Apparently a lease has been signed for Argos to take over the old Woolworths store in Leytonstone, with the refit beginning shortly. Good news indeed.

Went for a walk over the weekend, including crossing from Whipp’s Cross Road to Snaresbrook through Hollow Pond, with a push-chair. I know, I know, utter folly, stupid idea – parts of it were a quagmire, so a tractor would have been more appropriate.

Is it just me or would Hollow Pond benefit from some degree of formalisation though? At least some decent paths maybe. I know it’s relatively unspoilt (though the ponds are man-made I think) and it’s the last remnant of Epping Forest around here and I should have at least been wearing wellington boots etc. etc., but having a half decent park around here which parents with younger children (not to mention disabled people) could actually get around easily after its rained a bit would be nice.

Oh yeah, not that we drove there, but the car parks are a bit of a dogs breakfast too

Interesting article regarding Olympic money handed to Waltham Forest Council for improvement to South Leytonstone. Strangely none targeted at the High Road though, which is certainly in desperate need of  some attention. Maybe the council are hoping to get some separate funding for that? It’s pretty poor that we have to rely on Olympic money to actually do something about the state of some parts of Leytonstone. However, the council can’t be held solely to blame. If all landlords, home and shop owners took good care of their property, we wouldn’t have a problem.

Interesting Leytonstone Area Residents’ Association meeting last night on Crime and Safety, particularly given the news today regarding CCTV in Leytonstone town centre. Good turnout with ward Councillors Clyde Loakes and Marie Pye speaking along with representatives from the Safer Neighbourhoods and Neighbourhood Watch schemes.

A fairly wide range of topics were covered, but one in particular struck me as worth mentioning. In response to my question regarding the state of the High Road and its effect on crime in the area, Councillors Loaked and Pye mentioned the difficulties they have actually persuading property owners on the High Road to maintain their buildings. For example, the Independent Buildings in Church Lane have various bits of graffitti on them. The clock set in the buildings facade has also been broken for a long time. Apparently though the owners won’t allow the council to clean the graffitti or fix the clock, both offered free of charge. Quite what the reasons were for this I’m not sure, but it does seem a bit odd.

I’ve mentioned the “roof tree” problem on the High Road before, and the general run-down state of many buildings, but apparently the council are powerless to do anything about this either. There are no by-laws that can be enforced to make landlords keep their buildings in a presentable state. This seems ridiculous, those buildings will just remain as they are until they’re either sold, they fall down or by some miracle the owners decide to give them a lick of paint. With no investment money on the horizon, it seems the state of the High Road isn’t likely to improve any time soon. Maybe we should have a “Fix Leytonstone High Road Day”, we can all go armed with ladders, pots of paint and brushes to tart the place up!

One more thing – estate agents. Apparently, many of the “to let” signs around Leytonstone are just put up to attract business. Estate agents give landlords management fee discounts if they leave a sign up on their property. So the transient appearance of the High Street and many other areas of Leytonstone may not actually be a true reflection of the real situation. Unfortunately all of those signs give a bad impression. In recent years, schools have been brought into the equation as well – estate agents put up signs in peoples gardens advertising an event at a local school, but the boards look like their regular signs with just a tiny strip on the bottom actually mentioning the event. Bit cheeky really.

The council are looking at the possibility of installing a sports cage in Church Lane car park.

We ran a poll on the subject and the results were as follows:

• Yes, five-a-side and basketball please. 29% (7 votes)
• Yes, as long as alternative parking is provided. 17% (4 votes)
• No, we don’t have enough parking spaces in Leytonstone. 17% (4 votes)
• No, it will be too noisy. 0% (0 votes)
• No, kids hanging around the car park could cause problems. 38% (9 votes)

I passed these results on to the Leytonstone Ward councillors. Marie Pye responded:

Thank you very much, that is really interesting. On our website we’ve not had anybody raise concerns about young people hanging around in the car park and if residents are concerned about that we need to build safeguards into any scheme, for example making sure that the entrance is not near the car park entrance so that people don’t feel threatened (even when they aren’t).

Thanks to everyone who responded!

Having visited a few Christmas markets in Vienna last year, I was kind of (unrealistically) expecting the outside of St. John’s Church to look something like this today…

Christmas Market

But not a stall in sight, seems it was all happening inside the church. So, as I was a bit short for time (and wheeling a toddler along), I missed out. Anyone venture inside? How was it?

I knew the re-opening of the Blackwall Tunnel ahead of schedule after Sunday’s fire was too good to be true, some loon has decided to park himself on the roof of the 491 Gallery in Leytonstone, prompting the police to close Grove Green Road and the northbound carriageway of the A12!!!

Quite why they needed to close the A12 is unclear – presumably they reckon he could leap onto the road from the roof. Unless he’s a combination of spiderman and Carl Lewis, it seems a bit unlikely. Better safe than sorry I guess

491 Gallery from the A12

Quite a few searches that end up on this site are for “Bearman’s Leytonstone” and having searched for the same information myself in the past I know that there is suprisingly little out there on internet. So, what is, or was Bearman’s? you might ask. Well, try mentioning the name to some of our older residents and they’re liable to go all misty-eyed on you, recounting tales of Leytonstone’s “glory days”. Anyone who’s walked through Leytonstone tube station’s subway may have noticed an older poster on the wall near to the Church Lane entrance as well.

Bearman’s was in fact a department store, a proper “Are You Being Served” job, sadly no longer with us and seemingly almost wiped from memory given the aforementioned lack of information out there. Frank Bearman, the proprieter, a draper by profession also went on to buy a part-share in Allders Department Stores.

So, I’ve basically started this post to try to gather any stories, pictures, in fact anything at all that people may wish to share about Bearman’s in Leytonstone.

Now, to get the ball rolling, I’ve been nosing around the 1901 census information recently and thought I’d see if I could find Mr. Bearman. Luckily, there’s an entry in there for what appears to be the department store itself – possibly the Bearmans actually lived there at that time. The census information lists the address as “3 and 4, The Parade, Leytonstone”, which presumably was the name given at the time to that section of shops on the High Road. The occupants were…

• Frank C Bearman (Draper/Shopkeeper)
• Kate Bearman (his Wife)
• Bernard Bearman (their son, aged 2 at the time)
• Mary Waller (Cook)
• Agnes Newby (Servant)
• Susan Tapp (Servant)
• Ellen Goodson (Servant)
• Arthur Harrison (Drapers Assistant)
• Bertrand Cox (Drapers Assistant)
• Richard Hilton (Drapers Assistant)
• Victor Brier (Drpaers Assistant)
• Thomas Simpkins (Drapers Assistant)
• Douglas Bunbury (Shopwalker)

So, looks like at this time the shop was still just a drapers, but it would evolve over the years into much more than that.

More to follow on this and as I mentioned, please add comments if you have any information to contribute.

The Star of India in Leytonstone has scooped the Waltham Forest Guardian People’s Choice Award for Best Indian Restaurant. Owner (and fellow LARA committee member), Shah Ahmed said…

We’re excited about winning and extremely grateful to our customers. We’re very happy to win such a local competition – it’s a seal of approval.

The Star of India, as well as being an excellent restaurant, is well known for supporting a variety of local good causes and of course for publishing free quarterly magazine “The Star”.

Garden City Restaurant on Leytonstone High Road has been close by the council due to a cockroach infestation and generally poor hygiene.

Senior Environmental Health Officer Pip Broad, who closed the premises, said:

It was one of the worst cockroach infestations I have ever seen. The cockroaches were crawling all over the work surfaces and it would have been impossible to miss them. I could hear them scurrying round my feet as I was inspecting the restaurant.

Nice

More info including video footage of said roaches on Waltham Forest Council’s website.