A point was made at the recent Leytonstone Community Council Meeting regarding the state of Leytonstone High Road. The speaker had noted that 2 years ago the main uses for buildings on the High Road in South Leytonstone was…

1. Empty.
2. Fast Food.
3. Hairdressers.

He had spoken at a Community Council Meeting then about the state of the buildings there – badly run down with trees growing out of the roofs and had requested that the council do something about it.

Leytonstone High Road

So, since 2 years has passed what’s happened. Well, he’s done the same survey again and the new top uses for buldings on that part of the High Road are as follows…

1. Empty.
2. Fast Food.
3. Hairdressers.

Buildings are in a worse state than ever with even more trees growing out of their roofs.

Unfortunately when this point was raised the majority of councillors were out of the room deciding on Community Council Funding. However, Councillor John Macklin was present and spoke about the assumption made by the council that the Olympic Delivery Authority will be stumping up some cash to allow fund regeneration work on the High Road. Unfortunately it now seems that this money is not going to materialise and there’s no other money in the kitty. Hardly surprising given the current economic climate – Boris and the ODA are trying to cut back the main spend on the Olympics, never mind worrying about those of us on the periphery.

The tragic thing is that these are great Victorian buildings, letting them get into this state is absolutely criminal.

Driving down the High Road these days literally makes me cringe because its in such a sorry state. Surely something can be done – maybe the only way is to get up a ladder myself to chop those roof trees down!!!

Seems that Kirkdale’s has unfortunately bitten the dust. A double blow after the loss of The Loaded Dog. The way things are going pretty soon there won’t be anything left in Leytonstone!

As I sit on the committee of LARA, I attended the Leytonstone Community Council meeting on 12th October. We had applied for funding, which fortunately we got (hurrah!). There were many other benficiaries on the night, as each ward (Leytonstone, Cann Hall and Cathall) had a £10,000 pot to distribute amongst the various applicants, all voted for by the attendeed with a final decision made by the councillors. There was also a £5,000 pot for those applicants which didn’t fall into a particular ward. The majority of that went to the Leytonstone Festival (good news), though that initially looked like the Leytonstone Arts Trail would miss out. Fortunately Leytonstone Ward had a surplus, so that was given to them – great news as they did such a sterling job during this year’s festival.

E11 seems to have more than its fair share of apathy, so since the forum on this site was pretty much dormant (expect for a constant stream of attempted spam from our friends in Russia!) I’ve decided to ditch it. This goes hand-in-hand with a general re-focus/re-design, leaning towards a more regular blog/news site. I’m also currently working (well, trying to work) on www.leytonstone.org.uk which has more of an arts/editorial feel as well as aggregating streams from various other Leytonstone related sites. Hopefully the two will compliment each other rather than clash.

Very sad to hear news that The Loaded Dog in Leytonstone is closing. This was a key music venue in the area and was widely respected as being one of the best small venues in East London. Just goes to show how, like many other long gone bits of Leytonstone High Road, if we take these places for granted, we risk losing them. I count myself among the guilty there as I never actually ventured into The Loaded Dog – kind of regretting that now.

A request from Leytonstone Arts Trail…

“Leytonstone Arts Trail is organising a drive to ‘Fill Leytonstone with Art’ during the dates of the Trail: 27 June to 19 July.

To help with this, we would like members of the community to put a piece of art in the front windows of their houses. The main request is that the art is produced by someone within the household.

Children produce many excellent works of art in school, so do encourage them to put those creations on display for the period of the Trail. It will serve to brighten the streets of Leytonstone as
people go about their daily business.

Although we are driving this through schools, we encourage everyone to put their artwork on display – not just children – so please join in!”

Slightly outside E11, but…

One of the best kept secrets in Chingford is the 2 model train tracks at the back of Ridgeway Park, Peel Close, off Old Church Road, Chingford (just after the Green Man pub near the top of Chingford Mount). Alternative entrances off Endlebury Road and Chingford Avenue, E4.

Every Sunday and Bank Holiday afternoon between 2pm and 5:30pm during the summer (up to the end of September) train rides are available at 50p or £1 depending on the train track in use. During the school summer holidays,
rides are also available on Wednesday afternoons. Private hire events can also be arranged.

The Chingford & District Model Engineering Club, formed in 1945, run the trains, tracks and rides. There is a 1000 foot long 5″ raised level track and a 3000 foot long 7¼” ground level track. The respective rides are 50p and £1 per person per ride.

For further information: see http://www.chingford-model-engineering.com/diary.htm#public for running days or http://www.chingford-model-engineering.com/index.htm for the home page.

This year the Chingford Day at the park on 5th July will be celebrated by the use of both tracks. Something not to be missed!

Many (grand) parents would probably love to take their children along for a lovely Sunday (Bank Holiday) afternoon out, but just don’t know about it.

With Clyde Loakes stepping down because he plans to run for MP in the next general election, our new council leader in Waltham Forest is Chis Robbins from Grove Green ward.

The ex-Woolworths in Leytonstone has been secured by The Leytonstone Arts Trail for use as a venue – the arts trail runs from 27th June till 19th July 2009.

As a matter of interest, presumably that means that the council have not yet found anyone to take over the store on a permanent basis. The Woolworths in Stratford is now a “99p Store”, the one in Wanstead is a Tesco Metro and South Woodford’s is some kind of “International Supermarket” (doesn’t seem particularly popular with the locals apparently, see this Guardian article for further info).

Are you an artist with work to show? Or a venue with space to offer?

Leytonstone Arts Trail is a great chance for local artists to show their work, and for residents to see the talent that’s on their doorstep.

The Trail runs from 27 June to 19 July and involves many different visual arts events, from photography to painting to sculpture to textiles. The aim is to get art into as many venues as possible, so that artists can show their work, and venues can benefit from added custom. More information at http://www.leytonstoneartstrail.org.