Clapton Pond Blog

Some good news about pavements

A spate of pavement improvements in this part of The Greatest Borough encompasses the spur of Lower Clapton Road that loops around the pond.  It looks on course to enhance the pedestrian experience all the way round to where it meets the main road again, opposite Palm 2. See above the bit that is completed - basically a bicycle-parking apron, I suppose. See below for a long shot of the men from Volker Highways getting stuck into the next phase.

These highway works aren't only about walking and cycling, though. They are also about traffic-calming. The tighter bends and reduced road space should have the effect of slowing motorised vehicles down, which will be no bad thing given that crossing over to Palm 2 can be a bit of challenge at that rather complicated junction. I'm reliably informed - by a Hackney councillor, since you ask - that once Moore House is finished, a new, improved stretch of pavement will appear there too. Happy footsteps.
 

Kids on the corner, cops on the street

There's been a bit of street corner hanging out by groups of lads around the Pond of late, some of it at lunchtimes, some of it in the early evenings after school. A few engage in flicking coins against a wall and seeing how they fall. Others exhale a sweet, intoxicating smell that isn't hard to identify.

Welcome to fabulous Hackney

The Council's latest public information message. Can certainly relate to "keep the noise down..."

Hackney: a place for everyone?

The front page of the new edition of Hackney Today says:

Residents are being encouraged to take part in a Question Time style debate about the future of the borough. It is being held to launch a major, year-long resident engagement programme during which the Council aims to talk to thousands of people about their experience of the rapid social and economic changes that have affected the borough in recent times.

All of this is true. The debate is being held at the City Academy on 18th March, and if you want to be in the audience you'd better move fast because the last time I looked there were only 58 tickets left. My particular interest in the event is that I will be chairing it in my capacity as long-term Hackney resident (I think it's 34 years), writer of the Guardian's On London column and author of this blog.

Clapton's confident foxes

Here are two of the three foxes who consider my kitchen roof part of their territory. The third one had trotted off a minute earlier. They seem to get braver every day

Good morning, bus strike

 

Judging by the half hour I spent hanging around the bus stops by the Pond first thing this morning, the first London-wide bus strike for decades has been well supported by the drivers. I spotted just two in the space of about an hour. The aim of the stoppage, called by Unite, is to bring about a single, pay deal for drivers employed by all the different bus companies that operate routes in the capital.

A collision outside Candela

Walking back home from Kings Hall on Tuesday evening with two of my sons I heard from up ahead the terrible crunch of vehicles colliding, then felt that strange sensation of time seeming to stand still while passers by tried to work out what to do. Some walked on, others stood and gawped, waiting for someone else to take responsibility.

What will take the almshouses' place?

It's sad that the Grade II listed Bishops Wood almshouses are to be sold to developer after standing on their site next to the pond for centuries. Just how sad will ultimately depend on what is built in their place. The Hackney Citizen reported in February that any buyer would have to confrom to strict conservation rules, but the aesthetics of a new development will only be only one consideration. Another will be the affordability of the new homes. Will many, if any, be within the price range of people on average or low incomes?

The pond by the pond

 An even bigger and wetter puddle than the one by the bus stop. Happy New Year.

The Human Scale at Hackney Empire

The Danish architect Jan Gehl has been a trailblazer for the type of urban street design that puts pedestrians, cyclists and public transport before private motorists, benefiting the environment, businesses and human beings alike. A film about his work called The Human Scale is to be shown at the Hackney Empire on 23 January next year. Here's the official trailer.

 

The screening has been organised by Hackney councillor Vincent Stops, an admirer of Gehl and also a policy officer of the transport watchdog London Travelwatch. Hackney's high level of cycling provision has been informed by Gehl's principles, as is the trial pedestrianisation of the Narrow Way. Tickets for The Human Scale are available from the Empire box office now.