Artists' Open Studios Safari in Dalston. It's this weekend coming - 26 and 27th November !!

This weekend, 26 and 27th November, Dalston (and Hackney) artists designers and makers throw open their studio doors and allow the public inside to view, to chat and to buy at studio prices.

The Chocolate Factory at Farleigh Place, Farleigh Road N16,7SX  - 28 artists studios producing fine art, ceramics, textiles, jewellery and a lot more

Designed in Dalston exhibition at 1 Cecilia Road E8 2EP at the junction with Dalston Lane  - six creators displaying works of art, ceramics, lighting and every day items

London Fields Ceramics - 12 ceramicists in 4 studios in the Broadway Market/London Fileds area

De Beauvoir Association Christmas Fair, on Saturday only 11-5pm, at St Peter's Crypt, Northchurch Terrace N1 . At this annual community fair  you'll find  ‘made in De Beauvoir’ items including eats, Christmas cards, housewares, pet treats, garden must-haves, children’s toys and games,

A little further afield, three stops on the 30 bus from Dalston Lane to Hackney's Narroway, you'll reach Clarence Mews.

Cressida Bell 24-26 Clarence Mews E5 8HL ( textiles and design)

Hackney Makers Weekend, ( fashion, furniture and more) who are also exhibiting in Clarence Mews

All along the Arts and Crafts Safari you'll also find lots of  independent businesses, Ridley Road market, pubs and coffee shops to distract you and take a load off , including the revered Eastern Curve Garden  where there'll be a Giant Vegetable Lanterns workshop to prepare for their Festival of Light

Studios are a walk from Dalston Junction, Dalston Kingsland, Hackney Downs and London Fields stations and buses numbered 30, 38, 55, 56, 149, 242

Last goodbyes to Dalston Lane's Georgian terraces

Last week Murphy's workmen were erecting a hoarding around what is left of Hackney Council's sixteen Georgian houses on Dalston Lane. They are being prepared for demolition. 

On 5th March 2014 the Chair of Hackney's Planning Committee, in the face of a divided Committee, used his casting vote to grant permission for the total demolition of the 200 year old houses ( Read "One man, two votes" here. Ed.)

Hackney refused an offer from the Spitalfields Trust to restore the houses 

Despite Hackney claiming that is was pursuing a "genuine" conservation led scheme, nothing will be conserved. The front facades of the houses will be rebuilt, skin-deep, in "heritage likeness" with bricks from off-site,

This slideshow tells the disgraceful story of neglect and vandalism of the terrrace which lead to their ultimate destruction  

OPEN brought Court proceedings for judicial review of the plannning permission but, "not without sympathy" for objectors, the Judge felt unable to intervene. 

Phase I demolitions being completed, including the old Sound and Music shop at 66 Dalston Lane

You can read our open letter asking for an apology from Hackney's Mayor here  He didn't acknowledge or reply to the letter.  ( Former Hackney Mayor Jules Pipe is now the London Mayor's planning czar. Ed.)

You may have seen our local community holding a wake beside the ruins of the condemned houses. Local people left touching tributes to the memories they embodied 

Hackney's primary aim was to maximise the price it could get for the terrace from a private developer. This was sought by first trying to demolish them without planning permission (unsuccessfully) and then by disregarding its own engineering consultant's opinion, disregarding its conservation and affordable housing policies and disregarding its community's views. The outcome, behind the phoney fronts, will be 44 new flats for private sale with no affordable housing for local people at all.

The Vandals: an eastern Germanic tribe which earned notoriety by sacking Rome in the 5th century, but which was later defeated by the Byzantines.
Vandalism: the gratuitous anti-social destruction of the environment and artistic creations.
Municipal vandalism: the destruction of our cultural heritage by corporate ignorance, deliberate neglect, greed and vanity, all in the name of regeneration, best value, necessity and progress.