At the Heart of since 1967 2012 THE HACKNEY SOCIETY SPACENews and views about Hackney’s builtS environment Issue 37 Summer 2012 // ISSN 2047-7457

Telling the Truth through False Teeth By Rossana Tich

Over the past few months, a mid- Alex Chinneck believes, ‘These factories 20th-century factory, earmarked may be industrially redundant, but I think it for demolition, on Tudor Road, E9 is important to preserve them and recognise the architectural contribution they make has slowly and painstakingly been installation period I have heard many different to ’s eclectic skyline and streets. It transformed into a work of art by Alex interpretations of what the work means and seems odd that we tear down structures that Chinneck in association with Sumarria why I have done it. Everyone is welcome to have been built to last.’ Lunn Gallery. People passing by have interpret the intervention in their own way; I been doing a double take, realising In total 312 panes from 13 windows have just hope they enjoy it.’ been replaced with 1,248 pieces of glass – that the original broken windows had Telling the Truth Through False Teeth four pieces form the perfect break in every been replaced with … broken windows, Artist: Alex Chinneck (http://www. pane. The familiar is made unfamiliar by the albeit 312 identically smashed panes. alexchinneck.com/) in association with repetition and exactness of the work – the Sumarria Lunn Gallery. Location: corner The site was once a shoe factory and most combination of engineering and accident of Mare Street and Tudor Road, Hackney, recently a cannabis factory! Chinneck spent a completes the illusion. ‘This brilliant use E9 7FE. Installation on view: until at least gruelling four months removing the remnants: of broken glass is a witty way of both September 2012. piles of soil, wires, grow bags, water underlining the building’s being allowed to tanks, plant pots and heat lamps. Planning get run down – the broken windows - and contents permission has been sought over the years highlighting how good it could look if it had 01 Telling the Truth through False Teeth to demolish the factory and replace it with been well looked after.’ (Nichola Schild, a hotel (part of a larger scheme) but the local resident) 02 Building Watch: Marsh latest plans are for a residential block. The 03 Building Watch: 86-100 Mare Street Central and South Hackney Conservation Alex Chinneck, who lives in Hackney, was 03 Building Watch: Queen Elizabeth Areas Advisory Committee has been born in 1984 and is a graduate of the Hospital commenting on the various applications Chelsea College of Art and Design. Most and did make representations to retain the recently, he was nominated for the Royal 03 Hackney Society Events industrial building as a reminder of Tudor British Society of Sculptors’ Bursary Award. 04 Book Review Road’s heritage. The Planning Inspectorate, By making work that is unconcerned with 04 Noticeboard however, whilst being sympathetic to this creative disciplines, his sculptures and 04 Publications plea, said that it was not a good enough installations co-exist across the realms of example design-wise to warrant retention. art, design and architecture. ‘Throughout the 04 Hackney Society News Building Watch

Leyton Marsh – Green Space For Whom?

By Celia Coram The subject matter of Spaces is space, we would become ‘demonised’. more usually concerned with the Supported by members of the Occupy built environment of Hackney. Leyton Movement, who set up camp next to the Marsh is technically in the borough of fenced-off building site, we bonded as a Waltham Forest. However, regardless group in a very special way. Regardless of political boundaries, all the marshes of what many may perceive of Occupy, are accessed regularly by local people our personal experience as ordinary local and are of both local and national residents has been that they are very brave, significance. Open space and the built outstanding people, who put their principles environment are equally subject to before their own needs and comforts. planning legislation and processes, Following non-violent attempts to prevent and what I am about to describe is vehicle access to the site, judicial injunctions relevant to all who have an interest in were served to move the camp off Porter’s and passion for preserving the best and Field and later off the verge of the Lea championing good new design in the Bridge Road. Four people from Occupy areas in which we live. were arrested. On a chilly, snow-laden evening on 3 In April, there was a hearing at the High February, many Hackney and Waltham Court. Summing up, the judge recognised Forest residents made a precarious that local people had followed the for an adjoining site which is. It is generally journey to Waltham Forest Town Hall to democratic process without success. He find out the fate of a proposal to build a accepted knowledge that wildlife does not took into account that the three defendants just need a sanctuary to survive but also all temporary basketball facility on Porter’s before him (one person had opted to plead Field, Leyton Marsh. As we sat, squashed, the random ‘corridors’ that some people guilty at Magistrates Court) had human think we can easily give up. in the public gallery, speakers opposed to rights. However, the judge declared Article the development made some convincing 1 of Property Law to trump Articles 10 and In addition to wildlife of the marshes and coherent arguments as to why the 11 of the Human Rights Act. SLM have a suffering disturbance, local people have had ‘temporary basketball facility’ should not contrary view – that the ownership of the to sacrifice restrictions on their freedoms be built on Leyton Marsh, backed up by a land is not lawful since it was granted on an of movement, expression, assembly and petition of over 1,000 signatures gathered erroneous basis and a judicial review has the right just to roam as a result of the in a very short time. Those pro the plan been submitted on that basis. development of a sports facility. Today did not, as I recall, make much of their Porter’s Field bears no trace of the Occupy At a local meeting organised by the ODA argument, mostly relying on the mantra campers, but there is a large, white (Olympic Delivery Authority) to inform and that ‘The Olympics were an exceptional ‘Lightweight Event Structure’, enclosed in a reassure the public about the restoration circumstance’ for development on protected Stalag-style fence, with tarmac laid crudely of Leyton Marsh (at which eight police Metropolitan Open Land (MOL). as an access road. Why was this land officers were present including three in plain sacrificed when there were, in our opinion, As the vote taken by a mere seven clothes), the residents spoke about the alternative, sporting facilities based within councillors went three-three with the Chair’s climate of fear generated by the apparent the required distance of the Olympic Park casting vote sealing the fate of the Porter’s ‘total’ policing at Leyton Marsh. However, as well as industrial buildings that could Field part of the Marsh, I had that ‘been SLM continues to monitor, record and have been converted? It is evident that here before’ feeling as exactly the same challenge the various bodies involved the contract for the said Lightweight Event outcome a few months earlier had befallen about the environmental impact that the Structure was set out by the Contracting the Essex Wharf site with agreement for a building process has entailed, e.g. removing Authority to award on or before May 2011, housing development. more than the 15 cm of topsoil agreed by and designated to be there. One might speculate that the ‘temporary’ Waltham Forest Council, and unearthing This illustrates a particular difficulty that aspect of this building helped to justify post-WW2 toxic rubble and leaving it local people face in responding to large- agreement on the basketball training uncovered for months. scale initiatives – the requirement to build facility being built – but this was not to SLM’s main goal now is to ensure that the on such a scale necessitates setting up the be a mere tent but a construction which land is restored to the conditions required contracting processes well in advance of required concrete foundations and other by local people, with the right kind of turf proper consultation. infrastructure not generally considered to be and plant species. Regular users of Porter’s of a temporary nature. Field have knowledge of what was there and As locals, we need to be alert to the do not want to be fobbed off with ‘quick infringements of our human rights – this Later in the lobby, horrified and disgruntled fix turf’. We might prefer to wait longer and might sound dramatic when pitched against people drew together, contacts were have the field returned in better condition situations in other parts of the world, yet exchanged and a meeting was organised post 15 October 2012 (the promised date recent events have led me to see that we the following week resulting in the Save when reparations should begin). We are are far less free than we think. The right of Leyton Marshes (SLM) campaign. concerned because, although the basketball access to common land (or land managed Little did we know then that, as local people facility site was not on an SSSI (Site of on our behalf) can be withdrawn with the with a deep connection to local green Special Scientific Interest), it is a buffer zone flick of a pen.

02 Building Watch

86-100 Mare Street

By David Shaw Earlier this year, the once fine – but now stood by the initial decision that developers sadly rather unloved – Triangle in South must abide by the planning regulations Hackney received a further blow with a and decisions, and that in this instance the report from the Planning Inspectorate developers had failed to do so. supporting the disputed building at 86- Unfortunately when the inquiry, chaired by 100 Mare Street, which is in the Central the Planning Inspectorate, was eventually and South Hackney Conservation Area. called, the Inspector, not for the first time This undistinguished building has been in Hackney, differed in his opinion from subject to fierce criticism from some locals. that of the enforcement team. Rather than It faced a robust response from Hackney being critical of developers for ignoring Council’s enforcement team, who argued planning rules, his report levelled a number that the building in situ bears no resemblance of criticisms of process against Hackney to the plans submitted, which were for a Council, whilst arguing that since the wharf-style building, and with initial planning building is occupied the disruption would approval subject to a number of caveats. prove too great and that the proposals for a This decision to enforce was welcomed by facelift were sufficient, and therefore that no many who have long despaired of Hackney’s enforcement was required. seeming unwillingness to take action in the Given that the building bears no more of these cases. With greater freedom face of apparent clear breaches of planning resemblance to what was originally being given to developers and an increasing approvals. submitted, questions remain. First, as to number of decisions by an Inspectorate that at times seem to ignore common sense Hackney’s enforcement team began action why this reached such an advanced stage and planning law, there is a compelling whilst the unfinished building, including before alarm bells were sounded. Secondly, need for greater community vigilance gaping shop fronts, was occupied by why go through the time, cost and disruption and participation in holding developers to residential tenants. An initial inquiry was of an inquiry to reach a position that would account. called and postponed with the developer have been avoided by an adherence to the submitting plans seeking to retain the planning process? In the meantime Hackney is the poorer for building, including a new façade to the Clearly a much better process of monitoring the Inspectorate’s decision to allow this existing structure. The enforcement team and understanding is required to avoid building to remain.

Queen Elizabeth Hospital

Family Mosaic and Rydon are working well as to Hackney City Farm and several private sale, 36 homes for affordable with HTA Architects on a bid for the Grade II listed properties. rent and 17 homes for low-cost home redevelopment of the Queen Elizabeth ownership (shared ownership), together with The Rydon/Family Mosaic proposals include Children’s Hospital site to provide an the demolition of the existing buildings associated external works. anticipated 180 mixed tenure homes. whilst retaining the façade of the original Public consultation on the proposals was Although the site is in Tower Hamlets, it is hospital on Hackney Road, erected in 1904. launched on 18 July 2012. in close proximity to two conservation areas This will be followed by the construction which are directly adjacent to Hackney, as of a basement car park, 127 homes for Further information is at www.qech.co.uk

Hackney Society Events* to the existing house. Booking essential. Oh, and transvestism thrown in for good 39 Parkholme Road, E8 3AG measure. Booking essential. Meet 7pm at the bottom end of Square just Shakespeare’s Annual General Meeting opposite the White Cube Gallery. FREE to Tuesday 16 October 2012, 7pm Saturday 22 September, 7pm members, £5 non-members. The AGM will be followed by a tour of 39 Walk with Kevin Moore Parkholme Road. This Victorian terraced The Hackney Society Chair reprises the house (by Macdonald Wright Architects) walk that was originally conceived for the Please check our website for up-to-date has been restored and remodelled to create National Youth Theatre in 2004; this time *information and additional events that are a flexible home for the changing needs of with a salacious twist for adult audiences. organised throughout the year. Most of our a growing family. Insulation, passive solar Shoreditch was home to two theatres events are free to Hackney Society members heating and grey water recycling help to where Shakespeare and Burbage played. and £5 to non-members. For special and achieve a high level of sustainability. The Only recently, in March 2009, the site of joint events there may be a charge for rear of the house has been redesigned to The Theatre (built in 1576) was found in the members. To avoid disappointment, please book a place as some events have a limited incorporate a terrace, kitchen and dining ‘suburbs of sin’. Sex, death, fighting, duels, number of places. To book, email events@ space connecting the west-facing garden theatre and drink: who needs ‘Eastenders’? hackneysociety.org or phone 020 7175 1967.

3 Book Review by Ken Worpole Hackney’s ever-changing population. Yet the St John of Jerusalem anthology exhibits a solid kernel of realism This Grade II listed church in Lauriston Road Acquired for Development By…..A Hackney about Hackney in the first years of the 21st has received a grant of £40,000 from the Anthology, edited by Gary Budden & Kit century, making it an invaluable document of National Churches Trust to reslate its roof Caless, Influx Press, London, £11.99 record and reflection. The always clear-eyed and repair its decaying stonework. There’s something about Hackney that Laura Oldfield Ford provides the searing cover collages. Publications seems to attract or encourage writers. The strength of this anthology is that it doesn’t Noticeboard The War on Our Doorstep: London’s start from a blank sheet but refers back to East End and How the Blitz Changed it earlier influences and familiar topographies, Forever by Harriet Salisbury depicts what LDF Consultation notably via the work of Alexander Baron it meant to be an East Ender during the Hackney Council has published two (one of whose novels provides the title) and Blitz. Ebury Press, in association with the new draft planning policy documents Harold Pinter. J.G.Ballard, Arthur Machen, Museum of London, £6.99. Michael Moorcock and Maureen Duffy all for consultation as part of its Local The Art of Dissent: Adventures in get name-checked, and Martin Amis is also Development Framework (LDF). The draft London’s Olympic State edited by Hilary mentioned – though only as the name of an Development Management Local Plan Powell and Isaac Marrero brings together a unloved dog. (DMLP) contains proposed planning policies that will be used, along with other LDF body of work that has emerged in response Most of the contributors are in their 20s and documents, mainly to guide and determine to the arrival of the Olympic Games in East 30s, and grew up elsewhere in the world, planning applications received by the London. Marshgate Press, £14.99. To be but find the kaleidoscope of the borough’s Council over the next 15 years. The draft reviewed in the next Spaces. street cultures, dystopian politics and Site Allocations Local Plan (SALP) identifies Born out of Wenlock – William Penny libertarian lifestyles rich material. Where key strategic sites across the Borough Brookes and the British Origins of the Hackney’s imaginative territory once centred and specific policies for those sites. The Modern Olympics by Catherine Beale on Clapton, and Victoria Park, consultation period for both documents will describes the Olympian Games held in the anthology’s postcode poetics widens run from 16 July 2012 to 25 September the 19th century at Much Wenlock in out to include Shoreditch, Hoxton, Stoke 2012. View the documents at http://www. Shropshire, and considers their influence Newington, and . In hackney.gov.uk/site-allocations-dpd.htm and on the modern Olympics. DB Publishing, fact the book is divided up territorially which http://www.hackney.gov.uk/Development- £12.99. works rather well, and includes some lively Management-DPD.htm Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel is narrative poems which would sound even a sequel to Wolf Hall. It covers the period better in live performance. Spacehive 1535-36 when Ralph Sadler was living in Spacehive.com is a new online fundraising Unsurprisingly the women writers are more Bryck Place (now known as Sutton House). platform that makes it easier for people interested in their neighbours and the people Fourth Estate, £20. to transform their local area. Anyone can they now find themselves living amongst put forward a project idea – whether it’s A 1960s East End Childhood by Simon than the men. The latter tend to focus on to create a new green space, to build Webb deconstructs the myth of a golden the politics, the pubs, the drugs and sense new sports facilities, or to restore a local age in East London with safer streets, of danger that lies just below the surface of landmark. Anyone can then pledge healthier children and people living happily so many alternative lifestyles. Nell Frizell’s funds to the project, from local residents within stable and caring communities. The interviews with houseboat dwellers on the to businesses, corporates and interest History Press, £7.99. , along with Natalie Hardwick’s groups. To find out more, contact Maddie sympathetic exploration of Hackney’s Turkish on [email protected], or visit www. Hackney Society News Alevi community, are, for me, amongst the spacehive.com collection’s highlights. Georgia Myers – who Funding grew up in Hackney – provides a grim picture St Mary’s Secret Garden The Community Development Foundation of life for girls in a street culture that has lost Mind has awarded the charity St Mary’s has awarded the Hackney Society a grant to produce a pdf of a walk in the any sense of a better life to come. Secret Garden £9,948 to continue its work Clapton area. helping people who have experienced A number of writers, male and female, set mental health problems to get involved in Phone Number their stories at a future date when, without The Hackney Society’s telephone number green activities. The garden is in Pearson exception, life in Hackney is beginning to has changed to 020 7175 1967. Street, E2. look not entirely convincingly like a war of all against all (with strong echoes of Richard Thanks to Kopykat for sponsoring this issue Jefferies’ After London, or Will Self’s The Spaces is published by the Hackney Society. Views expressed in the articles are not Kopykat Printing Limited Book of Dave). Those who watched the necessarily those of the Society. various tower block demolitions of the 1990s 76 Rivington Street, London EC2A 3AY will find their pulses racing a little faster Edited by: Monica Blake Tel: 020 7739 2451 Fax: 020 7729 5925 after reading Kieran Duddy’s tragi-comic Layout by: [email protected] www.kopykat.co.uk recreation of those bizarre occasions, part Contributors: Monica Blake, Celia Coram, Kopykat based in Shoreditch specialises in celebration, part apocalypse. Elsewhere in David Shaw, Rossana Tich and Ken Worpole company stationery and high quality marketing the book, Tim Burrows’ clever exploration material, we cover onsite litho printing, digital Photos: Alex Chinneck, Celia Coram, printing, copying and direct mail, environmentally of all the associations related to Newton Sumarria Lunn and David Shaw we have recently been awarded Green Mark Dunbar’s creation of the Four Aces Club in The Hackney Society accreditation and we print using vegetable Dalston will remind readers of how everything The Round Chapel, based inks, without the use of alcohol in Hackney seems to be related to everything 1d Glenarm Road, London E5 0LY and deliver in an LPG vehicle. else that ever happened in the world. T: 020 7175 1967 No single reader is likely to enjoy all of the E: [email protected] contributions, given that the writers are a self- W: www.hackneysociety.org kopykat selecting group rather than a cross-section of The Hackney Society is a registered Charity (No 107459) and Company limited by guarantee (No 04574188) Design and Print