currybetdotnet Walthamstow archive
Council coverage in local newspapers: Waltham Forest and Romford
Sarah Hartley has been using the 'Help me investigate' crowd-sourced journalism tool to find out how local newspapers cover local councils. I've chipped in with a review of coverage in the Waltham Forest Guardian and the Romford Recorder.
The UX of moving house: Part 6 - Officialdom
In part 6 of this series, I turn my attention away from estate agents, and towards the user experience of dealing with Haringey and Waltham Forest councils.
Katherine Green: "Wood Street, E17" and "1948 Olympians"
Two of photographer Katherine Green's projects have been about subjects close to my heart - one documenting the shops on Wood Street where I used to live, and one a series of portraits of British Olympians from the 1948 London Olympic Games.
Katherine Green: "Going to the dogs" at Vestry House Museum
Katherine Green recently exhibited photographs documenting the last days of greyhound racing at Walthamstow Stadium. I went to Vestry House Museum to hear her talk about the project.
Olympic Memory Marathon: Part 2 - "I am one of the 104"
At the weekend I took part in an art project for the London 2012 Olympics called the "Memory Marathon". Artist Simon Pope walked the distance of a marathon whilst talking to 104 people who lived or worked in the London Boroughs hosting the next games about their memories of the Olympics. Yesterday I blogged about the workshops leading up to the event, and today I wanted to write about my experience on November 7th, the day of the "Memory...
"Waltham Forest is calling for back-up" campaign lays down a welcome mat for criminals
I became a crime statistic last week, when my bike was stolen in Walthamstow.Again.It has prompted me to blog about something that has been irritating me in the Borough for some time. On the day I discovered my bike was missing, I'd been in Selbourne Walk The Mall, where volunteers were out in force trying to get me to sign a council petition. "Waltham Forest is calling for back-up" is a politically motivated council campaign calling for more police in...
"My first term" - a seventies pull-out in a noughties local paper?
I'm the kind of person who still buys a local paper, and this week in the Waltham Forest Guardian I noticed a feature I found distinctly odd. "My First Term" is an 8 page pull-out compiling school classroom pictures from a variety of nearby local authorities. The geographical range covered is quite wide, including Walthamstow, Woodford Green, Loughton and Waltham Abbey. Initially, I couldn't help but be surprised that, in these days of media paedosteria, the paper was trying to...
Last chance to object to the church plans for Walthamstow's art deco cinema
Today is the final day to object to a planning application seeking permission to turn Walthamstow's listed art deco cinema into a church. As you may know, the cinema has been closed for some time, and the church owners have allowed it to fall into considerable disrepair. Back in the sixties, the EMD used to have concerts on, including The Beatles, Rolling Stones and The Who. It also has lots of cinematic history, being the cinema where Alfred Hitchcock grew...
The shoddy Victoria Line replacement bus service at Walthamstow Central
This is purely and simply an unmitigated moan about Arriva's woeful Railway Bus Replacement service that operates between Finsbury Park and Walthamstow Central. I understand that the Victoria Line has to be upgraded to take the improved rolling stock I first got a sneak peek at in August 2006, but why does the replacement have to be so shoddy - it seems that every time I am forced to use it there is an issue. The first problem, as demonstrated...
'No message' at Walthamstow Central
I'd love to know who was the person writing the functional spec for the London Underground matrix displays at Walthamstow Central who decided that there needed to be a special case for when there was: "NO MESSAGE" Even more, I'd like to meet the person who had to write the bit of code that must say something along the lines of: if ($message = undef) { print "NO MESSAGE"} Obviously, the code is there so that you can tell whether...
"It feels like one hundred years..."
I can actually remember the exact moment I became a fan of The Cure. It was in 1986, and they had just released their first singles compilation - 'Standing On A Beach'. A friend used our 80's style peer-to-peer network to swap the music files with me i.e. he physically lent me his cassette of the album. Double-play edition with extra unavailable b-sides no less. I was on the 34 bus. The route ran as far as Whipps Cross then,...
The Obama honeymoon seems over in Walthamstow
Is President Barack Obama's honeymoon period ending much faster that the traditional 100 day measure? Well, it certainly looks that was as far as the Walthamstow's branch of WH Smiths is concerned - they are giving away two Obama books for the price of one....
"The Tottenham Outrage" centenary
Known foreign subversives living in London and committing crime.Public dismay at the lack of control over immigration.Brave policemen laying down their lives to protect the public from acts of foreign terrorists.No, not the result of a decade of New Labour Government, but the situation behind what came to be known as the 'Tottenham Outrage', which took place 100 years ago this week. At around 10:30am on Saturday 23rd January 1909, 'Paul Helfeld' and 'Jacob Lepidus' pulled off a wage snatch...
Police try to stop Walthamstow blogger taking pictures of a bus crash
I spotted in London Lite this evening the story of the 97 bus that crashed into McDonalds in Hoe Street in Walthamstow, and then noticed a big spike in traffic to an old currybetdotnet post about a crash near Walthamstow Central station just after it opened in September 2004. That caused the station to be closed whilst all lit up for the evening, and I sneaked in to grab some photos. I thought, as I've done with things like...
Spooky shop on Hoe Street, Walthamstow
It appears that we might have a new ghost in Walthamstow - 'Spirits high despite the spooky visitors' Well, not a new ghost exactly, it apparently dates from the 1950s, and has been haunting a jewellers on Hoe Street in Walthamstow. There is a theory that it is the spirit of a young man who was murdered in the shop, but the local paper is appealing for anyone with more information about the building to come forward. It was the...
60th anniversary of the 1948 London Olympics
With the 2008 edition of the Olympic Games just days away, today is the sixtieth anniversary of the opening of the 1948 London Olympic Games. Unlike the previous time that London held the games, in 1908, when they started in April and lasted most of the summer, the 1948 games had a recognisably modern two week format. London had only a couple of years to prepare, having been awarded the games ahead of Baltimore, Lausanne, Los Angeles and Philadelphia in...
'Received pronunciation' for London from TfL
The BBC is famous for having an official 'pronunciation unit', that was the ultimate arbiter of how things should be said on air. With the drive towards using regional accents on television, and a move away from 'received pronunciation', the unit probably has more demand now for how to pronounce foreign names and words, than for working out whether English children were going to grow up saying 'bafth' or 'barth'. You could access a lot of the content via the...
Looking after Walthamstow's greyhounds
At the weekend I was writing about my final trip to Walthamstow's Greyhound Stadium, and lamenting its closure. It was a local landmark just around the corner from where I grew up. As a youngster, 'going to the dogs' wasn't a Daily Express headline bemoaning the state of modern Britain, but a treat. Not everybody is unhappy to see the track close however. This quote is typical of some of the messages posted around the Internet on stories of the...
A last visit to Walthamstow's Greyhound Stadium
When we were recently in London I paid a final visit to Walthamstow's Greyhound Stadium. After 75 years in the greyhound racing business, it will be closing its doors for the final time later this year, awaiting redevelopment as a new housing estate. Even a visit from Boris during his Mayoral campaign couldn't save it. Just a few years ago the British Greyhound Racing Board declared Walthamstow dogs to be their 'Racecourse of the Millennium'. It hasn't even lasted one...
Google Street View spycams spotted in Walthamstow
I was hanging out in Stoke Newington the other day and wound up in a little Turkish cafe called 'The Dervish' - presumably, I'll have to ask forgiveness when I re-enter Greece. I spotted something that I hadn't noticed before - in the window, underneath a tattered old London Olympic bid sticker, was a sticker boasting that the business was listed in Google Maps. Once I'd spotted one, I started seeing them cropping up all over the place. And I...
Walthamstow's Tramways Office building
Wonderful Wifi at Walthamstow Central Library
College to close swimming pool in Olympic Borough of Waltham Forest
The new UK digital singles chart tries to avoid the old hype
Walthamstow Dog stadium on The Londonist, Visit London, and my Flickr stream
Evening Standard using Muslim anger to sell newspapers in Walthamstow
Being in Walthamstow during the "terror raids"
Al's Records, Walthamstow and Islington
Record Sleeves Reproduced With Permission From Universal
Panic On The Streets Of London
Haunted Walthamstow and Chingford
Things Our Neighbours Have Thrown Into Our Garden
The Bike Shed at Walthamstow Central
So That's Cycling Over For A Bit Then
Green Fair in Waltham Forest (Quietly)
London's Transport, and Passengers Back To Normal in Walthamstow
Vote today - Hellfire tomorrow
Election hustings meeting in Walthamstow
Smoking in pubs - A black mark for the Dog & Duck
The worst train stations in London
Accident at Walthamstow Bus Station
One angry man and fifty-five bored residents
Walthamstow West Community Council meeting
There will always be a corner of Walthamstow that is Dukla Praha
Walthamstow Central Bus Station - accessibility and security
My first Walthamstow West Community Council meeting
Complaint about the 212 bus route in Walthamstow
Walthamstow Stadium on the BBC.co.uk homepage
Champions League Football and racist graffiti at The College Arms in Walthamstow
You might have to tape that for me
How to confuse WAGN ticket inspectors with your Oystercard
Reclaim Our Cinema - the EMD Cinema in Walthamstow gets an unofficial refurbishment
Oystercard - the problem is when the man meets the machine
The Beatles at Walthamstow Granada
Anti-war demo at Walthamstow Central
Neil Gerrard MP against entitlement cards
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"Journalism in the digital age"
I'll be appearing on a panel with Sarah Hartley and Iain Hepburn at the Edinburgh International Science Festival on Sunday April 11th. More details...
Posts of the moment
Day of the Triffids
If everyone suddenly went blind, how long would the Internet survive, and could you still publish news on it?
With professionals of this quality, who needs 'citizen journalist' enemies?
It is hard to argue that ethics and quality set the 'professional journalist' apart from the amateur blogger, if the 'professional' keeps publishing articles so wrong that they have to be deleted.
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Contact: martin dot belam at currybet dot net. © Martin Belam where appropriate.
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