Allpress Coffee Roastery in Dalston Lane - an exemplar of regeneration

After months hiding behind builders hoardings J S Gould's light industrial building, set in the Dalston Lane (West) Conservation Area, has now been revealed. Not as yet another block of private flats but as an exemplar of regeneration. Carefully designed, refurbished and fitted out, the former joinery workshops have been reinvented as the Allpress Espresso Coffee Roastery and Café

"We fell in love with this 1930s building and its history as a joinery where things were made by hand." said the new owner Tony Papas. "The building has great bones and it’s been exciting to bring back the utility of the original design again."

Imported green coffee beans are stored in elegant silos before roasting

The beans are air-roasted in computer controlled conditions.

Roasted beans packed and ready for wholesale distribution

The roasting operations are fully visible from within the building which also has coffee blending and training areas, and large spaces for events and exhibitions.

And then there's the coffee bar and open plan kitchen/restaurant (Tony is a total foodie, so expect something very tasty. Ed.)

"We have a unique use, we are bringing back the building to its original purpose and we have the opportunity for people to come and experience our working process and enjoy the end result. Freshly roasted coffee!"  Tony Papas
 

And everything is powered from solar voltaic panels mounted on the original saw tooth roof

 

BBC Gardeners' Question Time at Dalston's Eastern Curve Garden

Last Monday BBC Gardeners' Question Time came to Dalston and recorded  its weekly show at the Eastern Curve Garden including answering questions from a live local audience. 

Eric Robson, Bob Flowerdew and James Wong with OPEN members Marie Murray and Brian Cumming who manage the Eastern Curve Garden

 The show will be broadcast  at 3pm on Friday 7th August, and repeated at 2pm on Sunday 9th, on Radio 4 FM. If you miss that you can always hear a replay on the BBC website

The BBCs request to broadcast from the Garden came after a recent visit, during the Chelsea Flower Show Fringe event, which the Garden has participated in for the last four years.

Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, shares a joke with Marie Murray on a recent visit.

 The BBC panel showed their wide ranging expertise by answering questions relating to gardening on balconies and fire escapes, the best plants for reducing city air pollution, music as an aid to gardening, the best herbs to top the Curve Garden's yummy pizzas, eradicating mildew ( Beware dry roots - Ed.) and the opportunities for snail farming.

The Eastern Curve Garden is Dalston's only community managed green space. It's a meeting place for people and plants where you can enjoy a huge range of activities for all ages whether you love plants and gardening, music, arts, crafts or just a relaxing with friends and family. What's more its got some of the tastiest food and drinks to rival any of the hippest cafes locally.

(Fancy making a sustainable, locally sourced, organic wood fired snail pizza.....anyone? Ed.)