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Redbridge Cycling Campaign will lead a 30-mile bike ride from Wanstead Park into central London this month.

“We will use a quiet route in and out of the centre and cycle down The Mall, alongside Green Park and around Hyde Park. The ride will be gently paced and marshalled throughout,” said a spokesperson.

The free event will depart from the park’s tea hut at 10am on 15 June, returning by 5pm. Participants are encouraged to bring a picnic. Less experienced riders and accompanied children are welcome.

Visit wnstd.com/rcc

Cowley Road came together in true community spirit last month to mark 80 years since VE Day with a joyful street party full of reflection, fun and fundraising. Resident Jennie O’ Beirne reports

After being invited by Redbridge Council to apply to hold a street party to commemorate 80 years since VE Day in 1945, Cowley Road decided to go for it! We held our celebration on 4 May.

But before the festivities could begin, a small group of volunteers set about making the arrangements, starting with agreeing with the council to have the road closed for the event.  Each house in the street contributed the same nominal amount towards the day and the council supplied commemorative bunting and flags, which we used to decorate the street to great effect.

Finally, the day came and happened to coincide with the monthly market on Wanstead High Street, so keeping the traffic away became extra important!

The party began with a broadcast of Winston Churchill’s speech from that time and the street took a moment to reflect on the awfulness of war and how lucky we are not to have such terrible atrocities in our country today, even though wars still rage around the world.

Two of the street’s children set up a scavenger hunt, which had us looking for clues up and down the length of the road. The street sat down to a lunch at tables kindly loaned by The Duke and other neighbours. There was also a sharing table, laden with soft drinks, cakes and crisps for everyone to help themselves. Lunch was followed by a cake competition so the cakes could then be eaten!  We had a very successful auction of mainly donated items and everyone was given a raffle ticket with a host of prizes being given out, the star prize being a large hamper of goodies. We had a London quiz and a guess-the-intro music quiz, which everyone enjoyed with more prizes won.

There was a children’s table with colouring activities and a parachute-style game. With the street closed, it was great to see children playing football in the road just like old times.

Despite the chilly northeasterly wind, a great time was had by everyone, with wonderful neighbourly friendliness and great community spirit. From the smallest babies to some of the oldest residents, it was fabulous to have so many people join in, despite it being a Bank Holiday and a lot of households away.

We had a collection point for Tin in a Bin, which was very generously supported. We were also delighted to raise over £500, which we chose to donate to CombatStress, a veterans’ mental health charity.

For more information on closing a road for a street party, visit wnstd.com/party

For more information about CombatStress and the work they do, visit wnstd.com/cs

The practice team at Aldersbrook Medical Centre has been awarded a permanent contract to run the surgery.

It follows a year of uncertainty after the NHS reduced the surgery’s budget, forcing providers Richmond Road Medical Centre to hand in their notice and enter into a new procurement process. “We are delighted! We now have certainty the services we receive will continue,” said Terilla Bernard from the patient participation group.

GPs will host a prostate cancer awareness talk at St Gabriel’s Church from 7pm on 1 July.

Marian Temple invites you to join the Wanstead Community Gardeners on two evening ‘trundles’ this June to hear the stories behind the patches, meet the gardeners who created them and discover the blooming heart of Wanstead’s community spirit. Photo by Geoff Wilkinson

Wanstead Community Gardeners have been super active for a good ten years now, but it all started in 2003 with the Corner House Garden at the Age Concern Luncheon Club. At that time, the garden was a sorry sight indeed, but was to become Wanstead’s iconic cottage garden on the High Street.

Since then, there’s been no stopping us. We now have over 40 patches of former SPPS (sad patch of public soil), from tree surrounds to full-sized gardens. We took them under our trowel and the resulting patches help make Wanstead the special place it is. Want to join in the fun? Ask one of us or send us an email.

We’ve been doing the Wanstead trundles for some time now because people are really interested in our patches of gardens and want to know how they came about.

This year, it will be two trundles because us Community Gardeners now have so many patches all over the place that it’s not possible to cover the ground in one session!

There are two dates for a leisurely evening guided walk with the stories of how each patch came into being and a chance to meet the gardeners who created them. Entertainment guaranteed.

The first trundle will take place on Monday 2 June; meet at Snaresbrook Station for 7pm if you’d like to join us. At this end of the High Street, there were no obvious sad flower beds for us to adopt, so we looked skywards. Lots of interesting stories to be heard about the Hanging Gardens of Snaresbrook. We’ll have a quick look at Solly’s Patch, the raised street planter at the end of Lonsdale Road. This was due to be flattened when its occupant, the Horse Chestnut tree, died, but the council let us have it, complete with tree stump, so the well-loved patch of colour on the corner was created. We’ll finish at the Wanstead Clinic Garden on Wanstead Place, another delight and work in progress.

On Monday 9 June, we’ll be meeting at 7pm again, this time at the Belgique Bed, which is at the end of George Green, on the opposite side of the road to Belgique. We’ll have a look at that border, the Gravel Garden, the mini meadow behind that, then cross George Green to Ingrid’s Isle (pictured here), that amazing traffic roundabout turned garden, much beloved by drivers and footsters alike. We’ll finish this second trundle at the Corner House Garden, opposite the Co-op, where this whole story started 22 years ago.

No need to book, just turn up. Each walk will probably take about two hours, but people are free to join or leave as they wish. Join us for a chance to find out about this little niche of Wanstead history.

Happy trundling!

To contact the Wanstead Community Gardeners, visit wnstd.com/wcg

Redbridge Council is proposing to introduce a road safety zone covering Aldersbrook and parts of Wanstead.

“As part of its draft Sustainable Transport Strategy, the council has committed to the implementation of road safety zones… to contribute to the goal of Vision Zero, which is the elimination of road deaths and serious injuries by 2041,” said Councillor Jo Blackman.

The Wanstead South safety zone – one of three across the borough in the first phase of the project – will see a speed limit of 20mph on all roads south of the A12 and north of Wanstead Flats. Implementation is expected within the current financial year, with additional zones set to follow for the rest of Wanstead and South Woodford.

Redbridge has an average of two road deaths and 88 serious injuries each year. If a pedestrian is hit by a vehicle travelling at 20mph there is a 2.5% chance they will be fatally injured, compared to a 20% chance at 30mph.

Visit wnstd.com/20

In the first of a series of articles, Benjamin Murphy, Chairman of the Epping Forest and Commons Committee, reports on the improvement projects that will be getting underway in Wanstead Park this summer

Wanstead Park is a Grade II* Registered Park and Garden and has been on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register since 2009. In 1954, the Temple and the nearby Grotto were designated as Grade II listed buildings, while in 1970 the Wanstead Park area was designated as a Conservation Area. The Wanstead Park Conservation Area was added to the Heritage at Risk Register in 2010, while the Grotto was separately added in 2017.

Over the next few months, work will begin on several heritage and conservation projects in Wanstead Park as part of our ongoing efforts to care for this much-loved historic landscape.

Thanks to donations from the Friends of Wanstead Parklands and Aldersbrook Families Association, the play area will be getting a facelift, including new play equipment, signage and a surfaced path to an accessible nest swing. During this time, the play area will need to be closed completely, and we hope to have the work finished this summer.

As readers may already know, the Grotto is in need of work to stabilise its structure to remove it from the Heritage at Risk Register. This essential work, led by the City of London Corporation as conservators of Epping Forest, will also begin this summer and is expected to continue until the end of the year. Works will include removing and replacing decayed bricks and loose pointing and reinstating new flaunching – the mortar base holding the chimney stacks in position. From a distance, these changes might not look like a lot, but along with a steel frame that will be erected at the back of the Grotto, they will stabilise the brickwork and ensure it remains in good condition.

As outlined in my January article, Wanstead Park’s British Isles-shaped ‘Map Tree’ has a pronounced lean toward the Ornamental Water and exposed roots at the base of the trunk (see picture). Sadly, these roots are being damaged from heavy footfall, so, in the next few weeks, a low fence will be built around this 200-year-old cedar to help protect it. The roots not only carry nutrients and water but anchor the tree firmly in the ground. Please help us preserve this much-loved specimen for as long as possible by keeping off the roots. There remains some optimism the tree may surprise us and continue for decades to come, but we are also making plans to plant a replacement nearby.

There are also several projects underway to improve the water resilience in the park.  Our new Wanstead Park Projects Officer is coordinating these to ensure their successful delivery over the next couple of years. More to follow on this in a future issue.

Throughout these important conservation and heritage works, some areas of the Park may be closed off to visitors, for your safety.

For more information and updates, visit wnstd.com/colc

Local artist Verity Watkins is fascinated by flowers – including Wanstead Park’s iconic bluebells – and celebrates their beauty through screen printing

Over Easter, the bluebells were out in all their glory in our beautiful Wanstead Park, and I visited there most days to enjoy these increasingly rare and delicate plants. There is nothing like an ancient woodland glade, in dappled spring sunshine, with a misty blue carpet of flowers.

Traditional English bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) are defined by their arching stem and almost violet bells that droop in one direction, and this is what I’ve tried to capture in my screen print designs. They are also known as wood bells, wild hyacinths or fairy flowers, on account of the fluted bells that look charmingly like tiny fairy dresses.

I work on an occasional basis for the learning department at the Chelsea Physic Garden, the oldest botanical garden in London which started in 1673, just after the Great Fire of London. It gives me ample opportunity to observe the many plants that come and go during the seasons and I take a lot of pictures of these. Sometimes, I scavenge leaves, petals, nuts and berries from the streets around Wanstead or Wanstead Park itself. I’ve even knocked on someone’s door and asked if I can take a picture of their gorgeous flowers. From these, I create digital collage images, which I also turn into designs for cards. Sometimes, I just sit quietly and look. It’s amazing what you can see when you truly look; this is what nature teaches us, to appreciate the small details of the beautiful plants around us.

Screen printing can be a complex process, but I choose to do it at home on the kitchen table, cutting out traditional stencils, which encourages simplicity. I’ve always been fascinated by plants and flowers and the character they have when distilled into simple shapes. I use acrylic paints for their vibrancy and work fairly large, with anywhere between three and eight colours per screen print. These days, it’s fairly easy to recreate the look of screen printing using digital techniques, but it’s the real-life inconsistencies that give a screen print its character and joy. I usually start by intending 10 prints, but after some misaligning or soggy stencils, I usually end up with about five originals I am satisfied with. I then scan the image and create artwork to send to the printers to create greetings cards.

I have lived in Wanstead for 30 years and always look forward to the show of bluebells every year. It used to be a local secret. But sadly, the rise of social media has led to many more people coming simply to grab a picture of themselves with these iconic and joyful plants. Did you know that a bluebell once stepped on can take six years to recover? We all need to be careful to protect the natural heritage we have, otherwise, sadly, all we will have left are the pictures.

To view more of Verity’s art and to order greetings cards, visit wnstd.com/verity

Open-air theatre will return to Wanstead Park this summer.

The new season will begin on 14 June with a performance of The Wind in the Willows by outdoor theatre company Illyria.

This will be followed by the East London Shakespeare Festival’s production of As You Like It on 5 and 6 July.

Illyria will then return with Pride and Prejudice on 22 July and HMS Pinafore on 8 August.

All shows take place in the park’s Temple enclosure and attendees are encouraged to bring their own seating and a picnic.

Visit wnstd.com/wp25

TfL has confirmed the W14 bus will once again stop at Woodbine Place.

“We regularly review our services according to feedback… We are now working to change the W14 westbound service so it stops at Woodbine Place,” said a spokesperson.

It follows TfL’s review of the W12, W13 and W14 bus routes, which were restructured last September.

The review – published last month – concludes the services have not been good enough, with the arrival of new electric buses in the summer expected to improve performance.

Visit wnstd.com/wr

As part of VE Day 80th anniversary celebrations, local historian Davis Watson will give a talk about the impact World War Two had on Wanstead

Eighty years ago this month, Wanstead joined the rest of the country in celebrating VE Day. Amid the jubilation, Wanstead could also reflect on a trying time that had seen residents pushed to their limits.

By the time war had been declared in September 1939, Wanstead, like many other towns across the nation, had been preparing in case of conflict. The Borough of Wanstead and Woodford had founded a local Civil Defence Service in March 1936 and when war was announced, 43 wardens’ posts, spread across six districts, were quickly confirmed.

Locations of posts in Wanstead included the entrance to Wanstead Golf Club, the grounds of the Weavers’ Almshouses and Nutter Lane, opposite the junction with Buckingham Road. Other well-known local sites utilised during the war included Wanstead High School for use as a field kitchen, Christ Church Green as a home for a temporary shelter and Hermon Hill Methodist Church hall as a rest centre to provide accommodation for bombed-out families.

Wardens dashed between these sites night after night as reports of bombings and fires were reported to the posts. One of their most memorable call-outs occurred in August 1940 when a British plane crashed in Hereford Road, bouncing off two houses before landing in the road and sending stray bullets through nearby walls; the pilot having baled out successfully, the sole injury was sustained by a dog.

A week later saw the commencement of the Blitz and Wanstead suffered heavily on the first night, chiefly around the Nightingale Lane junction of the High Street. Roughly 500 incendiaries fell in that area alone, which destroyed several buildings, including two houses on Grove Road (since renamed Grosvenor Road) and a block of flats at the newly built Shrubbery. Several properties on the High Street itself were also badly damaged.

In the meantime, other important measures were seen to; guardrails were installed at Eagle Pond to prevent pedestrians falling in during blackouts, a siren was installed at Wanstead Police Station to signal the start of a raid and the all-clear, and Reverend Godwin Birchenough, rector of the parish, reluctantly cancelled Wednesday evening services as they were frequently interrupted by raids.

In the midst of such action on home soil, countless local residents also received news of the death of loved ones on active service. Wanstead residents to die serving their country included pilot Arthur Lowthian Barge of the RAF Volunteer Reserve, who, in April 1943, crashed his plane into a tree in Wiltshire. Barge’s father, also named Arthur, was a local councillor who played a huge role in civil defence in the borough throughout the war, at one point serving as chief warden. A fellow military casualty was Battle of Britain pilot David Edward Lloyd, who passed away in March 1942 when he collided with a Polish plane over Hayes. Both Barge and Lloyd, among many other Second World War military casualties, are buried in the graveyard at St Mary’s, Wanstead.

1. Wanstead High Street.
2. Rescue workers rest after a bombing on Lake House Road on 19 March 1941.
3. The Shrubberies following bombing in the early hours of 8 September 1940.
4. Lake House Road following a bombing on 19 March 1941.
5. The Hermitage, Snaresbrook Road, bombed in October 1940.
6. Snaresbrook Road.
7. 12–14 Hereford Road after a British plane crashed in the street on 31 August 1940.
8. Evergreen House on Wanstead High Street following a bombing on 7 September 1940.

A talk entitled Wanstead at War will take place at Christ Church on 5 May from 3pm (free; no booking required). For more information on other local VE Day anniversary events, visit wnstd.com/ve80

A planning application has been submitted to redevelop two single-storey shops on Wanstead High Street.

The proposal involves demolishing the existing buildings – currently home to The Wanstead Barber Shop (1A) and the now closed Simple ‘n’ Natural shop (3A) – and replacing them with a development featuring a ground floor retail unit and three flats above.

evelopers say the new building will complement the surrounding architecture and will in-fill the gap within the existing three-storey terrace.

Visit wnstd.com/1a3a

Wanstead Park’s annual display of bluebells has attracted thousands of visitors.

“The bluebells looked magnificent and have gradually spread over the years with a helping hand in the winter from the Wren Wildlife Group, who maintain the pathways that protect these delicate plants. Thankfully, we haven’t noticed any new unwanted paths being created through the flowers. The stems, however, look shorter this year, possibly due to a lack of rain this spring,” said Gill James of the Friends of Wanstead Parklands.