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Home , Dalston, Hackney Brook, Shoreditch

At the Heart of since 1967 2010 THE HACKNEY SOCIETY SPACENews and views about Hackney’s built Senvironment Issue 29/30 Summer/Autumn 2010

Shoreditch Rooms By Kim Driscoll contents 01 Rooms 02 The Tea Building and White Swan 03 From to Shoreditch 04 The Ship Aground 04 New Lansdowne Club 04 Hackney Design Awards 05 LBH Training Centre 06 Planning news 06 Noticeboard 07 Book review: The Green Guide 08 News 08 Publications 08 Hackney Society events

The hotel Shoreditch The new hotel sits adjacent to the entrance and takes the form of a series of folded to the club and occupies the previous plates. The form is more reminiscent of Rooms was opened in vacant plot on the Tea Building/Biscuit an old engineering structure than a new April 2010. The intention Building site. Cowshed, suppliers of plant- building; however the tonal qualities of the based Spa beauty products, occupies the Corten steel sit in dialogue with the historic was to provide a 26-room ground floor and basement with the hotel brickwork of the adjacent warehouses. boutique hotel with day rooms above. They are all accessed via the For more information contact Stephen Club’s main entrance in Ebor Street. Archer, Archer Architects, Studio 3.07 spa pass to the facilities A new, contemporary structure rises from The Tea Building, , , E1 6JJ. offered by the Shoreditch behind the retained façade of the old White Swan Pub. This new building, at three Don’t miss Ann Robey’s article on House Members’ Club. storeys, is clad in Corten steel page 2 exploring the history of the site. The history of the Tea Building, Biscuit Building and the former White Swan Public House

By Ann Robey

The former warehouses known today warehouse built in 1921 and enlarged in bacon smoking ovens on every floor where as the Tea Building and the Biscuit 1928 for Pearks Dairies. When new, these sides of bacon were hung on hooks on Building were erected separately in the food processing buildings had few equals rails near the ceiling level to be smoked. In 1920s and early 1930s on an imposing for size in the immediate locality. 1968 partitions were put into the seventh floor to form an experimental coffee corner site where Shoreditch High The Tea Building is steel-framed and packing area. Street joins Road. faced in red brick with concrete and stone The Tea Building was originally built as dressings. It has a long frontage of 16 bays At the corner of Ebor Street was the White a bacon factory for the Lipton brand of to Shoreditch High Street, with elevations Swan, formerly a public house dating from Allied Foods Ltd in 1931-33. The adjacent to Redchurch Street and Bethnal Green c.1880. Built in brick and terracotta it has Biscuit Building was a slightly older Road. Lipton’s extensive new premises a huge ornamental swan in a relief panel in warehouse built in 1920 and extended incorporated cold stores and smoke the corner elevation towards Bethnal Green in 1928, which was principally used as a houses for the bacon, as well as a packing Road. The unification of the premises of tea-packing warehouse for much of its life. department. On the sixth and seventh 5-11 Bethnal Green Road and 13 Bethnal Both warehouses were joined together floors were special heating and ventilation Green Road (The White Swan) took place internally in the early 1930s and the former systems for ‘pale-drying’ processing of in 1966. In June 1968 a laboratory was White Swan Public House was integrated the bacon. The bacon washing process created on the basement, ground and into the complex during the mid-1960s. took place in the basement. The factory The refurbished shell of the Tea Building is first floors of the Swan House building, as offices were on the ground floor, where the a landmark in Shoreditch, and today the the premises had become known. These checking and dispatch departments were. whole of the premises has been converted facilities were used in connection with to accommodate a fashionable mix of The plan was for the new warehouse to be the tea, coffee and bacon packing that creative industries, media companies and joined to the existing warehouse in Bethnal occurred in the adjacent warehouse. artists, as well as a private members’ club Green Road that had been built in 1920-21 It is fitting that the warehouse created – House – on the top two floors. A for Pearks Dairies by means of openings for Lipton is now occupied by a variety new hotel in the former White Swan PH through the party wall. Despite reservations has recently been opened, completing of media and marketing companies and and quibbling about safety, the London is at the centre of the creative industries the transformation of this area (see the County Council granted permission for the accompanying article on the front page). in South Shoreditch. Sir Thomas Lipton two buildings to be merged in 1933, when has been credited with being the ‘father’ By the mid-19th century Shoreditch the roof was also strengthened. of modern advertising. One of his first High Street had become the principal From the late 1930s the enlarged building publicity stunts involved parading some of commercial road of the district with a daily was used for processing and packing the largest hogs in captivity through the street market, which survived until the tea. The building then had front offices streets of Glasgow with signs around their 1930s. But from the later 19th century, the overlooking Bethnal Green Road, while necks proclaiming ‘I’m going to Lipton’s. area started to be dominated by wholesale the large floor areas behind were divided The best shop in town for Irish bacon!’ suppliers. Printing, clothing, furniture into four quadrants, each served by a stair When he entered the tea trade in 1889 making, tobacco and food processing and supplied with lifts and chutes and he invented slogans such as ‘Direct from industries had a presence in the street, with conveyors for tea chests. By 1960, the five the Tea Gardens to the Teapot’ and his a number of the largest draper’s shops in floors between three and seven had seven nickname became Sir Tea. . Further changes came late in the 1870s when a new terminus was built as a two-level goods depot for the Great A view of the Eastern Railway, after passenger transport construction of the Tea was relocated to Liverpool Street. For Building (a former bacon almost a century Goods Yard warehouse in 1932) dominated the area opposite the Tea Building. The Tea Building was constructed in two phases between 1931 and 1933 by George Parker & Sons to the designs of Hal Williams & Co, architects. Hal Williams, a New Zealander by birth, was a specialist designer of warehouses and factories during the early 20th century. He was also an expert on refrigeration. This huge building has eight storeys over a basement and forms part of a larger island block that extends from Shoreditch High Street to Ebor Street. Most of the rest of the block is composed of an equally vast tea

2 From Dalston to Shoreditch: the opening of the extension

By Lisa Shell The new six-minute ride from Dalston Junction to Shoreditch High Street is intense: the recent construction of new buildings blurs with the on-going destruction of others, private corners become abruptly public, and an exciting dormant Hackney skyline is revealed, intensifying as Shoreditch approaches.

The original North London Railway was Junction station concourse is undeniably conceived in the 1840s and during its economical in the extreme, and only heyday (1846-96) was estimated to have hastens Dalston Lane’s sickening decline transported 1.7 billion passengers along its from a historic streetscape to a mere textured brick arches and in doing so reveals tracks. The City Extension opened in 1865 ‘route’. Any consideration of the relocating glimpses of new pedestrian routes and roses to link Broad Street (now Liverpool Street) of the Italianate stairway from the old clambering over the blood red walls of the via Dalston Junction to East and West Broad Street Station to Dalston Junction Geffrye Museum. These surroundings provide London. But it was the introduction was no doubt abandoned as too high a a fitting home for the North London Railway of electric trams in 1906 that was to price for pleasure alone. War Memorial which had been relegated from Broad Street Station to a car park in instigate a slow decline culminating in Station does take a cautious Richmond in 1985. the line’s closure in 1986. The railway’s pleasure in its architecture with a distinctive architecture suffered neglect, gentle street presence, and just about The Line will now serve the local population war damage and eventual demolition. A succeeds in assimilating public art by as it always did – reducing commuting times wilderness of buddleia rapidly invaded – way of a curious tiled mural inspired and hopefully delivering much-needed covering the tracks. by Halley’s comet and other imagery custom to Dalston’s businesses. But more Tuesday 27 April 2010 saw the historic from outer space. Edmund Halley was critically the new East London Line is reopening of the City Extension of the North born in Haggerston so the mural isn’t tangible evidence of ‘inward investment’ in London Railway after a 24-year period of entirely frivolous and the compass needle Dalston and will be a trigger to further private disuse. The long-awaited ‘East London orientates north up the line. initiatives. Whilst the real impact of such investment for Dalston is one of the most Line extension’ now provides a service from But it is at Station, a new stop to hotly debated issues locally, the juggernaut Dalston through Shoreditch and, for the first this stretch of line, that the project tries wheels of regeneration are now firmly set time, onwards to South London. to make amends for the much-loved in motion. In Hackney, the new stations, while landmarks that have been destroyed in functional, are deeply uninspiring. They the process of reinstating the railway. Lisa Shell is a resident and architect who share a contemporary material language Designed by Weston Williamson the has been a member of the Hackney Society of textured vandal-proof stainless steel station building cuts through the richly since 1999. (a familiar casing to launderette washing machines), fine-grain terrazzo and orange livery. Overall the spatial organisation is driven entirely by the needs of passengers in transit, with the resulting railway architecture more concerned with commodity and firmness than delight. Dalston Junction and Shoreditch High Street stations (among the most controversial redevelopments to the Line) are enclosed beneath seemingly unnecessary canopies – consigning the platforms to a permanent ‘subterranean’ gloom. The concrete monolith of Shoreditch High Street station, designed by JSA Architecture Ltd, replaces the equally monolithic Bishopsgate Goods Yard of 1881. Unlike its predecessor the new station currently stands stark and uncompromising – taunting the threatened 18th- and 19th-century architecture that surrounds it. But final judgement must be reserved until the latent potential of Dalston Square and the regeneration of Bishopsgate Goods Yard are realised. The wind tunnel that is the new Dalston

3 Building Watch

New Lansdowne Club – Hackney Design campaigners’ frustration reaches boiling point Awards Campaigners hoping to save the former up in dialogue with English Heritage, has New Lansdowne Club from further been sent to the recovery manager who, in neglect and dereliction are becoming turn, has appointed surveyors to supervise frustrated by the little progress that has works that as a minimum will ensure the been achieved by Hackney Council in building is weather tight. In tandem with this securing a sustainable future for this work the administrators will be exploring late-17th-century house. options, which we understand will include possibly selling the building and securing According to the Council, the current development partners to carry out the extant owner went into receivership during May Listed Building Consent issued in 2004. 2010. Since then the administrators have Interestingly, the Society understands that Nominations for the 2010 Hackney appointed a ‘corporate recovery manager’ the Trust has expressed an Design Awards are now open. This who confirmed to the Council that an interest in acquiring the freehold. Also, Antic year there will be a chance for everyone eviction notice has been served on the Ltd – a pub/music venue chain – has made to vote for their favourite new building existing squatters, and that they anticipate enquiries about the building. in the form of the People’s Choice obtaining vacant possession in the latter part Award. Along with major housing of August 2010. A repairs schedule, drawn For further updates check the website. developments, private homes and commercial buildings; public and cultural buildings; schools; parks and gardens featured prominently at the last awards in 2008. Once Update on the former Ship Aground PH, nominations close on 2 August 2010, an independent Judging Panel will Road shortlist. All shortlisted entries will appear in Hackney Today and on the Council’s website in early October. The Hackney Council’s Conservation, Urban shortlisted entry that receives the most Design and Sustainability team have votes from the public will be announced met with the new owners of the former at the awards ceremony in November. Ship Aground to discuss the merits of This year the Hackney Society has the existing building and procedures been invited to sit on the Judging that should be followed if they seek to Panel. To nominate a building log on develop the site. to www.hackney.gov.uk/designawards If you have any queries, contact Olga As reported in the last issue of Spaces Vadenbergh on 020 8356 8141 or email the existing building is not only important [email protected] for its value as a survival of the Victorian architecture that makes up much of the Lea Bridge Conservation Area, but also as a building of individual architectural and Civic Trust Awards 2011 come forward for demolition in conservation Now Open historic merit, which is confirmed by the areas, and it is within the owners’ rights to building’s identification as a Building of The aim of the Civic Trust Awards is to submit an application for Conservation Area Townscape Merit in the 2005 Conservation encourage the very best in architecture Consent. However, an application would Area Appraisal. In line with national policy, and environmental design, to improve only be considered with a full justification as set out in PPS5 (Planning for the Historic the built environment for us all but more for demolition in line with the tests for Environment), there is a presumption against specifically, to reward projects that offer demolition, as set out in PPS5.’ demolition of buildings in conservation areas a positive cultural, social, economic or that make a positive contribution to their Before any decision can be made details environmental benefit to the community. character and appearance. of the replacement scheme would also The closing date for entries is Friday be required in the form of a full planning The owners do not favour retention of 17 September 2010. application. The applicants have been the building, as they believe that they advised to use the Council’s formal pre- Download an application pack at: cannot achieve the space required for the application service, should they wish to http://www.civictrustawards.org.uk/ proposed use as a temple and cultural submit a planning application. Clapton news/news-stories/2011-application- centre for the Sikh community. A council Conservation Areas Advisory Committee round-now-open spokesperson said ‘[the Council] has a will be invited to comment at the pre- duty to consider any valid proposals that application stage.

4 Building Watch

LBH Training Centre for Adults with Learning Disabilities

By Lisa Rigg

In May 2010 Hackney Council decided reminiscent of contemporary work by to push ahead with the proposed architects such as James Stirling.’ demolition of the former LBH Training English Heritage concluded that: Centre for Adults with Learning ‘The recent damage to the building cannot Disabilities at 205a Morning Lane. be ignored, however, and it is this above The Twentieth Century Society and all else that undermines the case for SAVE Britain’s Heritage joined the designation. By the time of the 13 May Hackney Society is condemning the site meeting, demolition work had already Council’s decision to demolish this destroyed all but a fragment of the rear elegant Brutalist building whilst the workshop and part of the front block, building was being assessed for listing severely compromising both the functional by English Heritage. This action was and the aesthetic integrity of the complex all the more shocking, as no planning … In the case of no. 205a, whatever the application had at that point been merits of the original design, what now submitted to the Council for the survives is altogether too fragmentary to proposed new school on the site. be of special interest.’ On 15 April 2010, English Heritage received Currently, buildings being assessed for separate applications from the Hackney Society and the Twentieth Century Society listing do not have the interim protection to consider 205a Morning Lane for listing. needed to save them from such action. The building was at that time threatened This is a flaw within the system, but you with demolition, having been identified would hope that Hackney Council, both – along with the large inter-war building as guardians of our heritage and owners located next door (formerly known as the of the building, should have behaved more Berger Paint Factory) – for redevelopment responsibly. What kind of example does recent works had been precipitated by the as part of Hackney Council’s Building this set to other developers in the borough? expiry of a demolition notice, originally filed Schools for the Future (BSF) programme. This case illustrates the plight of many on 24 March 2010. In an Advice Report, fine 20th-century buildings in the borough English Heritage notified the local published on 17 June 2010, English not currently protected by conservation authority’s planning and education staff by Heritage stated: letter and email, and followed this up with legislation. The Hackney Society believes a number of phone calls in an attempt to ‘Nevertheless, and even in its present that the building could have easily been arrange a site visit to the building. However damaged state, it is clear that no. 205a adapted to meet the needs of the school on 10 May 2010, before a visit could take was once a building of architectural that is planned for the site, and feel place, English Heritage learned from the merit. The unfussy integrity of the design, extremely saddened that the sustainability Society that demolition work had already structurally and functionally honest without agenda only seems to extend to creating begun on 205a. This was confirmed by boasting about the fact, is manifest in new energy-efficient buildings, rather than observation later that day, and at a site the strong but subtle detailing of the reusing older ones. We hope that the meeting on 13 May 2010. On the latter front block and in its nicely-balanced forthcoming ‘austerity measures’ will result occasion it was explained that news of formal relationship with the workshop in architects having to use their creativity to the listing application had not reached behind. It shows the emerging Brutalist try and integrate existing buildings into Hackney’s BSF Department, and that the aesthetic used with a discipline and dignity new schemes.

Hackney has two LoveLocalLandmarks Grade II listed buildings from the 1960s: A review of Hackney’s register of locally listed buildings is urgently required. For 20th-century buildings that you would like to see added to the local list please email your nominations to: [email protected] Church of St Michael and All Angels by N F Cachemaille-Day (1959-60) Carbuncle Cup 2010 Building Design’s annual award gives recognition of the most fiendishly ugly building completed in the UK in the Haggerston School for Girls past 12 months. Submit your nominations by 22 July 2010 at http://www.bdonline. by Ernö Goldfinger co.uk/news/uk/nominate-your-carbuncle/5002065.article (1962-67)

5 Planning news

38-40 Upper Clapton Road, former profile of the original Crittall steel windows. Tram Depot (2009/2490 The Victorian At the Planning Sub-committee meeting Society, SAVE Britain’s Heritage, the on 29 June 2010 planning permission Clapton Conservation Areas Advisory and listed building consent was granted Committee, the New Lammas Lands subject to a number of conditions, Defence Committee and the Hackney including: choice of materials; detailing of Society’s Planning Sub-group all objected windows; colour schemes; and all existing to the proposal to partly demolish the original features including the Tannoy annexe building to the west of the site. former Tram Depot on Upper Clapton system, wireless sets, music signage and In summary, we acknowledged the Road, and erect five buildings ranging in blackboards to be protected and retained. importance of the works and considered height from two- to seven-storeys with a Avanti Architects a good choice to Tesco, 55 Morning Lane (2008/3039 mixed use development comprising 90 At the 28 July Planning undertake the work. This refurbishment and 2008/3041) residential units, 1840 sqm of Class B1 Sub-committee meeting, the application and extension feels like a very important use (light industrial), and 187 sqm of Class for the new Tesco Store was refused on project in terms of proving to teachers, D1 use (community centre). In addition to a number of policy matters, including parents, politicians and Building Schools vociferous objections from heritage groups, not providing retail to the ground floor for the Future programme officers that this 152 letters and three separate petitions, or an active frontage to Morning Lane. period of building is worth retaining and is signed by approximately 590 people, were In addition, the proposed scheme would indeed well suited to modern-day teaching received. At the Planning Sub-committee, increase traffic congestion and contribute practices. The location and massing of on 29 June 2010, the proposals were to poor air quality. the new annexe building was considered granted planning permission. appropriate, although the Society felt Planning Sub-committee decisions Haggerston School for Girls (2010/1068 the detailed design could be improved can be viewed at http://mginternet. and 2010/1070) The Society’s Planning – particularly the covered walkway, hackney.gov.uk/ieListMeetings. Sub-group made various detailed connecting the blocks, and choice of aspx?XXR=0&Year=2010&CId=125& comments on the design of the proposed brickwork. The main point we raised The Planning Sub-group’s comments scheme, by Avanti Architects, to refurbish was whether the replacement aluminium can be viewed at http://www. Ernö Goldfinger’s Haggerston School windows for the main teaching block could hackneysociety.org/page_id__137_ for Girls, and to erect a new two-storey replicate the existing fenestration and path__0p4p.aspx Noticeboard

Well Street Surgery has been refurbished Sinclair following the route of The Lion Public House in Stoke by Stock Woolstencroft Architects. The and sports historian Simon Inglis discussing Newington has bucked the trend for new building in Shore Street was designed swimming pools in Hackney. Produced pubs to close. It has reopened after a to be sustainable by minimising energy by Guardian journalist Francesca Panetta six-month refurbishment. use and increasing the use of renewable and her partner Felix Carey, the Hackney Common Users’ energy through solar panels. Other features Podcast’s first broadcast was in July 2008. include passive ventilation, high performance It has covered a number of Hackney Group (SNUG) has restored the fountain windows, and rainwater harvesting. Society events. between Rectory Road and Northwold Road. Installed in 1960, the fountain fell celebrated the centenary of its The Clapton Conference had its inaugural into disrepair and was out of action for dance studio and creative workspace on 11 meeting on 21 June 2010. Organised by the at least 20 years. June 2010. The event featured an exhibition Clapton Pond Neighbourhood Action Group about the history of the hall, a demonstration the new group aims to build a partnership Julian Harrap Architects’ contribution of hip-hop and a reception. Mayor Jules Pipe between local groups, residents and to the renovation of the Neues Museum was there to cut the birthday cake. businesses to improve the built environment (Berlin) has won the Grand Prix at the Hackney Marsh Adventure Playground of Clapton. Chaired by Cllr Ian Rathbone, the European Union’s prestigious Europa has a new building with facilities for art and meeting was attended by representatives of Nostra Award 2010, and the RIBA’s cookery lessons, access for disabled people local groups as well as Council employees European Award 2010. David Chipperfield and office space for staff. Last year the including Graham Loveland (Assistant Architects and Julian Harrap Architects outdoor play area was refurbished with new Director of Planning). worked on the restoration and extension play equipment such as tree houses and The Foundry in Shoreditch is due to be of the museum (a World Heritage Site) bridges, nets and rope ladders. demolished to make way for a new luxury designed by Friedrich August Stüler The Hackney Podcast has won a hotel. In order to try and save the former bar between 1841and 1859. The Society Gold Sony Radio Award for Best Internet and gallery, people congregated outside the would like to congratulate Julian Harrap, a Programme. The winning programme, a building on 28 June 2010 to protest about long-standing member of the Society, for documentary about water, featured Iain the proposed demolition. his achievements in building conservation.

6 Book review The Prince’s Regeneration Trust, The Green Guide for Historic Buildings: How to Improve the Environmental Sustainability of Listed and Historic Buildings The Stationery Office, 2010, £24.99 by Dr Robyn Pender There are few who do not recognise the importance of caring for the environment, especially in the face of a changing climate. In addition most of us wish to make a useful contribution to decreasing energy use and preparing for a sustainable future, in our homes and workplaces as much as in the wider community. Unfortunately it is hard to find reliable and trustworthy advice that looks at the complete picture of sustainability, and is not just trying to sell a technological fix. Should we be sealing our buildings to keep in heat energy, or opening them up to cater for hotter summers? Should we double-glaze our windows with units that need regular replacement, or be looking at increasing ventilation to avoid mould growth? The relevant building regulations are confirming what many have long are sadly immature, and there is as suspected: that the calculated u-values yet little hard data upon which to base (measures of insulation) are by no means consumption, in comparison to the sensible decisions. an accurate reflection of how real building many pages devoted to alternative systems behave. That theory and reality There is a great need for expert guidance energy sources. sometimes clash is rather well illustrated on to lead us through the mass of confusing p16, where a thermal image showing that Perhaps we can hope for a second edition, and often contradictory information, and I heat loss from a row of terraces is greatest which begins with the buildings, and with wish that I could report that The Prince’s from the windows is accompanied by text the really substantial improvements that Regeneration Trust’s new publication, The that suggests loss is greater through walls can be made not with technological fixes, Green Guide for Historic Buildings, is an and roofs. but by changing the way the building is excellent step in that direction; but whilst its being used. The greatest change in the Part of the problem may be the confusing intentions are worthy, it is by no means the last 50 years – during which our energy organisation of the book, which begins authoritative and practical handbook we use has skyrocketed – has not been in the have been waiting for. with statutory requirements – certainly fabric of older buildings, but in the way we an apt reflection of the current state of Its 123 pages certainly contain much useful live and work in them. No longer do we legislation, but not the best approach information, but this has been collected all gather in the warm kitchen, homework for protecting either the buildings or the from disparate sources, and there is no on the table: every room is heated, even environment. In books, as in life, it is more assessment of its relative reliability or the conservatory; each bedroom has a helpful to begin by clarifying what it is worth. Numbers generated by computer television and a computer. This is where we need to achieve: preserve function, models are presented alongside measured it is easy, and even fun to make changes, preserve special character, produce fewer values, without distinguishing between and it fits well with the vision of sustainable emissions, and be able to adapt to climate them, and here and there are ‘facts’ lifestyles so ably presented in the work of changes, whatever they bring us. that contradict other ‘facts’ given a few the Prince’s Trust. pages earlier. It is particularly worrying To become truly sustainable, our Dr Robyn Pender is a Senior Architectural to see comparative graphs of heat loss decisions must be based on whole-life Conservator with the Conservation from various building types, which are costs, and consider current and future Department at English Heritage. She has not labelled to indicate that they map energy use, not just for heating, but for a PhD in Building Physics. She spent two calculated rather than measured values; it construction. This is certainly not a point years at the Bartlett Graduate School at would not be wise to base actions on this that escapes the book’s editors, but their University College London looking at the type of data. message is currently rather swamped by effects of climate change on the historic ancillary information. environment. She is currently sub-editor We are still at the early stages of under- to a new 10-part Practical Building standing how traditionally constructed I do also worry about how little time Conservation series, to be published by buildings behave, but recent measurements the book spends addressing cutting English Heritage in 2010/11.

7 Hackney Society Events To avoid disappointment please book in advance as many events Publications Annual General Meeting are over subscribed. Please Monday 20 September, 7pm check our website for up-to-date Bicycle – Love Your Bike: The Venue to be confirmed. FREE to all information and additional events Complete Guide to Everyday Cycling by Helen Pidd Beating the Bounds of the Games that are organised throughout the Saturday 25 September, 11am year. Most of our events are free Hackney-based journalist Helen Pidd Walk with Lisa Rigg to Hackney Society members and provides advice for ‘non-Lycra-wearing Find out about the colourful characters who £5 to non-members. Contact people who happen to cycle or want lived and worked in the Wick: the Olympic Lisa on 020 8806 4003 or email to start’. It includes photos taken in gold medallist Harry Malin, boxer and [email protected] . Publisher: Fig Tree, member of the Eton Manor Boys’ Club; old £14.99. Etonian Arthur Villiers; Carless, Capel and From Eton Manor to the Olympics: Leonard – the pioneers of Petrol; Alexander More Lea Valley Secrets Revealed Parkes, the inventor of the first plastic in Hackney Society News by Jim Lewis the world; and the chemist Arthur George Seventy-five people attended our first Green. Sporting and industrial heroes will Jim Lewis focuses on the history debate on the theme of sustainability versus be brought to life on this illuminating walk. of the Lea Valley that relates to the conservation on 20 May 2010 at Hothouse Bring a picnic lunch. Meet outside Hackney Olympics. It describes how redundant in London Fields. A further 25 people Wick Overground. FREE to all track surface from the 1948 Olympic attended our talk Optimistic Architecture Games at was uplifted and Lived in London: Blue Plaques and the at on 10 June 2010 – transported to and used to a lively debate followed about the value Stories Behind Them repair the track at Eton Manor. Lewis of post-war architecture. Family Mosaic Thursday 21 October 2010, 7pm traces the growth of Speedway into Housing Association has commissioned Talk with Susan Skedd a major sport in the Lea Valley, with the Society to undertake a series of longer Come and hear about the people and teams in Rye House, , walks aimed at increasing residents’ fitness buildings that have been honoured with Lea Bridge, Haringey, and local knowledge. Part of Activate blue plaques in Hackney and elsewhere in and . Publisher: Libri London, this project will start in September London. Meet at Pages of Hackney, Publishing, £9.99. 70 Lower Clapton Road, London E5 2010 and run until August 2011. FREE to members, £3.00 non-members The Society once again faces funding difficulties, which will affect the Society’s Tall Buildings Thanks to Kopykat for sponsoring this issue ability to comment on planning applications Monday 1 November, 7pm from October 2010. This is a real Kopykat Printing Limited Panel discussion with Prof Robert disappointment as the Planning Sub-group 76 Rivington Street, London EC2A 3AY Tavernor, Chris Dorley-Brown and is just beginning to make a real difference. Tel: 020 7739 2451 Fax: 020 7729 5925 Tanis Hinchcliffe We are currently in negotiations with www.kopykat.co.uk After a decade of dismantling Hackney’s Hackney Council about funding, but with Kopykat based in Shoreditch specialises in tower blocks in the 1980s and 1990s, tall public sector funding cuts the outlook does company stationery and high quality marketing buildings are back on the agenda. How not look promising. material, we cover onsite litho printing, digital should we react to these buildings? How printing, copying and direct mail, environmentally do we judge the suitability of proposed The good news is that the Society is we have recently been awarded Green Mark locations? Meet at Hothouse, 274 planning a new project in collaboration accreditation and we print using vegetable Richmond Road, London E8. FREE to all with Hackney Council’s Conservation, based inks, without the use of alcohol Sustainability and Urban Design Team to and deliver in an LPG vehicle. Clapton Library survey the borough’s 448 locally listed Monday 29 November, 7pm buildings. Currently, there are no resources kopykat Tour with local historian available to help judge the architectural and Designed by Edwin Cooper, this Carnegie- historical significance of these buildings. Design and Print funded library originally opened on Through volunteer involvement, the Society 17 January 1914. But, after nearly 100 plans to conduct a rapid survey to record Spaces is published by the Hackney Society. years of lending books, the fabric of date built, postal address, ward, architect Views expressed in the articles are not the building was in desperate need of or builder, building type, architectural style, necessarily those of the Society. updating. Shepheard Epstein Hunter was building materials, condition and reason Edited by: Lisa Rigg and Monica Blake commissioned to design an extension and for local listing. As part of the funding Layout by: [email protected] restore the original fabric of this Grade II application process we need to prove that Contributors: Monica Blake, Kim Driscoll, listed Edwardian building. Come and see there is a demand and need for this project. Robyn Pender, Lisa Rigg, Ann Robey and the striking restoration, refurbishment and Therefore we would like to hear from you. Lisa Shell extension that provides more space and A consultation form can be downloaded Photos: Archer Architects, Avanti Architects, comfort. Meet outside Clapton Library, from http://www.hackneysociety.org/page_ Dan Betts, Hackney Archives, the Hackney Society, Lisa Shell, Grant Smith and Northwold Road, London E5. FREE to id__163_path Malcolm Smith members, £5.00 non-members __.aspx The Hackney Society Shoreditch Pub Crawl The Round Chapel, Thursday 9 December, 7pm 1d Glenarm Road, London E5 0LY Seasonal drinks Funded by Team Hackney and Hackney T: 020 8806 4003 Come and discover the historic pubs and Parochial Charities E: [email protected] new watering holes of the City Fringe. W: www.hackneysociety.org Meeting point to be confirmed. The Hackney Society is a registered Charity (No 107459) and Company limited by guarantee (No 04574188) FREE to all