This lovely old house (the one on the corner of the High Road and Grove Park) looks like it’s going through the mill at the moment. However, everything is on track and our old people should be returning there to their reinstated Luncheon Club in January.
Skylight windows are creeping out of the roof to give more light to the attic floor which will become a flat (with one of the nicest views in Wanstead) and wonderful things are happening internally. The poor garden is looking very sad at the moment but once the scaffolding has gone and the paths relayed, we’ll tackle it and it won’t be long before that garden is back to its old character.
The rendering with its semi-geometrical patterns has been lovingly restored. There is something of a mystery here. The patterns incised in the rendering are a mixture of wavy lines, circles etc. all except one panel to the left of the large staircase window facing onto Grove Park. Look carefully. This one has a stylised tulip, totally different from the rest of the rendering. Intriguing to think where this might have come from. Did the usual renderer have a day off sick? Maybe somebody else came along to put in a day’s work and left his own individual design so different from the rest.
Something else has appeared on the gable facing the High Street. At present, it’s shrouded in the protective netting. Jason Harris of Orient Design, the firm of architects who now own the house, had noted the empty gable and had planned to have some sort of ornamentation put there. (By contrast, the Grove Park gable has a very attractive brick and plaster design.) How serendipitous that a long time resident of Wanstead should offer his services in the making of a sundial! He had watched with great interest, the restoration of the house and since he had the expertise in the field, had offered to do the calculations and design for a gable end sundial.
Like many people, I had thought that a sundial was just something that one went and bought at Homebase or some such. Not so! Well, you could buy one at Homebase, but it wouldn’t work. Apparently, the lines on each dial have to be worked out with extreme mathematical accuracy according to where it will be placed in relation to where the sunlight strikes it. Wanstead High Street will now have a fully working sundial. Our thanks go to John Moir for this and we hope for many sunny days so that Wanstead residents can work out accurately, just how late they are!
PS. Offers of help for the Corner House front garden will be most welcome. We will need a working party session when we first get the garden back. No expertise needed. A bit of muscle would come in useful and for anyone interested in knowing more about cottage gardens – well here’s your opportunity. Phone no. 8989 9553.
I’m more then happy to help with the garden- but I was also thinking that many of the flower beds/ containers along the high street are looking very sad and unloved- and the council don’t seem to want to do anything about it!
Could the Society take these on as well, perhaps with some help from the Council?