We now have two Dalston stations with lines going to Highbury - the North London (Orbital) Line from Dalston Kingsland station and the East London Line overground extension from Dalston Junction station. So why the luxury of two?
Readers will recall the Secretary of State saying that the new Dalston Transport Interchange (the rail/bus interchange built over Dalston Junction railway cutting) "will be a major transport interchange between the East London Line northern extension, the North London line and London buses, as essential part of transport improvements required for the London Olympics 2012".
But the East London line at Dalston Junction doesn't go to the 2012 Olympic site at Stratford. Nor does it interchange with the North London line, at Dalston Kingsland station, which does. And the one bus which will use The Slab above the Dalston Junction station doesn't go to the Olympic site either - despite the £63million spent on it.
The bus stop on The Slab at Dalston Square which is to be used by just one bus - not the 60 per hour which we were told it was built for.
When we met the London Development Agency (LDA), with OPEN's patron Lord Low, we pointed all this out. We were told by the LDA that it would not be the first Transport Interchange to have been built in the wrong place... but the problem was not insurmountable.
Now those clever people at TfL have solved the problem. People using the East London line can now get the train from Dalston Junction to Highbury, change onto the North London line, and travel back via Dalston Kingsland to get to the 2012 Olympic site at Stratford. Hurrah!
Still, mustn't grumble - the £63million spent on The Slab is only TfL's money wasted, not ours. Isn't it?
Yes - if you believed TfL's Head of Communications. He wrote a letter to the Hackney Gazette, when TfL was promoting the Transport Interchange back in 2006 -"It is currently proposed that TfL will meet the cost of the rail station and the potential bus station".
But sadly it didn't turn out like that.
Massive demolitions took place in Dalston between 2007 and 2010 so that "high revenue generating" developments (private flats and retail) could be built to help fund the £63million cost of The Slab
The old 1886 Dalston Circus and 1898 Variety Theatre were demolished to create the development site for Barratt's blocks of private flats.
Further demolitions, of some 20 buildings, were then required to renew the tunnel to extend the East London line to Highbury and Islington
The demolitions have left Dalston, as someone said, looking like an old friend who has had her teeth knocked out. Hit by a runaway train more like.
This is the view north from Dalston Lane showing the demolition sites on Kingsland Road above the renewed tunnel to Highbury.
(PS - When will Tfl announce that 60 hopper buses an hour will be ferrying people from The Slab to Stratford for the three week 2012 Olympic event? And that's why the £63millon Slab was built. And why old Dalston was demolished and replaced with tower blocks to help pay for it. Ed.).
In January last year Mark Clare, chief executive of Barratt, one of the UK’s biggest housebuilders, said: “There is definitely more buy-to-let availability now than there was. Lenders are telling us that rather than increasing loan availability to first-time buyers, they are preferring to lend to buy-to-let investors.”
Now Barratt claims that 90% of the private flats being built in Dalston Square Phase 2 have been sold off-plan. Have they been sold to owner-occupiers - or are overseas buy-to-let investors moving in? This recent promotional piece about Dalston Square in the Hong Kong Standard below gives us a clue - there was similar overseas promotion for Phase 1 as well.
This image, by Brian Cumming, shows some of the stars of popular entertainment who were associated with the now demolished 1886 Dalston Theatre buildings. They include Sir Robert Fossett (1886 circus owner), Marie Lloyd (1870-1922 Hackney's very own international music hall star), Stevie Wonder (played there in 1963 with his American band), Desmond Dekker (played there in 1969 - with the first UK reggae hit 'The Israelites'), Bob Marley (ate curry goat there), The Prodigy (began their career there) and the Sex Pistols. You can read about the demolition of old Dalston in the story that was never told here. Hackney Council demolished the historic buildings in 2007to help fund New Dalston's tower blocks, brand name shops and a bus station on The Slab in Dalston.
In July the Council adopted new powers to enable its Licensing Committee to operate a policy of "Nil" tolerance of 'sex entertainment'. If used it will criminalise erotic entertainment - striptease, burlesque, gay cabaret and the like. The policy will target two striptease pubs owned by women in Shoreditch . But recently the local council estate tenants' associations, and the Vicar, have come out in their support, whilst condemning the numerous other late-night bars and off-licenses for the drunken ante-social behavior plaguing the area. Will women will be safer in Shoreditch if such activities are criminalised and no longer subject to Council regulation and control? Do the police have the resources to cope when the gangsters take over? What would Hoxton born Marie Lloyd have made of it all? You can find out more by watching this short film "Hands Off" in which dancers, costumiers, business owners, the Vicar of St Leonards Church and others all have their say.
Eight years of fighting This year Spirit lost his final, eight year, battle for justice in the Court of Appeal following last year defeat when a county court judge dismissed his claim for compensation . Hackney's auctioneers sold his property in 2001 to an off-shore landlord - for less than Spirit had offered to pay."He was plainly proud of the business which he had built up since 1993. It is sad that this was taken from him "said the Judge "It is unfortunate that these offshore companies are purchasing properties and are able to avoid the same fees and taxes which others would have to pay". We saw Court Bailiffs abandon plansto take possession of Spirit's home and shop after a rally of local people gathered on Broadway Market to show their support for one of the street's best loved characters. Shortly afterwards, to avoid confrontation, Spirit gave up his keys to his landlord.
Seven pounds fifty £7.50 was all the public were prepared to pay, at OPEN's auction, for Dalston's £63million bus stop. Construction of the new bus stop on The Slab in Dalston involved the demolition of the old Snooker Hall to create a ramp from the Slab down onto Kingsland Road. The cost of The Slab had risen from £26m to £39m to £63million - a massive, scandalously expensive and carbon heavy concrete raft built over the Dalston Junction railway cutting in 2009 which, the Secretary of State told OPEN, was necessary to site a bus/rail Interchange as "an essential part of the transport infrastructure needed for the 2012 Olympics"(Excuse me.... the buses and trains from Dalston don't actually go to Stratford - Ed). OPEN learnt this year that only one bus will in fact use The Slab (the 488 route) - not the 60 buses an hour TfL said justified the expense and the demolition of Old Dalston to pay for it. Boris' GLA then delivered a deluge of drivel to try and cover up the scandal of Dalston's £63million bus stop. But, as you can see from the photo, the bus stop remains deserted and the 488 seems to be running late.
Six blackened buildings In previous years they burned down old buildings on Dalston's development sitesand last year they painted our surviving Georgian houses black - a somber reminder of the charred remains or a dark vision of more funeral pyres to come? This year, after four fires, three demolitions and OPEN Dalston's long campaign, Hackney finally listened to our community and bought the terrace back from the off-shore slum landlord(For double what it had sold them for at the auction in 2002 - Ed). Now, in the age of austerity when money is scarce, and despite the Council's fine words, the buildings remain derelict and at risk. There are young people occupying some of these surviving fragments of Dalston's past. They know the sad history of our local heritage. Quite why Hackney wants to evict the occupiers, who at least keep the houses wind and watertight, remains a mystery.
Five gold rings
Seb Coe denied, to the bitter end, that the 2012 London Olympic park was radioactive. Thanks to JT for the images Last year OPEN learned of theextensive radioactive contamination across the London Olympic 2012 site which had been dug up and spread around during 2.5 million cu. metres of earthmoving and landscaping works. The regulatory authorities - the Environment Agency and local Council's - had left it to the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) to manage the risks by means of planning permission conditions. But the ODA is not just the planning authority - it is the developer of the site as well. Extensive stockpiling, and the burial on the site of 7,000 tonnes of radioactive waste, has been carried out without any prior planning permission at all. OPEN called for an independent report - and the expert's conclusions which we have seen are shocking. Finally, this year, the GLA has announced an inquiry into how this happened. What will the environmental legacy be for future generations?
Four Aces Club
Winstan's Whitter's documentary "Legacy in the dust" tells the story of Dalston's legendary reggae club, its relationship with the Council and the police, how it went on to become the Labyrinth and the eventual demolition of its original home in the historic Dalston Theatre buildings. The film is attracting attention and featured as part of the Reggae Rebels exhibition in Hackney Museum. And now Newton Dunbar, who ran the club for over 30 years, is back in action in Dalston with the Four Aces Club Roadshow. Oh yeah!
Three writers speak
The Worship of Mammon 1909 by Evelyn de Morgan, updated 2009 by dunkdigital.com
This year we saw local community aspirations bear fruit with the landscaping and planting of the Dalston Eastern Curve Garden and the Bootstrap Roof Park on top of Ashwin Street's Reeves Printhouse. In a area previously bereft, these green oasis provide places where people meet plants, places for learning, for celebrations and for solace. And we've even got a FARM in a shop in Dalston too with chickens on the roof (That's enough crowing - Ed). Also the New Year will see Arcola Theatre moving to the heart of Dalston, into the Colourworks building, bringing plans for a carbon free eco-theatre and building their national reputation from our local hub of cultural excellence in Ashwin Street.
And a retail opportunity
Image gimped by sdit.org.uk
Last year OPEN Dalston consulted the local community about Hackney's proposals for a massive residential/retail led 8-storey redevelopment of Dalston Cross shopping centre. But although the credit freeze poured cold water on Hackney's aspirations, Tesco progressed its plans for twin 12-storey residential towers on top of a new redeveloped Tesco superstore in Morning Lanewhich will overshadow St John in Hackney churchyard gardens and Hackney's oldest monument, St Augustine's tower. Tesco's consultants swore blind that the doubling of car spaces in the new Mega-Tesco would miraculously reduce existing traffic gridlock at the Mare Street junction -but the Planning Committee saw through them, and despite its officers recommendations, rejected the scheme. So it's back to the drawing board and more schmoozing required for Tesco.
".... The latest blocks, blindly monolithic, devour pavements and abolish bus stops. They aspire to an occult geometry of capital: Queensbridge Quarter, Dalston Square. Everything is contained, separate, protected from flow and drift. No junk mail, please. No doorstep hawkers. No doorsteps. The big idea is to build in-station car parks, to control ‘pedestrian permeability’, so that clients of the transport system exit directly into a shopping mall. Where possible, a supermarket operator underwrites the whole development, erecting towers on site, so that Hackney becomes a suburb of Tesco, with streets, permanently under cosmetic revision, replaced by 24-hour aisles. Light and weather you can control. Behaviour is monitored by a discreet surveillance technology." Iain Sinclair, London Review of Books, June 2009
An artist's impression of Barratt's Dalston Square shopping heaven - private high-rise flats and national brand stores - all to pay for The Slab and Dalston's £63million bus stop. Click on image to enlarge.
The BBC's World Service investigative journalist, Nina Robinson, came to the OPEN event at St Barnabas Church on 16th September. She has been making a series of four programmes called " Great Expectations: Living in the shadow of London 2012". She explores local peoples' experiences of the build up to 2012 and asks the question "How will regeneration affect those who need it most?".
Nina Robinsons's fourth programme, called "Inspiring real legacy", starts with a recording of Michael Rosen performing 'Regeneration Blues' with The Dulce Tones ( click on the SideBar link to hear the full performance) at the OPEN event. About 16 minutes into the programme, she arrives in Dalston to investigate The Slab. You can listen to the BBC World Service podcast here.
He was the one who wrote, back in February 2006 on behalf of Hackney's Mayor, that the Dalston Square development would be "a high design development that is on a human scale". But Hackney's own Director of Regeneration said at the time that TfL's development on The Slab (Dalston Square, Phase 2) was "austere" and "a stark concrete tower with punched openings for windows". TfL's own environmental consultants advised that "all local conservation areas will be adversely affected..there will be loss of traditional and human scale...sunlighting losses will begin to occur as the development progresses...".
TfL's Dalston Square Phase 2 is now under construction on The Slab
Councillor Nicholson also wrote that the Hackney site (Dalston Square Phase 1) scheme would have "Affordable housing as close to 50% of the development that can be afforded that is mixed across the development, not just 'in a corner', and includes 30% family accommodation". But, of the 550 flats granted planning permission for both phases of the Dalston Square scheme, only 5% (28 flats) will be affordable social housing and only 4% (22 flats) would be family size homes (4 beds or over).
But in Dalston, Hackney and the GLA rolled over. They say that, because of the eyewatering sums of public money they have already spent 0n the £63million Slab, they've waived the rules. Despite their policy targets of 50% affordable homes, no affordable housing can be built on The Slab at all. So when Hackney's Mayor Pipe calls The Slab "a useful bit of development land" one has to ask "Useful to whom?"
The outcome of Boris' investigation into the scandalous £63million cost of The Slab, on which Dalston's bus/rail Transport Interchange has been built, has revealed nothing to the public about the actual cost of the Slab or how the cost ran out of control.
But instead of commenting on the cost, and knowing of the public's disgust at the wanton destruction of historic Dalston to pay for The Slab, Boris' Answer asserts "The only building to be demolished to make way for the scheme was the snooker hall on Kingsland Road".
Really....?
So what happened to the old 1865 station?
And what happened to 2 Dalston Lane next to the old station? And what happened to the cottages in Rosebery Place on the railway embankment?
And what happened to our locally listed Georgian houses on Hackney's site next door?
And what happened to Dalston Theatre? And what happened to the oldest circus entrance in the country which became home to the legendary Four Aces Club?
All these historic buildings were in fact demolished by the authorities to maximise the development potential of their sites to help fund the cost of The Slab.
So when Boris says "The only building to be demolished to make way for the scheme was the snooker hall on Kingsland Road" it appears that he has been seriously misled. It's a deluge of drivel.
Not that the making of misleading statements by the authorities is anything new.
Right from the start TfL told OPEN, in writing, that "regarding the Hackney site there is little heritage effect from our proposals". But a few months later it was revealed that demolition of Dalston's heritage buildings and redevelopment of their site was part of the authorities' deal to pay for the The Slab. They called it "cross subsidy" - Hackney sold the site for a peppercorn and will rent back the library from Barratt.
And when OPEN obtained injunctions to stop the demolitions, for the alternative scheme to be considered, Hackney's solicitor wrote to tell us that the demolitions were a requirement of TfL. The LDA was to pay the demolition costs. Both are agencies of the GLA. The LDA even wrote to the Court to say that unless Dalston Theatre and the Georgian houses were demolished The Slab scheme would be financially unviable and would collapse.
And, throughout the time, the authorities told us that New Dalston's Transport Interchange on The Slab would be used by 80 buses an hour. But now, when it is revealed that only one bus route may in fact use it, we are told that the demolition of old Dalston and the £63million cost of The Slab was a necessary investment in future (unspecified) transport needs.
So it's more tall storeys from the GLA - another nine blocks of private flats for sale are being built on The Slab using public subsidy and with no affordable housing at all. So if Boris can say "The only building to be demolished to make way for the scheme was the snooker hall on Kingsland Road" would it be surprising if members of the public don't believe anything the authorities tell us in the future?
The site of Hackney's Dalston Theatre and locally listed Georgian houses which were demolished to make way for The Slab Transport Interchange scheme The Vandals: an eastern Germanic tribe which earned notoriety by sacking Rome in the 5th century but which was defeated by the Goths. 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, vanity and greed all in the name of progress.
Winstan's Whitter's documentary 
