martin introduces some of the other names on the bill