Editor

As the South Woodford Society plan for the return of community litter picks this May, Louise Burgess praises the efforts of a group of local teenagers who have been keeping South Woodford tidy

With the easing of lockdown, and with people starting to be more positive about their health and the future, perhaps now is a good time to look back and see how our behaviours should change going forward.

One issue that has been exacerbated by the lockdowns, due to the greater use of our outside spaces, is littering, and in particular fly-tipping, which increased by nearly 80% during the first lockdown. Demand for refuse disposal has gone up, and Redbridge Council has now installed a CCTV camera providing a live stream of the entrance to Chigwell Road Reuse and Recycling Centre, so the public can check the queues in advance.

As more and more of us visited our local open spaces in lockdown, including Epping Forest, the local councils have struggled to keep up with the clearing of litter and emptying of bins. Leaving rubbish around an already full bin is littering. Another bin should be found or the litter taken home and disposed of with your household recycling or waste. Many people feel the council should be doing more to solve this problem, but with all the additional expenditure during lockdown, councils are struggling with the amount of money they have available to them. We can all help by not littering and wherever possible, prevent the litter in the first place by using reusable coffee cups (Little Woodford Café and Tipi Coffee Co are among those now accepting your own cups) and water bottles.

One enterprising group of boys from Year 9 at Woodbridge High School decided that as part of their Duke of Edinburgh’s Award they would carry out weekly litter picking sessions. So far, they have picked around George Lane, the Station Estate car park and the slip roads up from the A406. The public have taken to various social media platforms to thank the boys and to congratulate them on their efforts. The South Woodford Society has supported them with the loan of litter pickers, hoops and bags. If you are inspired by them and would like to help as well, you can join us on Sunday 30 May for our first litter pick since 2019, as part of the Great British Spring Clean.

Finally, there are various schemes currently looking at how we can improve our record of littering – often cited as being one of the worst in Europe – including deposit return systems and greater public awareness, especially when it can be so harmful to wildlife and the environment. So, along with reducing the amount of litter and single-use plastic in the first place, please let’s all use the litter bins or take our litter home!

To view a live stream of the entrance to Chigwell Road Reuse and Recycling Centre, visit swvg.co.uk/tipcam

A community litter pick will take place on 30 May from 10am (meet at the junction of Primrose Road and Mulberry Way). For more information, visit swvg.co.uk/sws

Diana Varakina, Co-op Member Pioneer for Wanstead and South Woodford, reports on the supermarket’s latest Local Community Fund awards and encourages applications for the new round

Back on a very sunny Saturday afternoon on 27 February, for the first time in my life, I took part in planting cherry and apple trees with the South Woodford Society and The Orchard Project. We planted a gorgeous cherry tree at the entrance to the site, on the corner of Primrose Road and Mulberry Way, and are looking forward to planting herbs and soft fruit bushes soon!

The South Woodford Society is one of the beneficiaries of the Round 6 Co-op Local Community Fund, along with Snaresbrook Primary School. The first payout was at the beginning of April, and Snaresbrook Primary School was awarded £1,298 and South Woodford Society £1,345.

This funding will help South Woodford Society with the regreening along the A406 and a bench and signage for the community orchard and forest garden. It is the second year of funding for the Snaresbrook Primary School PTA, and the money will be used to improve the fitness and well-being of children by laying protective surfaces on their new multi-use games area as well as buying new equipment for nursery and reception classes.

Projects across the UK that Co-op members are passionate about are supported by the Co-op Local Community Fund. Every time a member buys selected Co-op branded products and services, two pence of every pound spent is returned as cashback, and we give the same to support community organisations and local causes. You do need to be a Co-op member to support your preferred cause. If you have a blue Co-op card, you should already be a member, but will need to register to be able to select your local cause.

Applications for the new Round 7 funding opens on 4 May. To be accepted, you must have a project in mind that will benefit your local community. Many applications are from charities or local community groups, but as long as your organisation isn’t run for private profit, you can apply. Your project should fit one of the following categories:

• Fairer access to food.
• Fairer access to mental well-being services.
• Fairer access to education and employment for young people.

Once accepted, you will need to encourage Co-op members to select your cause by promoting your project on social media and in your community.

Shortlisting usually happens in September or October, and the first payout will be in April 2022, so any project should be able to support itself until then. Good luck, everyone!

For more information on the Co-op Local Community Fund, visit swvg.co.uk/coop or email diana.varakina@coop.co.uk

A South Woodford child psychotherapist will be offering her top five self-care tips for parents in a post-pandemic world during a free virtual event on 10 May from 12 noon.

“I will explain why self-care is not self-indulgence, and you will walk away with lots of strategies and a free template to create your own self-care plan,” said Usha Chudasama. The presentation is part of the locally organised Wellness Festival 2021, which features a range of events to ‘help residents through the final straight of lockdown’.

Visit swvg.co.uk/well21

Woodford Town FC has launched a membership scheme for the new season.

Priced at £50, benefits include entry to every home game and a photo with one of the players. “We want our club to have a community feel, and membership will help with that. We wanted it to be affordable, and it works out to just over £2 a game. Uptake has been good; we now have members from Woodford Wells, Woodford Green, Woodford Bridge and South Woodford,” said club chairman Tony Scott.

Visit swvg.co.uk/wtfc50

Historian and author Dr Hannah Armstrong talks about her earliest memories of Wanstead Park and her personal journey to writing Wanstead House: East London’s Lost Palace

My mum tells me that she took me to Wanstead Park just days after I was born. We lived in Langley Drive, just a stone’s throw away; in fact, I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t going to the park as a child! I have a very vivid memory of looking up at the Grotto and my mum telling me about a house. I remember thinking the Grotto was the house and then later feeling surprised at how large it actually was. My dad’s job took us overseas and I left Wanstead at eight years old, so it was not until about 15 years later that I was reunited with this interest.

I have always loved art and design, so it seemed only natural to me to apply to art school. I studied at Camberwell, specialising in textile design, specifically embroidery and screen printing. In my second year, I wrote a dissertation about William Morris and his ideology of art for all. That really set something alight for me. From that point, it became clear I wanted to turn my attention to the history of design and so applied for the MLitt in Decorative Arts and Design History at Glasgow University. That year changed everything for me.

During my Masters, I developed an interest in 18th-century interiors and domesticity, specifically, how they were represented in conversation pieces (informal group portraits). I would occasionally come across references to Wanstead, and I was amazed and excited to learn that such a significant house once stood in the park I used to visit as a child. Realising it was relatively understudied in academia, I applied for funding and was delighted to be accepted to study for my PhD at Birkbeck College, University of London. I was incredibly fortunate to be supervised by Kate Retford, a wonderful historian who has written much on Georgian conversation pieces and the country house.

The part of my PhD I most enjoyed were my archive days at the Essex Record Office and the Wiltshire and Swindon Record Centre. It is an incredible experience to hold a letter in your hands written by someone you have spent so much time thinking and writing about. I find those moments very moving, as if we are connected in time through one artefact. Other highlights included having access to visit a house in Hills Road, Cambridge where I could finally encounter real fragments of building fabric from Wanstead House.

If I could go back in time, I would love to meet Richard Child, 1st Earl Tylney, and watch Wanstead House being constructed and see its interior flourish. I would be really interested to see the Elizabethan manor that stood on the site prior to the building of Colen Campbell’s classical mansion. And I wouldn’t mind being a fly on the wall when Richard and Campbell met!

I have really enjoyed writing about the furnishing of Wanstead House, transporting myself into Wanstead House and imagining how it must have felt to experience the house. It was great fun piecing together its interior through reading visitor accounts, studying floor plans and analysing famous portraits by Hogarth and Nollekens.

My plans for the future include giving some talks later in the year at St Mary’s Church, Wanstead, the Copped Hall Trust and at Wanstead Fringe. I am also excited about the new developments at Wanstead Park, in particular, the restoration of the Grotto boathouse structure. I hope my book will help to generate interest and support for the park’s long-term preservation.

This article was based on an interview with Nigel Franceschi of the Friends of Wanstead Parklands, which commissioned the book.

Wanstead House: East London’s Lost Palace will be published in March 2022. Pre-orders receive 40% off the £45 retail price. For more information, visit swvg.co.uk/palace

Organisers of the South Woodford Business Forum are reaching out to local business owners to offer support as the roadmap out of lockdown continues.

“Welcome back to all those businesses that reopened in April! But we know there are still more businesses having to wait for ‘Step 3’, so please let us know if we can be of any help in the meantime,” said Elaine Atkins and Rena Pathak.

The group’s next virtual meeting will be held on 13 May from 6pm.

Email southwoodfordbusinessforum@gmail.com

Abbotts Stationery at 135 George Lane – thought to be the longest trading shop in South Woodford, having first opened in 1930 – has closed down.

“We were the only dedicated stationers in South Woodford, and I am very grateful for the support shown by our loyal customers over the years. It’s the end of an era, but trade has been challenging for some time, even before the pandemic,” said the last owner, who took over the long-running business in 2008.

The shop is expected to be acquired by a new business in early May.

Artist Alison Stenhouse – who has been inspired by the blossoming trees of Wanstead and South Woodford – introduces her fellow Woodford Arts Group members, who will all be taking part in a late-spring exhibition at Packfords Hotel (restrictions pending)

Woodford Arts Group is an artist collective who use different media to produce a variety of styles of visual art. Between us, our members have significant experience in many fields of art.

Terry Rumak is from a fashion and textiles background and paints geometric patterns.

Ged Rumak worked in design and now paints in oils; still life and landscapes.

Julia Brett paints in acrylics, but has more recently been experimenting with printmaking, etching and aquatint, among many techniques; landscapes and flowers.

Shelagh French and Sue Mayne love nearby Epping Forest, which often features in their atmospheric paintings, as well as other landscapes.

Emma Liebeskind is continually exploring new techniques, keeping to her principles of sustainability to represent natural forms.

John Rowlands uses metal to convey ideas, many figurative, in sculpture.

Amanda Whittle loves colour and pattern and uses mosaic as her medium.

David Varney uses resin to create shiny works of trees, leaves and butterflies.

Darren Evan’s watercolours are often of architecture, ranging from an illustration of a single building to a whole famous view of London’s skyline.

Hannah Varney and Cheryl Gabriel use photography to convey nature and people.

And I enjoy landscapes, seascapes and people, depicting them in acrylics, wood engraving and pastel. Pastel was used for the work presented here.

Creativity has been a good distraction from the strange times we have been going through, and members of the group have still managed outdoor sketching, photography and painting or printing at home. They have kept in touch with each other via WhatsApp, Instagram and email, and look forward to meeting soon.

Last year, due to Covid restrictions, we were unable to have an exhibition at Packfords Hotel, but instead displayed an online exhibition. However, this year we plan to go ahead at the hotel once again and it should prove an interesting mix of art.

Woodford Arts Group is planning to host an exhibition at Packfords Hotel (16 Snakes Lane West, Woodford Green, IG8 0BS) from 31 May to 5 June. For more information, visit swvg.co.uk/wag

Pupils from Nightingale Primary School have raised £2,200 for the PTA’s Covid Response Fund by taking part in a team ‘marafun’ challenge.

“Over the course of two weekends, each class worked as a team to complete a marathon between them. Armed with their personal trackers, they walked, hopped and skipped their way around Redbridge,” said a PTA spokesperson. Together the children covered 842km, with the money raised paying for vouchers for school families hit hard by the pandemic.

The event was sponsored by North London Loft Rooms.

The Woodford and District National Trust Centre – which will host a virtual talk about National Trust properties on 11 May at 3pm – is planning for a return to in-person meetings this autumn.

“We have managed three Zoom events during the pandemic, but our intention is to restart our talks programme – Covid restrictions pending – in September, at our usual venues of All Saints’ Church Hall in Woodford Green and Woodford Memorial Hall in South Woodford,” said chairman Richard Speller.

Email speller643@btinternet.com

Kathie Teahan is one of many residents who would like to see the empty bowls club behind the hedges in the centre of Elmhurst Gardens become a resource that is open to everyone in the community. Photo by Geoff Wilkinson

The Elmhurst Gardens bowls club closed at the end of 2020, a victim of dwindling membership and COVID-19 restrictions. The site, known as South Woodford Bowls Club, currently lies empty and unused.

Having not been accessible to the general public for many years, the re-purposing of the site presents a wonderful opportunity for something positive to materialise in our community, and in recent surveys, many residents said they would welcome a cafe and community space.

This space has the potential to be a multi-use venue with rooms that could be hired for commercial and private use as well as an area to serve refreshment and host events for the community. It will greatly enhance one of our most popular small green spaces, providing additional ways for all age groups to socialise and enjoy leisure activities, adding to an already close-knit community feel. Over the last year, many of us have come to appreciate our local parks more than ever, and with cuts to public funding, a business like this will go a long way in increasing what Elmhurst Gardens has already provided – a safe place to see friendly faces of all ages and feel less isolated.

The Maybank Community Association, the Friends of Elmhurst Gardens and the Elmhurst Playground Group are some of the most vocal bodies in relaying what residents want to see happen in their local park. The desire is to provide activities for all age groups. Established activity groups already operating in the area have found it hard to find premises to accommodate them during school hours, something which could be catered for in a community hub.

For the elderly, a cafe would be a place where they can meet with friends or form new friendships, having spent so much time in isolation due to COVID-19. A range of classes and activities could be arranged for them. Well-being activities and social events for the elderly are highly desirable to combat isolation and loneliness.

Children under five would benefit enormously from a cafe as well – socialising with other children and partaking in different activities running throughout the week.

A community hub would also provide somewhere for school-aged children to mix with peers in a safe and secure environment, rather than them returning to an empty home or wandering the streets. This is something South Woodford really needs, and it would be great for these children to feel they can come and use the facilities. A wide range of outdoor activities could be provided, utilising the green area, such as table tennis and football. Redbridge Council is working toward the ‘child-friendly borough’ accreditation from UNICEF, and they recently consulted young people about problems in the local area. Many replied about the lack of places to go for teenagers. A community hub would help with this.

The disabled community would benefit from a safe environment for children, teenagers and adults who feel socially isolated. A cafe and community hub could provide access to specialised activities.

With the correct application, a community hub could also hold fundraising events for the park and other local causes.

A community hub and cafe would champion diversity across the board because everyone matters in the community around Elmhurst Gardens.

We are fully aware of the pressure on Vision RCL – who manage the park – and Redbridge Council to make cuts and generate income in public spaces, but I would argue that a cafe and community hub would be a financially viable suggestion for a business. Cafes are successful in other local parks in Redbridge and indeed across the country, and I feel the same could be the case in Elmhurst Gardens.

The tendering process for the site ended on 23 February – and it seems a private nursery is to be awarded the site – but a petition has been launched calling for it to become a resource that is open to everyone. The people of the Elmhurst area just want to have what many other parks have – a place to share with their community. Let’s save this site for everyone instead of letting it go to a private tenant who will lock us out again.

To view the petition, click here.