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.
]]>We ran a poll on the subject and the results were as follows:
- Yes, five-a-side and basketball please. 29% (7 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!
Good news indeed, but no news of any money for Leytonstone. 
Knotts Green House - Residence of Joseph Gurney Barclay
The drawing is taken from the Illustrated London News, July 15th 1865. The caption reads “Entertainment Given by Mr Gurney Barclay, at Leytonstone, to the Agents of the London City Mission”. Unfortunately, like most of the great old houses in Leytonstone, Knotts Green (which was situated around the Matlock Road area) eventually fell into disrepair and was knocked down in the 1960s to make way for Livingstone College and subsequently the tower blocks of the Livingstone Estate, also later demolished.
Tragic
Stratford City - Northern Arcade
Vertigo Mural: Alfred Hitchcock
Seems to have met with a mixed reaction. I quite like it, certainly brightens up the outside of the building – I’m sure Hitch would be amused. Further info on the 491 Gallery project can be found at www.491gallery.com.
]]>The initial piece of the bridge on the City side has been carefully winched into place…
Work has also commenced at the Old Stratford end, next to the main station building…
This is how it will all look when its finished…
