Google’s Street View which adds street-level 360 degree imaging to Google Maps has gone live in the UK, including full (well, almost) coverage of greater London. E11 is included, so you can now stroll virtually down our local streets.
Here are a few examples…
The Woolworths in Wanstead has been taken over by Tesco – they’re currently fitting it out as a “Tesco Metro”. Bad news for existing local shops as they’re sure to feel the squeeze once the new store opens. One of the best aspects of Wanstead is its almost village-like charm, partly due to the wide range of local shops and cafes and the relative absence (bar Somerfield) of the big supermarkets. Hopefully this isn’t the start of the slippery slope towards a high road like Leytonstone’s.
Speaking of Leytonstone, the Conservative Party have been sending flyers out regarding the Woollies shop there, concerned what the council are planning to do with it. One of their suggestions, a book shop selling coffee was already attempted on Church Lane a couple of years back – Prospero I think it was called. Nice enough place, but didn’t last very long. Their other suggestion, a shopping arcade, sounds more promising to me – maybe something along the lines of the arcade near Liverpool St. Station, sympathetically built in an art deco style to match Leytonstone Library. Well we can dream can’t we … I’m betting it ends up as a cheap supermarket like Aldi or another 99p store 
UPDATE – At the January Leytonstone Community Council meeting, Cllr Jenny Gray “assured residents that the site, which was owned by the Council, would be turned into good use. She added that the Council was in contact with a number of companies (including Peacocks, Argos and Sainsbury) and Woolworth’s administrators in order to ensure that quality shops would come into the area.”
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.”
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.
View across Eagle Pond to Snaresbrook Crown Court
For the middle classes, life in Victorian England was a much different proposition to that of today. There was no welfare state (the very poor were looked after by the workhouses), so those who fell on hard times generally had to rely on charity, be it from friends and relatives or from organisations such as the Infant Orphan Asylum at Wanstead, founded by the Revd. Andrew Reed in 1843.
Recent Comments