Features

Vanya Marks of Wanstead Climate Action laments the area’s lost front gardens to driveways, but cites this positive example on Felstead Road. Photo by Geoff Wilkinson

In the second of a series of articles by those who have benefitted from the existence of Wanstead Youth Centre – which is under threat of closure – Zaida Hussain reports on the work of REAL Initiative

As the Wanstead Fringe gears up for its 10th season, festival director Giles Wilson wonders if the annual series of events can help change perceptions of Wanstead – both here and further away

Following a positive response to his article earlier this year floating the idea of a Wanstead Beer Festival, Councillor Paul Donovan is now part of the organising committee bringing the event to a head in October

Following a recent announcement that funding for a new Whipps Cross Hospital has been secured, John Cryer MP reflects on an East London institution and vows to hold ministers to account

With Wanstead Park’s new Woodland Play Area finally open, Gill James reflects on a 22-year campaign by the Aldersbrook Families Association

The Save Our Wanstead Youth Centre campaign has issued an open letter in response to the Leader of Redbridge Council’s article in last month’s issue of the Wanstead Village Directory, in which it was announced the future of Wanstead Youth Centre will be decided at a council meeting in September Jas Athwal, the Leader of the Council, has confirmed in the article that the future of Wanstead Youth Centre will be made at the Cabinet meeting in September 2023. The SOWYC Group thank councillors, Young People and the wider community for their support in achieving this positive response. We want to re-iterate our request for the council to grant a moratorium, of at least 12 months, to allow further time to explore and pursue other options and funding streams to retain the only remaining youth centre of its kind in the borough.  And to make available, as previously requested,  the necessary financial documents to allow this to happen.  We remind the council that over 5,000 people signed the petition to oppose the closure of the centre; and at the public meeting in March many young people spoke about the importance of the centre to their physical and mental health. We...

Wanstead House art tutor Karina Laymen has illustrated a ‘grown-up’ children’s book entitled Daisy Dresser’s Miracle by Tricia Exman, aimed at anyone who needs inspiration to let go of their ‘false self’

Ahead of the Wanstead Wildlife Weekend, James Heal offers his tips for birdwatching on the local patch Some of the local birders (me included) have been around for a while. I will spare the blushes of one of my fellows who has been ticking stuff locally since before I was born. There are a range of capabilities and specific interests (some of us like gulls, some like surveying breeding birds, some use nocturnal migration recorders and heat sensory binoculars, and some like taking the best photos of birds possible), but this group of core local birders have kept the records flowing over the last decade and more and found some amazing birds. I dread to think about the number of combined hours we have put into birding Wanstead Flats and Wanstead Park – it would be a very large figure indeed. Most of us are out at least weekly, and some of us almost daily! Birding is about so much more than numbers, but there are few committed birders who are not at least somewhat interested in the numbers game. Birders, as we know, like lists, with several of us now contributing regularly to centralised applications, most notably eBird, which enable...

The Wren Wildlife Group will host the Wanstead Wildlife Weekend this month. Everyone is invited to join them in Wanstead Park and on Wanstead Flats to get a little closer to nature. Gill James outlines the events taking place

Humanist Heritage Project coordinator Madeleine Goodall will be the guest speaker at the East London Humanists’ June event. Group chairperson Paul Kaufman previews the history that will be discussed

Derek Inkpin from local solicitors Axiom DWFM looks at the use of signatures and explains how typing your name at the end of an email can also be legally binding