Don't look up! More towers planned for London Fields

Last Thursday Southern Housing Group (SHG), a charity, gave a public presentation to the local community of its scheme for a second towerblock at London Fields, eastside. SHG said it had considered feedback from meetings with Hackney Council and Boris's GLA planners when designing the "slender" 19 storey tower development of 78 very high density flats, houses and commercial units.


It was claimed that, compared with the existing site at 22-24 London Lane, the design and scale of the development would "enhance" the surrounding low rise buildings of the Mare Street Conservation Area. Admittedly it is not in a designated Tall Building Opportunity Area - but the professional view was that at street level people apparently don't notice towers (Don't look up!).

SHG said it wants "a scheme everyone is happy with" but members of the public voiced passionate objections to the development for a whole range of reasons. Perhaps people fear yet another charitable developer is seeking to exploit the London Fields location to the comunities disadvantage. Will SHG redesign its scheme to meet local objections or just plough on regardless?

If you can offer support or skills to help the the local community in London fields then you can find "No Hackney High-Rise" contact details here.

PS The meeting was held in Free Form Arts' Hothouse, an award winning development on London Fields east. Superbly designed and finished. A low-rise building delivering community benefits.

High Court upholds Ridley Road Market trader's appeal.

A Ridley Road Market trader has had his appeal to the High Court upheld. We have previously told how Leslie 'Bonner' Ware had won his appeal to the Magistrates Court after the Council tried to revoke his market trading licence. But the Council refused to pay his legal costs. "It was taking liberties, so I appealed again" said Bonner "We went to trial in the High Court in The Strand. And we won again. Now its going to cost the Council double. It's all public money and an absolute disgrace"













OPEN has reported before about how Hackney Council's bean-counters were going bananas in Ridley Road Market. They had been revoking traders licences, cutting off the electric to their stalls, closing down the market store and prosecuting traders for selling by the bowl or the bunch. It was all getting rather personal. And then the Council's prosecutions policy went pear shaped when the government finally stepped in - it said that the prosecutions were "not in the public interest".

It emerged that Hackney Council planned to redevelop Ridley Road market. And that would be much easier if the traders only had "temporary" licences with no rights of appeal to the Courts. It has revoked numerous markets traders' licences. But most Ridely Road traders are not prepared to be bullied or bribed by bureaucrats. One such is Leslie "Bonner" Ware, a third generation Ridley Road market trader. We told his story here. "It is lucky that I could afford to take the risk of appealing" said Bonner " Many new young traders feel too intimidated." And so Bonner appealed to the Magistrates Court, and won. Then he appealed again to the High Court , for his legal costs to be paid, and won again. Hackney now have to pay the costs of both appeals.

In addition to the £thousands the Council has lost pursuing its policies it has also allocated some £300,000 in fees for consultants to come up with a redevelopment plan for the market. During OPEN's recent public consultation on the Council's "Dalston Area Action Plan - Masterplan" most people said that they don't want the market to be "redeveloped" or "regenerated".

Ridley Road market is at the heart of Dalston life. Most local people want to see its character, as a traditional outdoor street market selling affordable goods and fresh produce, preserved and to see decent conditions for traders and shoppers. Yes - there is plenty of room for improvements. A good start would be to restore lighting to the market stalls and repair the market store. It is now over a year since the Council cut off the electric.

Watch the video
Neneh Cherry and Andi Oliver buy some bunches of callaloo from Janet Devers in Ridley Road. They think Ridley is "The Home of the Bargain!" Long may it continue.

Dalston! Paint it black

It was a shock to see how some of Dalston Lane's derelict houses had been clothed in black last week. A funereal dressing of paint over the graffiti on the Georgian brickwork and renders. A reminder of the charred finishes of the nine buildings burnt in Dalston over recent years and all on "development opportunity" sites.

Rumours are rife about who was responsible for these daubings. Lorries were parked up last week on the pavement, with a cherry picker and drums of black paint. A tabla rasa has been created for new tags. And a nightmare for conservationists to restore the original fair face brickwork.

In 2004 a government planning inspector had refused to let the landlord demolish the buildings. He declared the terraces, as did English Heritage, to be a "remarkable survivor of Georgian architecture". But not before two in the terrace of houses had been burnt down (Jon's Scooters at 62 & 64 - since demolished). In January 2005 the Council then designated the Dalston Lane (West) Conservation Area. This gave some protection to the houses. But then two more houses were gutted by fire. Planning permission would normally be required for their demolition in a conservationarea. Three were then demolished without any application . In many conservation areas even external painting requires prior planning permission. No applications were made for Dalson Lane.

Last week the Council launched its public consultation regarding the future of our Dalston Lane Georgian terraces. You can learn more about it and comment here. You can also contribute your views during OPEN's own forthcoming consultation - so watch this space.

The Council recently demolished three of the Georgian houses following fires and vandalism.

What value would be placed upon Dalston's character and identity if the houses were now to be restored? One suggestion is to rebuild the burned and demolished Georgian houses as replicas and refurbish the remainder. Another is that additional floors and/or mansard roofs could be added to some buildings to make them "financially viable" to "regenerate". Is "financial viability" related to what the off-shore owner paid for them in the first place? In this case it purchased 16 of the houses for £1.8million at the 2002 Council auction.The Council gave the traders in occupation no opportunity themselves to buy the houses and, at the auction, the terraces were offered only as one lot. And how will the businesses of the surviving traders, who lost out before, be protected now that their leases have expired?

The Star Bakery was one of the businesses evicted after the auctions. Court orders were granted on the landlord's evidence that it intended to do works requiring vacant possession. Bakers have been in Dalston Lane since at least the turn of the century. Now they've gone but the building has been left on death row ever since.

The Dalston Lane terraces have a troubled history. Many of Dalston's historic buildings have been neglected and demolished despite local people making their opposition to this well known. The surviving fragments of our local economy and architectural legacy in Dalston Lane deserve a better fate.

The Dalston Mill

A planning application has been submitted to erect a temporary metallic structure at 13 Dalston Lane to the rear of the Peace Mural square, for use over the summer as a community art centre, garden, workshops and a pizza oven (yummy!). You can view the application and images (reference 2009/0965) here. The sponsorship is from the Barbican Art Gallery as part of the Radical Nature festival.

The publicity states "EXYZT have been working closely with various local communities to turn a disused site in Dalston into a vibrant rural retreat for the people of the area and beyond. Literally occupying an abandoned garden, the project offers an exciting programme of events, screening and summer feasts."

Actually the site is literally an abandoned railway line (the Dalston Junction Eastern Curve) recently filled in with hardcore and gravel for car parking use.

Not all of EXYZT previous 'community art installations' have met with universal approval - as you will see from some of the comments here.

Victory for Queen’s Market campaigners

On Wednesday 13th May 2009 the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson directed Newham Council to refuse planning permission for plans to redevelop Queen’s Market in Upton Park, which include the construction of a 96 metre high residential tower block.

The Friends of Queens Market have fought a long running campaign to reach this point. A spokesperson, Lucy Rogers, said: “I feel fantastic. We can hardly believe it. I feel in some boroughs, especially in East London, there is a brutish redevelopment agenda going on which doesn't represent what people want. We are very glad the Mayor has listened. This is exactly what he should be for.”

When plans were submitted to the Mayor for consultation in May 2008, the applicant was advised that they did not conform with the London Plan on several counts, including the quality of the design of the proposed tower.

The applicant subsequently revised the plans but these still failed to address the Mayor’s concerns on the appearance and, in particular the attractiveness of the proposed tower. The plans also failed to demonstrate that a tall building of the design proposed would be appropriate on the site.


The Mayor said:

“I have carefully considered this application. However, it is obvious that a tower of this size, so much higher than any existing tall buildings in the area, is neither attractive or in proportion or suited to any of the surrounding buildings, streets or the general urban realm of Newham.

“I am not opposed to the improvements to Queen’s Market, but I am against this inappropriate tower and have, therefore, instructed Newham not to approve these current plans.”

To download a copy of the Mayor’s Planning Decision here

What's Best for Dalston? the exhibition continues...

Bootstraps, The Printhouse,
18 Ashwin St, E8 3DL

Saturday 2 May: Consultation Day, Bootstraps 

Exhibition continues:

Bank Holiday Weekend:
Saturday 2 - Monday 4 May: 10am - 4pm

Tuesday 5 - Wednesday 6 May: 9am - 8pm

If you missed out on participating in our recent consultation on Hackney Council's Masterplan for Dalston, you've still got time to get involved. We have another special consultation day, this time in Bootstraps, at The Printhouse, on Saturday 2 May 10am - 4pm. 

Once again there will be volunteers from OPEN Dalston to answer questions about the proposals contained in the Masterplan. You can view maps, see what other people think about Dalston and explore issues like the scale and height of buildings, what people want from public space and how can 1,700 new houses be fitted into Dalston in the next few years?

Material gathered during our last consultation day on the Masterplan has already been added.

‘What’s Best for Dalston?’ has been produced by OPEN Dalston with the help of people who live, work and spend time here who all want to celebrate and safeguard the energy, diversity and history of this vibrant neighbourhood.

At the same time, the exhibition gives you the opportunity to get to grips with the key issues contained in the Masterplan, which Hackney Council are consulting on until 15 May 2009. This planning document will have a major impact on life in Dalston, as it will influence building development in the area from now on.

The Masterplan identifies 21 buildings, streets and areas as ‘opportunity sites’. This means many existing buildings have been earmarked for demolition, in many cases to be replaced by bigger, higher developments. Ridley Road Market, Dalston Lane, Kingsland High Street and Ashwin Street have all been identified for major redevelopment.

Several ‘opportunity sites’ are currently home to successful family shops that have been here for many years. Others contain hundreds of thriving small businesses and community organisations. Our exhibition celebrates their stories and highlights the key Council proposals for each of the opportunity sites.

‘What's Best for Dalston?’ is growing and changing, as people add their own stories, photographs, interviews, comments and ideas, so please come along and join in.

Dalston Square flats: Get one half price!

Last year we reported how Barratt, which is developing Dalston Square in a private/public partnership with the authorities, had been credit crunched and was tettering on the brink of insolvency. Its share price had crashed by 90% and its £1.5 billion debt was in the news. Former blue-chip builders like Barratt became relegated to the middle tier as funds flooded out of the sector. But it managed to renegotiate its bank covenants and could "limp along"

Although things picked up slightly in the first quarter of this year, and Barratt's shares rallied, those green shoots have been caught out in the recurrent economic frosts of the credit freeze. Mortgage offers are around only 40% of the boomtime peak and are now falling again. Finance experts are reportedly advising investors to sell this risky housebuilder's shares. These are desperate times with market analyists reporting property prices have not yet reached the bottom. Barratt are now slashing sale prices like there could be no tomorrow.


Can Barratt afford to start building the towerblocks on The Slab, on TfL's railway site next door, which should be ready for development in October?
Will some of the funds allocated in Alistair Darling's budget, to bail out stalled housebuilding schemes, be used to save TfL's Olympic towerblocks which are all intended for private sale?
Hackney Council invested in the £19million shortfall on the loss making Dalston Square scheme. The deal was it would start to recoup when sales went over a certain figure. Will it ever get our money back?