Features

In the first of two articles outlining the speeches given at the Friends of Wanstead Parklands' AGM last month, Richard Arnopp recounts the words of the City of London’s Director of Open Spaces Colin Buttery Colin Buttery explained how his department’s remit involved managing the protection and conservation of the City of London Corporation’s green spaces in London and South East England. Among many others, these include Hampstead Heath and the ancient woodland of Epping Forest. Mr Buttery said that the City of London had acquired several large open spaces by Acts of Parliament during the 1870s and 1880s. These had been vested in the City’s care on account of its long-standing record as a focus of charitable activities. Epping Forest had been acquired in 1878 and, in common with the other open spaces, had since been funded by the City using the interest from assets invested in the 19th century. In recent years, the budgets of charities supported by the City of London have been under financial pressure, with a need to deliver efficiencies. Funding granted by the City has reduced by about 25% in the last six years, but self-generated income has increased to help maintain the Forest. Mr...

To mark Women’s History Month, an Eastside Community Heritage exhibition at Wanstead Library will uncover the stories of local women inventors this March. Judith Garfield reports The world of invention and enterprise has been male-dominated throughout history and the lives and creations of female inventors have frequently been overlooked, glossed over and ignored. Women have consistently had their contributions swept under the rug and hidden in the background while their male counterparts have stood in the foreground as standalone pioneers. Women from east London who were behind four revolutionary innovations – which changed the way we eat, dress, love and find our way home – have now had their stories discovered in our new exhibition. One such story was that of Phyllis Pearsall, who invented the A-Z street map in 1936. The creation and publication of the A-Z was revolutionary in a time before GPS and satellite navigation. In the same year, Phyllis received her first large order for The A-Z Street Guide from WHSmith for over a thousand copies, but she had some difficulties along the way. With little support, she had to buy a wheelbarrow to take them to WHSmith herself and distribute them. Many times, you find...

Join historian Nick Dobson on a trip back to 1950s London at Wanstead Library this month and discover a decade during which wartime austerity gave way to growing optimism It is tempting to look at the 1950s as the dull decade bracketed by the battlefield of the forties and carnival of the sixties. If the London of the 1960s is in glorious psychedelic colour, then surely the fifties remain in drab black and white? However, the decade which started in austerity ended with Harold Macmillan telling us we had never had it so good! It was a decade of steady progress towards new confidence and prosperity; a march towards modern Britain, seen with greatest clarity in London. At the start of the fifties, the average weekly wage for a man was £9-5s-11d, but meat cost an average of 2/- per pound, butter 4/- per pound and tea 2/6d a pound. All of these items were still rationed in those days. Food rationing ended in Britain by 4 July 1954. A packet of cigarettes cost 3/6d and around 80% of adults in London were smokers. There were some landmark events that took place in London in the 1950s. The South Bank...

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 first of a series of articles charting the ideas and hopes of the River Roding Project – which aims to reduce that risk – Laura Hepworth from the Environment Agency is keen to seek community support for the project. Photography by Geoff Wilkinson The River Roding has a long history of flooding. Flood events have been recorded since 1926, occurring in 1939, 1947, 1974, 1988, 1993, 2000 and 2007. In 2000, over 400 properties flooded in Woodford. Charlie Brown’s Roundabout was shut for over a week, impacting access to schools and supermarkets. Broadmead Baptist Church on Chigwell Road was out of use for 18 months. Do you remember the floods? We would like to hear from residents who have been impacted. There are currently over 1,500 properties with a ‘high’ chance of flooding within the River Roding catchment between Stansted and the River Thames. In the next few editions of the Wanstead Village Directory, we will be telling you different ways you can prepare for flooding. First up,...

With a new shop to open in Wanstead this month, Saint Francis Hospice will raise its profile in the area. But the service provided by the Havering-based charity has always been here for us, says Amanda Green. This time two years ago Saint Francis Hospice entered my life as my mum entered Saint Francis Hospice. It was life-changing on many levels. Mostly, of course, because my beloved mum was dying and went into Saint Francis to receive end-of-life care. But it was also life-changing because once I and my family experienced what a hospice does, and in particular the care which Mum received, there was no way we couldn't feel anything but compelled to support the charity by raising funds and awareness. For me, this awareness takes on two forms. General awareness about the differences between a hospital and a hospice as well as awareness that Saint Francis Hospice in Havering-atte-Bower serves the whole of the borough of Redbridge as well as other areas. It has an 18-bed, in-patient unit as well as Hospice at Home, which provides palliative care to Redbridge residents. Saint Francis serves to maintain life for those with life-limiting illnesses and give the most comfortable and...

Before the internet, boredom was something to be feared. Today, experts are wondering whether it is good for us. Wanstead resident Steve Wilks examines why this may be the case. Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard thought it was the root of all evil. Writer Mary Renault considered it intellectual defeat. French sociologist Jean Baudrillard declared it the world's second-worst crime. But where boredom might once have been something to fear, today we are never truly bored. In our era of non-stop notifications, how can we be? According to a survey, the average Brit checks their smartphone 28 times a day – at least once per hour. That's more that 10,000 times a year. "Those little spaces of 'no work', like walking through a park, are disappearing," says Tom Hodgkinson, founder of cult journal The Idler, which advocates a slower-paced approach to life. "You can now work while walking to work. By contrast, you have to make a special effort to create situations for idleness." Psychology writer Oliver Burkeman states: "The reason patience and stillness are so important right now is that the whole direction of culture is the opposite. You'd think we should be able to relax – we've got technology...

Independent local travel advisor Jack Leaf offers an overview of his recent luxury cruise around Cuba, which allowed him to tick off a music-related travel ambition. Whilst cruising between the Spanish colonial cities of Trinidad in Cuba and Cartagena in Columbia, it struck me that I should be writing about MV Silver Cloud and the Silversea expedition cruise I am currently enjoying. I have long wanted to visit Cuba but the rumours of food scarcity and poor quality deterred me, until I heard about this cruise itinerary. Silversea is one of the finest international cruise lines, so one is assured of a high standard of accommodation and cuisine on relatively small ships (300 to 400 passengers) and their expedition cruises include a full itinerary of shore excursions, interspersed with on-board lectures and an absence of on-board formal entertainment. The cruise was scheduled to depart from Nassau in the Bahamas, but I flew first to Miami to adjust, following the transatlantic flight with three nights in one of my favourite cities. A one-hour flight from there to Nassau and a 30-minute onward journey by road to the seaport enabled an unexpected and rapid highlights tour of Downtown Nassau. After a day...

Wanstead resident Peter Luscombe and other members of the Essex Art Club will be exhibiting their work at the Barbican Library this month. Here, Peter explains how his training as an architect led to a lifelong hobby

Gemma and Sandy Sanderson have created their own self-sustainable oasis at the Redbridge Lane West allotments. Paul Donovan, a member of the Wanstead Transition Initiative, meets them