Spring Clean for Fountains

Two historic fountains which are part of Snaresbrook and Wanstead’s Victorian heritage have been spruced up by Redbridge Council’s Area 1 Committee.

The fountains began life as horse troughs for the mounts of thirsty travellers in an age when horses were the majority form of transport and are a well loved part of the local scenery and a reminder of a bygone age.

The earliest, which still has its trough, stands on George Green, Wanstead, and was built to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Diamond jubilee in 1897.

The other stands at the other end of the High Street at the junction with Holly Bush Hill in Snaresbrook, and was erected in 1872.

Councillors representing the two wards of Snaresbrook and Wanstead formally reopened the fountains following their makeover.

These included Councillors Michelle Dunn, Allan Burgess, both for Wanstead, and for Snaresbrook ward, Councillors Christopher Cummins, Peter Goody and Mrs Suzanne Nolan.

Chairman of Area 1 committee which covers both wards, Councillor Chris Cummins, said:

“It is great to see these beautiful features restored to their former glory. They help to remind us what a historic place this area is.”

Forest Ward By-Election

There is to be a by-election in the Forest Ward of Waltham Forest on Thursday 12th June, 2008. The seat being contested was formerly held by the Lib Dem candidate, Imran Abrahim. More info here.

FARA Photo Competition

The Leytonstone Festival is rapidly approaching once again. This year the fun and games will run from Saturday 5th July 2008 to Sunday 13th July 2008. Once the schedule is firmed up, we’ll add it to the london-e11 calendar. For more information and the very latest news, you might want to pay a vist to the festival website (www.leytonstonefestival.org.uk).

As part of this years festival, the Ferndale Area Residents Association (FARA) are organising a photo competition. The theme is “My Leytonstone – things I like/dislike”. The competition is open to any Leytonstone resident, adults and juniors (age 12 and under).

Entries will be on public display at Davies Lane School on Saturday 12 July from 11am-5pm. Prize-winners will receive a certificate and a large framed print of their winning photo.
                
How to Enter:

• Entries should be received between 1st and 30th June 2008. (Entries that arrive after 30th June won’t be considered.)
• Send a maximum of 2 photos to: FARA Photo Competition, c/o 12 Davies Lane, London E11.
• Prints should be no larger than A5. They can be either colour or black/white.
• Enclose the following information with your photos (please write clearly in block capitals):
  1. A caption of 20 words maximum for each photo. Use the caption to explain where the photo was taken and/or why you chose the subject matter.
  2. Your name and full address, plus telephone/email (so FARA can let you know if you’ve won). Also include your age if entering the junior category (age 12 and under).

If you wish to submit digital photos by email, please send them to: photocomp@gorge.org – photos should be a maximum of 1500 pixels on the longest side (smaller is OK). Please send captions and other details as shown above.

Finally, a general reminder that if you have any photos of the E11 area that you’d like to share with the rest of the local community, you can send them to gallery@london-e11.co.uk and we’ll upload them to our gallery.

Seat from Wanstead House sold at Christie’s

A tidbit for those interested in Wanstead House … happens that an early Georgian giltwood stool which came up for auction at Christie’s on April 24th turned out to originally be from the (now demolished) great house in Wanstead Park.

The seller originally acquired the stool from a 1980 contents sale at Wingfield Castle, home of the late connoisseur-collector Graham Baron Ash.

Initial estimates for the piece were between £15,000 - £25,000, but the Wanstead House provenance, unearthed after a pointer was given to Christie’s by architectural historian John Martin Robinson, resulted in a 5 way battle over the phones between private collectors. The stool eventually sold for a very impressive £135,000.

The contents of Wanstead House were originally auctioned off in 1822 after the then owner and richest woman in England, Catherine Tylney Long was bankrupted by her wreckless husband William Pole Wellesley. The auction was a huge undetaking, lasting for 32 days. As no buyer could be found for the actual house, it was demolished and sold piece by piece to pay Wellesley’s creditors.

Source: Antiques Trade Gazette.

Snow!

Londoners seem to appreciate snow more than most people, probably because we don’t get very much of it -  and even when we do, it tends not to stick around for very long. The weather forecast yesterday had predicted the possibility of some snow showers this afternoon, but (suprise, surprise) they got it slightly wrong and we woke up this morning to the sight of a pristine white blanket covering the ground outside with big flakes of snow still fluttering down.

The dashing looking snowman pictured was sitting in the grounds of St. John’s Church, Leytonstone. More snowy pictures taken around E11 can be found here in the gallery. If you have any pictures you’d like to share, please send them to gallery@london-e11.co.uk.

The Gentrification of Leytonstone

When I first moved to Leytonstone some 10 years ago, many property guides still described the area as ”potentially another Islington”. Now what they were referring to was the “gentrification” of Islington which started in the 1960’s and has seen the area become one of the most sought after places to live in London.

Gentrification refers to the phenonemon where once well-off inner city areas which have since become run down are re-discovered, seeing a surge in the value of property, rapid urban regeneration and a demographic change towards young people with large disposable incomes or well-off older residents.

Having worked in Islington for over a year, I’ve often been struck by certain similarities with Leytonstone. Bearing that and other factors in mind, I can certainly see why some pundits thought it could become a boom area…

• Leytonstone used to be a relatively affluent area with good shops, cinemas etc.
• It has good Victorian housing stock (with some areas like Bushwood, Browing Road and Upper Leytonstone being particularly pleasant).
• Houses are relatively cheap (for London).
• It has pretty good transport links (5 stops on the Central Line into Liverpool St. and the M11 within spitting distance).
• It has some excellent green spaces nearby.

Why hasn’t it happened then? Well, there’s probably no simple answer to that. Gentrification is a complex and unpredictable process - there isn’t a single explanation for what triggers it. There has to be a catalyst - often cheaper areas populated by people with more artistic leanings become seen as “hip”, attracting people mainly because of the “buzz” - Greenwich Village in New York is a prime example of this. In other areas, investment by developers (re-furbishing older houses to a high standard or building new, quality apartments) can kick things off.

Unfortunately in Leytonstone, particularly near the High Road, many houses are still run-down, and while we do have an artistic community (local bands, music venues, an ameteur dramatics group and a yearly festival), maybe they aren’t supported or encouraged enough either by the council or by us residents.

Whether Leytonstone wants gentrification is another matter, it is often blamed for displacing less affluent members of communities as new, wealthier people start to move in. This is possibly misleading though - there’s also evidence to suggest that people will generally be happy to pay more to live in a nicer area. Of course property owners stand to benefit hugely, but may also stay on if local infrastructure (shops, restaurants, entertainment) increases in quality as well.

Save Waltham Forest Post Offices

The council have started a petition against the planned closure of six post offices in Waltham Forest. The affected branches are: Coventry Parade, Chingford Road, Forest Road, Orford Road, Leyton Green and Grove Green Road.

The petition is available to be signed here.

Fast Food Fight

Waltham Forest Council has declared war on “the blight of the Chicken Shops” within the borough. Prompted into action by the results of recent consultations with residents, the council is formulating a strategy to address some of the problems blamed on the proliferation of these and other fast food outlets - excessive litter, provision of unhealthy, poor quality food, and negative impact on the high street due to poorly kept shop frontages.

From the March 2008 Leytonstone Residents’ Report…

Anti Junk Food Strategy

Over the next month the Council, will be pulling together an aggressive
strategy to deal with the proliferation of chicken shops and other fast
food outlets. The strategy will strengthen the Council’s position to
say ‘no’ and reject planning applications; review existing opening
hours and conditions; involves greater trading standards and
environmental health enforcement and involvement; looks at working with
parents and schools to reduce the number of children leaving schools at
lunchtimes; and looks at using the powers the Council has under the
Local Government Act 2000 for example the ‘Powers of Well Being’
Legislation and the Clean Neighbourhoods Act 2005.

The Council is doing this now because of the extra capacity and
resources, which are going into the Councils planning and enforcement
functions, as part of this years Budget. Along with a desire to test out
various previously untested powers to see if they have the strength and
desired affect, to enable local council’s to fight these shops, their
proliferation and their impact.

Building on our experiences in Leytonstone, no more clearly
demonstrated than in this months Planning Update, we fully support the
Council’s approach, which was unveiled by Clyde. We know these chicken
shops have no part to play in our plans to revitalise and regenerate our
town centres. We know that they provide unhealthy, poor quality food;
their shop fronts are often dirty and unkempt, they are a breeding
ground for late night anti social behaviour and most importantly, our
residents are sick of walking down streets littered with chicken boxes
and half chewed food; it’s disgusting.

Long Chang

A very welcome addition to Leytonstone High Road (and replacing the mysterious “Comic Shack”) is the newly opened “Long Chang Asian Supermarket” which offers a great selection of authentic tinned, bottled, dried, chilled, frozen and fresh oriental foods.

Starbucks opens in Wanstead

US coffee franchise Starbucks has opened a store in Wanstead High Street.

Since starting out in 1971 with just a single store in Seattle, Starbucks has experienced massive growth and now has over 6000 stores worldwide. Recently though, that rapid expansion has been partly blamed for a downturn in the company’s fortunes - they are no longer seen as “exclusive” (despite the high prices) as it seems like many US cities have a Starbucks on virtually every corner.

Opinion seems to be divided on whether this move will be a “good thing” for Wanstead. Some welcome the fact that we now have a brand-name coffee outlet gracing the High Street, while others are concerned about the effect on existing independent coffee shops and delis. One of the great things about Wanstead High Street is the quality and diversity of its local shops which have managed to survive when, thanks to big supermarkets and retail parks, shops in many town centres have been dying a slow death (Leytonstone High Road anyone?).

Hopefully, the local shops will be able to live in harmony alongside their new neighbour - E11 certainly lacks major brand names at the moment compared with many other areas in London. The question is, now Starbucks have staked a claim in Wanstead, will others follow?