Clapton Pond Blog

Squaring Dalston

I took this photo back in June while wandering round the site of a scheme characterised by those responsible for it as a "key Olympic transport commitment" (TfL) a "dramatic £160 million boost" (LDA) and an "ambitious scheme [which] will create more than 500 new homes, a library, shops and restaurants." (Hackney Council). By contrast, those against it consider it an expensive exercise in cultural vandalism which, far from bringing new prosperity to the area and its people, will the damage the neighbourhood's character and price many residents out of it.

This argument is, of course, familiar to many readers and resembles similar ones all over London and urban Britain generally. If find these all the more interesting because they create such unorthodox political alliances, with localist, conservation-minded Conservatives finding common ground with anti-developer activists on the left in opposing regeneration policies backed by Labour and Tory local authorities alike. Will the new Dalston "town centre" produce a net gain for local people or a net loss? Now I've got my new London blog rolling and the political conference season is coming to and end, I'm hoping to follow the saga more closely. Your (constructive) input, as ever, is welcome.

A London Blog

Did I mention this?

Royal Mail

One of these has been at the end of Thistlewaite Road for weeks and there's another on Nightingale Road. At first, I thought they'd been abandoned, but they haven't. Anyone know why they're there? I do.

The Hackney Podcast

It's Edition 3.

There's A Rat Under My Sink

My latest effort for Cif:

First there were faint scratchings and then some serious, badass clawing at the door. At least, it sounded like the door – the kitchen sink unit cupboard door - so that was what I kicked to make the evil creature go away. Too scared to open it, I swore a lot instead: "Shit, what a big bastard that must be." Such is the effect that rats can have. They turn socialised urban humans into inflamed yet cowering beasts. And when I spotted a damaged baby of the species crawling unsteadily across the floor my horror was complete. Fortunately, my six year-old was with me. "Oh look, Daddy!" she cried. "A baby mouse!"

Not a mouse, actually, sweetheart. I soon learned, though, that my younger kids are not yet immersed in the dark lore of the rat, whose ability to unnerve adult homosapiens is rivalled only by crocodiles, hyenas and wasps. Soon my daughter and her brother, aged ten (formerly eight) had provided the ailing infant with a piece of cheese, some soft bedding and a home in the vogue-ish form of a microwave plate cover. There was a moulded plastic anteater for company. "Wash your hands properly," I said edgily as the children prepared for sleep. They'd been warned that our guest would be ejected before morning. "It needs to find its mummy," I explained, glancing fearfully at the sink unit once more.

Yeah, Right Comrade

I recently wrote a piece for Cif about crime round here: about how irrationally the fear of it can mess with your head, yet how real that fear is for those most likely to be its victims. When posted here, it inspired a comment by Michael Rosen which I thought deserved greater prominence.

Oh give over, Dave. "Dark, depressed backwaters" - you're sounding like a Victorian voyeur "risking" his life in Whitechapel. Who's getting stabbed? White middle class males? I don't think so. You've got your paranoid sociology wrong. Hackney is no more "dark" than any other part of the British Isles, unless you mean in the shadow of the fekkn towerblocks going up in Dalston.

Thank you for that, Michael. It provides useful confirmation of why no one takes much notice of the far left - especially those whose interests it imagines it represents.

Etemi Celebi Murder Trial

It has begun at the Old Bailey. The BBC reports.

Crime & Community

Last week I went to a meeting of the North-East Neighbourhood Committee. These are my impressions, as originally recorded for Comment is Free:

Last week I may or may not have taken my life in my hands and travelled on foot through Hackney after dark. My point of departure was my home, my destination the Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women in Stamford Hill, the venue for a Council-organised neighbourhood meeting about youth and crime. My uncertainty about my safety during my walk there and – in particular – back again, was familiar. How anxious was it rational to be? I battle often with the nerviness this question arises from, and though I nearly always win I resent the mental struggle involved. That said, it has a certain value: it helps me put myself in other peoples' shoes.

Pages Of Hackney

Just took this of the finishing touches being applied to a new arrival in Lower Clapton Road - number 70, on the left as you head towards the health centre and Homerton. The shop opens formally tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon between 2.00 and 6.00 in an event to be graced by Leabridge ward's very own Councillor Rathbone and a small but lovely array of local literary and musical talent. It goes without saying that Pages of Hackney is fantastically welcome. Even the Evening Standard thinks so.

Neighbourhood Committee On Youth & Knife Crime

The BBC reports that three more local teenagers have been charged with the murder of 14-year-old Shaquille Smith, bringing the total to five. Perhaps it's a product of a general, uncomprehending disbelief at the sheer barbarity of this killing, but reading of this development momentarily tricked my mind into imagining Shaquille will come back as a result of it. If only. And if only we - all of us, parents, communities, professionals and politicians - were making a better job of preventing such unbearable events from occurring.

At least there seems some hope of a bit of momentum gathering. As someone who didn't vote for him, it feels strange to be welcoming Boris Johnson's contribution to this, but he has moved the issues of youth crime and disaffection up the political agenda and he has made commitments we can demand that he honours. And locally, this quarter's meeting of the North East Neighbourhood Forum - to be held on Wednesday evening - will be dedicated to the issue. Dave Rindl of the Clapton Pond Neighbourhood Action Group informs me that Councillors will be joined by a variety of youth organisations and service providers and representatives of the police. Young people are particularly welcome to attend to give their views on how to bring about change.

The Forum meeting will be held on Wednesday (10th September) at Ajex House Community Hall, East Bank, Stamford Hill N16, starting at 7.00 p.m. For more details, contact Cllr Kelly here.