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Marian Temple looks back at Wanstead’s community gardening during 2020. With participation boosted by the pandemic, four previously neglected patches of public soil were transformed for all to enjoy in 2021 and beyond. Photo of the new Gravel Garden by Geoff Wilkinson

A year of pandemic and lockdowns would not immediately seem to be a promising year for community gardening activities, but in reality, 2020 proved to be one of our busiest years ever! Luckily, gardeners were exempt from the lockdowns and there were many who were unable to go to work, so had time on their hands to join us. 

With a lot of hard work, the Cherry Pye Bed – the traffic island between The George and Wanstead Station – was changed from a dreary patch of tired shrubs to a glorious flower meadow. It lasted just a few weeks, but it was at the very time when people felt at their most vulnerable and anxious, so the swathe of bright flowers gave us all a much-needed fillip. The seed sowing was just a temporary measure. Our real aim, the laying of perennial flower turf, had to wait till December when the bed was stripped of greenery and fallen leaves, raked level and the turf laid. We needed the help of our friends the Good Gymmers – a running club who make it their business to do community tasks. The turf was heavy and it was a hands and knees job with Stanley knives to fit the sections in. The turf will be more robust and need less maintenance once established, and the flowers should come up every year. Fingers crossed for this one.

While we were still working on the Cherry Pye Bed, a new perennial border was making its appearance the other side of George Green, against the handsome wall where the traffic on the A12 disappears into the tunnel under the green. This border was created against all the odds during a dry spell. Now, it looks as if it’s always been there, a colourful delight for footpath users and cyclists as well as a resource for the nearby children’s nursery.

Just around the corner at the end of the new border, another classic sad patch of public soil has been changed into a gravel garden (with the gravel kindly funded by Martin & Co). This was a dead-end patch with an overflowing litter bin, smashed whisky bottles, weeds and rubbish. The new dry garden with plants, we hope, will survive long summer periods without rain and should provide year-long interest. It is west-facing and sheltered by the beautiful wall. Plants so far include an olive tree, succulents, Mediterranean favourites and our favourites, cottage garden hollyhocks.

Next to what is now called the Gravel Garden was a small, sad weedy patch with a junction box of some sort plonked in it. Of course, our out-of-control diggers couldn’t resist it. It’s now dug over and planted. Look for spring bulbs and wallflowers early in the year and a host of other plants strutting their stuff throughout 2021. What good company for the junction box!

Ironically, the pandemic has bequeathed Wanstead four new mini gardens, unlooked for, but to be enjoyed in 2021 and beyond.

In the 11th of a series of articles looking at the developing plans for restoring Wanstead Park, Richard Arnopp of the Friends of Wanstead Parklands has some good news about the park’s historic grotto. Photo by Jennifer Baptist

Far beyond living memory, Wanstead Park’s boathouse grotto has been quietly mouldering away as nobody could decide what to do with it. Now, 136 years after it was accidentally destroyed by fire, we have a double dose of good news about this iconic building.

Not only has the City of London adopted a Conservation Management Plan to secure its future, but the Friends of Wanstead Parklands have secured a grant from the Heritage of London Trust for some remedial work to be carried out on the structure.

The Grotto was built around 1760 for John, second Earl Tylney of Castlemaine, overlooking the Ornamental Water. Unusually large and elaborate, it was on two levels, with a boathouse below and a room for entertainment above, and with a service area to the side. It isn’t known who designed the building, though the noted antiquarian, geologist and naturalist Dr William Borlase supplied geological specimens to be incorporated into it. The grotto survived the wreck of the estate and became a popular attraction when the park was opened to the public, with an admission price of sixpence. Sadly, it was burned out during maintenance work in 1884, leaving only the exterior walls. Since then, weathering and vandalism have led to further loss of fabric: little is now left on the landward side, and the spectacular waterside façade survives only as a denuded shadow of its former self.

The Grotto was added in its own right to Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register in 2017 (the park as a whole has been on the register since 2009).

The Conservation Management Plan was commissioned by Epping Forest and prepared by Alan Baxter Ltd, a consultancy specialising in conservation projects. It includes a summary of existing knowledge about the Grotto’s historical development as well as a consideration of its current condition and significance. It concluded that the Grotto is at a turning point in its history. In recent decades, its decline has accelerated, despite sporadic attempts at consolidation, to the point that visitors’ appreciation of the Grotto’s significance is being jeopardised.

The task was now to identify a sustainable future for the structure and to see its removal from the Heritage at Risk Register. The Conservation Management Plan recommended that, in the medium term, the City Corporation should, as far as possible, restore the façade to its 18th-century appearance. Nothing done should preclude fuller restoration at a later date if that was considered appropriate and funds became available. Issues of security, accessibility and interpretation would also need to be addressed. It was emphasised that, as part of a designed landscape, the Grotto could not be considered without reference to its immediate surroundings and the wider vision for Wanstead Park as a whole.

The Friends took an active part in the stakeholder workshops arranged by Alan Baxter Ltd and contributed documentary evidence and historic imagery to assist the project. The conclusions reached have our enthusiastic support – the Grotto is an important focal point in the landscape and a tangible link with the park’s rich history.

We were looking forward to seeing the plans take shape and become a reality when we were suddenly given an opportunity to help make it happen. In July, Friends of Wanstead Parklands Chairman John Sharpe received an approach from the Heritage of London Trust (HLT), a charity set up to provide help to London’s lost, neglected or ruined buildings and monuments. HLT told us it was interested in considering the Grotto for a grant in recognition of its ‘at risk’ status. After a site visit, the Friends submitted an application for a grant toward rebuilding the landing stage.

We are delighted to announce a grant of £10,000 has since been approved, with work planned to start later this year. The City of London will probably be able to add a further £15,000 to allow all the necessary work to be completed. The HLT briefed its Patron HRH Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester, about the project at a recent meeting. The duke, who is also Ranger of Epping Forest, is said to be taking an interest.

The Friends hope there will be other opportunities over the coming years to act as the lead charity to unlock new sources of funding for projects in Wanstead Park. We’ll keep you posted!

A network of volunteers who help protect the local swan population is encouraging more people to feed the birds this winter.

“With the risk of lakes freezing over, do think of the water birds that reside in our beautiful parks and on Wanstead’s lakes this winter. We have been very encouraged by the rise in interest in our swans since our last article, and we hope people continue to feed them a good diet of seed, granary bread and leafy greens. Do call if you have any concerns about swans,” said Tracey Adebowale-Jones.

Call 07970 404 866

In May 2019, Wanstead resident Jill Stock was tragically killed when a car mounted the pavement. Kate Gloudemans remembers her mum and thanks the community for funding a memorial bench in her honour

Mum was visiting her family in Somerset when tragedy struck. The impact of her death extended far beyond her immediate family and friends – it was also a huge loss for many people in Wanstead and the wider community.

Mum was a nurse for 44 years, starting her career in intensive care, and then in later years, as a district nurse in Redbridge. She was a well-loved member of the community and always a friend to those in need. She was known for her caring, selfless nature and sunny disposition.

In the months after Mum died, we were so touched by people taking the time to share how Mum had been there to support them. She seemed to have had a way of being in the right place at the right time. Mum was one of life’s angels. She cared for everyone, especially the old and vulnerable, and she hated injustice. When something was wrong and needed resolving, nobody was more tenacious than Mum.

Mum loved Wanstead – she said it was ‘a very special community’ – and she put her heart and soul into it ever since moving here in 1975, from school PTAs to organising street parties, and bringing neighbours together (sometimes for the first time) to celebrate their neighbourhood. Mum also played a pro-active role in the Wanstead Neighbourhood Watch team. In 2017, she received an award from the Mayor of Redbridge for ‘Creating a Safer Neighbourhood’ and a past sergeant referred to her as a ‘legend in the world of policing’.

Mum also regularly shared many wise words of advice and consolation on the Wanstead Community Hub Facebook group. She was a familiar face at the monthly farmers’ market where she had her own stall, selling jigsaw puzzles of a Wanstead montage she created when she stopped nursing.

We were honoured to read so many wonderful tributes written in the local press. Her obituary on the Wansteadium website was the most-read article in 2019. Nearly 400 people attended her funeral, including a number of police officers. More than £5,600 was raised for charity in her memory and now, 18 months later, the community have come together to fund a memorial bench.

In November 2020, we set up a fundraising page to raise awareness so that all those who knew and loved her had the opportunity to join us in contributing to this fitting memorial. We reached our initial £2,000 target in just over a week, but contributions have continued to come in. Any extra money raised will be put back into the local community. The new bench will be situated outside the Co-op on the High Street. When it’s in place, we know she’d love you to join her to stop and chat (at a 2m distance for the time being).

Redbridge Council has agreed to increase the total area of road verges in the borough that are left to grow wild from 10,000 square metres to 20,000 square metres.

It follows a campaign by Wild Wanstead and biodiversity groups who asked for the Grow Zones project to be expanded in Wanstead and beyond.

However, the expansion will not include any new sites in Wanstead, although the verge along The Drive, heading from Snaresbrook to South Woodford, is set to be reinstated, having become an approved site in 2019.

COVID-19 brought a dormant Lake House Estate WhatsApp group to life. Then, group chat helped organise a jumble trail, a Halloween trail and an Advent trail. Now, Frances Hills hopes the chat will continue

It all started with a WhatsApp group. A sleepy WhatsApp group with a confusingly long name and rarely any messages. And then Covid-19 hit. Suddenly, there was a surge of activity; people wanting to help isolating neighbours, a more acute awareness of the need for the Tin in a Bin donations, and just a general need for checking in like there wasn’t before.

We all put rainbows in our windows and clapped on a Thursday night. But naturally, we started to check in on the WhatsApp group less and less. However, we had started something. Our small community, that isn’t quite part of Leytonstone, Wanstead, Forest Gate or Aldersbrook, had developed like it hadn’t quite developed before.

August came, and finally, we were given the go-ahead to host a socially distanced Jumble Trail, which was a huge success, and got the neighbours talking face-to-face again. I’ve got happy plants reminding me of what a nice (and very hot!) day that was.

The nights grew darker, and Halloween approached. I’d seen that Wanstead was doing a Halloween window trail, which looked perfect for the kids who would otherwise be feeling let down by a lack of trick or treating. I suggested we have one on the WhatsApp group, and the uptake was brilliant. One night with a lit-up window and suddenly the neighbours were chatting enthusiastically again, thanking each other for a lovely evening walk.

Time for another suggestion. This one was a big one though… an Advent window trail. I had no idea how this would go. Unsurprisingly, the residents were keen. It only took a few days for all of the dates to get signed up while the anticipation mounted.

For those that don’t know, an Advent window trail is where a different house decorates their window on one of the days of Advent and include the relevant date. Every day, there was a new window to walk to and admire, along with a lovely hubbub within the WhatsApp group. Neighbours were taking their children out for an evening stroll, spotting Christmas trees and numbered windows, and then sending lovely messages of thanks to each other on the WhatsApp group afterwards.

It’s started a bond within the community that wasn’t really there before, and we can only hope that long after the Covid-19 nightmare comes to an end, the community events and the sense of belonging within the group continue. There’s nothing better than feeling connected to your neighbours, especially in times like these. Thank you to all of the Lake House Estate residents for taking part.

A number of local school PTAs joined forces in December to organise a visit from Santa and his elves, who followed a trail across Wanstead and South Woodford.

“We all pulled together to sprinkle some Christmas magic into children’s lives during a time when we had to cancel a lot of our usual Christmas activities. Huge thanks to Parker Dairies, North London Loft Rooms and Terry Tew Sound and Light for supporting this event. And, of course, Santa’s elves who got drenched in the rain to greet delighted children,” said organiser Amy Moore.

Donations can still be made to support projects at the schools.

Visit wnstd.com/santa

Jill Stock’s daughters have launched a website to enable residents to continue to buy the Wanstead-themed jigsaw puzzle their late mother created.

“Mum made a montage of Wanstead as part of the art trail when her nursing career came to an end. Encouraged to share her labour of love with the community, she made her montage – entitled Wanstead – a very Special Community – into a jigsaw puzzle, which she sold at the farmers’ market,” said Kate Gloudemans. Jill died in a road traffic collision in May 2019.

Visit wnstd.com/puzzle

Organisers of the Wanstead CARES (Community Appeal Rough sleepers Emergency Survival Kit) initiative have praised the community for their generous response.

“The kindness of this community never ceases to amaze. We were blown away by all the donations this month… Nearly 600 gifts for children and adults of vulnerable families, local charities including The Magpie Project, Frank Charles’ appeal, Hestia and many others. We also collected over four carloads of donations – which will enable The Corner House Project to support the homeless this winter – as well as nearly 50 crates of food for Redbridge Foodbank. We could not have achieved this without you, our fabulous community and all our lovely volunteers, who were amazing. Thank you!” said Suzi Harnett and Juliette Harvey.

Visit wnstd.com/cares

In the 10th of a series of articles looking at the developing plans for restoring Wanstead Park, Richard Arnopp of the Friends of Wanstead Parklands explains the latest spanner in the lake restoration works. Photo of Perch Pond by Luciano Ocesca

The Wanstead Park restoration project has always been something of a rollercoaster: nothing much happens for a while, and then developments come thick and fast. There’s quite a lot of news at the moment – some good, some less so.

The single issue that preoccupies the Friends of Wanstead Parklands – and everyone who cares about the park – is the state of the lakes. Created in the first half of the 18th century, the lakes were intended to create vistas of water around three sides of Wanstead House. Originally nine in number, the five survivors (the Basin, Shoulder of Mutton Pond, Heronry Pond, Perch Pond and Ornamental Water) still form one of London’s finest waterscapes and are the park’s defining feature.

Sadly, the lakes are not in good condition. Only one – the Basin, owned by Wanstead Golf Club – seems to have no serious problems. As for the others, the water level in the Shoulder of Mutton Pond fluctuates seasonally, and it would benefit from some de-silting, but it is otherwise fairly stable. However, the other three lakes are in a bad way. The concrete lining of Heronry Pond is completely compromised, and even with constant replenishment via pumping from a borehole, it is impossible to keep it anywhere near full. The neighbouring Perch Pond looks healthy but appears to be heavily dependent on leakage from its western neighbour. Worst of all is the Ornamental Water, which has taken a turn for the worse in recent years for reasons which are not yet fully understood. Water levels have remained persistently low, and even when the lake was flooded by the River Roding in December 2019, immediately began to fall by about 7cm per week until, within a few months, it was back to where it had been before.

Addressing the state of the lake system is one of the central themes of the Parkland Plan (covering restoration and management), which was adopted by the City of London earlier this year.

Making plans is all very well but they also need to be paid for. There we have run into a problem. The key to funding the Parkland Plan was that radical works were assumed to be required to the lakes to bring them into line with the Flood and Water Management Act 2010. It was anticipated these modifications could cost up to £10 million, based on what had been spent on a similar project on Hampstead Heath.

This presented an opportunity for Wanstead Park, as the spending would come from central, rather than Epping Forest, budgets, and it would make sense to carry out other improvements and repairs to the lakes at the same time. Any non-statutory element of the work could potentially have been used as match funding for a parallel bid to the National Lottery Heritage Fund to pay for a whole range of improvements to the park.

Unfortunately, the recently published engineer’s recommendations have rather thrown a spanner in the works. He concluded that the works required were far less extensive than had been assumed. Provisionally costed at around £500,000, this is only 5% of the ballpark figure we were working on before. This means the complex funding package for the Parkland Plan will need to be rebuilt from scratch.

We know that Epping Forest is working on new funding options. However, in the meantime, we will be pressing for early implementation of those aspects of its Water Management Strategy that might make an appreciable difference. In our view, the change in funding assumptions for the Wanstead Park project, as well as the worsening state of the lakes, has created a new situation. Most of these options would not be unduly expensive. In our view, they now need to be explicitly decoupled from the main project and expedited as a project in their own right.

Over the last decade, the Friends have been patient and supportive as Epping Forest officials raised awareness within the City of London of the plight of Wanstead Park. Our interventions (notably a 2017 ‘summit’ of stakeholders at the Palace of Westminster) have helped to build a ‘coalition of the willing’ and identify practical ways of doing something about it. Now, we are exploring ways in which we can unlock new sources of grant aid for the park as the requesting charity. Next month, I will pass on some good news on a current instance where we have been able to do just that. However, as far as the lakes are concerned, the ball is in the City of London’s court. Wanstead Park’s custodian needs to put the current setback behind it and come up with a new funding strategy. The present situation is too dire for action to be delayed much longer.

Wanstead resident Jean Medcalf has published her first poetry book at the age of 89. To Everything There is a Season is a collection of lyrical, spiritual poems about nature. In the second of a series of articles, Jean introduces Network, a poem with an apt Christmas message

I came to live in Wanstead just before Christmas 1960. I remember my very first Christmas as a newly-wed. I carefully prepared the turkey, put it into my shiny new oven. Myself and my husband went visiting, planning to return to a delicious dinner. Unluckily, I wasn’t used to the new oven. I forgot to switch it on and we returned to raw turkey! 

Winters were much colder then and, of course, we had no central heating, just coal fires and oil heaters. Hot water was provided by a 1930s cast-iron boiler in the kitchen, which had to be stoked each day with coke. I used to get up at 6am to light the coal fire. The children got dressed in the living room as it was the only warm room, and I put their woollen vests on the fireguard to warm. Milk would freeze in the bottles on the doorstep, clothes froze rigid on the washing line, and there were beautiful Jack Frost patterns on the windows.

There were very thick fogs in winter as well. When you were out in the street, you literally could not see your hand in front of your face, and when driving with my husband, I kept the passenger door open to see the kerb!

The Saturday before Christmas, as we did our shopping, we could hear the sound of carols along the High Street, from the Women’s Voluntary Service at the Corner House. The Salvation Army band came round the streets in their uniforms and peaked caps, and sang Christmas carols gathered around a barrel organ, and there was a big Christmas tree on the Green.

We bought our turkey, ham and sausages in Dennis the butchers and the tangerines, dates and nuts from Harveys. Also, a real Christmas tree, which looked pretty but dropped needles all over the carpet.

Woolworths was the shop for Christmas decorations: packets of paper chains, which had to be painstakingly licked and glued together, red and green crêpe paper, tinsel, fairy lights, chocolate coins wrapped in gold foil to hang on the tree, pink and white sugar mice with string tails for the stockings, and of course, glue and glitter for home-made Christmas cards.

I used to buy the children’s Christmas presents from the lovely toy shops we had in those days. Vane’s the bookshop in Cambridge Park. Reed’s on the corner of Wanstead Place, which sold bicycles and toys, a lovely little shop near Snaresbrook Station that sold wooden doll’s furniture and Gravatt’s in Nightingale Lane for all sorts of toys, jigsaws, little dolls, paint boxes, board games and colouring books.

And who can forget the big treat for children – a visit to Santa in his grotto at Bearman’s in Leytonstone, the wonderful department store that I am sure many local people will still remember fondly.

Network
by Jean Medcalf

Christmas:
Time to check the network

Time to tie the knots of ravelled aunts
Catscradle the newcomers from the womb
To pleach the family tree with distant cousins
To trawl the book for the forgotten few

Alone, bereaved, insane and old.

Time to test the warp and weft for strengthening
Renew the wear with friendship and with love
Darn in the weaker spots with woven letters
All frayed edges must be unafraid

Test tension, teach it to relax.

Time for our network now to be elastic
A trampoline to bounce us out of grief
A loving safety net to ease our falling
A laughing hammock curved for troubled nights

Secure in bonds of love

Time for no gaps that you and I might fall through
Time for no depths that we might leave unplumbed
Time for no breadth and height to be omitted
Time for the Big Fisherman to net us

Time He took the strain.

In the fifth of a series of articles documenting the thoughts of anti-bullying ambassador Elsa Arnold, the founder of the Spreading Kindness Through E11 initiative talks about her exciting trio of festive projects

This Christmas is going to be very different for all of us, and a lot more challenging than we are used to. As part of the Spreading Kindness Through E11 initiative, and to follow on from a few projects we launched in 2019 as a way to combat loneliness at this time of year, I am organising a few things to help keep the spirit of Christmas alive this winter.

Community advent calendar
This year, we are designing a Spreading Kindness at Christmas family advent calendar for everyone to get involved with. Each day there will be a new challenge to complete as part of the calendar, from supporting local businesses and initiatives to self-care days and staying connected with others. It’s a great way to get the whole family involved with completing a fulfilling task each day in the run-up to Christmas.

Please contact me to order a physical, or digital, copy of this advent calendar.

Festive Friends
I am also working closely with Cambridge Nursing Home in Wanstead on their new initiative called Festive Friends, to bring the amazing festive Wanstead community spirit to their residents. “Sending a letter, Christmas card or even a drawing will go a long way to make our residents’ Christmas extra special, especially after this difficult year. We look forward to being dazzled by your creations!” said a spokesperson for the home. It is another amazing thing all the family can get involved with, and it will really make a big difference.

Virtual community Christmas concert
I am so excited to be launching Wanstead’s first virtual Christmas concert this year! It is going to be filled with performances from members of our wonderful community and celebrating some of the incredible and inspiring work that has been going on locally throughout 2020.

This follows on from our work to combat loneliness around this time of year. Sadly, our usual events are not possible this time around, so this is an alternative for us all to enjoy. The concert is going to be widely shared with local care, nursing and residential homes, many of which would usually have children’s choirs and visitors as we approach Christmas.

We are working with the production company 2b Media on this project, which will be premiered via a private link on 17 December from 5.30pm. To watch the concert, you will need to book your free tickets, which will provide you with the link to the event.

I know this is a particularly difficult time for so many of us and I hope some of these small things will add a little extra cheer to the alternative Christmas festivities this year.