East Ham is a haven for new families; good primary schools, an abundance of parks and relatively low house prices (for London) are all good reasons for newbie parents to make the journey further east and become E6 explorers. This and the fact that East Ham has an utterly amazing kiddie friendly community of parents, volunteers and council led schemes that provide a wonderful local support network. Yep, East Ham is a winner when it comes to small people; from council led Children’s Centres and NCT meet ups, to a 250 strong What’sApp group of mums chatting parenting, babies, boobs and the state of the UK. All that, topped off with a few solid family friendly cafes means East Ham has everything you need to bring a new tiny human into the world.
OUTDOOR
OMG, This is our first GUEST POST! (Excitedly hops up and down!).
East Blam would like to welcome the most fabulous Dan Stevens:- Fellow blogger (easterndrifts.com), Far East{London} explorer, photographer and general knower of interesting historical things and he is going to tell you lovely folks a thing or two about the best spots in Newham to grab an instagram classic. If you are a proper photographer, by all means get your aperture and white balance on too and if you snap a timeless classic, tag us in on Facebook or Instagram for a cheeky share or two #eastham #lovenewham #gothashtagsonmyhashtags. Scroll on MacDuff, as we let Dan take it from here.
Let’s talk about Barking. Barking is a mere hop skip and a jump from East Ham. Yep, literally one stop by tube or 15 minutes on a bike….
In Barking, there lives a Boat House. And in that Boat House lives a Cafe Bar, with a terrace overlooking the canal. And in that Cafe Bar there is craft ale. And cake. AND. IT. IS. AWESOME.
2017 is upon us, and at EastBlam HQ we are feeling reflective.
2016 was a tough year – it brought us Brexit, Trump, the death of Bowie, excruciating budget cuts (especially for Newhamites) and the Hammers moved to Stratford. It’s easy to slide into the new year with the weight of the last one still on your shoulders so before we clean house, we had a little stop and think about the good bits of E6 we have discovered (or discovered us) this year.
Yep that’s right, it’s time we had a Team America style montage (ok, less montage, more list but the sentiment is the same!) before we set some motivational Pinterest style New Year’s resolutions to take us into 2017. Lets go…
St Mary’s Church and Nature Reserve – A spooky but beautiful spot to explore for Halloween
Fancy changing up your Sunday stroll? We’ve got the perfect spot for you… Beautiful? Check. Tree lined? Check. Peaceful? Check. In East Ham? Check. Slightly spooky, what with it being Halloween and all…? CHECK!
St. Mary Magdalene’s church and Nature Reserve sits quietly at the foot of East Ham, minding its own business and not making a fuss. You would be forgiven for walking past it and not even noticing it, given that it is set back from the road underneath the A13, but boy, are you missing out because this place is massive, and massively under rated.
East End Road Runners are a running club that might be right up your street…Ok they probably don’t literally run up your street but they do run up the greenway, and as far afield as Regents Canal or Victoria Park too sometime.
We appreciate that running is not everyone’s bag but if you looked outside this morning and thought: a) I need to get fit; b) I need to get outside; c) I need to top up my tan (shallow, we know but com’on, we are NOT the only ones who think about it, right?) then we might just have a solution…
Summer. Until next time.
It is a cold and drizzly morning in East Ham and today we are missing the buzz of summer. So we thought it was time to upload this little wee video we took of Central Park way back when the sun was high in the sky to help remind you all that it comes back, every year. No matter how dark December gets, April never far behind it AND we have an AWESOME park space to help us make the most of it.
A sunny Yoga-Sunday in Central Park
For those of you who don’t know, Sunday was International Day of Yoga so the good people of ParkLives and ActiveNewham were holding a bit of a do…
They held several free glorious and sunny Yoga sessions from Hatha Yoga, Pranayama, Relaxation Yoga and also (ahem) Broga®. Yes that’s right. Yoga, for Bros run by former American football star and super-heavyweight bodybuilding champion, Matt Miller. Eeer, we watched from the sidelines for that session, btw. Anyone saying Yoga is easy, I dare you to do it with Matt Miller! Phew, we were exhausted just watching it!
Brampton park is a lovely wee park in East Ham south that backs on to Brampton Primary school (you know, the one with the awesome ofsted reports? Yeah, that one)…
Open since 1915, this park is seriously cool if you are a tiny person or a parent looking for play places: it has swings, adventure playground, and in the summer it only has a flippin’ paddling pool as well! It wasn’t filled when we went, but as soon as they turn the taps on we will let you know…