Ilford & district · Local news you can trust
Recorded violence in Redbridge rose 12.5% in the year to August 2026 and shoplifting 27.5%. Wanstead Village had the biggest rise of the 22 wards, all ranked.
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Valentines Mansion
Valentines Mansion at Christmas: Free, Sundays and Mondays
Valentines Mansion is free and open Sundays and Mondays, 11am to 3pm from November. Its lights switch-on is Sunday 22 November, 4pm to 6pm, also free.
Christmas
Ilford Christmas Market 2026: 100 Stalls, 20 to 22 November
Ilford's Christmas market has 100 stalls on the High Road from 20 to 22 November, free. Hainault Forest and Wanstead hold smaller markets later in the season.
Housing
Harrison Gibson Ilford: Work Starts on 326 Social Rent Homes
Work has started on the empty Harrison Gibson store on Ilford High Road: 326 homes, every one for social rent, after two earlier schemes for the site stalled.
Bins
Redbridge Food Waste Bins Reach Every House by December
Every Redbridge house not yet on food waste collections joins in November or December. Letters land October to November. Flats come later, separately.
Wanstead
Wanstead School Petition: 2,179 Names Debated Tonight
Councillors debate the Wanstead High School and pool petition at 7pm tonight. Officers recommend they simply note it, and the pool still has no agreed design.
Traffic
Cambridge Park Yellow Box: £868,954 in Fines Since 2023
Redbridge has issued 13,329 tickets at the Cambridge Park and Blake Hall Road box junction since 2023. Adjudicators keep allowing appeals against them.
Schools
Redbridge Term Dates 2026-27: Half Term Is 26 to 30 October
Redbridge schools break up on Friday 18 December and return on 4 January. Half term is 26 to 30 October, but Bancroft's and Seven Kings stop earlier.
Half term
Ilford October Half Term 2026: 26 to 30 October, What's On
Redbridge half term is 26 to 30 October. The free Festival of the Dead parade leaves Ilford's Central Library at 5pm on the Friday; swim crash courses are £45.
Travel
Ilford Christmas Trains 2026: No Service 25 Dec, Few on 26th
No trains run on Christmas Day and last year the Elizabeth line was shut on Boxing Day too. The first weekend to plan around is 28 to 29 November.
Water
Thames Water Outage: Redbridge Asks Firm to Face Scrutiny
Redbridge councillors want Thames Water to answer in public for August's Woodford burst mains. Next scrutiny meeting: 30 November. What else Full Council agreed.
Business
New Ilford Businesses: 60 Companies Formed in Two Weeks
60 new companies registered in Ilford from 21 August to 4 September, from a bakery to an arts studio. Plus the Redbridge firms in this month's Gazette notices.
Planning
Redbridge Planning: No More Call-In From 31 October
Three neighbour objections or a councillor's call-in can force a public planning hearing today. From 31 October neither can. Councillors vote on it tonight.
Redbridge is named after a red brick bridge over the River Roding that was pulled down in 1921. Nobody has ever given it as an address, and the council’s own way of describing the borough is Ilford, Wanstead and Woodford. That is roughly how we describe it too.
Ilford is the main town centre, the council’s base and an Elizabeth line stop. Wanstead, Woodford Green and South Woodford sit to the north west against Epping Forest, and Gants Hill, Barkingside, Clayhall, Newbury Park, Seven Kings, Goodmayes and Hainault fill out the rest. One council decides planning, parking, licensing and bins across all of them, and publishes the evidence where few people look. We look, and we link to it.
More in News, Local Info and What’s On. Every fact is linked to the official document it came from.