Clapton Pond Blog

An overdue visit to the Castle Cinema

On Sunday, my wife and I went to the Castle Cinema above the Spar/Eat 17 shop on Brooksby's Walk for the first time. The outing was a belated birthday treat from my three younger children. It was also the keeping of my promise to myself to hurry up and visit this enterprising revival of a long lost local moving picture house.

Christmas carols by the pond

"The power of social media," remarked one of the organisers of this heart-warming event. "A few mentions on Twitter and you get a lovely crowd like this." It was a lovely crowd too, which I stumbled across on my way to the shops having forgotten to remember that I wanted to see - and hear - the event anyway. It was a joint effort by the Clapton Pond Neighbourhood Action Group and St James's Church, which provided hot drinks and mince pies afterwards.

Pizza pressures as Domino's move in next to Yard Sale

They have branches in Hyderabad, Manitoba and Milan as well as all over the US and the UK, and now the international pizza chain Domino's have turned up in Lower Clapton Road. This shouldn't be a big surprise - there are already outlets in Mare Street, Stamford Hill and Leyton, which tells you something about market taste for pizza in this part of London. Protests such as greeted the arrival of a Tesco Express near the pond seem unlikely. But how will this local manifestation of global capitalism affect rival pizza outlets down our way?

Buy my book on Zac versus Sadiq at Pages of Hackney

This is me lurking behind a copy of my book about the recent, revealing and often unpleasant fight to become London Mayor, which I covered extensively for the Guardian. I completed the book within ten days of the election on 5 May and it was out as an eBook a few days after that. Then, it became a paperback. I have published the book myself as a sort of experiment, which has turned into a voyage of discovery. Five boxes of "Zac versus Sadiq", each containing about 50 copies, have arrived at my house. Some of those copies - three, I believe - have already been sold at our local bookshop, Pages of Hackney. There are further copies there, just aching to be purchased. I would love it if you bought one. It would help create more space in my house. Thanks.   

Not a message from Matalan

Someone's been up to mischief at the Downs Road turning again. Nicely done.

 

New look Havanas will open in a month or two

The neighbourhood hasn't been the same since Havanas closed for reburbishment all those months ago. Back in the old days, the area around the Pond had three places where a weary resident with old-fashioned tastes could order bacon, egg and chips and wash it down with a cup of workers' tea. Then, suddenly, there were none.

Tram depot's deserted village

There's a long story to be told about the former tramway depot at 38-40 Upper Clapton Road, just beyond the roundabout. The short version is that the Hackney Societyhas tried to save it from redevelopment, others have expressed concerns, ownership has changed hands and we'll have to wait and see exactly what happens next. What is certain is that the varied group of artists and small businesses that once occupied the Victorian sheds has had to scatter, leaving Tilley Harris and Alex Pielak to honour and display their work.

Clapton Pond in fiction: fish, chips & coffee from Palm 2

Roy Paine is the hero of my self-published e-novel Roy's Summer of Sport, written under the pen name Ed Villah. Roy lives in the villagey fringes of Croydon, far from the very different London of Hackney and the Lower Clapton Road. But he has a ticket for the Olympics - women's hockey, 8th August, 2012 - and heads for Stratford using public transport. He gets a number 38 from Victoria, one that goes all the way to Clapton Pond. He's never been there before. Never even heard of the place. It sounds nice - kind of rural. Roy has time on his hands so he stays on the bus instead of getting off at Hackney Central, eager to gratify his curiosity...

The bus reached its final stop. Roy tumbled out into the heat and began walking back the way he’d come. The smell of fish and chips beckoned him from an open door. Roy looked in. Battered cod fillets sizzled in serried display. Roy succumbed. A man in a red polo shirt, sweltering skin, capable hands, raised his chin at him and said, “Next please.”

The murals and the man behind them

Back in November I wrote about the plethora of people you see on the streets these days pointing cameras at neighbourhood goings-on. The example I photographed - perhaps I'm one of those people myself - showed a young woman filming the creation of this mural in Clapton Passage on the side of Danny's. I didn't go close enough at the time to see what the man up the ladder was doing, and I only noticed the result quite recently. I had, though, already noticed and photographed two other creations by the same artist in the same style. One is a (still unfinished?) effort also in Clapton Passage on a builder's fence there, the other can be found on a wall in Linscott Road. See them here and here. To learn more about the artist and the young woman filming him that day in November, see the comment here and this website. Give it space.   

New Mural, Downs Road

It's not altogether new, having appeared on top of the previous, deeply cosmic, mural several weeks ago. Looks like the work of the same artist (or artists). I slighty preferred the original but like the idea of a new piece of work showing up in the same space every few months - like in a gallery, come to think of it.