A - Z Challenge 2024 - S is for Supermarket

This year I'm blogging about my local area.  

My area?  Highams Park which is in the borough of Waltham Forest in North East London, (UK) a little known place that nestles between Chingford and Woodford that most people only come to if they have a specific reason to - if not we usually get bypassed.  Suits us.

Having lived in Forest Gate in East London for 36 years (and for my husband 65 years!) moving was a big deal for us.  But we've been in Highams Park since September 2020 so I feel I know enough about it now to fill out 26 posts! 

We've only moved just over 5 miles but we didn't know this area at all before moving here.  Although of course we did have a good look around when looking for a house and there were a number of things we wanted on our check list.

One necessity is food so we wanted a good supermarket nearby.

We have a big Tesco store right in the centre of town:

It isn't one of their biggest style stores but it has the full range of groceries plus a small home department as well as clothing, toys, books etc.  It also has a Costa Coffee area.  There aren't any other concessions in there but it does serve our immediate day to day needs.  And to be honest, we still get our weekly shop delivered - from Tesco.  They have a good delivery service that we relied on heavily during the pandemic and continue to use.

One slightly unusual feature of the store is that the car parking areas are on the ground and basement levels, while the actual shopping floor is on the first floor.  This necessitates using the travellator or lifts to get from your car to the shop.  Fine when everything is working normally but, the lifts in particular seem to regularly have problems.  Of course if the travellator isn't working you can still walk up and down them but you can't push a trolley up or down them.  Not good if you have heavy bags of shopping.  Thankfully, because we get our main shop, particularly the heavy bulky things delivered this hasn't been too much of a problem for us.  It does spark heated debate on Facebook though.

We also have several smaller grocery stores but Tesco is a good all round store for when you need for example an extra small frying pan, or some socks or a present and card for someone.  Or new bath mats.

They also have a collecting basket for the Foodbank I volunteer at and a bookshelf of second hand books raising money for charity.  Oh and a big tick in my checklist - toilets!

A - Z Challenge 2024 - R is for Restaurants

This year I'm blogging about my local area.  

My area?  Highams Park which is in the borough of Waltham Forest in North East London, (UK) a little known place that nestles between Chingford and Woodford that most people only come to if they have a specific reason to - if not we usually get bypassed.  Suits us.

Having lived in Forest Gate in East London for 36 years (and for my husband 65 years!) moving was a big deal for us.  But we've been in Highams Park since September 2020 so I feel I know enough about it now to fill out 26 posts! 

We've only moved just over 5 miles but we didn't know this area at all before moving here.  Although of course we did have a good look around when looking for a house and there were a number of things we wanted on our check list.

Places to eat out were a must and we have quite a few restaurants within walking distance.

Breeze serves a Mediterranean style cuisine.  We've had take away from here and it was really good.  One we need to visit in person.

The Good Friend is a Chinese restaurant - we've eaten here and it was good.  Not fantastic let's recommend it to all our friends good but we would go again.

The Indian Dining Club has good reviews on our local Facebook groups so that's one we plan on trying soon.

No 1 The Avenue is an Indian restaurant that we've eaten at and had take away from.  Definitely one we recommend.

Purbani is opposite No 1 and also serves Indian food.  We've had good takeaways from here with the bonus that they will deliver.  Another one we need to try in person.

Yaz is another Mediterranean style restaurant that we have eaten at.  We weren't actually too impressed with this one - it clearly caters for a younger market.

We also have quite a few take away places so if we don't feel like cooking we have plenty of options!

A - Z Challenge 2024 - Q is for Quirky queueing

This year I'm blogging about my local area.  

My area?  Highams Park which is in the borough of Waltham Forest in North East London, (UK) a little known place that nestles between Chingford and Woodford that most people only come to if they have a specific reason to - if not we usually get bypassed.  Suits us.

Having lived in Forest Gate in East London for 36 years (and for my husband 65 years!) moving was a big deal for us.  But we've been in Highams Park since September 2020 so I feel I know enough about it now to fill out 26 posts! 

We've only moved just over 5 miles but we didn't know this area at all before moving here.  Although of course we did have a good look around when looking for a house and there were a number of things we wanted on our check list.

One of the quirky things in our area is that we have a level crossing in the centre of town.  Trains run from Chingford (just to the north of us) to Liverpool Street in Central London.  Trains run every 15 minutes in both directions so the crossing closes at least 8 times an hour.  The warning sound goes, the lights flash and then the barriers come down.  And then we wait!

Not the best picture of the crossing and of course there's no queue as it's open.  However when it's down people and cars queue either side of the crossing.

It's not usually down for too long and actually pedestrians don't need to wait as there is an underpass that goes under the tracks.  Of course if the barriers malfunction you can be there for a while.  Sometimes if the trains are a little out of kilter the barriers can seem to be down for ages but in situations like that a few minutes can feel much longer.

It's been a bit chaotic down there this week because of this:

Photo from Facebook

Photo from Facebook

This is the other side of the crossing.  A circular hole approx. 2 foot wide opened up earlier this week and quickly became a major problem.  Apparently it's due to a burst water main.  Traffic is only being allowed across the level crossing in one direction and bus routes are on diversion.

It has been very chaotic and a major talking point on social media.  

The latest news is that the leak has been identified and fixed but they now have to fill in the huge hole.  Hopefully that won't take too long as we're currently experiencing a lot of extra traffic on our road plus 2 extra bus routes using it.

Still it could be worse - at least the hole was caused by a burst pipe and not a bomb.  

A - Z Challenge 2024 - P is for Park

This year I'm blogging about my local area.  

My area?  Highams Park which is in the borough of Waltham Forest in North East London, (UK) a little known place that nestles between Chingford and Woodford that most people only come to if they have a specific reason to - if not we usually get bypassed.  Suits us.

Having lived in Forest Gate in East London for 36 years (and for my husband 65 years!) moving was a big deal for us.  But we've been in Highams Park since September 2020 so I feel I know enough about it now to fill out 26 posts! 

We've only moved just over 5 miles but we didn't know this area at all before moving here.  Although of course we did have a good look around when looking for a house and there were a number of things we wanted on our check list.

Open space was a must for us as we had so much of it right outside our front door in Forest Gate but Highams Park has a large park area that meets our needs within easy walking distance.

There is a lot of open space for games, picnics etc and there is a small playground for the younger kids

There is also a café (Humphry's) with toilets.

The renovation of an unused building from disrepair into a popular, successful café was initiated by the Highams Park Planning Group.  More details about this can be found here.

Several large events are held in the park during the year, including a Spring Festival which will be taking place next month.

The other good thing about the park is that it borders the lake area.

I love walking around the lake and the surrounding forest area, even when it's iced over in the winter.

It has a resident pair of swans who are very territorial - every year since we've been here they've had 5 or more cygnets which they protect fiercely until they are grown and then they chase them off the lake - or in many cases the cygnets have had to be rescued and relocated elsewhere.  Mr Highams Park particularly is not to be messed with!

For anyone wanting more historical information about how Highams Park came to be click here and for more information on the lake and some lovely photos click here.