|
"Hackney Isn't Crap" Gentrification Tour, Sunday 28 September 2008 |
|
|
|
Wednesday, 24 September 2008 |
Meet at the Peace Mural, Dalston Lane, 1pm. (includes picnic on London Fields.) Free
“Hackney isn’t crap” tour of Dalston and London Fields to explore the other side of the regeneration of Hackney.
When: Sunday the 28th of September 1pm
Where: beginning at the Dalston peace mural on Dalston Lane and ending at London Fields.
www.lcap.org.uk
The “Hackney isn’t crap” walking tour will focus attention on the gentrification of the Dalston and London fields areas. On the same day Hackney, like other places across the country will mark the launch of the ‘Cultural Olympiad’ and the tour will be pointing out some of the different affects the Olympics will have on the area. At each stop there will a different local speaker and afterwards there will be a picnic in London Fields.
‘Hackney isn’t crap’ was inspired by a debate that happened in May this year between Jules Pipe, Mayor of Hackney and Michael Rosen, children’s laureate. In response to Rosen criticizing the development in Dalston as ‘degeneration’ Pipe said Rosen wanted to ‘keep Hackney crap’. The point of the tour is to show that Hackney is not crap – and that some of the best things in Hackney like small businesses, markets and affordable housing are threatened by the gentrification of the area.
The tour will stop off at Dalston lane to hear about the Dalston square development and the Dalston lane shops that were sold by Hackney council in 2003 and after several fires are now mostly derelict. Afterwards the tour will walk towards London Fields and hear about Bayton Court sheltered housing which the Hanover housing association plans to demolish. Next we will hear about the struggle of Broadway Market’s small shopkeepers like Spirit to keep their businesses going in the face of rising rent and a gentrified street. The tour will hear how there is no housing for Hackney’s homeless who are stuck in terrible conditions in council run hostels or ‘gate kept’ at the homeless persons unit.
Organiser Ellie Schling says “It seems many people across Hackney are struggling to keep small businesses open or to afford rent in the borough. The tour will be an interactive event, so both those who feel they already know the area well and those who want to find out more are welcome”.
|
Tags
Delicious
NewsVine
Reddit
Technorati