Friends of Ashwin Street move to secure community benefit on sale of public cultural asset

On Monday 24th March Hackney's Cabinet, as reported here, delegated full authority to its officers to sell a key site in Dalston's 'Cultural Quarter': the land and buildings at10-16 Ashwin St.  Our architectural and cultural legacy was to be sold for "best consideration", with no restrictions on their future uses and with no scrutiny of the final deal by our elected representatives to ensure the public's interest had been properly secured. (It looked like Dalston's "Cultural Quarter" was being thrown to the wolves! Ed).

10-16 Ashwin St frontages - originally built as three houses in 1870 to designs of noted architect Edwin Horne

The following day, on Tuesday 25th March, a new association called the Friends of Ashwin Street, served an application on the Council nominating the site as an Asset of Community Value (ACV). The stated objective was to ensure that "future uses of the asset shall continue to serve the social interest and well being of the local community as it has done on the past and in particular by the promotion of the creative arts". Signatories of the ACV nomination include current and previous Dalston Ward Councillors, office holders of several Hackney amenity societies as well as a broad section of our local community.  

The former 1862 railway engineering works of Tyer & Co to the rear of 10-16 Ashwin St 

V22 London Limited (V22) has been managing the buildings as affordable artists studios for the last 20 years. But its lease had expired and the condition of the buildings, for which Hackney had retained responsibility, was precarious, dangerous even. V22 has always enjoyed collaborative relationships  and mutual support with other local cultural enterprises, particularly Cafe Oto and the Eastern Curve Garden. V22 proposed  expansion of their businesses and developing an Ashwin Arts Centre on site and it enlisted their support for V22's offer to purchase the buildings privately from the Council. V22's founding director had also teamed up with Hackney's prominent property whizz and heritage champion Edward Benyon. Their vision looked ambitious, but achievable.

The community's Eastern Curve Garden uses part of 10-16 Ashwin St's land behind the buildings

Hackney's sale of the site seemed inevitable. They buildings "required comprehensive repair, refurbishment and modernisation, at a very substantial cost" which our cash strapped Council could not afford. The Cabinet report noted that the Council was able to sell the buildings to a private buyer and that a discount of up to £2million off their full market value could be offered if the transaction was likely to contribute to economic, social or environmental public benefit eg "In this case ensuring investment in the asset which will benefit the local community." But how could that local community benefit be ensured when Hackney had said it would impose no restrictions on future uses? (V22 told me they had invited Hackney to consider such restrictions, but it had declined. Ed). Was it all to rely only on verbal promises and personal "trust"? What if V22s Directors, or its shareholdings, changed? What if commercial pressures forced a change in V22's priorities or even a sale of the buildings? 

Colourful brick banding, decorative stonework & barley twist columns have been defaced by a layer of shabby white paint

The day following the Friends of Ashwin Street nominating the buildings as an Asset of Community Value, Hackney did a U-Turn. V22 informed the Friends that Hackney was now requiring restrictions as conditions of sale to the following effect:

10-16 Ashwin Street must be used solely and exclusively for the benefit of the local community, and in particular, as workspace and event space for artists, creatives, entrepreneurs, and community-focused organisations and initiatives. This restriction shall remain binding on V22 and any subsequent owner for a period of 15 years from the date of purchase and

If V22 sells all or any part of the property, it must repay to Hackney the net profit earned on the sale calculated in the first 5 years from purchase at 75% and then tapering down by 7.5% each year to 0% in year 15

V22 has also agreed with Friends that it will extend the restriction on the uses proposed from 15 to 25 years and, in view of the Friends concern about the need to conserve the architectural as well as the cultural heritage of the site, V22's founder has sent this letter of reassurance to the Friends:

The alternative, to V22 buying the site with these safeguards in place, is uncertainty. If the Friends nomination as an ACV succeeded and it wanted  to ensure permanent community benefit eg by forming a Community Land Trust (CLT) to buy it, there would inevitable be further delay (of up to 6 months), the buildings would be "mothballed", remain uninhabitable, deteriorate and probably be put on the open market. The Friends/CLT bid would then compete with developers who would offer more - as the Council report noted, some developers"might be able to take a longer term view" about ultimately achieving a more profitable redevelopment ie luxury flats rather than an arts hub.  We've seen before what happens when there's a fire sale of the family silver to the private sector when Hackney was broke.

Hackney's Dalston Lane Georgian terrace, auctioned as one lot to an off-shore company over the heads of the shopkeepers. Fires,  evictions & demolitions  followed. Finally they were re-built in "heritage likeness" with no affordable housing at all.

The unanimous view expressed by the Friends of Ashwin Street was that, with the sale restrictions to protect the community's interest now in place, and the local community's (including the Friends) support for V22's Ashwin Arts Centre vision, the ACV application no longer need be pursued. Hackney had suspended purchase negotiations with V22 whilst it considered the Friend's ACV application. The ACV application has now been withdrawn so that those negotiations can continue.