the
E list
Your cultural life in and around Walthamstow
S E C O N D
A N N I V E R S A No.24 R Y • February I S S 2015 U E
No.24 • February 2015
Fellowship is Life
P
lanes, Trains and Automobiles is the title of a film some of you will remember from Steve Martin’s ‘funny’ years. But it would also make a good headline for our feature on this month’s Local Hero (page 24). Lindsay Collier is a volunteer and leading light at the Walthamstow Pumphouse Museum. He talks about what he calls Britain’s ‘second industrial revolution’ which happened in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and mainly here in Waltham Forest and throughout the Lea Valley. So whether we’re talking planes, trains, cars, boats, engines or fuel, things that were invented, developed and made here changed everything and sometimes on a global scale. However the Museum is currently operated on a small scale but with the size and significance of the story to be told, the potential to create another William Morris Gallery is immense. Currently Covent Garden’s London Transport Museum have to store 99% of their collection unseen in Acton due to lack of space. With the V&A apparently coming to Stratford does anyone out there want to help Lindsay bring a major Transport Museum to Waltham Forest based around the story that’s already here? If so get in touch. Also this month I’ve received a listing for the very first exhibition to open at Waltham Forest’s newest creative space, Gnome House near Blackhorse Road in Walthamstow. The show isn’t until March but photographer Mark Burton has been on site recording the building’s transformation from an abandoned and derelict Art Deco factory into an exciting new creative hub for the area. He’ll be back in the E List in May to show the finished space but you can see the story so far in his photos on page 20. During World War I Gnome House was famous for the innovative Gnome engine used to propel British fighter planes. A while ago I saw Darren Hayman perform with the band Papernut Cambridge at their album launch in a packed Victoria Line Tube, perched on blocks in the yard of the Pumphouse Museum. Darren returns this month with a new solo album featuring his own musical interpretations of lyrics by William Morris, see page 16. The album is a fine piece of work and an almost spiritual experience not least because the songs were recorded in the various homes of Morris.
Paul Lindt, Editor editor@theelist.co.uk
The Anchor and Hope, a poem by Andy Williams Yinka Shonibare MBE: The William Morris Family Album Hidden Lives: Fred Boorer Film: Beyond Clueless Music: Chants for socialists Grow your idea! Growing Walthamstow’s community beer A Resurrection Captured: Gnome House Wilcumstowe Times – Shern Hall Street Station Local Hero - Lindsay Collier Walthamstow Diary The Magpie
10 11 12 14 16 18 19 20 22 24 26 27
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COVER STAR
Karin Ă…kesson Design I am a Swedish born illustrator who designs and sells a range of homeware products for everyday living and giving. I moved to England in 1997 to study Illustration at Brighton University before coming to London to complete a MA at the Royal College of Art. I worked as an illustrator for a few years before I started selling a few prints at a local craft market. I enjoyed working on my own projects and over the next few years the product range grew alongside my commissioned work. Our collections now include products such as prints, tea-towels, bags, pillowcases and coasters,
Cover image detail from LOVE YOU TEA-TOWEL, ÂŁ12 from www.karinakesson.com
all made in the UK. My designs focus on the sunny things in life; things that are personal to me but resonate with many people. The collection features birds, memorable quotes and quirky phrases and is built on simplicity, humour and love. My husband David joined the company on a full time basis in 2012. We moved our home and business to Walthamstow in East London in May last year and we are looking forward to continuing to grow the business and developing a range of new exciting products.
You can see our whole range of products at our online shop www.karinakesson.com
ART
BOOKS
CRAFTS
This month in town
FEBRUARY Sunday 1
Tuesday 3
Lea Bridge Conservation Volunteers Meet at 1a Connaught Close, Lea Bridge Rd (Opposite Lee Valley Riding Centre). Practical and fun conservation activities. No experience required. Tools, training, tea & biscuits provided, home-made cakes always welcome. Wear suitable clothing & stout footwear. Bring your own lunch. 9.30am-4pm. FREE. 07757 766950 or info@lbcv.org.uk. www.lbcv.org.uk
Black Holes Are Now Hale End Library, Castle Avenue, Highams Park E4 9QD A look into the theoretical reasons for believing that black holes must exist, including the work of Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose. Exploring their impact on galaxies and stars including their possible impact on the evolution of the Milky Way and the evolution of the Sun and Earth. 6.30-7.30pm. FREE. To book your free ticket, visit www.wflibraries.eventbrite.com, call 020 8496 3000 or visit any Waltham Forest Library. www.walthamforest.gov.uk/libraries
E11 Cycling: Greenwich Palaces Meet outside Carlton House (behind Natwest), Aylmer Road off High Road, Leytonstone E11 3AD Cycle ride of over 11 miles via DLR and foot tunnel, taking in Queens House, Charlton House, Old Royal Naval College, Royal Observatory and Morden College and the Thames Barrier. Time for coffee and lunch as agreed on the day. 10am-3pm. FREE. http://www.e11cycling.co.uk/ The Musical Aquarium Ye Olde Rose & Crown Theatre Pub, 53 Hoe Street E17 4SA Come and join Jerome and Lindsay who will be diving into the tank, and playing their own eclectic brand of music for your Sunday lunchtime listening pleasure! 1-4pm. FREE. Jerome Anderson 07931507760 jerome@jeromelanderson.com http://www.jeromelanderson.com/ Cooper & Bolton at Walthamstow Folk Ye Olde Rose & Crown, 53 Hoe Street E17 4SA Fiddle and cello played in the most versatile ways imaginable: English, Scottish, Eastern European and more. 7.30-10.30pm. £7, £5 (conc) 07746 612 607 info@walthamstowfolk.co.uk http://www.walthamstowfolk.co.uk
Monday 2 East London Lesbians Meet Up Group The Castle Pub, 15 Grosvenor Rise East E17 9LB 1st anniversary for this relaxed, friendly and sociable lesbian meet up group. 7-10pm. FREE. Molly ell.molly@aol.co.uk www.meetup.com/East-London-Lesbians
Events marked
Leyton Tea Dance Leyton Great Hall, Adelaide Road, E10 5NN Fancy a cup of tea and a twirl round the dance floor? The dances will feature music by DJ Malcolm ‘Mr Wonderful’ Fernandes plus a display of ballroom dancing by ex-Senior British Ballroom Champion Janet Cunningham–Clayton. Doors open 1pm, dancing 1.30-4pm. £5.
Wednesday 4 Under 5’s Nature Explorers Meet at Community Room, Aveling Centre, Lloyd Park E17 5EQ Starting with a fun ramble around the park searching for items around our monthly theme, then activities and story time until 12pm. Hot drinks and healthy snacks will be available during and after the activities. Booking is recommended. 10am-1pm. FREE. Rachel 07787 193981 r.hoyes@tcv.org.uk Greenpeace Group Ye Olde Rose & Crown, 53 Hoe Street E17 4SA How can you make a local difference to global campaigns to Save the Arctic, stop deforestation and protect our oceans? All welcome. 7.30-8.30pm. daveocarroll@hotmail.com http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/ groups/walthamstow Thin Wire Fence / The Cheating Hearts What’s Cookin’ @ Leytonstone Ex-servicemens Club, 2 Harvey Road E11 3DB Thin Wire Fence are a 5 piece altcountry band combining distorted guitar, grizzled vocals, all drenched in swathes of haunting and melodic pedal steel. 8.30-11pm. FREE with a collection. Stephen Ferguson 07904 210218 ramblinsteve@whatscookin.co.uk http://whatscookin.co.uk
DANCE/FITNESS Vintage Shopping Evening La Petite Robe Rose, 330 Leyton High Road E10 5PW A monthly event. Fox and Bear present an exquisite collection of vintage clothes at La Petite Robe Rose, a unique vintage coffee and tea house. 6-10pm. FREE Catherine 07766 704637 catherinevaucher1@tiscali.co.uk
Thursday 5 Neighbourly Knit & Stitch Significant Seams 131 Wood St E17 3LX A social group of those who like to make, we share (& show off!) what we are working on, and have a laugh. We always have community projects on offer too. 7-9pm. £3 020 8521 4244 admin@significantseams.org.uk http://www.significantseams.org.uk Red Imp Comedy Club presents Barry Cryer Ye Olde Rose & Crown Theatre Pub, 53 Hoe St E17 4SA OBE comedy legend and star of Radio 4’s I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue Barry Cryer will do solo stand-up. His brilliant support act is Ronnie Golden! Doors 8.30pm, show 9-11pm. £16+10% booking fee. Some tickets available on the door. Susan Murray 020 8509 3880 redimpcomedy@gmail.com http://www.redimpcomedy.com/ Jazz and Soul Night Upstairs at The County Arms, 420 Hale End Road, Highams Park E4 9PB Shelley T and The MPG’S play classic jazz, soul and Motown. 8.30-10.30pm. Suggested donation £5. Shelley 07903271877 shelley@alphabeck.co.uk
Friday 6 Bumps and Babies Ye Olde Rose & Crown, 53 Hoe Street E17 4SA A monthly meet up for those with a baby and those expecting one. Come along to meet other new mums and mums to be, have a coffee and maybe even a piece of cake! 10.30am12.30pm. Sue 07947 455370 Susana.lopez@cancer.org.uk Stow Baby Film Lounge presents Pride (2014, Cert 15) Orford House Social Club, 73 Orford Road E17 9QR Award-winning comedy drama starring Imelda Staunton and Bill Nighy telling the story of UK gay activists working to help Welsh miners during their lengthy strike in the summer of 1984. Doors: 11.15am, Film 11.45am, Close 1.45pm Tickets: £6.50/£5 (conc) Pre-book tickets: www.stowfilmlounge. com or on the door if not sold out. 07910 643987
FAMILY
FILM
Creative Writing Group The Epicentre, Harrow Green Community Library, 41 West Street, Leytonstone E11 4LJ Interested in writing creatively but not sure where to start? Have you done some writing but don’t feel confident in sharing the results? This group aims to develop our skills with expert help, to grow in confidence and to publish a collection of some of the resulting work. 12-2pm. FREE. Deborah on 020 8257 1144 or hgcl.groups@outlook.com https://harrowgreenlibrary.wordpress.com Stow Film Lounge presents Beyond Clueless + Q&A (2014, Cert 15) Orford House Social Club, 73 Orford Road E17 9QR It’s a dizzying journey into the mind, body and soul of the teen movie, as seen through the eyes of over 200 modern coming-of-age classics. ‘Vibrant, funny and subversive... Interpretative analysis at its most engaging and evocative’ Dazed & Confused. See feature on page 14 . Doors: 7.45pm, Film 8.30pm. Late bar, close 12am. Tickets: £8.50/£6.50 (conc). Ticket & food £14 (pre-book only) Pre-book at www.stowfilmlounge.com or on the door if not sold out. 07910 643987 Gay Meet-up The Castle Pub, 15 Grosvenor Rise East E17 9LB Exchange ideas, tips, network or promote your cause, business, venue or just yourself. Have a good time with like minded people over a drink or two every month in very relaxed environment. 6.30-11pm. FREE. Jean-Francois 07831 782200 jeanfrancoisdor@gmail.com http://www.meetup.com/ Walthamstow-Gay-Meetup/ She17: Womens Music Night The Grove Cafe, 21 Hatherley Mews, Behind EMD Cinema/182 Hoe Street E17 4QH Walthamstow’s only acoustic women’s music night returns, a showcase of live acoustic female talent. February’s main line-up is: Lady President, Theresa Elflein, SULK, Sam Kurt and some new local acts too. 7.45-11pm. £3 on door. she17@icloud.com http://www.she17.com An Acoustic Gathering of the Vibes Luna Lounge, 7 Church Lane, Leytonstone E11 1HG Featuring Nigel Burch and the Flea-Pit Orchestra; Tim Moon; R&B from Valkania; Arcaves; and Emilie Rachel an aspiring singer/songwriter. 9pm start. £5 on the door. Andy Cavendish 07985 314389 andy266@gmail.com http://lunalounge.info/whats-on.html
kid friendly
2 The E List makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information it publishes, but cannot be held responsible for any consequences arising from errors or omissions. Please confirm with the venue before setting out.
FOOD & DRINK
GARDENING
Saturday 7 Blackhorse Market Blackhorse Workshop, 1-2 Sutherland Road Path, E17 6BX A monthly street food and makers’ market with design and craft and great activities for kids. 10am-4pm. FREE. Harriet Warden 020 8531 1612 info@blackhorseworkshop.co.uk www.blackhorseworkshop.co.uk/market Stow Kids Film Lounge presents The Boxtrolls (2014, Cert PG) Orford House Social Club, 73 Orford Road E17 9QR Stop-motion animated adventure from the makers of Coraline. A young orphaned boy raised by underground cave-dwelling trash collectors tries to save his friends from an evil exterminator. Doors: 10.30am, Activity Session, Film 11am, Close 1pm. Tickets: £5.50 child, £11 child party package, £4 acc adult, under 2’s free Pre-book tickets: www.stowfilmlounge. com or on the door if not sold out. 07910 643987 WVRA Monthly Gardening Day Meet at Village Square on corner of Orford and Eden Roads Bring gloves, loppers and secateurs if you have them and wear sturdy shoes/ boots. All other equipment will be provided. 10.30am-12.30pm. FREE. Helen Lerner 0781 404 2499 or helen@walthamstowvillage.net Eastern Front Soundsystem Wild Card Brewery, Unit 7, Ravenswood Industrial Estate, Shernhall Street E17 9HQ Balearic, disco & leftfield sounds from Eastern Front Soundsystem all night long. 6-11pm. FREE. https://twitter.com/easternfrontdjs Sur-EAL Genre-Hopping Sounds Luna Lounge, 7 Church Lane, Leytonstone E11 1HG Eclectic, genre hopping sounds ranging from Indian classical infused Indie rock, rock and ballads to soul, jazz, pure classic rock, blues, blues rock and hard rock. 8.30-11.30pm. Free with collection. Luna Lounge 07950 899431 lunalounge@live.co.uk http://lunalounge.info/whats-on.html Oh! Gunquit What’s Cookin’, Leytonstone Ex-servicemens Club, 2 Harvey Road E11 3DB Five piece band concocting spunky rumble bop trash rock’n’roll. A wonderful mix of B-52s meet Roxy Music. 8.30-11.30pm. FREE with a collection. Stephen Ferguson 07904 210218 ramblinsteve@whatscookin.co.uk http://whatscookin.co.uk
Events marked
HISTORY
MUSIC
SHOPPING
COMEDY/THEATRE
Dawgfish Lord Raglan, 199 Shernhall Street E17 9HX ‘One of the best live rock covers’ bands we have ever seen!’ 9pmmidnight. FREE with a collection. Archie or Maureen 02085202145 www.facebook.com/lordraglane17 Abdoulaye Samb & Minnjiaraby The Warrant Officer, 318 Higham Hill Road E17 5RG The WO’s first African band, we’re delighted to welcome this superb Senegalese outfit that draws elements from the rich Fula tradition interwoven with Rumba, Mbalax, Afro-Latin and deep blues.. 9-11pm. FREE. events@the-wo.co.uk www.the-wo.co.uk
Sunday 8 Dad & Baby Massage and Yoga Health Works, 111a Hoe Street E17 4RX This fun class helps you bond with your baby while benefiting you both with some great stretches and songs. Learn how to calm your baby and so other any colicky problems, bowel issues, teething etc. 10.30am-11.30pm. £10 includes free bottle of baby massage oil. Jo 07587 638154 joredmonde17@gmail.com www.the.co.uk Walthamstow Family Bike Club Meet at the Ancient House Orford Rd/Church Lane junction E17 9RW A friendly marshalled exploration of local open spaces, back street routes and a reviving cafe stop mid-afternoon. 1-5pm. FREE. Paul 020 8520 0648 paul.gasson@gmail.com
allyoureadislove.com
The One Deck Session Wild Card Brewery, Unit 7, Ravenswood Industrial Estate, Shernhall Street E17 9HQ Across-the-board one deck DJ sets from guest DJs & residents Eastern Front Soundsystem. All vinyl, mind the gap! 4-9pm. FREE. https://twitter.com/easternfrontdjs Martin Simpson at Walthamstow Folk Ye Olde Rose & Crown, 53 Hoe Street E17 4SA One of the best acoustic guitar players on the planet, a great singer and songwriter, a fabulous interpretor of traditional song, a world class banjo player and a major international star. 7.30-10.30pm. £15 (£14 conc) 07746 612 607 info@walthamstowfolk.co.uk http://www.walthamstowfolk.co.uk
Monday 9
Family Activity: Super Silhouettes Vestry House Museum, Vestry Road E17 9NH For Valentine’s Day create distinctive characters and stories inspired by fairy tales of love ever after. You can use shadow puppets or collage on greeting cards. Led by Mica Benjamin. 1.30-4pm. FREE. No need to book. 020 8496 4391 vhm.enquiries@walthamforest.gov.uk www.walthamforest.gov.uk/vestry-house
Stowtellers – The Walthamstow Storytelling Club St Mary’s Welcome Centre, 8 Church End E17 9RJ Tonight we will have a general theme of stories around houses and homes, on order to raise awareness for the Waltham Forest Night Shelter homelessness project. 7.30-9.30pm. £3 (£2 conc) stowtellers@yahoo.co.uk
Forest Philharmonic play Wagner & Dvorak Assembly Hall, Forest Road E17 4JD The orchestra play Humperdinck’s Hansel & Gretel prelude, Wagner’s Gotterdammerung, Brunnhilde’s Immolation and Tristan und Isolde’s Prelude and Leibestod, Dvorak’s Symphony no 9 ‘New World’. Plus free pre-concert talk 5.30pm. 6.30-8.30pm. Balcony £15, stalls £10, under 26s £3. Family stalls ticket (1 adult, 1 child) £10. Concessions available. tickets@forestphilharmonic.org.uk http://www.forestphilharmonic.org.uk
Club Mellow 18-30s Men’s Group ELOP Centre, 56-60 Grove Road Walthamstow E17 9BN 18-30 Men’s Night is for gay, bisexual or trans* men who have sex with men aged 18-30yrs to meet up with other guys their age in a friendly, supportive environment. 7-9.30pm. £2. 020 8509 3898 info@elop.org
Tuesday 10
Wednesday 11 Waltham Forest Cycling Campaign The Hornbeam Café, 458 Hoe Street E17 9AH Join us for a discussion on cycling issues, opportunities and upcoming events. We usually go to a nearby pub after the meeting . 8-9.15pm. FREE http://wfcycling.wordpress.com/. Children of the Great War: Film Screening Vestry House Museum, Vestry Road E17 9NH Age Exchange and VHM invite you to a screening of the film Children of the Great War. The film reveals the stories of London families and those who took part in the Great War; telling of their loves and losses and the effect upon their families. 6-7.30pm. FREE. 0208 496 1469 vhm.enquiries@walthamforest.gov.uk www.walthamforest.gov.uk/vestry-house The Strange Blue Dreams / Les Johnson and Me What’s Cookin’, Leytonstone Ex-servicemens Club, 2 Harvey Road E11 3DB The Strange Blue Dreams provide a spooky musical backdrop of gospel, early rock’n’roll, R&B, rockabilly and country. 8.30-11pm. FREE with a collection. Stephen Ferguson 07904 210218 ramblinsteve@whatscookin.co.uk http://whatscookin.co.uk
Thursday 12 Creative Kids: Gift of Love William Morris Gallery, Forest Road E17 4PP Play, make and get hands-on with Creative Kids, a regular session for children under five to enjoy with their parents and carers This month, make a craft gift to give to your friends or family on Valentine’s Day. Booking essential. 10-11.30am, repeated 1-2.30pm. FREE. 020 8496 4390 wmg.bookings@walthamforest.gov.uk
kid friendly
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ART
Thursday 12 continued WMG Late: (Un)acceptable Behaviour William Morris Gallery, Forest Road E17 4PP An evening for breaking the rules. Challenge the strict codes which governed “respectable” Victorian men and women, the class system which confined them and the people who threatened the established system. This event will feature its own rules of etiquette, an anti-dress code, live music and performances to stimulate your subversive side. 6.30-10.30pm. FREE. No booking necessary. Baroque Trio St Mary’s Church, Church End E17 9NP Music in the Village presents Trevor Pinnock, the world’s most celebrated harpsichordist, with Matthew Truscott, violin & Jonathan Manson, viola da gamba. Music by Buxtehude, Telemann, Froberger, Rameau, Leclair & Bach. 7.30pm. £13 (£6.50 conc) on the door. 020 8223 0772 VillageMusic@WalthamSoft.com
Friday 13 Charity Pamper Evening Waltham Forest Disability Resource Centre, 90 Crownfield Road E15 2BG So far treats include beauty treatments, relaxing massage, jewellery, handbags, ladies clothing, home-made sweets, refreshments, raffles. 7-10pm. £3, includes glass of fizz WFDRC 020 8534 1589 reception@wfdrc.org.uk www.wfdrc.org.uk
Saturday 14 Pop-Up Picture House Presents: The Boxtrolls Leyton Library, High Road, Leyton E10 5QH Stop-motion animated adventure from the makers of Coraline. A young orphaned boy raised by underground cave-dwelling trash collectors tries to save his friends from an evil exterminator. 10.30-12.30am. FREE. 020 8496 3000 www.walthamforest.gov.uk/libraries London Children’s Book Swap William Morris Gallery, Forest Road E17 4PP Is your family looking for new stories to read? Bring along a story book you’ve enjoyed and swap it for someone else’s recommended read. There will be bean bags and lots of cushions for families to relax and read together. 11am4pm. FREE. No booking necessary. Valentine’s Night: Rat Pack Waltham Forest Corporation Sports and Social Club, Forest Road (just behind the Town Hall) E17 4JF Rat Pack featuring Karl Jacey plus finger buffet. 7.30pm-midnight. £8, £10 on the door. Ray Spalding 0208 5273944 www.wfsocialclub.org.uk
BOOKS
CRAFTS
St James Big Local: Treasure Hunt The Mill, 7-11 Coppermill Lane E17 7HA Be guided by our special treasure map to take a stroll around the St James area. On your return, record your thoughts on our special St James Treasure Certificates and mark the locations of your finds! 10am-12pm. Neesha Badhan 07881 015873 stjamesbiglocal@gmail.com http://stjamesbiglocal.co.uk “What I Think About…” Author Event with Eleanor Levenson Walthamstow Central Library, High Street E17 7JN Author Elenor Levenson reads her new picture book “What I Think About When I Think About...Swimming”. Children also get a chance to create their own fishy companions. 1.302.30pm. FREE. To book your free ticket, visit www.wflibraries.eventbrite. com, call 020 8496 3000 or visit any Waltham Forest Library www.walthamforest.gov.uk/libraries Valentine’s at the Nag’s The Nag’s Head, 9 Orford Road E17 9LP With Spin-a-Disc in Madame La Zongas. DJ Lemony F.K downstairs, cocktails and candle light. Plus a fabulous Valentine’s menu from our new Kitchen E17 scullery. 7-11pm. FREE entry. The Bethnal Green Tube Shelter Disaster The Epicentre, Harrow Green Community Library, 41 West Street, Leytonstone E11 4LJ Based on eye-witness accounts Joy Puritz describes the harrowing events and possible cover-up from 1943 when 173 people were crushed to death trying to enter a bomb shelter during WWII. 7.30pm buffet (please bring something) 8pm talk, followed by questions. FREE but donations welcome. 020 8555 5248 info@newsfromnowhereclub.org.uk Krix Panx & Lady President The Warrant Officer, 318 Higham Hill Road E17 5RG Fabulously eclectic double-bill, kicking off with the all-female dark melodic musings of Lady President followed by the loop genius of Krix Panx. 9-11pm. FREE. events@the-wo.co.uk www.the-wo.co.uk Anti-Valentines Party The Northcote, 110 Grove Green Road E11 4EL Our fabulous resident funk & disco gentleman DJ Andy Cruise will be here. Note not a singles party, just a party where we do all happen to be single. Single & with cocktail. 7.30pm1.30am. FREE entry. roberts.tuesday@yahoo.com
Events marked
DANCE/FITNESS
Sunday 15 Damien Barber & Mike Wilson at Walthamstow Folk Ye Olde Rose & Crown, 53 Hoe Street E17 4SA Great songs sung with power and grace. You know all that soft, rather twee type of folk music? This ain’t it. 7.30-10pm. £7, £5 (conc) 07746 612 607 info@walthamstowfolk.co.uk www.walthamstowfolk.co.uk
Monday 16 Breeze – Women Only Bike Ride Meet at Coppermill Lane Car Park, Coppermill Lane E17 7AH An easy off-road ride up to 12 miles heading to the Olympic or Victoria parks and river Lea with a cafe stop. For women or women and children only. 10am-12pm. FREE. www.goskyride.com/Search/ Details?eventid=53226 Half-term Creative Youth Club TSP Youth Space Charity (The Soul Project), 245 Wood Street E17 3NT Youth club for 8-14 year olds packed with fun activities. Enjoy great days out or just chill with your friends, create music videos, design comic books; singing & dancing lessons and lots, lots more!. 9.30am-3.30pm. £5 per day, optional lunch £3. Booking essential. Cassie or Rani 020 8045 4523 cassie@thesoulproject.com http://tspyouthspace.weebly.com/ The War Hospital: Stories from Whipps Cross Vestry House Museum, Vestry Rd E17 9NH To mark the centenary of WW1, join us in discovering the local history of Whipps Cross War Hospital during the conflict and share personal and family stories. 12-1.30pm. FREE. To book your free ticket, visit www.wflibraries. eventbrite.com, call 020 8496 3000 or visit any Waltham Forest Library. www.walthamforest.gov.uk/libraries
Tuesday 17 Half-term Creative Youth Club TSP Youth Space Charity (The Soul Project), 245 Wood Street E17 3NT See Monday 17 for details. Comic Book Art Wood Street Library, Forest Road E17 4AA Create your own mythical comic book hero or heroine, inspired by the collage style of Godfried Donker and Wangechi Mutu. Learn simple techniques with mixed media artist Elizabeth Oniri aka Quilting Mafia. 1-4.30pm. FREE. To book your free ticket, visit www. wflibraries.eventbrite.com, call 020 8496 3000 or visit any Waltham Forest Library www.walthamforest.gov.uk/libraries
FAMILY
FILM
Friends of the Earth Le Delice Cafe, 117 Hoe Street, E17 4QR Monthly meet-up to help highlight environmental issues. We’re always looking for like-minded people to get involved. 8-9pm. FREE. foe.walthamforest@gmail.com Helen 07712 654632 Colourful Language Hoe Street Central, Unit 3, Central Parade, Hoe Street E17 4RT Opening day of an exhibition of affordable paintings by local artist Julie Caves. This pop-up show will be a chance to acquire a painting directly from the artist. Tues-Sun 11am-7pm until 1 March. FREE julie_caves@yahoo.co.uk 07951 676494 www.juliecaves.com
Wednesday 18 Half-term Creative Youth Club TSP Youth Space Charity (The Soul Project), 245 Wood Street E17 3NT See Monday 17 for details. Winter Walk Meet by childrens play area in Highams Park via Keynsham Avenue, Highams Park IG8 9SZ A 2-hour wildlife walk in Highams Park and Epping Forest with qualified ecologist. 10am-12pm. Booking required. Chris 0208 496 2608 chris.patterson@walthamforest.gov.uk Change Champions Workshop Programme The Hornbeam Café, 458 Hoe Street E17 9AH Sessions to support champions in the We Love Low Cost Living Campaign and other local people interested in starting a community project to grow/ share/nurture resources. This will be an opportunity for champions to network with others working on community projects, share skills and experiences, and troubleshoot, taking you step by step through how to kickstart your project, how to involve people & how to make it happen. 6.30-8pm. FREE but please book a space. grace@hornbeam.org.uk
Thursday 19 Explore... The Cat in the Hat Walthamstow Central Library, High Street E17 7JN 10.30-11.30am Lea Bridge Library, Lea Bridge Road, Leyton E10 7HU 1-2pm Leyton Library, High Road, Leyton E10 5QH 3.30-4.30pm An introduction to basic comprehension with the crazy Cat in the Hat! Activities include: predicting what will happen next, drawing pictures, answering questions sounding words and recognising rhymes. FREE. To book your free ticket, visit www.wflibraries.eventbrite. com, call 020 8496 3000 or visit any Waltham Forest Library www.walthamforest.gov.uk/libraries
kid friendly
4 The E List makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information it publishes, but cannot be held responsible for any consequences arising from errors or omissions. Please confirm with the venue before setting out.
FOOD & DRINK
GARDENING
Half-term Creative Youth Club TSP Youth Space Charity (The Soul Project), 245 Wood Street E17 3NT See Monday 17 for details. St James Big Local: Treasure Hunt The Mill, 7-11 Coppermill Lane E17 7HA 10am-12pm. See Sat 14 for details. Tracing the History of your Home Trinity United Reform Church 58 Orford Road E17 9QL (entrance in West Avenue) Practical session at Walthamstow Historical Society aiming to provide the tools to make a start on tracing the history of your home. Starting with a detailed history compiled by experts of an actual Walthamstow home. 7.309pm. £1.50, members FREE. WHS 07792 750017 www.walthamstowhistoricalsociety.org.uk
Friday 20 Half-term Creative Youth Club TSP Youth Space Charity (The Soul Project), 245 Wood Street E17 3NT See Monday 17 for details. Glow Party TSP Youth Space Charity (The Soul Project), 245 Wood Street E17 3NT Raise your glow sticks high and impress the crowd with your moves. Food, drink and dance for 8-14 year olds. 1-4pm. £2. Just turn up. Cassie or Rani 020 8045 4523 cassie@thesoulproject.com http://tspyouthspace.weebly.com/ Stow Film Lounge presents 20,000 Days on Earth (2014, Cert 15) Orford House Social Club, 73 Orford Road E17 9QR Drama and reality combine in a fictitious 24 hours in the life of musician and international cultural icon Nick Cave. The film is an intimate portrait of the artistic process, celebrating the transformative power of the creative spirit. Doors: 7.45pm, Film 8.30pm. Late bar, Close 12am. Tickets: £8.50/£6.50 (conc). Ticket & food £14 (pre-book only) Pre-book at www.stowfilmlounge.com or on the door if not sold out. 07910 643987 The Persecuted: Folk/Americana Luna Lounge, 7 Church Lane, Leytonstone E11 1HG The Persecuted play an intoxicating blend of Americana/country and rock n roll, mixed in with an unmistakably, distinctively British sensibility. 8.3011.30pm. FREE. Luna Lounge 07950 899431 lunalounge@live.co.uk http://lunalounge.info/whats-on.html
Saturday 21 Events marked
HISTORY
Stow Kids Film Lounge presents Disney’s 101 Dalmatians (1961, Cert U) Orford House Social Club, 73 Orford Road E17 9QR When a litter of dalmatian puppies are abducted by the minions of Cruella De Vil, the parents must find them before she uses them for a diabolical fashion statement in this classic animated feature. Doors: 10.30am, Activity Session, Film 11am, Close 1pm. Tickets: £5.50 child, £11 child party package, £4 acc adult, under 2’s free Pre-book tickets: www.stowfilmlounge. com or on the door if not sold out. 07910 643987 Belter Luna Lounge, 7 Church Lane, Leytonstone E11 1HG Punk for grown-ups who like a dance. They’ve nicked the buzzsaw drive of The Buzzcocks, The Clash’s spunk, The Stranglers’ riffs and some of the best tunes Blondie never wrote. And their singer sounds like Jello Biafra pogo-ing on a Roxy Music-era Brian Ferry. 8.3011.30pm. FREE. Luna Lounge 07950 899431 lunalounge@live.co.uk http://lunalounge.info/whats-on.html A Taste of Rooms of our Own Harmony Hall, 10 Truro Rd E17 7BY Stalls, talks, creche, food, music, art, theatre… a taste of what a Womens Centre would give to Waltham Forest. 2-9pm. FREE but please book tickets and creche places in advance via www.eventbrite.co.uk roomso4own@gmail.com http://roomso4own.wordpress.com Nigel Burch & The Flea-Pit Orchestra The Warrant Officer, 318 Higham Hill Road E17 5RG Twisted skiffle & Cockney-Brechtian folk-punk cabaret from Burch, the banjulele-bashing bard and his musical misfits. They wowed the WO at Stowfest - definitely an act you will not want to miss. 9-11pm. FREE. events@the-wo.co.uk www.the-wo.co.uk
Sunday 22 Waltham Forest Cycling Campaign - Monthly Ride Meet at Walthamstow Central Library, High Street E17 7JN A leisurely ride suited to the wishes of participants, usually staying within 30 miles, sometimes considerably shorter. Back by 3pm and always have a snack stop somewhere. Meet at 10am for 10.15am start. FREE Robert@wfcycling.org.uk
MUSIC
SHOPPING
COMEDY/THEATRE
The Musical Aquarium The Warrant Officer Pub, 318 Higham Hill Rd E17 5RG Come and join Jerome and Lindsay who will be diving into the tank, and playing their own eclectic brand of music for your Sunday lunchtime listening pleasure! 1-4pm. FREE. Jerome Anderson 07931507760 jerome@jeromelanderson.com http://www.jeromelanderson.com/
Poets at the Museum Vestry House Museum, Vestry Road E17 9NH The Forest Poets return with an evening of poetry reflecting on the First World War and taking inspiration from Vestry House Museum’s current exhibition, Raids, Rationing and Riots. Refreshments provided, all welcome. 7-9pm. FREE. No need to book. 020 8496 4391 vhm.enquiries@walthamforest.gov.uk
Jazz & Sunday Roast The William Morris Bar, 807-811 Forest Road E17 4JD Enjoy live jazz with a line-up of changing talent. 1-3pm. FREE. To book a table for lunch please email info@thewilliammorris.co.uk or call 020 8527 1712
Last Of The Barstools / Lewis & Leigh What’s Cookin’, Leytonstone Ex-servicemens Club, 2 Harvey Road E11 3DB Last of the Barstools are a six piece indie/folk band who write character based songs, rich with harmonies and delicate instrumentation. 8.30-11pm. FREE with a collection. Stephen Ferguson 07904 210218 ramblinsteve@whatscookin.co.uk http://whatscookin.co.uk
BeBop Baby The Trades Hall, 17 Hoe Street, E17 4SB (entrance in Tower Hamlets Road) A daytime BeBop dance party for all the family in E17. Great music, cocktails, dancing, what’s not to love? Live music, face painting & more. Buggy parking, baby changing, friendly people. 1-4pm. £4 or earlybird family tickets online. Hannah, Mandy, Ben 07813 156140 bebopbabydance@gmail.com www.bebop-baby.co.uk Steve Tilston at Walthamstow Folk Ye Olde Rose & Crown, 53 Hoe Street E17 4SA A fabulous songwriter, wonderful singer and seriously underrated guitar player. A real cornerstone of the folk club scene who always manages to stay fresh and relevant. 7.30-10.30pm. £7, £5 (conc) 07746 612607 info@walthamstowfolk.co.uk www.walthamstowfolk.co.uk
Monday 23 Harrow Green Community Library Reading Club Meet at Violetta Cafe, 487 Leytonstone High Road, E11 4LJ A chat over tea or coffee about a text chosen by club members - a book, an excerpt from a novel, a poem or newspaper report. 8-11.30pm. FREE. Ros Kane 020 8555 5248 hgcl.groups@outlook.com harrowgreenlibrary.wordpress.com
Thursday 26 Grow Your Idea: Exhibition Opening The Mill, 7-11 Coppermill Lane E17 7HA Opening night opportunity for nibbles and Mill punch, talk to community competition winners past and present, as well as the Mill volunteers and staff who support them. 6-9pm. FREE. www.themill-coppermill.org.uk Wine Tasting The Nag’s Head, 9 Orford Road E17 9LP Tasting wines from around the world, with Sean Pines. 7-9pm. £12 seanpic@aol.com Walthamstow Floral Art Society Walthamstow Cricket, Tennis & Squash Club, 48a Greenway Avenue E17 3QN Flower club with visiting demonstrators, in-house workshops and social events. 7.30-9.45pm. £7, members £2.50. Ann Young 020 8531 8178 walthamstowfloralart.wordpress.com
Wednesday 25 The War Hospital: Stories from Whipps Cross St Johns Church Hall, Leytonstone High Street E11 1HH Details as Mon 16 except 1.15-2.45pm E17 Jazz presents Asaf Sirkis Trio Orford Road Social Club, Orford Road E17 Asaf Sirkis Trio performing with special guest flautist Gareth Lockrane explore the sounds of electric jazz. 8.3010.30pm. £10/£7 (conc). 07930 544 312 www.e17jazz.com/whatson/
kid friendly
FREE listings are available for events under £16, visit www.theelist.co.uk and select “List your event”. To advertise your business contact ads@theelist.co.uk 5
ART
Thursday 26 continued Highams Park Live The County Arms, 420 Hale End Road, Highams Park E4 9PB Live music, poetry and live literature. A platform for songwriters, poets and storytellers. Drop us a line if you’d like to perform. 7.30-11pm. FREE. Nigel Mear 07730 985615 info@highamsparklive.co.uk www.highamsparklive.co.uk My Fair Lady (1964, Cert U) Orford House Social Club, 73 Orford Road E17 9QR Significant Seams is curating a “Strong Women” film series at the Stow Film Lounge in conjunction with our Sew & Tell ESL programme. It kicks off with the classic Audrey Hepburn musical. Vintage dress is encouraged. 7.45-10.30pm. Tickets: £8.50/£6.50 (conc). Ticket & food £14 (pre-book only) stowfilmlounge@gmail.com
Friday 27 E17 Puppet Project Presents: In the Shadow of the War Walthamstow Central Library, High Street E17 7JN Join us for a workshop with a difference as we explore the stories of WW1. Create shadow puppets, watch an interactive history presentation, then create masterpieces with light as you project your own work! 4-6.30pm. FREE. To book your free ticket, visit www.wflibraries.eventbrite.com, call 020 8496 3000 or visit any Waltham Forest Library. www.walthamforest.gov.uk/libraries The Bevvy Of Blues Jam The Warrant Officer, 318 Higham Hill Road E17 5RG The monthly blues jam with house band The Bluetone Groovers and a host of amazingly talented jammers. 8-11pm. FREE. events@the-wo.co.uk www.the-wo.co.uk
Saturday 28 Family Day: Family Tableaux William Morris Gallery, Forest Road E17 4PP This month, enter the photo booth and make your own family tableaux inspired by Yinka Shonibare’s collaboration with the Gallery. For families of all ages. 1-4pm. FREE. www.wmgallery.org.uk/whats-on Dread Fury / Luke Gambling Luna Lounge, 7 Church Lane, Leytonstone E11 1HG Active since 2009, Dread Fury performs as a one-man band both in the studio and live. Experimental, ambient soul. 8.30-11.30pm. FREE. Luna Lounge 07950 899431 lunalounge@live.co.uk http://lunalounge.info/whats-on.html
BOOKS
CRAFTS
DANCE/FITNESS
FAMILY
FILM
Fork to Fork Seasonal Supper Club The Hornbeam Café, 458 Hoe Street E17 9AH Delicious, healthy & tasty food – locally sown, grown, picked & cooked. Expect a tasty main course, as well as scrumptious starters and delightful desserts. We cater for all special dietary requirements – please alert us to them when you book. 7.30-11pm. 3 courses for £15! www.hornbeam.org.uk Scam 69 Waltham Forest Corporation Sports and Social Club, Forest Road (just behind the Town Hall) E17 4JF Brilliant authentic Punk/New Wave tribute band, playing hits from 1977 to 1982. 7pm-midnight. £5, £7 on the door. Ray Spalding 020 8527 3944 www.wfsocialclub.org.uk The Cajun Dawgs / East Lonesome Drifters What’s Cookin’, Leytonstone Ex-servicemens Club, 2 Harvey Road E11 3DB A deep south gumbo of Cajun, Zydeco, Swamp Pop, Rockin’ Blues & Rockabilly authentically played on screaming accordion, twanging guitars, thumping bass and crazy drums. 8.30-11.30pm. FREE with a collection. Stephen Ferguson 07904 210218 ramblinsteve@whatscookin.co.uk http://whatscookin.co.uk The Higham Flyers The Warrant Officer, 318 Higham Hill Road E17 5RG The Flyers will be playing a mixture of covers and originals in their inimitable keyboard and harmony driven soul/ blues groove. 9-11pm. FREE. events@the-wo.co.uk www.the-wo.co.uk
Every week/Whole month Until 15 March All You Read is Love Pop-up 877 High Road Leytonstone E11 1HR ‘All You Read is Love’ is a pop-up bookshop, cafe and bar serving coffee, cocktails, cakes and savouries as well as stocking carefully selected literary fiction, graphic novels, poetry & illustrated children’s fiction. 10am10pm. Karen Bundgaard 07719102092 karen@allyoureadislove.com www.allyoureadislove.com Fridays Bakers Arms Book Group The Hornbeam Café, 458 Hoe Street E17 9AH We are an informal and friendly group (sometimes some of us haven’t even read the book!). Tea, coffee, wine available. New members welcome, just turn up. 7.30pm. www.hornbeam.org.uk Events marked
kid friendly
CHILDREN OF THE GREAT WAR FILM SCREENING Age Exchange and Vestry House Museum invite you to a screening of the film Children of the Great War. The film reveals the stories of London families and those who took part in the Great War; telling of their loves and losses and the effect upon their families. 11 February 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm FREE Vestry House Museum, Vestry Road E17 9NH www.walthamforest.gov.uk/vestry-house 0208 496 1469 vhm.enquiries@walthamforest.gov.uk
Saturdays Family Storytime The Epicentre, Harrow Green Community Library, 41 West Street, Leytonstone E11 4LJ For children 3-11 years old to enjoy stories with their parents and carers. Local storytellers, including Jane Grell will share the magic of storytelling and build confidence in reading aloud. Older children will be encouraged to read to younger ones from books in the library collection. 2-4pm. FREE. Ros 020 8555 5248 hgcl.groups@outlook.com https://harrowgreenlibrary.wordpress.com Until 15 February Tatiana Soroko Hoe Street Central, Hoe Street E17 4RT Contemporary flowers and gifts. Until 1 March Raids, Rationing and Riots: Waltham Forest and the Great War Vestry House Museum, Vestry Road E17 9NH Exhibition to mark the centenary of WWI, commemorating the impact of the war on the lives of people from Chingford, Walthamstow, Leyton and Leytonstone. Open Wed-Sun 10am5pm. FREE. No need to book. 020 8496 4391 vhm.enquiries@walthamforest.gov.uk
Thursdays Lloyd Park Volunteer Gardening Meet William Morris Garden (near Forest Road gate), Lloyd Park, Forest Road E17 4PP We meet every Thursday to help keep the new William Morris Garden looking lovely with Lloyd Park’s Head Gardener. 10am-1pm. FREE. 020 8496 3000 or email ellie.mortimer@walthamforest.gov.uk Until 7 June Yinka Shonibare MBE: The William Morris Family Album William Morris Gallery, Forest Road E17 4PP The Gallery’s first major commission: a Morris-inspired photographic exhibition by Turner Prize nominee Yinka Shonibare MBE. Weds-Sun 10am-5pm. FREE. www.wmgallery.org.uk/whats-on Until 1 March Colourful Language Hoe Street Central, Unit 3, Central Parade, Hoe Street E17 4RT An exhibition of affordable paintings by local artist Julie Caves. This pop-up show will be a chance to acquire a painting directly from the artist. TuesSun 11am-7pm. FREE. julie_caves@yahoo.co.uk 07951 676494 www.juliecaves.com
6 The E List makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information it publishes, but cannot be held responsible for any consequences arising from errors or omissions. Please confirm with the venue before setting out.
FOOD & DRINK
GARDENING
Until 7 February Fun Palace Retrospective! The Mill, 7-11 Coppermill Lane E17 7HA Your memories and drawings of Walthamstow plus photographs from the Fun Palace Weekend and a film of how we made the Mill Elephant. TuesThurs 10am-7pm. Fri-Sat 10am-6pm. Sun 11am-2pm. FREE. 020 85213211 info@themill-coppermill.org www.themill-coppermill.org 11-21 Feb Get Mapping with St James Big Local The Mill, 7-11 Coppermill Lane E17 7HA Have your say on how to spend £1m. All the ideas have been gathered from local people over the last 6 months and are now available for you to rank. Tues-Thurs 10am-7pm. Fri-Sat 10am6pm. Sun 11am-2pm. FREE. Neesha Badhan 07881 015873 stjamesbiglocal@gmail.com http://stjamesbiglocal.co.uk Until 11 April Grow Your Idea The Mill, 7-11 Coppermill Lane E17 7HA A new exhibition to showcase the extraordinary success of activities and groups hosted at The Mill, the Walthamstow community project which opened in 2011 to support ideas driven by local residents. Tues-Thurs 10am-7pm. Fri-Sat 10am-6pm. Sun 11am-2pm. FREE. www.themill-coppermill.org.uk Saturdays North Star Velo Meet at corner of Browning Road & Bushwood Road, Leytonstone E11 3AY Typical rides are 40-50 miles including a coffee stop. See website for more information. 8.30am-1.30pm. FREE. www.northstarvelo.com Sundays Quiz Night Walthamstow Cricket, Tennis & Squash Club, 48a Greenway Avenue E17 3QN A fun general knowledge and music quiz for all with cash and beer prizes and food in the interval. 8.3010.30pm. £1 each. Paul 07891 739454 p.harringtonmoore@btinternet.com Wednesdays Leyton Technical Quiz Night 265B High Road, Leyton E10 5QN £50 cash prize, bottle of wine for runners-up, spot prizes and cumulative bonus rollover prize too. 8pm. £2 each. 020 8558 4759 http://leytontechnical.com
Events marked
HISTORY
Wednesdays Club Mellow Youth Group ELOP Centre, 56-60 Grove Road E17 9BN A space for lesbian, gay, bisexual or trans young people aged 13-21yrs who want to meet up with others in a friendly, supportive environment away from the scene. 6-9pm. £1. 0208 509 3898 or youth@elop.org Thursdays Club Mellow LGBT Social Group ELOP Centre, 56-60 Grove Road E17 9BN A weekly afternoon social support space for lesbian, gay, bisexual or trans people who want to meet up with others in a friendly, supportive environment. 2.30-4.30pm. £2. 0208 509 3898 or info@elop.org Thursdays from 15 January Club Mellow Baby & Toddler Group ELOP Centre, 56-60 Grove Road E17 9BN A welcoming, inclusive drop in for lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans* parents and carers and their babies and toddlers offering opportunity to network and socialise with other LGBT families in a safe, friendly setting. 11am-1pm. £2.50, little ones FREE. 0208 509 3898 or info@elop.org Mondays Organiclea Jamming Sessions The Hornbeam Café, 458 Hoe Street E17 9AH Volunteers will gain skills in creating jams, preserves, chutneys, cordials, flavoured vinegars, oils and even some fancy kale chile using surplus produce from Organiclea. 2-5pm. FREE but spaces limited. bryonymiddleton@gmail.com Saturdays OrganicLea market stall The Hornbeam Café, 458 Hoe Street E17 9AH Organic and local sustainably grown fruit, vegetables, homemade bread, jams and preserves. Healthy Start vouchers can be used. 10am-3pm. www.organiclea.org.uk/we-sell-food/ our-market-stall/ Saturdays OrganicLea market stall with Transition Leytonstone Between St John’s Church & Matalan, High Road, Leytonstone E11 1HH As above. 10.30am-3pm. www.transitionleytonstone.org.uk Thursdays The Mill Voices – Sing for Pleasure & Health The Mill, 7-11 Coppermill Lane E17 7HA Non-auditioned adult singing group for anyone who wishes to enjoy the positive effects of singing. 7.30-9pm. £2, £1 (conc) Marina TheMillVoices@hotmail.com
MUSIC
SHOPPING
COMEDY/THEATRE
LareRstauuraantna e Spanish cuisin c ti n e th u a s u Delicio Walthamstow! in the heart of
a.co.uk 0 8520 1072 m www.laruan 4QP Tel: 02 17 E s, y 1pm to 7p ew yM pm : Sunda 11 21 Hatherle to m 6p y and Saturda Open Friday La Ruana... Buen apetito!
Sundays The Jazz Roast The Warrant Officer, 318 Higham Hill Road E17 5RG Every Sunday JB Jazz invite fellow jazzmeisters to sit in on their laid back vibe. The perfect accompaniment to The WO’s excellent Sunday roasts. 1-7pm. FREE. Roast optional, from £7. events@the-wo.co.uk www.the-wo.co.uk Sundays Karaoke Night Lord Raglan, 199 Shernhall Street E17 9HX Beat the winter blues and come and have a cheeky Sunday session. Prima Donnas will be laughed at, all talent welcome! You know it makes sense ;) 8-11.30pm. FREE. Archie or Maureen 020 8520 2145 www.facebook.com/lordraglane17 Mondays WO Community Choir The Warrant Officer, 318 Higham Hill Road E17 5RG Join our fast growing community choir. Absolutely no auditions. All abilities welcome. Inclusive, informal and fun. Call for more info or come along on the night. 7.30-9pm. £7 (or £6 in advance), first session free. Laura 07813686980 singattheWO@gmail.com Mondays until 30 March (except half-term, Mon 16 Feb) Waltham Forest Community Choir St Mary’s Church, Church Hill E17 9RJ A friendly choir with a wide-ranging repertoire, from Faure to Folk via Gospel, African and Pop Classics. Open to those living or working in Waltham Forest. New members welcome anytime. No audition required. 7.30-9.30pm. £5 (payable termly £50). Membership Secretary 07954 740745 members@singwithus.net www.singwithus.net
Tuesdays East Side Jazz Club Tommy Flynn’s, Upstairs at 692 High Road, Leytonstone E11 3AA Weekly modern jazz club featuring the UK’s best jazz musicians in a relaxed, friendly atmosphere with plenty of seating. The music room has its own bar with real ale. 8.30-11pm. £6 cash on the door only. First floor, stairs access only. Clive Fenner 02089898129 eastsidejazzclub@gmail.com http://eastsidejazzclub.blogspot.co.uk/
Classes/Courses Mondays E17 Swedish Bygga Bo Café, 18 Chingford Road, E17 4PJ Learn Swedish on these beginners/ intermediate courses. Relaxed and fun for adults. Classes at 2pm, 7.30pm or 8.45pm. £10 (£60 for six classes). Christian Karlsson 07958 471083 chris@e17swedish.com www.e17swedish.com Tuesdays English Conversation Group The Epicentre, Harrow Green Community Library, 41 West Street E11 4LJ Improve your English, boost your confidence, increase your vocabulary and become more fluent. There will be opportunities to cook together and to visit some interesting places. 10am12pm. FREE. Ros 020 8555 5248 hgcl.groups@outlook.com www.harrowgreenlibrary.wordpress.com Saturdays Waltham Forest Bilingual Group The Limes Community and Children’s Centre, 6 Somers Rd E17 6RX Workshop and drop-in advice and play session for parents raising their children bilingually. Discuss language choices and strategies, or just pop in for a coffee and a chat. 3.30-5.30pm. FREE. Claire Thomas 07770 860038 info@wfbilingual.org.uk www.wfbilingual.org.uk
kid friendly
FREE listings are available for events under £16, visit www.theelist.co.uk and select “List your event”. To advertise your business contact ads@theelist.co.uk 7
BOOKS
CRAFTS
DANCE/FITNESS DICK SMITH
5-STRING BANJO classes in E17
The new term begins January Register now!
07745 052 525
info.banjosmith@gmail.com Thursdays until 26 March Telling Tales Lounge: An Oral Storytelling Pop-up The Mill, 7-11 Coppermill Lane E17 7HA Are you retired? Would you like to share experiences and stories from your life to contribute towards a theatre performance and audio play? This is an informal opportunity to socialise and reminisce. 2-4pm. FREE coffee, tea & biscuits provided. sonalidb@gmail.com sonaliwrites.com Tuesdays Significant Seams, 131 Wood St E17 3LX 020 8521 4244 admin@significantseams.org.uk www.significantseams.org.uk Sew & Tell: ESL with Zelda (term time) Come along and learn English (and sew!) in a friendly environment. 10am-1pm. £3. Kids knitting club Join us for a great after-school activity. 4-5pm. £5. Wednesdays Significant Seams (as above) Stories and sticking Craft activity and story time for toddlers and their adults with Kaye. 10.30-11.30am. £3. Mending club Friendly group sharing the joy of making and making it up when it goes a lil’ wrong! 1-3pm. £3. Kids’ craft club Good citizenship and creative making at our community space on Wood St. 4.30-5.30pm. £5 Thursdays Significant Seams (as above) Supportive Sewing Circle A welcoming group who stitch & knit, socialise and make, brightening the week. We always have at least one community project on the go so anyone can join in, with or without a current project. 1-3pm. £3. Neighbourly Knit & Stitch A social group of those who like to make, we share (& show off!) what we are working on, and have a laugh. We always have community projects on offer too. 1-3pm. £3 Events marked
Sundays The Drawing Room Ricco’s Cafe, 64 High Street E17 7LD Develop your observation and drawing skills. These weekly meetings consist of themed lessons to explore a range of different ideas and techniques. 10am-12pm. £12.50. Marc Summersgill 07738114358 marc@marcsummersgillpaintings.co.uk Mondays Life drawing The Nag’s Head, 9 Orford Road E17 9LP Come and join this lovely life drawing class. 7.30-10pm. £8.50. walthamstowlifedrawing@googlemail. com Thursdays until 19 February Kids Art Club The Mill, 7-11 Coppermill Lane E17 7HA 6 sessions of fantastical storytelling and related art making. For 2-11 year olds. 3.30-5pm. £1. 020 85213211 info@themill-coppermill.org www.themill-coppermill.org Alternate Sundays, 1 & 15 February Life drawing Hornbeam Centre, 458 Hoe Street E17 9AH Create original art in front of a life model. All materials provided. Advance booking essential. 3-5pm. jonathan.ellis@mac.com or text 07980 713819 Mondays Ukulele Classes for Beginners Quaker Meeting House, 1a Jewel Road E17 4QU Learn the ukulele or improve your skills with an experienced, professional musician in a fun and relaxed environment. Instruments not provided! 8.30-9.30pm. £10. 20%discount when booked in advance. Violaine Bailleul 07745 052525 info.banjosmith@gmail.com www.banjosmith.co.uk
Mondays until 9 February Five String Banjo Classes Quaker Meeting House, 1a Jewel Road E17 4QU Dick Smith teaches 5-String Banjo classes in 3 finger bluegrass style picking for adults. 6.30-7.30pm. £12.50. 20%discount when booked in advance. Violaine Bailleul 07745 052525 info.banjosmith@gmail.com www.banjosmith.co.uk Wednesdays until 11 February Banjo Classes for Beginners Quaker Meeting House, 1a Jewel Road E17 4QU Recruiting now, Dick Smith teaches five-string Banjo classes in three finger bluegrass style picking. Start from scratch or brush up your banjo skills in a relaxed and fun environment. 1 hour classes at 6.30pm and 7.30pm. £12.50. 20%discount when booked in advance. Violaine Bailleul 07745 052525 info.banjosmith@gmail.com www.banjosmith.co.uk Fridays Walthamstow Children’s Choir The Peterhouse Centre, 122 Forest Rise E17 3PW A new choir for ages 5–11. Children learn to sing together and about vocal development and musicianship. But most importantly they have fun! 4-4.45pm. £3, £5 for two siblings. Charlie Furniss 07795 025635 e17childrenschoir@gmail.com Saturdays E17 Guitar Clubs Hornbeam Centre, 458 Hoe Street E17 9AH Fun guitar lessons for adults and children of all abilities. Juniors: ages 7 and upwards. Different levels & times. Five 30min lessons £44. Adults: Multi-skill groups. Beginners welcome. From 12 noon. Five 30min lessons £44, or drop-in £10. Christian Karlsson 07958 471083 chris@stunningmusic.com www.e17guitar.com
FAMILY
UKULELE Classes for adults in E17
ART
FILM The n term b ew eg Januar ins Registe y r now!
07745 052 525
info.banjosmith@gmail.com
Thursdays Tiny Tempo Hornbeam Centre, 458 Hoe Street E17 9AH Fun introduction to musical conceptsusing singing, instrument playing, listening and dancing! With guitars, ukuleles, and a lot of energy, fun is had by all. 9.30-10.30 for under 18 months, 10.30-11.30 for 18 months and older. £5 for one child, £8 for two. www.hornbeam.org.uk Thursdays from mid-February Natural Voices Choir Sessions: Ladies Choir Orford Road E17 9NJ A six week choir course for women only at a private address, please enquire for details. 8-9.30pm. £10 or £48 for 6. Lizzy 07950 204338 lizzyrenihan@hotmail.com www.naturalvoices.co.uk Thursdays Community Choir for Mums, Dads & Childminders St Michael & All Angels Church Hall, Northcote Road E17 6PQ Easy to learn, powerful, uplifting harmonies and songs from all around the world. Bring your baby & toddler along and a will to sing. No experience necessary. 10-11am. £6. Michaela east17singers@gmail.com Saturdays B.I.G. Gospel Choir All Saints Church, Church Avenue, Highams Park E4 9QD Join this friendly and dynamic choir who were recent finalists of Songs of Praise Gospel Choir of the Year 2014. Bring water to drink. 4.30-6pm. £5 plus annual membership. Lisa Herbert 07757924648 leece@ntlworld.com http://bigchoir.co.uk
kid friendly
8 The E List makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information it publishes, but cannot be held responsible for any consequences arising from errors or omissions. Please confirm with the venue before setting out.
FOOD & DRINK
GARDENING
HISTORY
Mondays & Thursdays (term time) Bongalong: Music, Movement & Make Believe St Gabriel’s Family Centre, Havant Road E17 3JF Fun music sessions using singing, dancing, let’s pretend and wonderful percussion instruments. Sessions for Under 5s and their carers at 10am, 11am, additional session on Mondays at 1.30pm. Sessions for Under 1s at 1.30pm and 2.30pm on Thursdays. £5.25. Booking essential. fiona.bongalong@gmail.com 07811460282 www.bongalong.co.uk
Fridays until 27 March (term-time) Acting Bugs The Peterhouse Centre, 122 Forest Rise E17 3PW Drama and storytelling classes for children: ACTING BUGS for children aged 3 to 4. DIDDY BUGS for the under 3s stimulates the senses through story based sessions. 9.50-11.30am. First class FREE. £7 per session paid half termly, £6.50 per session when paid termly. 50% discount for siblings. Samantha 07903 459497 info@actingbugs.co.uk www.actingbugs.co.uk
Tuesdays and Thursdays Magic Box: Interactive storytelling sessions Mothers Hub, 133 Wood Street, E17 3LX Drop-in for 2ish- to 5-year olds. What’s inside the Magic Box today? Join a host of different characters, from Dahlia the Dinosaur to Captain Wonkynose, as they lead you on exciting and interactive storytelling adventures! Coffee and cake included. Tues 4-5pm, Thurs 10-11am. £4 or £6 for 2 kids Lottie at magicboxe17@gmail.com
Tuesdays until 31 March Family ESL with Significant Seams Walthamstow Central Library, High Street E17 7JN Toddlers and parents for whom English is not a first language are invited to a donation-based story and craft session that builds English comprehension and speaking skills for both. 11.30am12.30pm. £1 or suggested £10 contribution for a ten week series. Regulars will receive a free book. 0208 521 4244 admin@significantseams.org.uk www.significantseams.org.uk
Wednesdays (term-time only) Brownies in Wood Street Peterhouse Community Centre, 122 Forest Rise E17 3PW Brownies is for girls aged 7-10. We meet once a week and do lots of fun activities and games. We also have a variety of trips and weekends away. Please email/call to express interest and find out more. 6.30-8pm. £2. Lottie 07740 985479 22ndwalthamstow@gmail.com www.girlguiding.org.uk Saturdays French Classes The Salvation Army, 434 Forest Rd E17 4PY Come and sing with us in French! Saturday French Club for children aged 4+. Two 1 hour drop-off classes: 10am for non-French speakers, 11am for French speakers. 10am-12pm. £8. Free trial. 20% off for siblings. Sofia 07574044184 sofia.bouceddour@yahoo.fr http://laccent.weebly.com
Saturdays Bongalong: Early Risers St Mary’s Welcome Centre, 8 Church End E17 9RJ Up early on a Saturday morning? Come along to Early Risers-fun, creative music sessions for children Under 5 and their carers; singing, dancing, fab instruments, snacks and a story. Dropin, term-time only. 8.30-9.15am. £6. £10 for 2 children, older siblings £3. fiona.bongalong@gmail.com 07811 460282 www.bongalong.co.uk Mondays Jacky’s Fitsteps The Asian Centre, 18a Orford Road E17 9LN Dance fitness to ballroom and latin music. No partner needed. 7.308.30pm. £6 per class, or £20 for 4 classes paid in advance. Jacky Logan 07715 421 349 jacjuke@aol.com www.jackysjukebox.co.uk
MUSIC
SHOPPING
Mondays Developmental Baby Massage Mothers Hub, 133 Wood St E17 3LX Therapeutic Play: Come along and have fun with your baby whilst learning techniques to help them relax and grow. Massage has numerous physical and emotional benefits for babies. 10.30am-12pm. £8 (£40 for 5 week course). Concessions available. Alex Brandon 07528 385986 alexjanebrandon@gmail.com Fridays Waltham Forest Green Gym Meet outside The Stables in Lloyd Park Want to improve your health and well-being but not too keen on running machines or lycra? Experienced leaders guide you through a range of practical projects giving you the opportunity to tackle physical jobs in the outdoors improving your strength and stamina, boosting your practical skills and confidence and benefiting your local green spaces. FREE. 11am-2pm Gareth 020 8533 8022 gg-waltham-forest@tcv.org.uk Saturdays Advanced Vinyasa Yoga Leyton Yoga, 691 High Road Leyton, First Floor (above USSR) E10 6RA A creative, dynamic yoga class to challenge and inspire experienced yoga practitioners. All classes are drop in; no need to pre-book. 9-10am. £10 or £90 for 10. leytonyoga@gmail.com www.leytonyoga.com Saturdays Iyengar Yoga Class St Andrew’s Church, St Andrew’s Road E17 6AR The practice of Iyengar yoga is suitable for all regardless of age and flexibility. It helps gain good health, improve posture, relieve tension, increase stamina and flexibility.This is a general class. Beginners are welcome. 9-10am. £7.50. Nicholette 07962 424 460 nicholetteyoga@gmail.com www.nicholetteyoga.com
COMEDY/THEATRE
Saturdays Pregnancy Yoga United Reformed Church, 58 Orford Road E17 9QL A drop in class for second and third trimester. Learn how to relax the body and breathing for birth. Really friendly classes followed by tea and cake with other mums to be! 9-10am. £8. Sarah Rush 07815120792 enquiries@yoyoga.co.uk www.yoyoga.co.uk Saturdays Donation Yoga For All Levels United Reformed Church, 58 Orford Road E17 9QL A friendly Saturday morning class for all levels. Yoga to boost immunity, strengthen the body, release deep tension and promote relaxation. All equipment provided. 10.30-11.45am. Donation, pay what you can afford. Sarah Rush 07815120792 enquiries@yoyoga.co.uk www.yoyoga.co.uk Mondays Clare’s Dance Class United Reformed Church Hall, 58 Orford Road E17 9QL A fun dance class for ladies in the Stow! Learn different dance styles & iconic routines from musicals & pop videos such as Thriller! Beginners welcome. 8.30-9.45pm. £8 drop-in/£6 term rate. Clare Farow 07939 125014 clarefarrow2@gmail.com Mondays E17 Kids Yoga (2-6yrs) Bhakti Yoga Centre, 631 Forest Road, E17 4NE A fun accessible class, teaching kids balance, confidence, coordination, focus, stillness and body/breath awareness in a non-competitive, encouraging, kind environment. Yoga Alliance registered & certified RYTC. Ages 2-3yrs: 1.50-2.30pm Ages 4-6yrs: 4.30-5.05pm £5 per class or £4 for 6. Nikki Willemen 07833438943 anikwillemen@gmail.com www.nikkiyoga.london Events marked
kid friendly
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Mondays & Thursdays Yoga for Healthy Backs Back 2 Balance, 609 Forest Road E17 4PP A smaller class for closer individual attention. Gentle exercises to ease the neck, shoulders and back. Mondays 7-8pm or Thursdays 11.30am12.30pm. £9 or £48 for 6 sessions. Booking essential. Vanessa 07919 595665 yoganessy@gmail.com www.yoganess.org Mondays Yogi J Yoga St Michael & All Angels Church Hall, Northcote Road E17 6PQ Release physical tension and mental stress. Bring a mat or email James to buy one. 7-8pm. £9 or 6 classes for £45 jjcassidy123@aol.com www.facebook.com/theyogij Tuesdays BollyFusion Dance Workout The Welcome Centre, St Mary’s, Church Path (off Vestry Road) E17 9RJ . Accessible, upbeat and exciting Bollywood class influenced by street dance and jazzy moves. All welcome, regardless of experience. Zumba-style warm up, learn a fun routine, yogastyle cool down. Come and join in the BollyFusion fun! Over 18s. 7.45-8.30pm. First class FREE when joining, then £7 when booked in advance, £6 members. Vanessa 07958 523431 info@khyalarts.org.uk Tues (Girls) & Weds (Mixed) Waltham Forest Flames Basketball Pastures Youth Centre, 15 Davies Lane E11 3DR A fun, basketball session for mixed ability. Fun drills and games that will lead to an improvement in both ability and character. Come along and try it out! 4-6pm. £3. Tuesdays - for under 18 girls only Wednesdays - for under 18 boys and girls of any ability. Michael 07875 018011 michael.gainsborough-adam@ accesssport.co.uk http://jmywehner.wix.com/everbetter
Tuesdays Estilo Y Sabor Latin Dance Chingford Rugby Club, Lea Valley Playing Fields, Waltham Way, E4 8AQ Kizomba at 7:30pm, Bachata at 8:00pm, Salsa at 8:45pm, club from 9:30pm. Beginners, improvers and intermediate/advanced. 7.30-11pm. £7, £10 on last Tuesday Cuban club night. Andreas 07804 778373 Tuesdays Learn Belly Dancing The Asian Centre, 18a Orford Road E17 9LN Enjoy belly dancing to stay in shape and express your own personal creativity. For all ages. 7-8pm. £5. Sarah 07735 345635 Wednesdays Golden yoga class for the over 60s Winchester Road Methodist Church, Winchester Road E4 9JP A yoga class to increase mobility, to keep the strength and flexibility you already have, to meet fellow over 60s and laugh a lot! Booking essential. Please bring your own yoga mat. 5.45-7pm. £5 per class, first class free. Laura 07970 493521 e18yoga@virginmedia.com www.e18yoga.co.uk Wednesdays Pilates at Mothers Hub Mothers Hub, 133 Wood Street, E17 3LX Open to all, this class is designed to work your core muscles, build heat, stretch and then a deep relaxation at the end to help you sleep better! . 7-8pm. £11, or £45 for 5 classes. Laura 07817604846 laurahogg@live.com
For lots more dance and fitness classes visit www.theelist.co.uk
The Anchor and Hope a poem by Andy Williams of Forest Poets It stands in isolation, gaunt and unshaven, world-weary, bleary eyed, overlooking the canal. Les stands behind the bar as immovable as a stuck-down bar stool. Forty years’ active service rewarded with an OBE and a framed photograph of her Majesty. Irish Margaret oozes cold charm dispensing the beer with frosty, firm tugs on the pump. Teetering on the edge people busily puff skinny roll-ups. Dodging the darts on the way to the toilet door (which only opens if you charge it like a prop) you wade through the pack of dogs furtively eying each other. Hendrix the cross-breed snarls like his namesake’s dirty guitar. Don arrives on his butcher’s bike, Errol Brown’s long lost brother. As bald as the truth, he has a tuft of hair on the nape of his neck shaped like Tasmania. His faded purple suit has seen better days like all of us in the pub, yet represents a quiet dignity. A London Pride. Andy says of his poem “I wrote The Anchor and Hope as part of a series of poems based on the theme of Walthamstow Marshes. I regularly walk and cycle in the area and often used to visit the pub for some rest and recuperation! It seemed that all of life lay within. I used the setting and characters in the pub as the starting point for the poem.” Find Forest Poets on Facebook and Twitter @ForestPoets
THURSDAY EVENING PILATES MAT CLASSES in Leyton 7pm - 8pm General level – all welcome
Authentic Pilates taught by a highly qualified tutor with 14 years’ experience £10 drop-in. Limited spaces Leyton Parish Church Hall (St Mary’s) Lindley Road E10 5PY alison.bray@gmail.com abpilateslondon
www.abpilates.co.uk ABPilatesleyton
10 The E List makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information it publishes, but cannot be held responsible for any consequences arising from errors or omissions. Please confirm with the venue before setting out.
Yinka Shonibare MBE, ‘The William Morris Family Album’, 2015 © Copyright the artist. Courtesy the artist, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London and The Church of England Record Centre. Commissioned by William Morris Gallery
Yinka Shonibare MBE The William Morris Family Album This month showcases the William Morris Gallery’s first major commission: a Morrisinspired photographic exhibition by Turner Prize nominee Yinka Shonibare MBE The William Morris Family Album sees the British Nigerian artist work with Waltham Forest residents to recreate photographs of Morris’s family from the Gallery’s collection. Some of the sitters wear Victorian costume, refashioned from “African” batik fabric created especially for the project. The work encourages viewers to reflect on Morris’s political views by connecting his socialist ideals with the history of Empire. Morris is a natural subject for Shonibare, whose interest in the Victorian Age, imperialism and the global textile trade has informed much of his work. Inspired by his visits to the Gallery, Shonibare worked with curators to explore Morris’s ideas and the wider social context of Waltham Forest. The free exhibition will be accompanied by an extensive education and events programme.
7 February to 7 June 2015 Wednesday to Sunday, 10am-5pm
William Morris Gallery, Lloyd Park, Forest Road, Walthamstow E17 4PP 020 8496 4390 www.wmgallery.org.uk 11
People often say one of the best things about living in Waltham Forest is their neighbours. They claim that unlike other parts of London or even beyond, the people on their street seem genuinely friendly and happy to look out for each other. Being friendly brings an added bonus in that once you do start talking, you sometimes discover the most extraordinary stories emerging from seemingly ordinary people. In this new occasional series the E List will share some of these Hidden Lives.
Hidden Lives Fred Boorer - Self Taught Working Class Artist Jonathan Elliott’s much loved neighbour, Fred was not exactly all he appeared. Jonathan tells his quiet but incredible story. A few days after his funeral, Fred’s family told me that they’d found £11,000 in cash hidden behind his old Bakelite radio. They were just trying to figure out how this extremely frugal pensioner and former bookbinder had managed to save such a sum, when they found his savings book. It showed a balance of £250,000. In death, as in life, Fred was full of surprises. On 23 February 2001 I moved into the flat I live in now with a friend, it was my first home and like all new residents, I was half curious half nervous about what my neighbours would be like. As we unpacked, I heard jazz from the flat below. It was old jazz - Louis Armstrong, it might have been Fats Waller or Jelly Roll Morton, Bix Beiderbecke. Someone was whistling to it. The sound proofing between the two flats was non-existent (and remains so - I can sometimes make out actual words spoken by my current neighbours, who are fortunately very good friends). I peered out onto the back garden. In my downstairs neighbour’s yard there was a shed, painted with so many coats of green, its wooden planks were indistinguishable from each other. The doorbell rang and an immaculately dressed elderly man in thick specs introduced himself. He was proffering a melon.
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‘The name’s Fred’ he said. ‘Got this at the market, two for the price of one’. And so I met Fred Boorer, a man who would become a good friend and a kind neighbour for the next two and a half years. He was born in 1920 in the next street and the family moved into the flat below mine when he was 10 years old. He was the only child of a father who was a docker, and a mother who started to lose her sight in middle age. The three of them lived in a flat that had one bedroom, an outside loo and no bathroom. It was standard practice then to wash and do the laundry at the public baths in Bakers Arms - now long gone - once a week. For ablutions in the week, a bucket in the yard would have to do and Fred kept to this regime all his life. When the baths closed down, Les - a friend since childhood who lived opposite, offered Fred the use of his bathroom once a week. Fred never married, fought for his country in North Africa, and then took early retirement from his bookbinding job to care for his ailing mother. And during the 50s and 60s, he started a life-long love affair with the arts. He was passionate - and knowledgeable - about opera, Russian ballet, surrealist painting, jazz and photography. His living room was packed with newspaper cuttings, books piled to the ceiling, paintings and wacky, beatnik 60s furniture and lighting. The whole place
was completely unmodernised. It still had roundpin plugs, electric cables sheathed in fabric, wallpaper from the 1950s and no central heating. Fred also developed his own artistic output and compensated for his lack of formal training in technique by teaching himself photomontage. He made a few hand drawn copies of surrealist masterpieces and made a series of striking collages but he found his medium in photomontage and produced about 40 works - often featuring himself against surreal and abstract backdrops, with an ironic or witty caption. In one, Fred has superimposed himself over the image of a knight in shining armour, a swooning princess declares “Thanks Fred, My Hero!”. In another he is dancing with a 1920s flapper. A crowd of Freds smiles from the swirls of William Morris wallpaper, a Fred stares out from a reproduction of a Joan Miro, beneath is the legend in capitals : ‘DADA - CONSTRUCTIVISM’. Often he is simply posing at home with his ballet and surrealism books, or standing in front of Sadler’s Wells in trademark beret, jazzman’s cap or the rather formal fedora. He probably didn’t think of himself as an
artist manque, because the photomontages never pretended to be anything other than fun things he liked doing. He never exhibited or tried to sell them or called himself an artist. But they are original, sometimes wonderfully funny and sometimes bizarre. He was - and happily portrayed himself as - a self-taught working class intellectual and man of the arts, someone who had seized high culture from the bourgeoisie and made it his own. In the decades after the war, Walthamstow had a flourishing amateur photography scene as well as a handful of music venues that played live jazz - Fred was one of a gang of local friends that enjoyed photography trips together and toured the jazz clubs at weekends. He was also a very active member of the printers and bookbinders union SOGAT and may well have benefited from the expansion of workers’ education after
the war. He wrote numerous articles for the SOGAT journal and was a committed socialist. Just a few days after my arrival, various deliveries arrived, one, a chest of drawers, when I was out. Fred took it in, and paid for it. I later found out that in the street, he was known for his great generosity and at the age of 83 would take his obligation to ‘visit the elderly’ very seriously, even if they were considerably younger than he was. In the months that followed, few days would pass that we didn’t exchange a greeting, and few weeks passed without an earnest discussion on some topic or other - the causes of the First World War, the state of modern jazz, surrealism and, frequently, the Tories - a favourite target. On 5 October 2003, Fred died suddenly from a heart attack, until then seemingly in excellent health. His funeral was a grand East End affair. An undertaker in a top hat and tails walked in front of the hearse as it proceeded down our street, families stood outside their houses as a mark of respect. The chapel at the crematorium was packed, as was the memorial service. His family gave me his books and a lot of his photomontages. When eventually they found a will, it instructed that all his money was to be left to Moorfields Eye Hospital, a tribute to his blind mother. The hospital bought a state of the art scanner for the children’s unit with the money and erected a plaque to commemorate his generosity.
Now and then, when I look out of the window onto our two gardens and think I can hear Bix Beiderbecke playing downstairs and someone whistling along to it, it’s nice to imagine that Fred’s spirit might still linger. When we exhibited his work in the Art Trail last year, we had over a hundred visitors. He would probably have been a bit embarrassed at the attention, but I hope a little proud as well. Jonathan Elliott is a documentary film maker and journalist www.elliottmedia.net
If you think you have a neighbour with an extraordinary story and who is happy for it to be told, please email editor@theelist.co.uk
E List Hidden Lives is kindly sponsored by the Mall Walthamstow
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Beyond Clueless Brave the high school corridor, find your clique, have a makeover, become prom queen, lose your virginity – film essay Beyond Clueless unveils the teen-movie genre. Amy Wevill finds out more from Co-producer and Walthamstow resident Catherine Bray.
Constructed purely out of clips from over 200 films, Beyond Clueless suspends the audience within a teen movie bubble. It is a teen movie about teen movies with a familiar plot trajectory from ‘fitting in’ to ‘losing yourself’. Fairuza Balk, star of cult film The Craft, narrates throughout. Documentary conventions are cast aside. Co-producer Catherine explains that there are no talking heads, no mention of the directors or the production process associated with the featured films, and the protagonists are referred to only by their character names so as not to “break the spell” or burst the teen movie bubble. The team were so keen on securing the perfectly fitting drawl of Fairuza Balk, that after their initial approaches were ignored by her agent, they decided instead to try the complaints form for her candle making business. She soon agreed. Beer Pong The idea for the film came about following a series of teen movies at the Hackney Picturehouse, curated by director Charlie Lyne who runs the Ultra Culture film blog. He realised that an exploration of the genre was lacking and chose to focus on the period between Clueless (1995) and Mean Girls (2004), wherein hundreds of these movies were made. In January 2013, following a successful Kickstarter campaign, production began. The small team embarked on a laborious editing process, working in Charlie’s bedroom. The original plan for the completed film was to screen it to the backers in some rented room, but fast forward to this month and the film has already been lauded at various documentary film festivals from SXSW (‘South By South West’) in Austin, Texas, to the Sheffield Doc/ Fest. It was recently launched in cinemas across the UK and will soon be released in Canada, France and Germany. Catherine is keen to express her thanks to the backers and with a zero marketing budget, the team have been keen to give a little extra to those who come along to their screenings such as parties with beer pong or a prom photo booth. Messages Within The analysis in the film forces the viewer to reconsider films that they perhaps took at face value as teenagers. Comparisons have been made to Adam Curtis’s documentaries. Catherine likens the way the scenes are explained to David Attenborough describing the behaviour of animals. Conservative messages are abundant in these films: women adapt themselves to fit into the world of their crush; homosexual tendencies are ridiculed and individuality is supressed.
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Teenagers are, of course, susceptible to influence and teen movies can affect the way that people view their pubescent years. Catherine refers to a feedback loop between viewing these films and judging one’s own life by their standards. Beyond Clueless revels in the more unusual films of this genre and strays into the downright weird. In the film, Idle Hands (1999), for example, the main character’s right hand takes on a personality of its own with a drive for sex and violence, and once the character chops it off, the miscreant hand causes havoc. Charlie Lyne reads this as a metaphor for the teenage sex drive taking over the personality of the boy; a view which sounds pretty plausible knowing the poster tagline was “The touching story of a boy and his right hand”.
Though serious messages underpin the film, Beyond Clueless retains much of the fun found in the original teen movies. The original soundtrack by Summer Camp ensures continuity and gives the film a musicvideo-like feel. The editing process was truly integrated with the music making; the score and visuals woven together. Combined with the title design from Hattie Stewart, the whole film retains a pop feel. Stow Film Lounge Catherine is really excited that the film is due to be screened at the Stow Film Lounge as it seems like the ultimate homecoming following screenings in Austin, Toronto and Hollywood. Since moving to Walthamstow just over a year ago, she has relished its creative community and taken advantage of the “really nice atmosphere” of the Stow Film Lounge, enthusing about the ticket and pizza combination offers.
Catherine explains that she is really excited that the film will be screened at the Stow Film Lounge as it seems like the ultimate homecoming following screenings in Austin, Toronto and Hollywood.
See a special Screening of the film Beyond Clueless + Q&A with Catherine Bray (Co-producer) and Charlie Lyne (Director) 6 February 2015 Stow Film Lounge Orford House Social Club, 73 Orford Road, E17 9QR Doors 7.45pm, Film 8.30pm, late bar & close 12am. Tickets: £8.50/£6.50 (conc), ticket & food from £14 (pre-book only). Pre-book at www.stowfilmlounge. com or available on the door if not sold out. Tel: 07910 643987 Beyond Clueless is in UK cinemas from 23 January 2015 and will be available on DVD and on demand through Amazon and iTunes from 10 March.
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Chants for socialists Walthamstow based singer/songwriter Darren Hayman returns this month with his 15th album. Darren presents his own 21st century interpretations of a set of protest songs penned by William Morris, he’d first discovered during a visit to the William Morris Gallery, Illustrations and self-portrait by Darren. Darren Hayman is a thoughtful, concise and detailed songwriter. He eschews the big, the bright and the loud for the small, twisted and lost. For 15 years, and over 14 albums, Hayman has taken a singular and erratic route through England’s tired and heartbroken underbelly. He’s now back with a powerful new collection of songs based based on William Morris’s Chants for Socialists. Darren talks about how the album came about and the unusual recording process. “In 2012, I found a photocopied leaflet in the William Morris Gallery, in Walthamstow, called ‘Chants for Socialists’. It struck me as a bold and divisive title. Not one you would be likely to find on a record or CD today. 16
There are very few of my contemporaries that sing political songs and I understand why. Today’s politics can be very nuanced and personal. The way we discuss today’s problems can be hard to reduce to a song or short poem. Political songs can be gauche and hectoring. I struggle myself, and can only really claim to have written a handful of overtly political songs in my career. William Morris wrote these lyrics in the late 19th century; they were to be sung to the popular tunes of the times. In only two cases did he specify a particular melody. I saw these as ‘emergency’ protest songs, something to draw on in times of strife. I think we are in troubled times. I regard these as useful lyrics.
Morris grouped these songs under a banner of socialism and I class myself as a socialist, but these songs, to me, are more about simple kindness and hope. I acknowledge the naivety and rhetoric in these words. They offer few practical solutions for today, but I love their simplicity. They make me feel young again. They remind of the hope I had in
the Red Wedge movement, and how politicised I was around the 1984 miner’s strike. Adapting the lyrics was not easy. In places I have edited hard and tried to contemporise the syntax. Elsewhere, I have been more faithful to Morris’s elliptical and florid prose. Similarly with the music, I have tried to build a bridge between the 19th and
21st centuries. I have dressed the songs with a simple, urban folk sound. Warm, fuzzy guitar distortion sits alongside broken pianos and dented brass. I offer these songs as political, historical curiosities and as something to comfort ageing lefties like myself. They are uplifting, songs to be sung in communities. A communal approach was taken in the recording of this album. The group vocals were recorded at two of Morris’s former homes: the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow and Kelmscott House in Hammersmith. Singers were invited indiscriminately from the local area. Morris’s own ‘Kelmscott’ letterpress was used to hand print the limited vinyl edition of the record, and I also travelled to another of Morris’s homes, Kelmscott Manor, to play and record his piano.
The album is due for release on wiaiwya on 2 February and will be available in a number of formats. There is a CD version and hand letter-pressed vinyl edition as well as a deluxe version with an extra ‘dub’ version of the album. Most importantly to us, however, the digital version will be free or ‘pay what you feel’; the idea being that people should only contribute that which is within their means. Hopefully this is
a just means of exchange to match my wildly naïve, utopian dreams.”
Learn more about Darren Hayman at: www.hefnet.com
You can track the album’s progress via this blog: http:// chantsforsocialists.blogspot.co.uk
There are very few of my contemporaries that sing political songs and I understand why. Today’s politics can be very nuanced and personal.
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Grow your idea! A new exhibition opening this month will showcase the extraordinary success of activities and groups hosted at The Mill, the Walthamstow community project which opened in 2011 to support ideas driven by local residents. When The Mill opened on Coppermill Lane three and a half years ago, we had a vision of a new kind of community centre. One that provided not just space and facilities, but also support for local people to get their own ideas off the ground, and make things happen. We - the small group of volunteers who first registered the charity - realised that we had to make a choice between providing traditional services for local people to consume, or channelling our energies instead to supporting the passion and potential of local people, and letting them lead the way in deciding what activities and groups would take place in the building. As you may know, we chose the latter - and have spent the last three years honing our approach and widening our package of support for a range of local ideas. So far we have run four community competitions, inviting our neighbours to apply with their great ideas to The Mill for a change to receive some room hire, a bit of spending money, and a lot of one-to-one support with which to get their projects off the ground. Over the years we have added different kinds of support according to need, including mentoring, help with planning, budgeting advice, and co-promotion - all provided by our army of dedicated community volunteers. 18
To make all this happen, we have brought in funding from outside the borough – from Nesta, Comic Relief, the People’s Health Trust – and from local supporters, including Waltham Forest Council and our loyal Friends’ Scheme members. What these funders have in common is a shared belief that local people are best placed to enact change and find solutions – and a willingness to take a gamble on communities and their ideas. We hope that new funders will continue to support our model, and are actively seeking new relationships to carry on our work. The point of the competitions has been to harness the extraordinary variety of local talents, and to support the passion for sharing that has impressed us from the start. So far we’ve helped more than 50 new activities and groups, including computing for older people, drama for children, a carers’ craft club, sewing, ESOL, homework clubs, herbalism, gardening and poetry. Local people have shared their knowledge and skills, teaching their neighbours to sew, draw, sing, act, perform circus acts, use Excel, and much more. A new exhibition opening at The Mill later this month will reflect on the success of the last three years, and showcase the rich variety of the projects we have supported. Along
with the exhibition there will be opportunities for new people to learn about The Mill’s way of working, to tap into the expertise and knowledge of our volunteers, and to take away advice for kick-starting your own ambitions. We hope to see many new faces there!
Grow Your Idea exhibition 26 February - 11 April 2015 Thursday 26 Feb, 6-9pm Exhibition opening: come for nibbles and Mill punch, talk to competition winners past and present, as well as the Mill volunteers and staff who support them. Thursday 19 March, 7:30-9pm: How to grow your idea. A presentation and Q&A on the Mill Model of community development. Come to learn how to grow your idea, ask questions and get advice. The Mill 7-11 Coppermill Lane, Walthamstow, E17 7HA T: 02085213211 www.themill-coppermill.org twitter.com/TheMillE17
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Growing Walthamstow’s community beer If you like beer and have a small, sunny spot in your garden then you might be interested in signing up to Walthamstow Beer. The community hop growing project invites the people of Walthamstow to plant a dwarf hop in their gardens or allotments in mid-March. Last year almost 100 hops were planted across Walthamstow. The summer is spent protecting them from pests and keeping them well watered. Green fingers are not a prerequisite, it’s easy enough to learn along the way and you’ll get lots of support and growing advice. The hops are harvested at the end of the summer and East London Brewery, based on Lea Bridge Road, uses them to brew a delicious green hopped beer.
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Hop growers get together at the Ye Olde Rose & Crown for a launch party when the beer is ready in October. Much fun is had by all as everyone gets to sample their handiwork, share growing tips with fellow members and leaves with a few bottles to drink at home. The rest of the beer is sold in Walthamstow pubs to pay for the brewer’s time. It costs £20 to join, which gets you a hop rhizome, growing instructions and your share of the beer once it’s brewed. Additional hop plants can be purchased for £10.
98-100 Wood Street, Walthamstow Open Tuesday – Saturday 10am - 5.30pm
If you’d like to join, email Walthamstowbeer@gmail.com by Friday 27 February.
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Hop rhizomes and growing packs will be ready for collection on Sunday 15 March. To advertise your business contact ads@theelist.co.uk 19
A Resurrection Captured Gnome House on Blackhorse Lane has been derelict for over ten years but is now coming back to life as a creative space for the community. Photographer Mark Burton describes documenting the transformation. 20
Opposite page - Multiple exposure photographs of Gnome House, June 2014. This page clockwise from top left - The Gnome House guardians: Matt, Darren, Jimmy, Mark and Nick; Gnome House Interior, May 2014; Gnome House Interior, December 2014; The Gnome House building contractors: Noel, Jay and Bogdan
I’ve never been drawn to photographing old, decaying buildings. No matter how beautiful the hands-of-time have been in their destruction, I’ve been happy to enjoy the results of other people venturing into dusty, rusting and silent old buildings. What changed was becoming involved in the project to transform Gnome House into a community creative space. When I first walked inside Gnome House it had been vacant for over ten years and was a dark, cavernous shell. On the ground floor, flecks of peeling ceiling paint had fallen like industrial snow onto the concrete screed. On the top floor, years of rain had penetrated the roof, crumbled the walls and created spongy green carpets of moss. As soon as the start-date for the builders began to approach I got a nagging feeling I should start taking some ‘before’ pictures – if only as historic documents. I began with precision. I consulted the architectural drawings to identify locations that I’d be able to return to in the future without finding a wall or stairway had been built in my way.
My original intention to create a modest set of images then morphed into a larger project. Over a series of visits I got to know the guardians living in Gnome House and I began to photograph them too. They were one-time squatters who’d forged a mutually beneficial relationship with the existing landlord by securing the site. They work in the music business and live as a supportive, brotherly collective. As the building work began the guardians were shunted into other parts in the broader site to make way for the contractors. These were the next, temporary custodians of the building whose expertise and hard work are transforming the building. I spent long periods of time in Gnome House - and believe me, an afternoon/ evening spent in a large derelict building as darkness encroaches really feels like a long time! Creating the photos became a meditative process and instead of seeing only the decay in-front of me, I found myself imagining the people who’d worked there in the past – and also seeing into the future.
I might be looking at a space that was unusable and toxic (I initially photographed in an asbestos mask) but as I did, I was visualising the new environment that the architectural plans promised. This experience took me in a new direction. I began making double, triple or quadruple exposure photographs by layering several images over a single, film negative. This way of working means I have no control over the final results. Instead, I’m content with the light and chemical magic that happens in the camera and then the photo lab. Some images are taken within minutes of each other, to give an immersive experience of the building at a given point in time (like the images shown here.) Meanwhile, I have several rolls of film that have been shot and re-wound more than once over the last 9 months. They already document the dereliction, the re-building project and will be finished once the final layer is added – images of Gnome House when it’s full of life after its re-opening in spring 2015.
For more information about Gnome House www.gnomehouse.org.uk 21
Architectural historian, Karen Averby uncovers curiosities and stories from Walthamstow’s rich and varied past
Shern Hall Street Station We’re all undoubtedly familiar with the overground Chingford to Liverpool Street Station railway line running through Walthamstow, with stations at St James Street, Walthamstow Central and Wood Street. But what about Shern Hall Street Station? Mid-19th century Walthamstow had a population of around 5000 and was a popular retreat for City businessmen who commuted into London by means of a horse-drawn bus which departed from the Nag’s Head at Church End, Walthamstow, and travelled through Marsh Street (now High Street), Markhouse Lane (now Markhouse Road) and on to Lea Bridge Station, located on the north side of Lea Bridge Road. From here, the choice was to continue into the City by bus, or by train. As each bus could only accommodate up to eighteen passengers, this method of travel was fast becoming increasingly unviable, especially given the relatively rapid expansion in population at this time. Consequently, plans were made for a railway extension to Chingford. Whilst this line, the one we know today, was being constructed, a single interim line was opened on 26 April 1870 between Lea Bridge Station and a temporary terminus at what was known as Shern Hall Street Station. This ran a shuttle service of up to 20 trains each way every day for three years until the opening of the Chingford extension on 17 November 1873, when it was replaced with the new Wood
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Street Station. A disused section of the temporary line can still be seen curving around the Low Hall playing field towards Lea Bridge Station. Shern Hall Street Station was located in the cutting between the Nag’s Head Tunnel and Shern Hall Street (now Shernhall Street). Its entrance was in Summit Road, the most convenient point of access from Church End and the new streets which were being developed to the south and west. The station’s platform was an earthen bank on the south side of the railway cutting which was removed in the early 1920s. It housed a gravity water feed for the engines which continued in use after the station closed. There was no ticket hall as such; tickets were purchased from the station house, which was formed of three houses on the railway side of Summit Road. After the station closed, the houses were occupied by the Station Masters of Wood Street and Hale End and the Deputy Station Master of Hoe Street Station (now Walthamstow Central) and their families. The houses were demolished in 1981. Although representing just a fleeting moment in Walthamstow’s transport history, the legacy of Shern Hall Street Station is a lasting one. Its short-term operation ensured the preservation of the character of the immediate area; had the station been developed as a permanent station, the character of the surrounding area would undoubtedly have been very different today. www.archangelheritage.co.uk
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LOCAL HERO
Lindsay Collier Lindsay is a passionate man but also a frustrated one. For the last 20 years, together with a small band of other volunteers, he has poured his heart and soul into Walthamstow’s Pumphouse Museum, which plans to re-open next month. He tells Paul Lindt why this should only be just the beginning for the museum. You were born in Australia. What brought you to Walthamstow? My parents had moved to Aus just after the Second World War using the ‘Ten Pound Poms’ ticket; they had been sold the dream of a modern British way of life in the sun. Sadly, they couldn’t really settle there and what with me being a sickly baby they decided to return home after only a couple of years. I met my wife at the legendary dance hall, the Tottenham Royal, 46 years ago. She was from Walthamstow and eventually we decided to settle here.
For many years you have been heavily involved in the Walthamstow Pumphouse Museum near St James Street and Markhouse Road. Many people may not be aware of this hidden gem because it has been undergoing extensive renovation for the last few years. Yes. I started the project in 1994. It’s been a long haul but we hope to re-open the Pumphouse initially on 1 March, then the rest of the site will be developed as funding progresses. 24
The aim of the museum is to tell the story of the area’s rich and important heritage as the place of many industrial and transport innovations and technological triumphs, many of which are of world significance. Whether it’s trains, planes, cars or boats you can bet something significant happened here in Waltham Forest or in the surrounding Lea Valley. There are so many great stories and as well as being educational we intend to make a visit to the museum a fun experience, suitable for all ages – a friendly people’s museum if you like. The site itself is an old pumping station which still has the original and rare Marshall C Class Steam Engine in place. We use the buildings and yard to house an extensive collection of transport and steam-related items of all sizes, including several vehicles such as buses and trains. Our Victoria Line tube carriage has been used in several films and pop videos. When we re-open there will be new displays on the railways of the Lea Valley, the excavations of the medieval and 17th century Low Hall Manors, whose estate the Pumphouse was built on, and to crown it all, our Fire Station will be open for all to see its fire engines and artefacts.
Excitingly this is only the beginning of an ongoing project for the museum. What other things have you got planned? New proposed attractions will include the Victoria Line Experience, a café, street facade, petrol station and a Walthamstow industrial gallery. If I was to push you to take your personal pick of just four of the amazing transport firsts for Waltham Forest, what would they be? A difficult one as there are so many. The most significant to my mind are: having the first automatic underground railway in the world; being the birthplace of London Buses; seeing the very first flight of a totally British-built plane in 1909 by A V Roe, and having the first British-made motor car built by Fredrick Bremer in 1894. And if I can sneak a fifth one in, we can also boast the first form of a battery-powered vehicle in Britain. Obviously we cover these and plenty more at the museum. Waltham Forest is simply the home of British Transport. Coupled with the many other industrial firsts in the Lea Valley, we have a story here that no one else in the world has. Due to significance of all the transport heritage of Waltham Forest and its location in the heart of the Lea Valley, you have attracted some impressive
Photo © Paul Tucker www.paultucker.co.uk
You’ve done quite a variety of jobs in your working life… I left school at sixteen so it’s given me plenty of years to try out a few different vocations. I started DJing in the early ’70s at the Tottenham Royal where I worked with many famous artists, such as Desmond Dekker, Jimmy Cliff, Sam & Dave and the Four Tops. The Krays would sometimes hang out there! I also worked at the Coolbury Club and Rudolf’s Night Club, also in Tottenham, for a little time but gave it all up when I got my cab licence. My father was a black taxi driver, so I’ve loved doing that on and off over the years. I still do the occasional gig as music’s in my blood. I’ve also worked at the Australian High Commission on the Strand, and then for a freight forwarding company in Leytonstone. The latter involved lots of credit control, so don’t ever owe me money, as I’ll send the boys round!
supporters. Yes, we have had meetings with major transport museums throughout the country who all support our ideas. Many of these museums have collections far larger than they can currently show, so it would be wonderful to provide additional space in a larger transport museum in Waltham Forest.
as ten sites spread out but linked by a central hub, I believe something similar could work here – linking sites and museums all across the region, and using our excellent modern transport links to connect them. We could also connect to the other pumphouse and the Coppermill on the Wetlands site.
But as always the problem is funding... Prior to this, all our funding relied on us having a long lease (which we now have), and a firm plan for what we want to develop on the site (which now we also have). Even though we have some experienced governors on our board, and some very capable volunteers, we could always do with more experienced business people to assist us in taking our aims and objectives forward. I think that we also could use a champion, a famous face perhaps Richard Branson!
You’ve included aspects of Walthamstow’s industrial past in your recent book Walthamstow Through Time. I was approached by Amberley Publications to do the book which was published last March. I attempted to do a publication that was very much different to all the others that I had seen. I am proud it has some colour and rare pictures which haven’t been published before. As well as the transport and industrial history, it also covers things like the long lost cinemas, the dog track, pubs and grand houses. It can be purchased for £14.99 at Waterstones in the Mall or online.
What do you think the potential of such a museum could be for the area? Our museum is completely different from the others in the borough, and most certainly unique in London and the south-east. I believe it has the potential to be another William Morris Gallery if properly funded and developed. How might this work? Like the Ironbridge Gorge museums in Shropshire, which works
Your other passion, as you say, is music. I’m guessing you have a large vinyl collection. Yes I do! I started collecting records as a teenager. The first record I bought was Come On by the Rolling Stones. I love all sorts of music but I have to say that my favourites are still Motown and Northern Soul.
You even spent time as a manager of a Walthamstow boy band in the late 90s. You can blame my son for this one. Knowing about pop music and having worked as a DJ, I was persuaded to manage a boy band for him. We called the band East End Boyz. We started off by doing talent shows and even got some bookings from the Council to turn on the Christmas Lights in Walthamstow Town Square. They did shows at the Palladium and many other well-known venues. They sounded great but like all good things the band broke up. They did however manage to record some tracks which for me is a lasting memory of a great band that did not make it. Apart for a world class transport and steam museum for Waltham Forest, what else would you like to see appear in the area in the next few years? We may have a new cinema but a place where stage shows can take place and perhaps an arts centre could also be included. Check out the website for confirmation of when the Pumphouse Museums re-opens www.walthamstowpumphousemuseum. org.uk or contact Lindsay directly on 07930 662 252.
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Walthamstow Diary Between forest and marsh lies the glorious Stow. These are the tales and meanderings of a proud resident of E17 Last month I got invited to the opening of Turtle Bay, the new Caribbean restaurant next door to the cinema. The invite promised an evening of free food and cocktails in Walthamstow’s latest hang out. Food, drink and somewhere new to have a nosey around, what’s not to like I thought to myself. A few days after accepting the invite I told a friend that we were going, his response surprised me. I say response, but it was more of a rant “Chains like this will ruin Walthamstow” he told me with conviction. He didn’t leave it at that “All these carbon copy chains make everywhere look like everywhere else” he said. He was making some incredible huffing noises as he spoke so I think he was pretty angry. As he sat there with steam coming out of his ears, I couldn’t help but smile. I remember when I moved to Walthamstow, my local friends at the time were desperate for chains to move in. “You know what E17 needs” they would say “Marks and Spencers, Pizza Express, somewhere you could take visiting friends”. I didn’t remind my ranting mate that he once said similar, I simply placed a craft beer in front of him and let him calm down. I concealed my smile behind half a scotch egg to avoid antagonising him further. Funny though isn’t it, people wait for change, will change to happen, but when it comes it’s the wrong kind of change. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of independent retailers and high streets that don’t have Starbucks on them. But chains aren’t always bad are they? Surely there is room for chains and independents in E17. I enjoyed my visit to Turtle Bay, I also enjoyed my lunch in new café Indulgence a few days before. Vive la difference, that’s what I say. We should all absolutely support our local businesses, cafes, pubs and coffee shops. We should also make the most of the likes of Turtle Bay, Pizza Express and Nando’s. I for one am glad that we have the choice. www.walthamstowdiary.com
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The Magpie’s beady eyes are always on the look-out for the shiniest, funniest remarks, witty retorts and bizarre sightings to steal from the area’s streets and social media channels. Thanks this month to www.facebook.com/WalthamstowTouristBoard and www.facebook.com/Walthamstow Life and https://twitter.com/e17facts
Wood Street Market was made by Blue Peter presenters in 1975 Walthamstow Facts
Sonia Fletcher
A sight that makes even the calmest Stowie see red?? VK: “And the results are in for the ‘Best Seven Sisters’ competition...”
GC: For folk not familiar with Seven Sisters, South Tottenham station is very near and will take you to Walthamstow Queen’s Road. Walthamstow Life
Walthamstow Central tube station is owned by a dinner lady called Sue who bought it with her £16.5 million Lottery winnings in 1998. Walthamstow Facts Anyone know anything about the old White & Son funeral directors opposite the Rose & Crown? Been bought by someone...?! SF: Depresses me that the beautiful old clock has gone. It was a constant, consistently correct presence in my life for two decades. KG: If their windows are a teaser campaign it’s working! MJ: Have you seen the skulls? So creepy... AS: It’s a work in progress and I think it’s going to be ace <zips mouth> VA: They obviously have quite a sense of humour. AC: I think Mr Benn bought it Walthamstow Life If the full moon lands on a Wednesday, Richard Madeley runs naked down Exmouth Road. Walthamstow Facts
Walthamstow buses are all driven by exCountdown contestants. Walthamstow Facts Picture the scene, quiet residential street. A couple of window cleaners have unbelievably loud trashy and quite rubbish dance music blaring out from their van. After 10 mins it became annoying so I asked politely, ‘Would you mind turning that down please, I’m trying to work. He looked at me as if I’d asked for one of his kidneys and said, ‘But it’s the daytime’! TB: We should get this brilliantly nonsensical objection, “But it’s the daytime,” trending! “Are you happy to attend a meeting this afternoon?” “Sorry; I’m afraid I can’t.” “Why on earth not?” “But it’s the daytime...” HW: Ha ha. Yeah, ‘Please don’t spit in the street’ ‘But it’s the daytime!’ EK: I witnessed a woman on the Tube ask a child to stop blowing a refs whistle repeatedly and loudly. The adult with the child had a go at her, “It’s 6 o’clock” and “he’s a child!” Leytonstone Life According to William Morris’s mum, he was neither useful or beautiful. Walthamstow Facts
Alfred Hitchcock’s lesser-known masterpiece ‘The Pigeons’ to premiere at Walthamstow’s Empire. EG: Coo! Walthamstow (unofficial) Tourist Board
WalthamstowTouristBoard
Is the new shop (next to the Village pub) on Orford Road definitely going to be a Nisa?? ML: What do Nisa sell? LG: It’s like a normal Spar. AM: How common! AT: Can’t the council force some diversity in the shops in such areas? JH: Don’t worry; cake shop and cheese shop opening soon. AT: Cheese? Somebody say cheese? AM: I heard Waitrose... I tweeted them and they confirmed they are coming. JS: Hang on... they’re definitely coming? Or have I just soiled myself unnecessarily? Bring a mop! JH: They denied it 3 days ago. PH: Fortnum & Mason outbid them. Walthamstow Life
Nice to see Walthamstow residents are open to all forms of transport.. ED: Looks like a proper budget Segway MC: Two wheeled transport is what it’s all about! JB: Studio flat, close to High Street and Walthamstow Central, £350,000. PH: I think you mean: “Serviced Apartment”? AS: View is rubbish though. Walthamstow Life
Brigit Collins
If you know which part of Le Delice’s facade to press, you can access a secret underground lair full of Paul Daniels’ fitness videos. Walthamstow Facts
27
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February gallery
Daventry Avenue, Walthamstow, London, E17 3 bedroom terraced house for sale Price Range £529,995 - £589,995 A Fine East London Development. This luxury development of residential properties will offer contemporary accommodation. There are seven stunning new 3 bedroom homes, all built to an exceptional standard with creativity and consideration given to the design. This excellent location is just a moments walk from the Village which provides a multitude of the best local pubs, restaurants, cafes and shops. Transport links are also faultless with buses, trains and the tube all within a 5 minute stroll. The new E17 Scene development offers an expansive new multiplex cinema and restaurants on your doorstep. The lounge/kitchen will be kitted out with stylish new units and integrated appliances. This room provides you with the flexibility to transform the area to suit your personality and needs. The generous size bedrooms, sun rooms and terrace create a wow-factor to be enjoyed by your family and impress your guests.
The Lodge, Wyatts Lane, London, E17 3 bedroom bungalow for sale Guide Price: £700,000 - £750,000 Refurbished to an exceptional standard and with creativity and consideration given to the design with the flexibility to transform the area to suit your needs.
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Grove Road, London, E17 3 bedroom terraced house for sale Guide Price: £575,000 - £625,000 The lounge features a cast iron fireplace and stripped floors that lead through to the good size second reception room and on to the smart, stylish kitchen and utility.
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Estates 17 February Gallery
Ravenswood Road, London, E17 3 bedroom terraced house for sale Offers in Excess of £550,000 When restored to its Victorian prime, this would make an excellent home, moments away from Orford Road.
Hillcrest Road, London, E17 3 bedroom terraced house for sale Guide Price £500,000 - £525,000 Three bedroom family home is being refurbished and decorated to an exceptionally high standard throughout.
Coppermill Lane, London, E17 3 bedroom terraced house for sale Guide Price £500,000 - £550,000 This great Victorian house has tremendous charm with the benefit of the large, spacious rooms.
Estates 17 Lettings
Brookscroft Road, London, E17 2 bedroom terraced house for sale Guide Price £425,000 - £450,000 A smartly decorated Victorian home, with many original features, stripped floors and high ceilings throughout.
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Harris Street, London, E17 2 bedroom flat for sale Guide Price £325,000 - £350,000 This stylish two bedroom ground floor flat has great curb appeal and has been recently refurbished to a high standard.
Hibbert Road, London, E17 2 bedroom flat for sale Guide Price £325,000 - £350,000 This charming two bedroom ground floor flat has been stylishly decorated and has bright and spacious rooms.
Victoria Road, London, E17 4 bed end terrace house to rent £1,800 pcm The property boasts a substantial through lounge with feature fireplaces and original wood flooring.
Priory Avenue, London, E17 3 bedroom terraced house to rent £1,800 pcm (let agreed) Two generously sized reception rooms both with period fireplaces, a modern kitchen and utility room.
Beulah Road, London, E17 2 bedroom terraced house to rent £1,650 pcm (let agreed) A charming home set in the heart of Walthamstow Village is this spacious, two bedroom house.
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Aveling Park Road, London, E17 4 bedroom terraced house for sale Guide Price £500,000 - £525,000 This is a wonderful family home that has been modernised and decorated throughout by the current owner, whilst retaining its original period character.
Shaftesbury Road, London, E17 3 bedroom terraced house to rent £1,900 pcm (let agreed) Set on a quiet turning in the much sought after Walthamstow Village is this impressive three bedroom, mid terrace house.
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Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage. There will be a fee for the advice given, the exact amount will depend upon your circumstances but we estimate it will be £495 or 1%.