Editor

Two Woodford residents who attended Woodbridge High School during the 1940s have been brought together by the South Woodford Village Gazette.

Gordon Valentine read an article about Robert Putt’s local wartime memories – which was part of a series in the magazine – and contacted the editor, who was able to help put the nonagenarians in touch.

“It was lovely to hear they could share experiences, even the not so nice ones, like hiding in the school basement during air raids,” said a school spokesperson.

Woodford Arts Group member Darren Evans tells the story behind his painting of Limehouse Reach, which was pre-selected for this year’s Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours annual exhibition

Throughout the year, most of my time spent painting is focused on creating artworks that have been commissioned through my website or other platforms. But over Christmas and the new year, I had a little more time to focus on more speculative artwork. Like most artists, I have a number of ideas for paintings that I never seem to have time to start, so this new year seemed like a great time to pick up my paintbrush.

Starting a new painting always causes me a crisis of confidence, and I will routinely procrastinate, finding anything to do to delay putting the first mark on paper, even if I have done preliminary sketches and know exactly what I want to create! This year, I decided to tackle a subject I consistently come back to: the River Thames.

The Thames has always held a fascination for me. It is inextricably linked with London’s very existence and its history. Nowhere is that link between the river and the past felt more strongly than down on the shoreline and, in particular, where the river flows east of Tower Bridge and around the Isle of Dogs.

This painting is called Limehouse Reach, which is the nautical name for this section of the Thames. I wanted to capture that feeling of history, of Dickensian London and otherworldliness that you experience when you walk onto the shore having stepped down the narrow stairs of Wapping and Limehouse. In this painting, I have incorporated some of the buildings that hang over the Thames and evoke feelings of adventure, travel, the early days of international commerce, piracy and, in the distance, the juxtaposition of the modern world shown by the towers of Canary Wharf. I have painted this in multiple layers of watercolour washes, which give the historic building a ghostly, dreamlike quality and are representative of this world heavily influenced by water.

I was very happy with this painting and decided to submit it to the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours 210th annual exhibition. The institute was founded 190 years ago to encourage and educate painters in the fine art of watercolour, seeking the best artists to become members by giving them the opportunity to exhibit their work, a principle that still holds to this day. I am very pleased to say that Limehouse Reach has been shortlisted after the first round of the admission process and I will find out in early March if this will be part of the exhibition that will take place in mid-April at the Mall Galleries in central London.

To view more of Darren’s work, visit thesuburbanartist.co.uk. For more information on Woodford Arts Group, visit swvg.co.uk/wag

Redbridge Council has secured £557,610 from the Office for Zero-Emission Vehicles to install 310 electric vehicle charge points across the borough.

Redbridge currently provides 59 publicly available charge points, with the new lamp post sites to be in place by March 2023. Feedback from residents will determine the locations. “The installation of these charge points will provide easy access to people, where off-street parking is not an option for them,” said Councillor Jo Blackman, Cabinet Member for Environment and Civic Pride.

The North East London Local Group of the RSPB is returning to in-person events in South Woodford.

“On 8 March, we welcome Jonathan Forgham. He will be talking about the 874 species he recorded in his garden during lockdown. And on 12 April, our speaker will be Ann Scott, talking about the ‘pineapple peril’ for Palearctic migratory birds caused by disappearing forests in Kenya to grow fruit,” said a spokesperson. Presentations begin at 8pm at St Mary’s Church (£4.50; under-18s: free; visitors welcome).

Visit swvg.co.uk/rspb

Residents gathered on the Raven Road Industrial Estate in February to protest against City Plumbing Ltd’s plans to build 18 apartments adjacent to – and with access to – Crescent Road in South Woodford.

A petition has also gathered over 1,000 signatures, and Redbridge Council has received more than 100 objections to the proposal. “If the plan is approved, the trees and vegetation separating Crescent Road from the Raven Road Industrial Estate will be lost forever. The character of Crescent Road – a delightful no-through road with Victorian and early Edwardian terraces on one side – will be destroyed,” said a spokesperson for the Save Crescent Road Action Group, who have asked for the application to be referred to the council’s Planning Committee.

A decision is expected at the end of March.

For the latest, visit swvg.co.uk/crescentrd

The South Woodford Society is making a final push in it’s Greening South Woodford fundraiser, which runs until 28 February. 

“At the moment, we are 65% of our full target of £7,342 and have just a few days left. Large pledges have come from London Borough of Redbridge, the Coop and a grant from the Daily Mirror, as well as new estate agents to the area The Stow Brothers, but if we don’t reach the target, all will be lost!” said a spokesperson.

The aim is to make South Woodford a better place to live, work and visit by improving the look, air quality, recreation opportunities and community cohesion of the area.

“There are three main locations we want to improve. An orchard which has been established by local people and is now ready for the next stage of making it a community meeting area where residents can tend and benefit from its produce as well as sit and enjoy. Local families and schools can visit to better understand wildlife and their habitats. The second is a plot of land we’ve named Eastwood Green, which we would like to regenerate with flower beds, play opportunities for children and a meeting area for local people including a community herb garden created by local people for local people. Thirdly, we would like to support a local gardening group with resources to enhance the amazing work they already carry on flowerbeds in the area. Plans include a community composting project, which will reduce waste and recycling and feed all three areas.”

To make a pledge, click here.

South Woodford resident Debbie Pearson is a tour guide for the City of London and the City of Westminster. During lockdown, she took the opportunity to learn more about the local area, including former resident William Morris, one of the 19th century’s most famous names

A man of many talents, William Morris is most closely associated with Walthamstow, but he also has a South Woodford connection. In his lifetime, he was a poet, writer, designer, printer and political activist.

William Morris was born in Walthamstow in 1834, the son of William Morris, a financier in the City of London, and his wife, Emma. In 1840, the family moved to Woodford Hall, a large Georgian mansion. Woodford Memorial Hall on the High Road now stands on the site of that mansion. As a child, William Morris would explore the Essex countryside on his pony. His observations of the natural world would later feature in his pattern designs.

In 1847, William Morris Senior died, and the family downsized to Water House, Walthamstow, now the William Morris Gallery.  William Morris Senior is buried at St Mary’s Church, South Woodford, in a large stone tomb near the High Road.

William Morris was educated locally and then at Marlborough College, Wiltshire, before entering Exeter College, Oxford. While at Oxford, he made two lifelong friends: artist Edward Burne-Jones and architect Philip Webb. He became interested in art, architecture, poetry and writing. He also experimented with stone and wood carving, embroidery and textiles.

He married artist’s model Jane Burden in 1857 and they moved to Bexleyheath. Their house, the Red House, designed and decorated by friends, is now owned by the National Trust.

A few years later, he set up a decorating company, initially with friends, but later known as Morris & Co. He was particularly keen to champion craftsmanship. His wallpaper designs are still sought after, his most popular designs being Strawberry Thief and Willow. He also designed tapestries, furniture and stained glass windows. He is famous for saying: “Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”

His early attempts at poetry were not well received, but his retelling of The Canterbury Tales, as The Earthly Paradise, was very successful and made him famous.

He bought a property in the Cotswolds, called Kelmscott Manor, although he rarely lived there. However, it did inspire him, and he named his Hammersmith home Kelmscott House, and when he set up a printing press, he called it Kelmscott Press.

By the mid 1870s, he was becoming increasingly politically active. He was conscious of the class divisions in Victorian society and initially joined the Democratic Federation. He later joined the Socialist League and wrote their manifesto. He travelled the country giving lectures. He was also interested in conservation and founded the early conservation organisation, the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings.

William Morris died in 1896 and is buried in St George’s Church, Kelmscott in the Cotswolds.

During his lifetime, he was most famous as a poet. But his legacy was much greater, including his emphasis on craftsmanship, his wallpaper and textile designs, his political ideals and his conservation work. A memorial bench featuring his portrait can be found on the High Road, over the North Circular.

For more information, follow Debbie on Twitter @debbieguide

Sculptor John Rowlands describes the magical process by which he and fellow Woodford Arts Group members turn their ideas into visual creations

A few years ago, word got around asking whether people making art in Woodford could get together and promote visual arts in the area. We now have a group of about a dozen people, producing sufficient art to put on an exhibition (Covid permitting) twice a year.

Looking around the group, you see mainly people who have lived a life but are still full of ideas they want to convey visually. For example, Amanda Whittle uses broken shards of pottery to produce objects full of colour and rhythm but which hit you with an underlying provocative idea. Terry Rumak makes geometric patterns of colour that bounce off the eye. Darren Evans uses his architectural background to celebrate buildings and townscapes with a precision that pays tribute to the craftsmen who made the original built landscape. Julia Brett explores how the various techniques of image-making – whether paintings or print making – convey different expressions. And Emma Liebeskind explores, in a contemplative way, the relationship between simplicity and complexity to be found in natural forms.

Why do we do it? Some of the group sell their work regularly. There is, of course, huge satisfaction in knowing you have produced something out of your head that people want to purchase. But there is nonetheless an underlying drive to make art that is unlikely to sell. For example, I make sculptures in steel or plaster that take weeks to complete and need spaces to be displayed that are unlikely to be found in ordinary homes. But the ideas keep coming and the work goes on.

It would be wrong to suggest group members have the same underlying motivation. But in our group discussions there is a sense that each of us has an ‘inner life’ that is constantly bothering us: why don’t you explore this idea, or maybe there is art to be found in this direction? Is this the way imagination works? An ill-formed idea bothers you inside your head and you find yourself compelled to do something about it.

The next stage is hard. That vague, unformed idea has to be given some visual existence in a physical medium, whether it be a pencil sketch, paint on canvas, a mark on a copper plate or an arrangement of pieces of ceramic or metal. This is where you experience the tension of creativity. Your first marks are unlikely to be right. You have to adjust, scrub out, redraw, play around. Sometimes, the tension gets to you and you throw away what you have done in order to clear your mind for another go.

Sometimes, you stay on the path of an idea for a while longer, seeing where it will take you. Again, you may find yourself at a dead end and all there is to be done is to start again. But something else may happen that rewards your persistence. The incomplete work in front of you signals that you are on the right track. Indeed, this inanimate configuration of shape and colour somehow tells you what to do next, where to make the next stroke or put the next dab of clay. There is a sort of resonance between the maker and the emerging work. The piece shown here shifted in its making from a representation of a game of rugby to a much more elemental expression of a tackle somewhat removed from a rugby match.

We disagree in the group about how we describe this moment. Some of us are happy with the word ‘magical’, others less so. But we all seem to recognise the phenomenon. We all seem to experience these moments. And that is probably why we go on making art.

For more information on Woodford Arts Group, visit woodfordartsgroup.org

Clive Boon is one of seven committee members for the Woodford and District Centre of the National Trust. That committee needs more help if the 54-year-old centre is to continue its programme of talks and trips

Some years ago, an article appeared in the South Woodford Village Gazette entitled Coasting Along Nicely. That article gave some insight into the history of the Woodford and District Centre of the National Trust and how it was still flourishing after 50 years, albeit with membership not as great as in 1985 (which was our peak year with 1,010 members).

The genesis of our centre was a coffee morning held on 7 December 1967 at 30 Snakes Lane, when it was decided membership of the proposed centre would cost five shillings. The first meeting took place on 12 February 1968 in the Hawkey Hall with a speaker from central office. In the course of our 50-year history, the centre has been served by just three secretaries, and in that time has contributed over £200,000 to various National Trust projects.

Despite the highs of our membership in the eighties, prior to COVID, we would still rejoice in several hundred members and visitors to our monthly talks and trips. Now, after the first appalling pandemic in most of our lifetimes, where we have all suffered illnesses and lockdowns, we are trying to regroup. In 2020 and 2021, we did our best to stay in touch with members via emails and by hosting three or four Zoom talks for those who were able to take part online.

The re-opening of our centre last September with a presentation about the National Gardens Scheme in Essex (on a gloriously sunny day) was a great day for us all, with a packed audience at All Saints’ Church hall. That was followed by October’s meeting at Woodford Memorial Hall with a talk about the historic Waltham Abbey Church. It felt like a revival of community spirit!

The trips we organise are very popular as well, evident from the full coaches that depart. Recent destinations include the National Army Museum (fantastic) and Polesden Lacey, an Edwardian house in Surrey. And excursions to St Paul’s Cathedral and the Secret Gardens of the City are planned for 2022.

Our meetings, and indeed all the trips, are supported by a small committee. With some lost due to natural ‘movement’ and several past retirement age, that committee has dwindled in size, and now consists of only seven people: chairman, honorary secretary, treasurer, membership secretary, London visits coordinator, publicity member and minutes secretary. At our last committee meeting, it was reluctantly stated that unless we get new support, then the awful conclusion would be our centre would have to close. That will be decided at our AGM on 6 April. So please, if this interests you, do join us. We only ask for a few more to join our committee; the work is not onerous, it is interesting and enjoyable! We really do need you. Our centre is a marvellous community base. It must not close!

For more information on the Woodford and District Centre of the National Trust, call 07774 164 407

As the newly built mosque on Mulberry Way nears completion, Qaiser Malik, secretary of the Qur’ani Murkuz Trust, outlines the history and future of the landmark building. Photo by Geoff Wilkinson

South Woodford Islamic Centre (started and managed by Qur’ani Murkuz Trust, a registered charity) began as a learning centre and mosque from a single-storey set of old buildings on Mulberry Way which, over the years, had seen many transformations in its usage. In the last 25 years, Qur’ani Murkuz Trust (QMT), under the able guidance of its chairman Dr M.E. Fahim, has served not only the religious needs of the Muslim community but also became a centre providing a social space for Muslim women and children, both young and old, as well as hosting many cultural events and fundraisers for many important causes.

The centre hosted Three Faiths Forum events and jointly organised visits to the Holy Land with members of the Forum. It also provided health advice, conducted marriages, and provided support, counselling and adult learning facilities.

The mosque has faced its fair share of hate crime, which peaked when the centre was torched 21 years ago on the auspicious night of Eid-al-Adha and suffered huge damage.

Due to the demographic changes in the area, expanding needs of the community and limited space for children and women learning facilities, QMT applied for planning permission for a new building, and in 2019, consent was given by Redbridge Council. In mid-August 2020, the trustees commissioned the building works; completion has been slightly delayed due to a shortage of materials caused by Covid. It is hoped that the building should be ready for use in Ramadan at the beginning of April 2022. We plan a formal launch and opening of the building after Eid-al-Fitr and will hold an open day for all our neighbours.

The new building has already been appreciated by many who have seen it and who like the design and the brickwork; special care has been taken to match the structure with the surrounding environment. The new premises will provide ample space on the ground floor prayer hall for men and on the first floor for ladies. The basement will house our evening and weekend school. It will also be available for community activities and social events, neighbourhood watch meetings, local council meetings and Three Faiths Forum events. The new building provides for wheelchair access and includes a lift for those who need it. Interior design will pleasantly reflect the aesthetics of the Islamic faith.

In our commitment to the environment, the new building is equipped with solar panels, and all collected rainwater will be reused for services. All electrical equipment is being selected for their energy efficiency capacity; 15 years ago, we were declared the first green mosque in the country by BBC radio, for contributing to planting trees in the rainforest. To meet the operational costs of a large centre, four high-quality apartments are also part of the project to generate regular rental income for the mosque.

It is not just going to be a landmark building in the area but also a centre of excellence for our future generations, to train them to be responsible citizens of this country, with strong moral character and to play a positive role in future growth and development.

The South Woodford Islamic Centre is located at 10–14 Mulberry Way, South Woodford, E18 1ED. For more information, visit qmtrust.org.uk

Vision RCL is a charity that works in partnership with Redbridge Council to deliver leisure and cultural services. Here, chief executive Iain Varah offers some insight into the workings of the organisation

Vision RCL is an independent registered charity and a company limited by guarantee, overseen by a board of voluntary unpaid director trustees made up of community representatives and two local councillors.

As a charity, any financial surpluses Vision makes are reinvested to improve the quality of facilities and services and to deliver our charitable objectives. Vision aims to increase participation, accessibility and inclusivity across all of its services, as well as developing partnerships and sharing best practice.

The charity was established in 2007 and Redbridge Council decided to transfer a number of core sport and leisure facilities to the trust at that time. This was followed in 2008 by the transfer of the three remaining sport and leisure facilities, including Wanstead Leisure Centre. In May 2011, the council transferred a wider range of services into the trust, including parks and open spaces, nature conservation, libraries, arts and events, museum, heritage, hall lettings and grounds maintenance services.

Vision again expanded significantly in 2016 to incorporate Redbridge Music Service and Redbridge Drama Centre, the latter based in South Woodford. Wanstead and Loxford Youth Centres were also transferred in the same year. Vision also took on the operation of the dual-use school/community pool and sports facilities at Loxford School of Science and Technology, and a further leisure centre development at Mayfield School opened in 2018. In September 2019, Vision took over management of the Kenneth More Theatre.

Vision, as an independent charity, has access to a range of significant external funding that public bodies cannot access. On an annual basis, this figure is in excess of £800,000, but will be significantly increased with an Arts Council England grant of £1m from the Creative People and Places fund to be spent across Redbridge in partnership with a number of Redbridge-based charitable and voluntary organisations over the next three years. Vision now has over 750 employees and a turnover of over £20m, and is one of the largest and most diverse leisure and culture trusts in the country.

The formal relationship between Redbridge Council and Vision is defined by a Funding and Management Agreement in place until March 2026, as well as related leases, licences and other supporting agreements. As the council is under increasing financial pressure due to the reduction in government funding, the need to generate income to protect jobs, services and facilities has become more acute. The management fee from Redbridge Council has reduced significantly over time, and Vision has to generate income to fill the ever-increasing hole in finance between the management fee and running costs.

For more information on the work of Vision RCL, visit visionrcl.org.uk

A monthly series of free online talks about the history of Wanstead Park will launch this year.

“Some of you may remember I ran a popular two-year series of articles in the Wanstead Village Directory about the owners of Wanstead Park. These talks – entitled Wanstead Park in Context – will be much wider ranging. As well as personalities, I’ll be exploring political, social and cultural themes, and the evolution of this unique landscape,” said Richard Arnopp, whose first event takes place on 27 January.

Visit swvg.co.uk/wpic