Meera Syal - comedienne, novelist, writer and all round well-known person - expounds the delights of Leytonestone in ‘The Sunday Times’.
“Welcome to Leytonstone, lovely Leytonstone,” she intones in the Indian vowels of her alter ego, Granny Kumar. “Where else could you get a six-bedroom house for only £470,000?”
She’s actually selling up and taking herself to horizons new. Well, ‘horizon’ might be over-stating it a bit: South Woodford. But she retains an affection for her old stomping ground.
“This area of London is brilliant — it has the best of both worlds. It’s easy to get into town, being closer to the centre than Ealing, but it’s incredibly green and and has a wonderful community feel. I’ve grown to love the East End, its history, its people. It’s also a really multicultural area — I have to have access to Asian culture, and I’m very near Brick Lane and Green Street with all their restaurants and fashions and where some of my writing is set.”
Her Leytonstone house was derilict when she’d bought it. One of the first renovations was to the sash windows. Good move. The first thing I did with my sash windows was replace them with PVC double glazing. Warm - but charmless.
Syal wrote many of the pieces that made her famous in this house, including the recently televised ‘Life Isn’t All Ha Ha Hee Hee’ and parts of the comedy ‘Goodness Gracious Me’. All of which, I’m sure, added a few quid to its asking price when she sold…
