At the Heart of Hackney since 1967 2012 THE HACKNEY SOCIETY SPACENews and views about Hackney’s builtS environment Issue 36 Spring 2012 // ISSN 2047-7465

Clapton Girls’ Academy

Clapton Girls’ Academy was the first redesign provides an enhanced physical windows of the main Edwardian building. school in Hackney to be updated under environment with particular respect to Sustainable features include highly insulated the Building Schools for the Future the historic architectural features of the walls, integrated solar protection, exposed programme. The architects Jestico original ‘Pankhurst’ Building (named after thermal mass, natural ventilation, sedum & Whiles were responsible for the Emmeline Pankhurst). Most notably, the roofs and daylight-responsive lights. As a result, the design of the school has been redesign and Mansell Construction for historic oak staircase has been restored awarded a BREEAM rating of ‘Good’. the building. and the entrance hall transformed to provide a more welcoming space. Not only was Clapton Girls’ Academy a In 1906 the school opened in Cassland Road winner of the Hackney Design Awards as County Secondary School for Girls, South The redesign includes a modern Learning Resource Centre, nine refurbished and 2012, but it was voted by the public as Hackney, and moved to a new building on its the People’s Choice that year. current site in Laura Place in 1916. During the modernised science laboratories and a war it was evacuated to Bishop’s Stortford. new dining area with glass doors opening In 1947 it was renamed The John Howard onto the original courtyard. A dedicated School (after the prison reformer, who was Sixth-Form area is housed in a new contents born in Clapton). The Laura Place site was building together with the Applied Learning, 01 Clapton Girls’ Academy extended in 1975, when the school joined Additional Learning and ICT departments. 02 Building Watch: Corsham Street, with Clapton Park School to become Clapton A new assembly hall opens onto a Clapton Cinematograph Theatre, Secondary School for Girls. The school was landscaped courtyard. Fields awarded Technology College status in 1999, The architects resolved overcrowding and 03 Lea Bridge River Heritage Centre becoming Clapton Girls’ Technology College, circulation problems by strengthening and gained academy status in 2011 when it 04 Hackney Society Events movement between the new and existing took its current name. 04 Noticeboard buildings. They designed solar shading 04 Publications Consisting of 40 per cent new buildings to the new build façades, to echo the and 60 per cent refurbished buildings, the horizontal projections of the existing dormer 04 Hackney Society News Building Watch

Corsham Street own Conservation officer were overridden in such a cavalier fashion. It must be a By Laurie Elks task for the Hackney Society to challenge The streets of are a jewel in this consensus for the future. Otherwise, a Hackney’s crown. Many physical elements future generation of conservationists will be contribute to its vibrancy: the explicit nurturing fragments of industrial architecture industrial character of its buildings; the in Shoreditch in the future, as they do in prevalence of traditional materials such as today. stock brick; the consistency of its low rise Meanwhile, members are recommended elevations; and the intimate and unexpected to go and see what is being lost before the pattern of its streets. All of these elements wreckers’ balls move in. have made Shoreditch not merely cool but economically dynamic with a strong service economy, a range of light industrial activities and an emerging high tech sector around The park keeper’s lodge in London Fields the so-called ‘silicon roundabout’. Corsham is under threat. Hackney Council intends Street, close by the said roundabout, to seek planning permission to demolish it, exemplifies all of these elements – an entire ‘a ‘heritage-led regeneration’ of the site’ be maintaining that the building is no longer required for the management of the park. uninterrupted street of pleasing early-mid considered – a view which appears to have London Fields User Group had hoped the 20th century industrial buildings, all of stock been supported by the conservation officer building could be saved and used as a café. brick at a consistent four-storey elevation, tasked to consider the application. and hard to find in a tight cluster of streets. Despite officer support for the scheme Clapton Cinematograph An organisation called INTO University the first planning committee deferred the Theatre Partnerships, which specialises in decision to allow for a heritage assessment infrastructure joint ventures with educational to be undertaken. Things now took a bizarre An Ethiopian church, which owns 229 bodies, applied to Hackney Council for turn for the Council elected not to rely on Lower Clapton Road, has submitted a permission for a scheme to demolish its own heritage assessment but to adopt planning application to alter the façade of the entire south side of Corsham Street, an assessment commissioned by the this historic former cinema. The plan, which through to neighbouring Brunswick Street. developers and reviewed by Ray Rogers, is strongly opposed by local residents, will They proposed to build accommodation Hackney’s erstwhile Head of Conservation. result in the building resembling the Church for 541 students, with ancillary restaurant The developer’s assessment – scarcely of Our Lady Mary of Zion in Axum. use, in a development featuring ‘shoulder disinterested – concluded that the buildings blocks’ of 5–7 storeys, and four ‘pavilions’ were an ‘unimportant example of a common Threat to Listed Buildings of 8–11 storeys. building typology of its age’ – a view The 2012 budget announced the adopted by officers recommending the The application came to committee in withdrawal of VAT relief on approved scheme. As for the Council’s conservation February supported by officers and by the alterations to listed buildings. This Design Review Panel who stated that they officer, who had the temerity to express unexpected decision came as a shock to were ‘convinced by the height and massing a different view, the planning committee the heritage sector. Due to come into force of the proposal and felt it appropriately minutes record the response of the Head of on 1 October 2012, the measure would responded to the emerging context Development Management that ‘this was a of the tall 10 East Road (8–17storeys) personal opinion of a member of staff and add 20 per cent to the cost of alterations development and the existing context (4–6 did not reflect the views of the planning approved under Listed Building Consent. storeys)’ and that it ‘adequately responds to service’. It is understood that this officer has the existing townscape’. now left the Council’s employ. And so the proposal was approved. English Heritage, whilst not formally Thanks to Kopykat for sponsoring this issue This shabby decision bodes ill for Shoreditch. objecting, saw the scheme as a missed Kopykat Printing Limited opportunity. They suggested that although It is surely a matter of urgency that the 76 Rivington Street, London EC2A 3AY the buildings are not individually listed, boundaries of the Conservation Areas be Tel: 020 7739 2451 Fax: 020 7729 5925 and are not part of a Conservation Area, reviewed since the logic of the officers’ www.kopykat.co.uk the Council should view them as ‘heritage recommendation dictates that no protection assets’ as defined by the relevant National will be afforded to any of Shoreditch’s Kopykat based in Shoreditch specialises in industrial streets outside Conservation Areas. company and high quality marketing material, we Planning Policy Statement. EH said that However, that will in turn require the Council cover onsite litho printing, digital printing, copying the buildings ‘have good street elevations to engage additional conservation staff - all and direct mail, environmentally we have recently in a stripped Classical idiom ... [and] form Conservation Area appraisals are currently on been awarded Green Mark accreditation and we a coherent and pleasing streetscape print using vegetable hold Borough-wide due to shortage of staff, with the warehouses on the north side based inks, without the use of alcohol a situation which seems unlikely to change in of Corsham Street.’ EH also noted the and deliver in an LPG vehicle. the near future. continuity between the townscape of Corsham Street and neighbouring streets The decision in Corsham Street reflects a including Bache’s Street and Chart Street. systemic pro-development consensus in kopykat It noted that ‘the area is interspersed with the planning department and it is surely Design and Print characterful buildings’ and suggested that a scandal that the views of the Council’s

02 The Lea Bridge River Heritage Centre

By Julia Lafferty

Background whose children were catered for by the local history amongst the wider community. It is proposed to establish a River Heritage establishment in 1846 of St James’s By holding special themed events hosted by Centre in the former St James’s Mission Mission School by the Anglican Church. a project leader/teacher in period costume, the Mission School will act as a ‘living School located in Hackney’s Lea Bridge Religious institutions played a key role in exhibition’ for children and adults alike, Conservation Area. The Conservation Area providing education for the children of the who will be able to experience a Victorian also includes a number of early industrial poor in the days before education for the schoolroom at first-hand or try their hand at buildings grouped around a cobbled yard young was both compulsory and free. The traditional narrowboat painting. and a water feature which follows the Education Act of 1872 and subsequent course of an inland dock which served the Education Acts, which laid the foundation Utilising the Mission School and the surrounding industries. for the modern state school system, historic river and marshland environment The Victorian Mission School is a stone- reduced the need for such provision and around it, activities and guided tours will built Grade II listed building which has been the Mission School had closed by the be developed in partnership with Hackney on English Heritage’s Buildings at Risk list early 1880s. The building then became St Museum, the Hackney Society and local for a number of years. Vision Homes, who James’s Mission Hall which held regular user groups. As part of the long-term were responsible for the Paradise Park services and Sunday schools until its development of the centre, it is proposed residential development in the Conservation closure in 1922 when it was purchased by to acquire a narrowboat which will be Area, have offered the building to the the Eclipse Glass Works Company, and equipped to enhance the experience of Clapton Arts Trust for the purpose of thereafter used for industrial purposes. riverside life and heritage and provide a establishing the centre on the basis that the Bringing History to Life link to other attractions along the River costs of restoration and refurbishment are Lea, such as the Markfield Beam Engine at A key objective of the centre will be to bring met by the Trust. Tottenham and the proposed to life the daily existence and experiences Wetlands project currently being developed History of the area’s Victorian inhabitants whose by a partnership of surrounding London livelihoods depended upon the . Vision Homes’ Paradise Park development Boroughs in conjunction with Thames The lives of local families such as the took its name from the area of land on the Water, British Waterways, English Heritage, Radleys who operated a boatyard at Lea banks of the River Lea originally known as Lee Valley Regional Park Authority and Paradise Field. The eminent architect and Bridge for over one hundred years is well other agencies. surveyor William Hurst Ashpitel (1776- documented, and, in conjunction with 1852) owned Paradise Field and was Hackney Archives, it is proposed to make In addition there will be scope for responsible for the design and construction this information available online for visitors, promotional events, exhibitions and location of an inland dock at Lea Bridge in the students and local residents. This will work in what is a traditional stone-built early 19th century. This provided the focus develop the research and heritage skills of Victorian schoolhouse building in an for the growth of a riverside community those involved as well as an awareness of atmospheric and historic riverside setting.

03 Hackney Society Events* home for the changing needs of a growing used for performances, workshops and family. Insulation, passive solar heating and exhibitions. Plans to remove the pews have Hackney Through the Centuries: I grey water recycling help to achieve a high been opposed by English Heritage, the Tuesday 15 May 2012, 7pm level of sustainability. The rear of the house Church Buildings Council, the Georgian Talk/walk with Juliet Gardiner and was redesigned to incorporate a terrace, Group and the Society for the Protection Ann Robey kitchen and dining space connecting the of Ancient Buildings. west-facing garden to the existing house. Join authors of the latest Hackney Society Street Art London book, Hackney: An Uncommon History Booking essential Hackney locations are featured in a in Five Parts, to celebrate its publication. smartphone app from Street Art London 39 Parkholme Road, E8 3AG Following a talk by Juliet Gardiner, Ann and Geo Street Art. At launch, the app Robey will lead a walk in the area near includes almost 600 images from Street the bookshop. Return to the shop for Noticeboard Art London’s archive and features the work discussion and a glass of wine. of over 90 street artists. GPS functionality Hackney Hear enables the street art to be located. Booking essential Hackney Hear is a smartphone app that CAAC Broadway Bookshop provides a way to explore and rediscover The Stoke Newington Conservation 6 , E8 4QJ London Fields through the stories of residents, local writers and musicians. It Areas Advisory Committee is looking for FREE to all includes Iain Sinclair on the history of the new members. The group comments on planning applications and monitors Hackney Through the Centuries: II – area, performance poet Shane Solanki on developments in the area. Meetings are Housing Questions the Lido, and photographer Tom Hunter held in the rear Committee Room of Stoke Wednesday 16 May 2012, 7pm on the 1980s squatting scene. Audio is triggered via GPS-location. The app may be Newington Library on the first Monday of Talk/walk with David Garrard and downloaded at www.hackneyhear.com. the month (except bank holidays) from Margaret Willes 6.30pm to 8pm. Marsh Join authors of the latest Hackney Society For more information contact Emma Green Hackney residents are among those book, Hackney: An Uncommon History in ([email protected]). Five Parts, for an examination of how the protesting against Waltham Forest Council’s district’s population has been housed over decision to allow the Olympic Development Authority to build a temporary basketball Publications the past five hundred years, from the Tudor court on .They object to being courtiers’ residences to the mass housing of Acquired for Development By… deprived of valuable green space, and are the 20th century and beyond. edited by Gary Budden and Kit Caless is concerned about the risk to health from a collection of 25 short stories and poems The event includes a walk looking at some asbestos contamination on the site. of Lower Clapton’s remarkably varied set in Hackney written by authors who have housing stock. Return to the shop for Estate lived or still live in the borough. It features discussion and a glass of wine. writers such as Lee Rourke, Gavin James Bower, Molly Naylor, Siddartha Bose and Booking essential David Dawkins. The cover illustration is by Laura Oldfield Ford. Influx Press, £11.99. Pages of Hackney To be reviewed in the next Spaces. 70 Lower Clapton Road, E5 0RN FREE to all Hackney Society News

Clissold House Funding Saturday 16 June 2012, 2.30 Discover Hackney has awarded the Tour with Richard Griffiths Hackney Society a grant for events to celebrate the Hackney Society’s new The architect Richard Griffiths, who was book, Hackney: An Uncommon History in responsible for the restoration of Clissold Five Parts. Contributors to the book will House, will lead a tour of this Grade II* Andrea Luka Zimmerman is to make a film lead walks and give talks at the Broadway listed building. about this estate, which is to be redeveloped Bookshop on 15 May and at Pages of this summer. Zimmerman, a resident on the Hackney on 16 May (see Events section Booking essential estate, is part of the artistic collective Fugitive for details). Clissold House Images, which created the public art project , N4 2EY ‘I am here’. This project involved covering Spaces is published by the Hackney Society. boards on windows of empty flats with Views expressed in the articles are not FREE to members, £5.00 non-members photographs of residents. necessarily those of the Society. Annual General Meeting St Mary’s Edited by: Monica Blake Layout by: [email protected] Saturday 22 September, 7pm Victorian box pews in St Mary’s old church Contributors: Monica Blake, Laurie Elks and The AGM will be followed by a tour of this are to be replaced with modern seating. Julia Lafferty Victorian terraced house, by Macdonald The church is to be redeveloped as a Photos: Monica Blake, Tim Crocker and Wright Architects. The house has been community arts centre and flexible seating Julia Lafferty restored and remodelled to create a flexible would allow the whole building to be The Hackney Society The Round Chapel, 1d Glenarm Road, London E5 0LY Please check our website for up-to-date information and additional events that are *organised throughout the year. Most of our events are free to Hackney Society members T: 07771 225183 and £5 to non-members. For special and joint events there may be a charge for E: [email protected] W: www.hackneysociety.org members. To avoid disappointment please book a place as some events have a limited The Hackney Society is a registered Charity (No 107459) number of places. To book email [email protected] or phone 07771 225183. and Company limited by guarantee (No 04574188)