Features

Snaresbrook resident and teacher Chris Pallet will be glad when schools (safely) reopen. Here, Mr Pallet, who is also chair of Redbridge Liberal Democrats, explains the biggest lesson he has learnt from lockdown

In the second of a series of articles by Refugee Welcome Wanstead – a community group planning to welcome a Syrian refugee family to Wanstead – Eleanor Taylor celebrates the group’s first milestone

In the first of two articles, Dr Colin Runeckles discusses his findings following research into a Wanstead and Woodford Borough Council building survey carried out in 1949

Rising at Molehill Green in Essex, the River Roding passes through the Wanstead and Woodford area en route to the Thames, bringing with it a very real flood risk to local homes. In the ninth of a series of articles, Laura Hepworth from the Environment Agency reports on the River Roding Project, which aims to reduce that risk.

Wanstead resident Andy Nutter had no hesitation in volunteering to help the NHS during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Artists have always sought isolation to find their muse – but it is very different when isolation is thrust upon you! Woodford Arts Group was set up to keep local artists in touch, and that ethos continues in lockdown, says Julia Brett.

Growing your own fruit and vegetables is good for the environment and, during these times of isolation, it’s good for the soul as well, says Jennifer Hawkes of Wanstead Climate Action

The emergency action taken to combat coronavirus needs to be applied to other areas, like climate change and biodiversity destruction, says Councillor Paul Donovan (Wanstead Village, Labour)

Haven House Children’s Hospice has called off many of its fundraising activities for the foreseeable future. Chief Executive Mike Palfreman warns this could have a devastating impact and appeals for support

To honour 40 years since the death of Sir Alfred Hitchcock, local historian Gary Lewis tells the story of how his interest in the late director spawned a business offering guided tours in Leytonstone Good evening (as Leytonstone’s favourite son himself would say). My name is Gary Lewis, I’m a local historian, public speaker and tour guide on the subject of the late, great film director Sir Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock was born on 13 August 1899 in Leytonstone. Known as the Master of Suspense, he directed over 50 feature films before receiving an American Film Institute Life Achievement Award. He made his directorial debut with the silent film The Pleasure Garden in 1925. His first successful film, The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927), helped to shape the thriller genre, while his 1929 film, Blackmail, was the first British ‘talkie’. He died in California on 29 April 1980. I’ve been a resident of Leytonstone for the past 41 years, but my fascination with Hitchcock really began when I was a teenager in the late 1970s. One Sunday night, I stayed up late to watch Psycho on TV. I remember jumping out of my chair at the shower scene, and the screeching violins...

In the third of a series of articles documenting the thoughts of local anti-bullying ambassador Elsa Arnold, the founder of the Spreading Kindness Through E11 initiative explains how we can all effect change I’ve always been someone who has dreamt of ways to make a positive difference and inspire even just a small change in the world. It’s important to me that I am able to have an impact and help others with issues I understand and feel passionately about shaping. When I experienced bullying and struggled with my mental health, my desire and need to help others got stronger, and after struggling so much, I couldn’t stand by knowing that other people were experiencing similar difficulties. I knew and believed I could make a difference. But I’ll be honest, taking the first few steps to speak out and stand up was one of the most terrifying things I have done. It hasn’t always been easy. I knew from the beginning I might get a little bit of backlash. I didn’t expect it to be easy, particularly because the issue was still very sensitive for me at the time. But that was never going to stop me. I knew however...

In the second of a series of articles looking at local historic photos found in a 100-year-old family album, historian Richard Arnopp presents a selection of images of the Hobbs at their Forest Gate home Last month, I introduced the Hobbs family, a talented and interesting clan, some of whom lived locally in Forest Gate and later Ilford. In 2017, I acquired an album, dated 1896–1907, containing over 100 photographs taken by family members. The patriarch of the family was George Wilson Hobbs, a self-employed artist who had been born in Newport, Isle of Wight, in 1838. With his wife, Fanny, and their family, he moved to Forest Gate around 1880 and resided at 35 Bignold Road until his death in 1913. That house was the setting for a number of photographs from the album which will illustrate this instalment. In those days, Forest Gate was rather different to what it is today – a quiet, lower-middle-class suburb containing an island of quite exclusive villas in the Woodgrange Estate. Mrs Dorothy Neal was born in 1912 in the corn chandler’s shop owned by her father in Dames Road – not 100 yards from the home of George Hobbs, with whom...