2026 event charities to be supported by the second Wanstead Beer Festival are:
The River Roding Trust
The Friends of the River Roding was formed in the summer of 2017 as a community-led effort to restore the River Roding, with particular focus on the lower reaches around Barking and Ilford. In the summer of 2019, we became a registered charity in the form of the River Roding Trust. The objects of the River Roding Trust are as follows:
To preserve, protect and restore the River Roding for the public benefit and to undertake and carry on projects and activities of a charitable nature related to the river which will assist in promoting recreation, protecting the environment and educating the public about the history of the river.
Further information on this charity is available at:
https://riverrodingtrust.org.uk
Growing Hope, Redbridge
Growing Hope provides free therapy for children and young people with additional needs. Additional needs are wide ranging and could include a physical disability, a cognitive disability, a mental health problem or undiagnosed need that impacts participation in everyday activities. Growing Hope aims to grow hope for children, hope for families and hope in Jesus. Growing Hope is motivated by the Christian faith and runs clinics in partnership with local churches. (Growing Hope services are open to everyone of any faith background).
Further information on this charity is available at:
https://growinghope.org.uk/about-us/
Wanstead War Memorial – Restoration
The war memorial has been restored in the past, but now it is in need of significant works. The bronze angel sculpture that sits atop of the memorial has been poorly maintained and this has affected the colouring of the Portland stone of the memorial itself, whilst the names of the fallen – recut on granite, probably in the 1960s – have now become worn in places.
The London Borough of Redbridge owns the memorial, but they have granted the Parish of Wanstead a licence to carry out works required.
We hope to raise sufficient funds for the memorial to be professionally cleaned and for the names cut in the memorial to be professionally repainted by an expert in war memorial restoration.
Further information on the Wanstead War Memorial Restoration is available from here: