Slider

As the nation celebrates the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, Wanstead resident Eileen Flinter reflects upon her memories of the monarch’s 70-year reign

When I was six, I saw my mother cry for the first time. We lived in a tenement in Glasgow and I was in bed suffering from chickenpox when Mum came into the room, wiping her eyes and crying. “The King is dead,” she told me. It was February 1952.

By June 1953, we had moved and our home was a fish and chip shop in Manchester. My parents, like millions of others, bought their first television to watch the Coronation. I can remember perching on the arm of a chair in our crowded sitting room as the young queen was crowned and family and neighbours watched in reverent silence.

My brother and I were two of the many children who were given Coronation mugs at school. We used our Coronation mugs on a daily basis for years. One of the mugs still survives. As the Queen passed more and more milestones, this shabby piece of crockery was elevated to the status of family treasure and put away for safety.

By the time of the Silver Jubilee in 1977, I was married and living in Dublin. This was not the easiest place to look for red, white and blue bunting or Union Jacks, so I watched the events in Britain on the BBC and spoke to my parents on the phone.

When the 2002 Golden Jubilee took place, I was living in Wanstead. My daughter remembers that everyone in the estate agents where she then worked was told to wear red, white and blue that day. She also remembers I bought her Union Jack shot glasses which she and her friend used as ashtrays when I was out one night. Apparently, I was mad with them for abusing the gift – and for smoking!

Ahead of the Diamond Jubilee in 2012, my granddaughter was taken to see the Queen and Prince Philip in Valentine’s Park. Niamh had her photo taken wearing a Union Jack hat and clutching a flag. This photo is stored in her memory box, along with the mug she got at the Cranbourne Avenue street party, and the 1953 mug from her grandmother.

Fast forward another decade to the Platinum Jubilee. From Brexit to the pandemic and an 11-year-old asking me if we are going to have a nuclear war, the intervening 10 years have been tumultuous and unsettling for many, and tragic for some. And the Queen has not been exempt personally, losing her husband and enduring the most tragic of all funerals for anyone, let alone doing so in the glare of cameras. She is left dealing with the fallout of the shameful behaviour of her favourite son and the absence of her cheerful grandson.

Around these landmarks, I have grown up and grown old, but the young girl who inherited the Crown whilst on holiday in Africa has gone on doing the same job, day after day and year after year. It is a formidable employment record. For all of us, there have been good times and bad, happy times and sad over the last 70 years.

Royalist or republican, it is hard not to offer the Queen respect and admiration for a life lived in complete dedication to a job and way of life that came to her accidentally. Elizabeth’s recent birthday photo with two ponies signalled the life she would have chosen for herself. Most of us have no memory of another monarch. So familiar that she is just there, an unconsidered part of our lives. We owe her our very warmest wishes. She has done us proud. Take care, ma’am.

Ask not what your council can do for you, ask what you can do for your community, says Councillor Paul Canal as he updates on the appeal to replace the benches damaged by the Christ Church Green arson attack

Setbacks and challenges always bring the best out of people and communities. As bleak as the Covid pandemic was, people across Wanstead and Woodford rallied round in a remarkable display of mutual support. From foodbanks to shopping, hospital lifts to home visits, our community came together as never before.

The recent arson attack on the Christ Church Green children’s playground elicited a similar fantastic response, with an outpouring of sorrow and generosity raising over £5,500 through the crowdfunding appeal I launched after the act of vandalism.

It was suggested by some that we should have sat back and demanded the council – through the parks’ operator Vision – fund the repairs and replacement of the damaged benches. After all, we pay more tax and rates per person than most of the borough, goes the argument, and deserve our fair share back. That is a valid view, but I would suggest there is a bigger picture to consider.

Resources are constrained, and Vision simply don’t have the capital budget to do all they want to do, let alone what we would like as a community here in Wanstead.

We also live in one of the wealthier areas of Redbridge, where people have the capacity and the will to contribute to their community, which has been demonstrated time and time again.

I would suggest the kindness of our community, exemplified by generous donations from businesses such as Nightingale on the Green, Smile In London dental clinic and North London Loft Rooms, along with dozens of individual benefactors, has had a positive effect that extends beyond our borders.

Not only has our local community funded the repair and replacement of equipment on Christ Church Green, but we have also allowed Vision to invest in playgrounds for less well-off children in a more deprived part of the borough. This seems particularly fitting for a playground named after a church.

Vision will receive £3,000 of the funds raised, £2,000 to replace the benches in the playground and £1,000 to provide a new bench on the green. The balance will be donated to the Wanstead Fringe, allowing Giles Wilson to put on an even more ambitious programme for 2022; our community at its best.

Wanstead and Woodford, thank you. I am humbled to live in such a great community.

For more information on the Christ Church Green Playground Arson Appeal, visit wnstd.com/arsonappeal

Paul Canal is a Conservative councillor for Bridge ward.

Richard Arnopp explains why the Wanstead Park Liaison Group will be reviewing the latest bluebell season, which has once again raised concerns over how best to protect the delicate flowers from being trampled

Every year, from mid-April to early May, visitors to Wanstead Park are treated to a memorable spectacle as great drifts of bluebells come into bloom, carpeting the ground with a blue haze. The colour builds to its maximum intensity for just a few days, during which the flowers pervade the air with a subtle, delicate scent. It’s a very visible sign of the new life brought by spring, and perhaps Britain’s nearest equivalent to Japan’s celebrated cherry blossom season.

The British Isles are a stronghold of the bluebell, with perhaps a fifth of the plant’s global population growing on these islands. The mild, damp climate on Europe’s Atlantic seaboard suits them best – further east, and the winters are too cold for them, or the weather too dry.

Bluebells like dappled shade and are widespread throughout the less densely wooded areas of Wanstead Park. They are often hidden among brambles and other undergrowth, but in Chalet Wood, large areas have been kept clear by members of the Wren Conservation Group so the flowers can be seen at their best. In recent years, paths have also been demarcated by tree trunks to encourage visitors not to step on the main areas covered by the plants. These are easily damaged by trampling and may take several years to recover and flower again.

The first Covid lockdown in 2020 was followed by a huge surge in visitors to our open spaces, including Wanstead Park. Even during the gradual normalisation in recent months, numbers have remained elevated, as the new visitors keep coming back. The bluebell display, which is one of the best in the London area, has received attention both on traditional and social media. This has doubtless attracted additional visitors from outside the area.

It’s good to see Wanstead Park becoming better known and appreciated, and it’s important to emphasise that most visitors keep to the demarcated paths. Unfortunately, some don’t and, given the increased visitor pressure, this has raised anxiety among local people who understand the fragility of the bluebells and feel passionate about protecting them. This year, several hundred people signed a letter of concern on Facebook.

The main problem comes from people succumbing to the temptation to step over the barriers to take photographs among the flowers. Some trample the visible plants, perhaps not realising the damage they are doing. Others try to keep to little meandering paths and bare patches – not realising these have been created by people in the past and that they are preventing the plants from recolonising these areas by walking on them.

The bluebell season is discussed every year by the Wanstead Park Liaison Group, which consists of Epping Forest management and other stakeholders. They will be looking at whether signage and barriers have been adequate this year and whether anything can be done differently in the future. We’ll keep you posted.

For more information on Wanstead Park, visit wnstd.com/park

Residents are invited to view the flora of St Mary’s Church graveyard, which is currently being left unmown.

“The bluebells were particularly special this year, enhanced by other spring flowers, including the towering but ethereal white Anthriscus, beautifully offsetting the red poppies of the permanent poppy trail commemorating victims of war. The strimmers will be back in mid-July, so visit this hidden part of wild Wanstead before then if you want to experience it,” said a church spokesperson.

Visit wnstd.com/stmarys

Redbridge Museum will open a new permanent exhibition later this year exploring 200,000 years of local history. In the fourth of a series of articles, Museum Officer Nishat Alam looks at some of the items on show

May marks the end of the Second World War in Europe, otherwise known as Victory in Europe (VE) Day. For people across Redbridge who had suffered terrible aerial bombings, this was a welcome relief. In this article, I look at the impact of the war on the borough and how people in Wanstead and Woodford responded.

As the capital, London was a major target for wartime air raids, but surrounding areas, like Redbridge – then made up of the Borough of Wanstead and Woodford and the Borough of Ilford – were also affected badly. Redbridge was heavily bombed during the Blitz between September 1940 and May 1941, and then again by V1 and V2 bombs between June 1944 and March 1945. Wanstead and Woodford suffered 25 V1 and 14 V2 attacks, while Ilford was hit even worse. In total, 802 people in Redbridge were killed, 4,000 injured, 50,000 homes were damaged and 822 destroyed.

Air raids were expected even before war began, so precautions were put in place very early on. Gas masks were issued all around, children were evacuated to the countryside, and locals volunteered to be Civil Defence workers, many as Air Raid Precaution (ARP) Wardens.

Fred and Daisy James were a couple living in Wanstead at the time. They became ARP Wardens for Aldersbrook and were based at Post 43 on Herongate Road. Their duties were to sound air raid sirens, ensure people followed blackout protocol, and report on bomb damage after air raids. They would also help to put out small fires caused by incendiary bombs, as can be seen in the photograph here, taken by Fred James. Fred documented his experience as an ARP Warden through photography and in pocket diaries. In one entry, he reported that two bombs fell on Belgrave Road at 4.30am on 10 September 1940: “Two houses were demolished and 30 or 40 badly damaged.” He goes on to write about his team’s response to the raid and expresses sympathy for the casualties.

Victory in Europe was announced on 8 May, and Wanstead and Woodford held 43 street parties to celebrate the end of the war. There were games, singing, dancing and large, decorated tables of party food lining the streets. Official celebrations for Wanstead and Woodford were held the following year with a gala on Woodford Green on 1 June 1946 attended by the Prime Minister and local MP Winston Churchill.

Redbridge Museum’s displays about the Second World War will explore the impact of the war on the borough, using stories like the James’ and objects such as the equipment used in the photograph above.

As the Friends of Christ Church Green takes shape, Colin Cronin explains the new group’s aims and invites residents to the founding meeting. Photo by Geoff Wilkinson

The local playground on Christ Church Green has been a source of enjoyment for so many of our junior residents of Wanstead, but also a source of pride for their parents, fellow residents and local businesses too. It is a facility that the community crowdfunded for back in 2015, raising over £100k. 

It was heartbreaking, therefore, to learn that a mindless act of vandalism late one Saturday night in April could see such a community asset go up, at least partly, in smoke!

Whilst there has been a very admirable, laudable and well-supported crowdfunding campaign to replace the damaged equipment, I believe the proper course of action should have been to put the onus back onto Vision RCL, who manage our open spaces in Wanstead. Vision RCL are now a profitable charity, so should not have required money in excess of our Council Tax to replace the damaged equipment. I applaud the good intentions of our superb community, however, I fear it sets a dangerous precedent in allowing Vision RCL to abdicate their financial responsibility in such a way going forward.

Christ Church Green needs a number of improvements to protect it, not least of which should include CCTV coverage of places like the playground and the now newly installed café kiosk. After years of just doing ‘upkeep’, it has become clear that Christ Church Green requires serious attention from Vision RCL. Sadly, examples of graffiti in and around the Green are on the rise as are examples of bad lighting in places and vandalised trees and benches.

Our community’s engagement and interest in our local Green and ensuring its protection and ongoing improvement is exactly why the Friends of Christ Church Green is being formed.

The Friends of Christ Church Green will seek to act as a lobbying group that is governed by local residents with the purpose to liaise with local councillors, council officers and Vision RCL. It will ensure our Green is protected from any unwanted activities, is invested in and maintained accordingly.

A draft constitution is being drawn up and a public meeting will be called after May’s local elections to debate that constitution, what we as residents want and expect from this important group and to elect the Friends’ committee members.

We all have an individual voice, but sometimes a collective shout can be more effective. I hope you will join us at the Friends of Christ Church Green founding meeting (date to be confirmed) and voice how you want our Green to look for the future.

For more information on the Friends of Christ Church Green and to get involved, email friendsofccgreen@gmail.com

Local filmmaker Marc Coleman’s comedy-horror ManFish is now being promoted internationally.

“Last month, we released the trailer. It was picked up by a sales agent and will now hopefully be sold around the world. You should be able to spot a few Wanstead streets in the trailer, as well as a Leytonstone pub and the amazing Redbridge house where most of the film takes place. The rest of the film was shot on Canvey Island, where the story is set. Thanks to all who supported this project,” said Marc.

Visit wnstd.com/manfish

Decades of rubbish removed, 14 tons of soil added, 180-plus plants rehomed. Job done. Marian Temple of the Wanstead Community Gardeners tells the story of the new Snaresbrook Station car park patch

Last autumn, we were approached by someone involved in the station car park at Snaresbrook. Did we know there was a neglected strip of earth there? Might we be interested in doing something with it? We went to have a look.

The strip runs half the length of the car park. It was a dry trench. It would need a lot of work to create a border there, but if we decided to take it on, we would be introducing greenery into an area of hard surfacing. Good for people, good for insects. Since we are street gardeners, we always ask ourselves with a new patch: “Who is going to see this?” In this case, it would be seen by people on the trains, on the platforms and the car park users.

It was going to be a big project for us, but it was impossible to know just how big until we started. Liaising with TfL and NCP, the car park people, we got going. With the help of 20 volunteers, many working parties and much earth shifting, the job has recently been done.

As with all the neglected patches we take on, the first task was ‘mank’ removal. We took out decades of detritus: plastic, cellophane, foil, food cartons and bottles. It was endless, but it all came out along with 20 metres of plastic pipe and a section of chain-link fence. All to the dump. Once cleared out, we had to think about filling the trench level with the car park surface. How much filler would we need? None of us knew. A learning curve. We put in 60 rubble sacks of leaf mould. Good stuff but it didn’t go very far. Redbridge Garden Centre brought along three tons of topsoil. That didn’t make much difference either. In the end, 14 tons of topsoil went into the trench.

As with all our patches, we plant stuff that, once established, can more or less look after itself. We cannot water. It was important to plant early so that good root systems could be established before the summer dry spells. We favour old-fashioned cottage garden plants and Mediterranean ones. They are tough, don’t get eaten by slugs and come back year after year.

The new border – all 35 metres of it – is in full sun, backed by a brick wall with the old concrete posts for the long-departed chain-link fence still in situ. How useful those posts are going to be! They will support the tall hollyhocks and mulleins we have planted. We have threaded wire through the holes in the posts the length of the border to support other plants: 180 plants have gone in, still counting. They are a mix of walking woundeds from the garden centre, plants sourced from our own gardens, the Corner House garden and our other local patches. Half of Wanstead is there. They are just waiting for more rain and sunshine before springing into growth.

Job done.

For more information on the work of the Wanstead Community Gardeners and to get involved, visit wnstd.com/gardeners

In the 10th of a series of articles by plot holders at Redbridge Lane West allotments – which are under threat from the adjacent gas works – Jason Edwards provides an update on the site’s future

Readers may know that back in March 2021, Cadent put forward plans to take over the allotments at Redbridge Lane West for two years while carrying out works on their adjacent gas site. The plans included building a large compound and car park, which would have meant closing the allotments to all of us, the destruction of many plots and of wildlife habitats.

The plot holders were dismayed at these proposals, many of us having put years of work into our allotments. We came together to organise a public campaign, not only in defence of our rights, but of the principle that as an important public resource and service, allotments should be valued and protected. We started a petition that raised over 4,000 signatures, and we lobbied the council, our MP and ministers to push back against Cadent’s plans. We achieved a degree of success when, at a council meeting last September, Cadent revealed they had dropped their plans to take over the whole site.

Just before Christmas, however, we learnt Cadent was still planning to take over almost a quarter of the site. This includes seven plots adjacent to the fence on their site – which they say has to be replaced under government regulations – and a further two plots nearby that will also be decommissioned for the duration of the work. Their current plans also propose four of the plots on the fence line being significantly diminished in size with a permanent transfer of allotment land to Cadent, something we had understood the council were committed to preventing.

We agonised over whether to continue our public campaign of opposition or to negotiate with Cadent. Disappointingly, it became clear that, although local councillors have been supportive, the council would not back us further in continuing to fight the plans and we felt we had to relent. The plot holders’ working group are now in discussions with Cadent to minimise the timescale and long-term impact of the works. We’re conducting the negotiations in good faith, and we sincerely hope Cadent stick with any promises they make. Particularly important for us is that we ensure the preservation of the wildlife environment and allow Sprout There! to continue their brilliant therapeutic work on site with adults with learning disabilities.

We are very saddened that a number of us are losing our allotments in this way. These allotments have been a haven for many of us in very difficult times and we are deeply attached to them. But we are proud of how we have worked together to push back against the worst of Cadent’s plans and we encourage others who find themselves in similar circumstances to organise and fight! We are vegetable growers, not revolutionaries, but our working group’s unofficial slogan has helped keep us going through dark times: No pasarán!

To view the petition to save the Redbridge Lane West allotments, visit wnstd.com/sta

Last month’s public meeting on the future of Christ Church Green was overwhelmingly positive, says organiser Colin Cronin, with residents now invited to join a new Friends of Christ Church Green group

Christ Church Green has long been Wanstead’s ‘village green’. It is a place where many of us will have fond memories of family and community events, or just strolling under the canopy of its trees on the way to the High Street.

With this in mind, residents met with Councillor Paul Donovan and Deputy Leader of Redbridge Council, Councillor Kam Rai, at Christ Church last month to discuss many aspects of the Green and what we can do to work more effectively together in the future. Such meetings always produce a range of equal but opposite opinions and whilst this meeting was no different, there was an overwhelmingly positive tone during the two hours we spent together, and it clarified a number of points, including:

• The new café kiosk will not have its own alcohol licence, so will only be able to serve alcohol at separately licensed, limited events, such as the Wanstead Festival.
• The kiosk itself will be a sustainable venture with a green roof and in-operation foodstuffs will be locally sourced, with avoidance of single-use plastics.
• There will be a new team operating across Redbridge green spaces to address anti-social behaviour and it will include Christ Church Green in its scope.
• There will be an enhanced capacity for litter collection on Christ Church Green.
• There will also be refurbishment of the toilet block on the Green.

Most importantly of all was the excellent suggestion to form a Friends of Christ Church Green, a non-political residents group that would work collaboratively with Redbridge Council and Vision RCL to ensure all voices in the community are heard and that residents are getting the most out of our village green. Councillor Donovan, along with fellow residents, was very supportive of the idea, stating that: “We hope the new Friends group will provide a constructive forum for engagement. Moving forward, let’s hope this point marks the start of a new collaborative, empowering relationship involving all stakeholders in the community concerned with the future of our much-loved Christ Church Green.”

It is indeed a fantastic idea in a community that has never shied away from making its opinions known or its voices heard, and over the coming weeks, we will begin taking the first steps to forming this important group. Wanstead residents will always be united by wanting what is best for our community and I remain convinced it will be the same case in supporting our efforts to work together for the betterment of Christ Church Green.

For more information on the Friends of Christ Church Green and to get involved, email friendsofccgreen@gmail.com

Redbridge Council has commissioned Jan Kattein Architects to deliver an art audio trail that celebrates the high streets in Wanstead, Woodford and South Woodford. Felicity Barbur reports

We want to hear your Wanstead High Street stories! Our Walk Local Talk Local project – which will see the creation of three temporary public art audio trails – is being funded by the European Regional Development Welcome Back Fund and hopes to encourage people back into the town centres over the next six months.

A sense of belonging is intrinsically linked to the stories people associate with the place where they live. High streets are full of stories of growing up and meeting family and friends; stories of a first job, stories of social interactions and of experiencing the physical transformation of the places we live.

Walk Local Talk Local aims to reconnect people with the borough’s high streets after two years of unprecedented disruption through narratives that are set in the past, present and future. Three art trails (Woodford to Wanstead, Gants Hill to Hainault and Ilford Lane to Chadwell Heath) will combine physical, temporary on-site artwork interventions with a digital audio experience. Together, the combination of a rich audio archive with a sequence of physical ‘gateways’ will reveal stories about the area’s hidden history, explore the deeply personal memories embedded in these streets, and capture some of the energy and imagination that will drive their future.

The Woodford to Wanstead trail had a soft launch at the end of March, and will be added to over the coming months. Each art trail will stitch together multiple public spaces and the people who have lived within them across time, drawing from local contributors to give the specific narratives that define places pinpointed on the trails. At first, people tuning in will hear again from each other whilst slowly hearing the stories of what happened locally pre-COVID, the stories of what is happening locally now and what will happen locally in the future. This will be a first of its kind to showcase how people simplify and map a city’s urbanism through spatially engaging events, social phenomena and transient activity. None of which are directly visible on geospatial maps, but in the context of Redbridge’s public spaces is plentiful and is worth revealing.

We are devising the art trails through conversations with local people. We are either recording informal conversations or receiving voice notes of pre-recorded stories we can then translate into a series of anonymous anecdotal podcasts that will be accessed through physical artwork QR codes along the trail. If you are interested in contributing a story or two about your experiences and memories of Wanstead, we want to hear from you as soon as possible.

For more information and to take part in the project, visit walklocaltalklocal.com or call 07943 060 481

Having been selected as a Girls Golf Rocks venue, Wanstead Golf Club is joining others around the country in encouraging more girls to take up the sport. Club manager Danielle Anderson reports

Wanstead Golf Club (originally founded as Wanstead Park Golf Club) first opened on 25 November 1893. The intervening years have seen many changes here, and we now have some 650 members, comprising of full, midweek, lifestyle, lady, junior, senior and social members.

Of special interest is that Sir Winston Churchill was an honorary member and, to date, the club has provided three Ryder Cup professionals from its ranks: Percy Alliss, Alan Dailey and Lionel Platts. In 1946, club member Jean Hetherington won the Ladies Open Championship.

So, we are pleased to announce that we have been selected by England Golf to become a Girls Golf Rocks venue. It is a national programme with over 200 clubs taking part.

The aim of Girls Golf Rocks is to boost participation numbers and address, for the long term, the disparity in numbers between girls and boys playing the game. All participating clubs are aiming to create an environment where girls feel comfortable and confident to join in the initial sessions and then offer a clear pathway for them to continue their participation in the sport.

Girls Golf Rocks encourages beginner girls, aged five to 18, to learn and play golf in a fun and friendly way. While coaches will lead the sessions, Girls Golf Rocks will also encourage current girl golf club members aged between 12 and 25 to act as peer role models and assist in the delivery of the programme. The emphasis on the lessons is for girls to learn the fundamentals of the game and have fun with their friends in a comfortable and relaxed setting without too much emphasis on the coaching and competitive elements of the game. Taster sessions are free, usually lasting an hour, and are a great way of trying golf before signing up for the six-week coaching course (£35). The coaching course will involve six, hour-long sessions spread over six weeks, with the last lesson being out on the course.

The sessions – which launch in June – are designed to be fun, to involve team and group pursuits, to include a variety of golf-related activities and to allow for social time at the beginning and end.

The importance of the Girls Golf Rocks campaign can’t be overestimated. If we don’t do these sorts of things, the sport won’t carry on into the future. Golf clubs such as ours need these campaigns to bring new blood into the game. We are passionate about getting a wide range of girls to try this wonderful sport. And you never know, we might have the next Georgia Hall, Charley Hull or Jean Hetherington just waiting to be discovered.

For more information and to book a Girls Golf Rocks taster session at Wanstead Golf Club, visit wnstd.com/girlsgolf