Clapton Pond Blog

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 Future Of Hackney Wick

For me, the truest test of the 2012 Olympics' worth will be any long term economic and social benefits they produce for people living in the vicinity of the Olympic Park. Will there be more jobs and better facilities for local residents? Will existing neighbourhoods be enriched and enhanced? Regeneration projects are always contentious because they can result in gains for a few at the expenses of many living in the areas concerned. As the film I recently helped make for the Guardian showed, residents of Hackney Wick hold a wide range of views about the effects of the Games and there's a great deal of uncertainty about the future.

They and others now have a chance to influence what happens next as the Council's Hackney Wick masterplan goes out to public consultation until 9 February 2010. The masterplan is a separate document from the blueprints for the Olympic Park itself, but will be profoundly influenced by what happens there. As the Council puts it: "In the coming years Hackney Wick will be faced with many choices as a result of the investment into the area brought about by the 2012 Games, coming from both the private and public sectors."

The Council is at pains to demonstrate a commitment to protecting the Wick's character and unique combination of charms as part of nurturing improvements. To that end it has designated a Hackney Wick Conservation Area directly north of Hackney Wick station. This, it says, is an "unusual step" to take in advance of the completion of a public consultation. The only previous example was the 2005 Lea Bridge Conservation Area. The Council says this had a beneficial influence on the development of Paradise Dock and that the Wick designation will enable it to "resist the loss of historic buildings and open spaces such as working yards, and the alteration of the historic street pattern."

What might emerge from a process of change combining preservation and development? The Council speaks of "positively inform[ing] future development, for example, by incorporating and re-using the historic buildings as a basis for new developments to add economic value and create a distinctive sense of place." The masterplan's proposals include turning the area around the station into a "hub" of restaurants and shops.

Read the masterplan - the Hackney Wick Area Action Plan, if we're being formal - for yourself right here. 

You can respond to it by filling in the online feedback forms supplied and, if you wish, by meeting a planning officer: Email [email protected] or phone 02083567743 to arrange a meeting at the Hackney Wick Community Centre on 11 January (noon until 2:00 pm), 22 January (10:00 am until noon) or 25 January (6:00 pm until 8:00 pm). The community Centre is also holding drop-in sessions on 14 January (6:00 pm until 8:00 pm), 19 January (10:00 am until noon) and 21 January (6:00 pm until 8:00 pm). 

Two Videos: Bendys End & Olympic Wick

I've recently made - well, helped to make - two video films for the Guardian. The first was about the last day that bendy buses worked route 38. I've recently been trained in using a professional standard video camera. As you will see, my technique is still pretty rudimentary - a polite word for "hopeless" - but I think this failing was more than made up for by the fellow Claptonites who kindly let me point the camera at them. The clip, which was edited together by Guardian video producer Rebecca Lovell, is necessarily very short and to-the-point, which means that some good stories about the old Routemasters, which preceded the bendys, were cut out. I've remembered them, though. And with the contract to build Boris Johnson's alleged "21st century Routemaster" to be awarded by the end of the year, I might yet have an opportunity to make use of them. I'd like to thank everyone who appeared in the film. Watch it here.  

The second film is about residents of Hackney Wick and their feelings about the approaching Olympics. This took much longer to make and my role was that of interviewer and provider of "voice over" in the Kings Place editing suite. The real work was done by producer Francesca Panetta of Hackney Podcast fame and photographer and cameraman David Levene. The result was the first of what will be a series of collaborations about the impact of the Games on communities bordering the Olympic Park. Watch it here. 

Wind Turbine, Anyone?

Those quality bloggers of Leabank Square have already set out the arguments for and against the Olympic Delivery Authority's proposal to plant a wind turbine on Hackney Marshes. The big upside would be a significant amount of profitable green energy generated for the borough: the Council claims that the combined output from a turbine on the Marshes and another that has already got the go ahead in Waltham Forest would be sufficient to power all "the main Council buildings" by day and all of Hackney's street lights at night. A reduction in carbon emissions would be another good outcome. The main problem, at least for some people, would be that the turbine would measure 120 metres in height. That's pretty vast, and would have a big impact on the skyline.

My initial reaction is to favour the idea, despite being a bit bothered by the size of the windmill and the fact that some of the East Marsh land surrounding it would have to be placed out of bounds. However, the latter isn't all that big and the Council has said (see here) that it would not reduce the number of football pitches (ten) that would be marked out there or impede its future sports development plans. And although I'm becoming a bit of a fogey about tall buildings - I've definitely taken against that thick finger of apartments jutting from Dalston Square - I find tall wind turbines rather graceful and beguiling.

Jules Pipe says that, "On balance, I think the wind turbine is a good idea," but adds, "if the public response to this is no, then it will not go ahead. This will not be forced through if residents don't want it." You can read more from him here. The Council has set up a number of consultation mechanisms (listed in full here). There's an online survey you can complete and an email address - [email protected] - to which you can send your views. Next month there are two consultation events - the first is at the Wally Foster next Monday from 3.00 till 7.30 - and six drop-in sessions at Hackney libraries. The consultation ends of 14 December. Full details here. There's also stuff about the wind turbine proposal along with an upbeat account of progress in and around the Olympic Park in the latest Hackney Today. 

[P.S. I'm away for the rest of this half-term week and am unlikely to be online again before Sunday. This means that any comments probably won't be attended to until then. But please don't let that put you off.] 

Seen While Running

A brand new local blogger takes his camera for a run down the canal. Sample photo caption:

Old Ford Lock. A working lock but I have yet to see a boat going through.This is right next to the house that was the Big Breakfast house back in the 1990s.It is now a rather smashing home, if a little overshadowed by the new stadium. I would get the f*** out of dodge in 2012 if I was them it'll be like Oxford St at Christmas with extra fireworks.

Now read on.

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.

Olympic Park: A Proper Podcast & A Ropey Bit Of Film

My Guardian friend Francesca Panetta visited the 2012 site recently to make her latest classy Hackney podcast. I too visited the site a while ago, and took a really rubbish bit of video. Still, I'm really everso sincere.

Millfields Park

That news machine Claptonite ([email protected]) has sent me details of the Millfields Users' Group's Annual General Meeting, to be held on Monday 9th February at the Nye Bevan Community Hall in Overbury Street. There will elections to the committee for 2009/10 plus the launch of the consultation on the Millfields Master Plan. I'm sure I ought to know what that is but, to my shame, I don't. Can anyone bring me up to speed? There will also be an update on Olympics progress delivered by guest speaker Cllr Guy Nicholson, who is the cabinet member for regeneration and and 2012 Games. To find out more, contact the Group's secretary Brian Weller at [email protected] or on 07980 64068, or write to Cllr Ian Rathbone at the Town Hall.

Mayor Pipe Approved Iain Sinclair Library "Ban"

From the Hackney Citizen:

Those who suspected that Iain Sinclair's views on the Olympics might have been at the back of Mayor Jules Pipe's mind when Hackney Council un-invited the renowned author from one of its libraries can enjoy the warm feeling of vindication today. The Hackney Citizen can exclusively reveal that Sinclair's invitation was withdrawn after the Mayor said he was uncomfortable with the author speaking in council-owned premises.

It certainly can. And Mr Locker has expressed a view. 

Olympic Media Centre: Latest Good Cheer

You might have read reports of Tessa Jowell's appearance before the parliamentary culture committee, during which she confirmed that, "There is at the moment no private sector contribution on the table and that is a change since the contract was first signed." The developer Igloo has pulled out and although the builder Carillion is still involved, ODA chief executive David Higgins has said they they won't be putting in any equity. And so again the question is, how gloomy should we be? Jules Pipe, I am assured, is in continuing, constant contact with all the main powers that be: Jowell, Boris, Hazel Blears and so on. His goal remains for both parts of the media centre - the bit for the press the bit for broadcasters - to be built at Hackney Wick rather than one of them being in Stratford instead and for enough of it to be permanent to deliver the promised legacy benefit. He has produced the following statement:  

“The Council is continuing to fight for permanent buildings for our deliverable legacy vision of a ‘digital village’ that will allow for the growth of Hackney’s ever expanding creative industries. As well as a global growth sector, it is an area of interest and relevance to Hackney’s future workforce of young people. We are determined to retain this much needed employment legacy in Hackney. 

“The media centres represent the single most significant opportunity for an economic legacy forEast London from the Games. London’s bid to host the Games was won largely on promises to regenerate East London. The media centres are a critical part of transforming one of the most deprived areas in the country. The legacy cannot be allowed to fail. It would be a betrayal of the promise made to the International Olympic Committee and, more importantly, the people of Hackney and east London, if the entire Main Press Centre/International Broadcast Centre is not built at Hackney Wick as planned.”

Fighting talk. Let's hope it gets results. A contingency fund exists but, said Jowell, "I'm not conceding that either of these projects will be wholly publicly funded." Sounds like at least some private sector money has still got to come from somewhere. But where?