Clapton Pond Blog

Pond Memories

A reader writes:

I went to Millfields [school] back in the '50s and my brother did too during the war years. On their website I also saw your blog, which led me to your Clapton Pond blogsite. It's interesting what you can find on line. We used to live in Powell Road behind what used to be the Ritz cinema. My brother was back in England earlier this year and found the cinema's no longer there. I now live in California and my brother lives in Ottawa, Canada but I remember growing up in Clapton and I remember the Pond. From pictures I've seen it looks like it's been cleaned up. My brother actually fell in the Pond when he was a kid!

Thanks for such a lovely letter. And should you - or anyone else - wish to revive the former Ritz cinema*, you could start by signing here. 

UPDATE: But it wasn't the Ritz, was it, Dave? It was the Kenning Hall. Sign up anyway, though. 

Council's Olympic Anxiety

Paul Norman at Estates Gazette:

I've just been sifting through the Draft minutes of the Olympic Delivery Authority's 23 June planning meeting to approve the £355m Olympics media centre and it makes for fairly diverting reading...the first thing that jumps out is Hackney council's ongoing worry that the government is somehow diluting its original commitment to making the development the main creator of jobs, and therefore regenerator or east London, post-Games.

Hackney council's Cabinet Member for Regeneration...Guy Nicholson made representations to the Committee saying that although the parties had "come a long way" with revised plans for the centre, the "revised recommendation, when compared with the original recommendation, has watered down the obligations on employment legacy and no longer includes financial penalty for loss of employment space"

It's all a little worrying. For more reasons why, read on.

What's This?

I took this photograph last Saturday lunchtime. Can you guess what it is?

Burglary Alert

A reader writes:

I share a house on Mildenhall Road and we had a police officer come to our door to advise that there have been eight burglaries in the immediate vicinity in the last couple of weeks. I thought any readers who live in the area but weren’t around to receive a visit from the police might want to know this and take the necessary precautions. Apparently the theft of passports has been common to the burglaries. He gave us some ‘smart water’ to wipe on our valuable items (a technology so remarkable that I’m not sure I can bring myself to believe it is true that through microscopic analysis of the water one can identify a unique numerical code). Apparently smart water is making a huge difference in tackling burglary and recovering stolen items, so for those who haven’t been given any I’m sure the police will be happy to help.

Thank you for that. Contact the Leabridge Safer Neighbourhoods Team via here. Find out more about "smart water" here.

More On The Buswall

A reader's inquiries about the recent impenetrability of the Narroway Buswall prompted this comment:   

This will get a whole lot worse when Boris replaces 47 artics with 76 double-decks operating out of Clapton Garage.

Very possibly. The inquiries also produced a long reply from the Council. Much of this concerned the congestion regrettably arising from replacing and improving pavements. But the following passage sheds some light on the deeper issues involved with the bus service through central Hackney and hints at what might - or might not be done about them:   

When planning this project we worked closely with TfL's London Buses and through them the bus operating companies.  Due to the changing locations and the anticipated duration of the works it was deemed impractical to place different bus routes on what would have been a series of short-term diversions.  Of London's 12 busiest bus routes, 7 serve Hackney and 3 of them use the Narrow Way. Of the 14 bus routes serving Hackney town centre, 11 need to cross the North London Line under the bridge at Mare Street by Amhurst Road. Any diversions away from this pinch point would have had  the effect of depriving Hackney Town Centre of a majority of its bus service, worsening congestion on other routes used for such diversions, longer journey times for passengers, and increased service unreliability.  

Notwithstanding the above paragraph there are plans for Thames Water to renew their mains through the Narrow Way. This project by its very nature will necessitate bus diversions, possibly for about two months. A date for commencing this work has not yet been agreed. When the date is known there will be advance publicity including information about amended bus route arrangements.

Although there are no current specific plans for road traffic in the town centre generally or buses in the Narrow Way in particular, the recently-concluded public consultation on the draft Hackney Central Master Plan suggested some possible options and sought people's reactions. The results of that consultation, and potential ways forward, will be publicised and further consulted on in due course.

So now you know. 

Pages Of Shakespeare

At a loose end on Thursday evening? Here's something from the Pages of Hackney website:

To celebrate the publication of a new edition of his widely acclaimed Rough Guide to Shakespeare, join Hackney author Andrew Dickson on a fascinating tour of all things Shakespearean. From the recent discovery of a sixteenth-century theatre buried in Shoreditch to Shakespeare's turns at the nineteenth-century music hall, he'll explore the significance of east London in Shakespeare's story - and reveal why the birthplace of English theatre might be right under our feet...

Starts at 19:00 and costs £3, which is redeemable against the price of the book. Could be full of Guardian types. Yes, that good.

Ruff Sleeping

A reader writes:

is anyone else suffering from a lack of their usually nightly sleep because of the hounds kept as guard dogs at the car yard on Powell Road, E5 It is driving me insane I have even been considering the steak/sleeping pills interface. But the dogs are too cute. And I want to do things through the right channels.

Any advice?

Boris & Woodberry Down

From Planning Resource:

Mayor of London Boris Johnson has approved a masterplan to regenerate Woodberry Down in east London. Johnson’s green light for the London Borough of Hackney scheme means detailed planning applications can now be arranged for the rest of the development. 

Now read on. Also, savour this archive coverage of The Blond's visit to the estate just before he was adopted as Tory candidate for London Mayor. It was the first time we'd met. Innocent days.    

Film Treat: The Big Smoke

If you saw the British Film Institute's compilation of old documentary film footage of London when it was shown in our local St John's Ambulance Hall the other week - part of that Clapton celebration day - you might want to see the full 90 minute version of The Big Smoke at the Rio in Dalston tomorrow afternoon. In fact, come to think of it, you might want to see it even if you didn't see the short version. It's eye-opening stuff, capturing scenes and citizens from the capital between 1896 and VE Day. The longer version, I'm told, contains quite a lot of material from Hackney. Tickets are £5 and £3 (concessions). There will be an introduction by the BFI's James Taylor and a question and answer session. You can book in advance here.  

  

These Days Nothing's Safe

Did anyone else spot this at the corner by the esteemed New Era dry cleaners? How was the massage couch stolen in the first place? Aren't they rather large objects for a burglar seeking to make a quick getaway? More importantly, has the rightful owner recovered it?