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A planning application has been submitted for the development of a new Education and Youth Hub on the site of the former Wanstead Youth Centre, which closed in October 2023.

The £6.5m project will remodel the Elmcroft Avenue venue to include classrooms, a café, playrooms and offices. However, plans to convert the rear gymnasium into a multi-purpose space have raised concerns among campaigners, who argue it will mean the loss of the last large indoor sports hall in the west of the borough.

Visit wnstd.com/yhp

The rising blight of graffiti tags in Wanstead can be seen on our streets, subways and shopfronts, but with your help, we can report it, remove it and restore pride in our neighbourhood, says Katriye Ibrahim

Have you noticed the surge in graffiti across Wanstead? It’s hard to miss. From the sides of shops and bridges to subways and signposts, the spray paint is spreading fast – along the High Street, to the station and into Christchurch Green and beyond.

As a local resident who cares deeply about this area, I find it genuinely disheartening. This isn’t just about untidy walls; graffiti chips away at our sense of pride and safety. It sends the message that no one’s looking after our community. And when one piece of graffiti stays up, more often follow. It’s called the ‘broken windows’ effect – visible neglect that invites more antisocial behaviour. What message are we sending to our children when they see vandalism all around them? That this is just normal? That this is okay?

Many of us in Wanstead (and South Woodford, which has similar issues) are worried – and rightly so. This isn’t an occasional act of mischief anymore. It’s a growing problem that’s changing the look and feel of where we live.

In Redbridge, the Environmental Enforcement Team works to remove graffiti within three working days, prioritising anything offensive within 24 hours. That’s good news – but only if the graffiti gets reported. They’ve also trialled rapid-response cleaning and increased CCTV in hotspots. Offenders face fines of up to £5,000 and even prison time under the Criminal Damage Act 1971.

But here’s the rub: graffiti often reappears faster than it’s cleaned, and the burden falls on us – residents – to report it. And it’s not always clear who to report it to. Is it council-owned? TfL? BT? It’s frustrating, I know. Still, if we want change, we can’t walk past this anymore. We need to act, together and consistently.

Here’s what you can do: download the Love Clean Streets app from Redbridge Council’s website (for free). It takes seconds to upload a photo, add a location and report any graffiti you see. Whether it’s on a shopfront or a wall, report it. Every time. Your report will be automatically sent to the relevant team at the council to deal with. However, not everything can be dealt with on the app. The council do not deal with the green or black telephone cabinets, for example; that’s Virgin or Openreach. Anything on TfL property will need to be directed to them and telephone kiosks can be BT or private companies.

If we all take that extra minute to report what we see, we can turn this around. It’s what being a community is all about. Wanstead deserves better. Let’s fight back with action, not apathy.

To report graffiti to the right place, call:

Openreach: 0800 023 2023
Redbridge Council: 020 8554 5000
TfL: 0343 222 1234
Virgin Media: 0330 333 0444

To download the Love Clean Streets app, visit wnstd.com/cleanstreets

Artist Jaquie Feldman has a long-standing connection with Wanstead. In more recent years, she has developed an artistic obsession with birds

My association with Wanstead goes back many years. I was born and brought up close by and some of my happiest early memories are of being taken to Wanstead House Community Association for my weekly ballet lessons.

I loved that to my young eyes Wanstead House was ‘oldy worldy.’ I obviously felt it offered more character than the new-builds of the 1960s and 1970s. Today, it stands as a venue in the very heart of the community, still offering ballet lessons, but also various creative arts, crafts, exhibitions and meeting hubs.

These days, I run three classes in mixed media art, and in addition work as a freelance museum and gallery artist and creative facilitator for the British Museum, Sir John Soane’s Museum, Keats House, National Portrait Gallery, the London Museum, Royal Museums Greenwich and UCL. My own practice changed direction during the pandemic as I lost my museum work. During that surreal time, I wrote and illustrated a children’s book, which is due to be published later in the year. It was during the pandemic that I developed an ‘obsession’ with birds and began to incorporate them into my artwork.

My love of birds started when I was young; I recall taking an injured bird to the local park and setting it free. Recently, and perhaps because I’ve never witnessed one, I’ve become fascinated with the breathtaking spectacle of the starling murmuration. In my work, I try to encapsulate the feeling a murmuration might evoke. Initial studies were created simply in pencil, but I’ve recently developed a multi-layering effect using canvas, Indian khadi paper for starling shapes and a combination of pencil, charcoal and ink. Interesting things happen as each medium behaves differently on the surface. The thought of the time-consuming depiction of every single starling in that murmuration might sound unbelievably tedious to accomplish but combined with listening to Philip Glass and Max Richter, I find it all relaxing and hypnotic!      

Although I’ve now moved away, I visit Wanstead as often as I can, inspired by the joyous café society of the High Street and the vibrant community hub that are lucky enough to call Wanstead home… and, yes, perhaps I’m also a little jealous!

To view more of Jaquie’s artwork, visit wnstd.com/jaqfeld

Ninety years ago, Sir Giles Gilbert Scott designed the famous K6 telephone box. Wanstead’s own recently refurbished kiosk still stands proudly outside the station. Local historian Davis Watson reports. Photo by Geoff Wilkinson

In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone and by the turn of the century, small telephone kiosks – soon to be known more commonly as ‘boxes’ – began to pop up around England. The government altered the course of telephonic communication with the Telephone Transfer Act of 1911 which saw the nationalisation of the National Telephone Company, which was taken over by the General Post Office (GPO).

The GPO soon began a quest to design a standard public telephone kiosk that would be used throughout the nation. Their first version appeared in 1921 and was duly named K1, a shortened version of the simple Kiosk One. However, an updated style was quickly sought and in 1924, the Post Office organised a competition for a new design.

The winner was Giles Gilbert Scott, a talented architect best remembered for the stunning Gothic-styled Anglican Liverpool Cathedral. He stemmed from the famous Scott dynasty of architects whose patriarch was George Gilbert Scott Senior (Giles’ grandfather). Local readers will likely be familiar with George’s Wanstead Infant Orphan Asylum (now Snaresbrook Crown Court) and Christ Church, Wanstead.

Giles modernised his design of the kiosk on several occasions before the renowned K6 – commissioned to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of King George V – finally arrived in 1935. It was this design that is the most famous and predominant of England’s kiosks and which remains a British icon to this day. The first K6 hit the streets a year later, and the one outside Wanstead Station (at the time, yet to be built) likely followed soon after.

It was common for the kiosks to be placed near existing post boxes and the one at Wanstead was no exception, being located alongside a post box bearing the cypher of Edward VIII; a rarity in itself as few boxes are in existence due to the short reign of the monarch (325 days).

British Telecom (BT) was placed in charge of English telecommunications in 1981 and almost immediately declared their wish to paint all existing red telephone kiosks in yellow. After much public outcry, the decision was reversed and the kiosks gradually gained their status as national treasures. Many were promptly granted listed status, including Wanstead’s very own K6, which was designated as Grade II on 31 July 1987.

During the following decade, BT repainted many of the crowns that adorn the top sections of the kiosks, changing them from their original red colour to gold, and Wanstead’s kiosk also received that treatment. Another K6 to be amended in that fashion stands at Woodford Green, opposite The Castle; the only other surviving K6 in Redbridge.

Wanstead’s telephone kiosk was restored around the start of this decade, with works including a new door and missing glass replaced. Sadly, it again fell into a state of disrepair, with vandalism including graffitied and scratched glass, along with a much-dirtied interior. It was reported to BT, who completed another round of repairs and restoration last month. “We’re aware of the vandalism problem at this location… We’d urge anyone who witnesses criminal activity to report it to the police. And while crime and antisocial behaviour are police matters, we remain committed to working closely with the authorities and local communities to help where we can,” said a BT spokesperson.

With this year marking the 90th anniversary of Scott’s famous design, perhaps a call for the ongoing preservation of Wanstead’s listed landmark will not be left unanswered?

For more information on the story of K6 telephone box, visit wnstd.com/k6

The Wren Wildlife and Conservation Group’s annual Wanstead Wildlife Weekend returns this month with a diverse programme of free nature activities. James Heal reports

WWW stands for the Wanstead Wildlife Weekend (apparently, also something about the world wide web, but this is much more enjoyable). The Wren Wildlife and Conservation Group has been organising this set of activities almost annually for a few years now. A midsummer weekend of nature-themed, family-friendly and free activities in Wanstead Park and on Wanstead Flats.

This year, the weekend will run from the evening of Friday 20 June to the afternoon of Sunday 22 June. At the time of writing, we are still finalising the exact running order of events, but it will include things like bat detecting, revealing moths from a light trap, invertebrate recording, studying bees and wasps, a spider survey, pond dipping, a lichen walk and butterfly transect showcase, as well as a couple of stalls, some child-friendly mini beast stories and a wildflower walk.

Some of the activities, such as the pond dipping, will be well suited to families with children and others, such as the spider surveying, will, perhaps, appeal more to those who would like to get more involved with invertebrate recording.

With the continued advances in phone cameras, AI identification tools and accessible and high-quality identification guides in books and online, wildlife recording is becoming increasingly accessible to the interested amateur and we are keen to promote and celebrate this.

It is a great way to get to know the wild places in your local area a little better and dip your toe into the incredible diversity of life that can be found on our doorstep. For example, did you know that inside the small holes on dusty pathways live solitary bees and wasps? Did you know we have rare spiders hiding in amongst the oak leaves and grasses all around us? And did you know that it is possible to catch the nymphs of some of our most beautiful dragonflies in the ponds in our park?

In the years that I have been regularly recording wildlife locally, I have never ceased to be amazed by the diversity we have here and how I can still be shocked and surprised by some of the animals that show up: finding a Siberian migrant (a Yellow-browed Warbler) calling on Wanstead Flats, watching an Osprey fly over my house, watching and photographing a pair of otters in the River Roding, regularly finding a species of spider in my garden that is considered nationally rare. These are just a tiny handful of over 1,000 different species – from mammals to mites – that I have recorded in our local area.

If you would like to find out more about the wildlife around us, please come and join us this month for the WWW.

For more information on Wanstead Wildlife Weekend events, visit wnstd.com/wren

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