Festive greetings from OPEN Dalston

OPEN Dalston sends best wishes to all our members and supporters in this festive season. We celebrate the generous support given by our local Dalston community and by the many eminent people and the local and national amenity societies who have backed our fight  to preserve something of the character, identity and diversity of  Dalston.

There has been 30 years of deliberate neglect of our Georgian houses since Hackney first acquired them. Ever since, a cloud of suspicion has hung over Dalston Terrace . For 10 years we have tried to persuade Hackney Council to save them. But it stood idly by, mouthing platitudes about being the champions of our heritage, whilst watching decay. Eventually, Hackney designed a profit-led scheme to attract a developer. It will load the sixteen ancient houses with 44 flats, all for private sale. Hackney pleads  its own negligence that, due to years of  dereliction, the houses are now too weak to withstand their scheme. They still call it a "genuine conservation scheme" although nothing will be conserved. We are are now in a desperate fight for their survival. It could be Dalston Terrace's last Christmas.