East London Life

Manor Gardens Allotments are a small green paradise and thriving community hidden away in the East End of London. For nearly 100 years generations of local people have been able to grow their own food and enjoy their leisure in this uniquely secure and peaceful space, which time and the hard work of the plotholders has turned into a place of special beauty.

Come the winning of the bid for the so-called ‘green’ Olympics 2012, and it has become just another piece of land to be flattened, community dispersed and its history erased… to be replaced by a concrete path. But campaigners are determined to persuade the authorities that the destruction of this special place would be an unnecessary and tragic loss, and their retention within the Olympic 2012 site would be a tremendous and imaginative asset. First shown on BBC1’s InsideOut on 30 Oct 2006.

In Aldersbrook (E12), nestled between Shoulder of Mutton Pond and Heronry Pond, lies a Bluebell wood, which Ham over at London Daily Photo has a beautiful picture of up on his site.
A Bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta, syn. Endymion non-scriptus, Scilla non-scripta) wood is a wood that in spring-time has a carpet of bluebells underneath a newly forming leaf canopy. Bluebell woods may be found in all parts of Great Britain and Ireland. Bluebells are a common indicator species for ancient woodland, so bluebell woods are likely to date back to at least 1600.

If you visit, be aware that In the United Kingdom the common bluebell has been a protected species since 1981. This legislation was toughened up in 1998 under schedule 8 of the wildlife and countryside act and as such the trade in common bluebell bulbs or seeds is an offence. Landowners are prohibited from removing bluebells on their land for sale. Wild bluebells are protected by the legislation and it is a criminal offence to remove the bulbs.

There is another Bluebell Wood in London. Up North in Haringey is a wood that covers the Eastern edge of Muswell Hill — a Bluebell wood that is one of the ancient woodlands of London.
[Thanks to Ham @ London Daily Photo]

A nostalgic tour around Victoria Park including the seasons of the year.

A 360 degree sweep in Wanstead Park, East London, taken in early December 2006 from a location near the Northumberland Avenue entrance. Remains of a Roman Villa are thought to be nearby. Hard to believe the park is only about 10 km from Tower Bridge

Sunday, April 1st was to be a farewell party to the Allotments, the day before plot holders were to be officially evicted to make way for a concrete path for the 2012 Olympic Games. Fortunately there will be less good bye and more fighting on, as the eviction is canceled until at least until July.

Owing to the LDA’s inability or unwillingness to find any space to relocate the Manor Gardening Society to during the Olympic development, the Society, supported by Friends of the Earth, has launched a legal challenge, resulting in an injunction (temporarily) against the eviction.

So come down and raise a toast to celebrate and pitch in to help protect one of the most socially important green spaces in Hackney threatened by the short-term greed of Olympic planners and builders. Read the rest of this entry »

…but not for long.

On Saturday “Hackney’s Urban Beach” will briefly reopen to accommodate all of those daft enough to go swimming over the cold rainy Easter break.

It will close (again) on Sunday, the 15th of April to allow work to continue on the ever-popular but essentially useless CCTV cameras, some sugary vending machines to offset whatever health benefit you get from swimming in the pool and the all important “queue control system”.
The lido has been resurrected by Hackney Council, which has invested £2.5million to return the derelict pool in to an art deco icon for residents and visitors to the borough.

Ultimately, there will be a seasonal roof that will increase access to more swimmers during the winter. Proposals for a seasonal roof are currently being developed and plans are to fit it in 2007.

The Lido first opened in April 1932. It closed during the Second World War, re-opening in 1951 before closing again in 1986 when the Greater London Council, which ran all the London municipal lidos at the time, was abolished. It opened again on Thursday 26 October 2006.

With so much of the green space in East London under threat, I thought it might be worthwhile to highlight some of these spaces, in the hopes that wider knowledge and appreciation of them would spur more people to help to protect them from development.

1. Victoria Park: This is the best known park in East London, covering several hundred acres in Tower Hamlets. Music Festivals, herds of deer and goats, Cricket grounds and the oldest model boat club in the world are but a few of the interesting treasures hiding in this beautiful park. Read the rest of this entry »

During the week I took off, Havering Council announced that it

“has no intention of selling any of its principal parks and open spaces”

in order to reassure residents that the ‘rumours’ of an impending sell-off of public green spaces was imminent. Council leader Michael White, speaking a fortnight ago, acting as if the plan to sell certain “low value and low quality” parks was an entirely new discussion.

Now it comes to light that this plan has been in the works for several years. In 2004 the Council commissioned a study, the Atkins Report, to assess Havering’s Open Spaces. The report focuses on population densities in relation to parks, deprived areas, and in particular the number of children and the provision of children’s play parks, identifying deficiencies in much of Hacton ward, western parts of Harold Wood, south western parts of Gooshays ward and much of the residential areas of Brooklands and Havering Park wards, as well as western parts of Emerson Park ward, east Cranham and central Elm Park.

Council is now expected to decide what to sell within the next few months, said cabinet member for Parks, Cllr Paul Rochford:

“We really hope residents understand that our prized parks are not going to be sold. Havering has 13 Friends of Parks groups, some of which have hundreds of members, so we know how much local people value their parks. It’s inconceivable we would go selling off our prize assets willy-nilly.”

That remains to be seen.

The borough is gearing up for the biggest ever protest as part of a huge community uprising over plans for a prison in Rainham. Early estimates are that 5,000+ people will march on April 14th, organized by Rainham and Wennington Councillor Jeff Tucker, who said:

It’s definitely going to happen and is going to be the biggest march Havering has ever seen - it will close off the whole of Rainham.

“The prison is the last straw. Rainham gets an unfair deal and the people will protest.

“I’m anticipating 5,000 people turning out and I am personally paying for no less than 50,000 leaflets to be printed.”

He formally received the backing of Havering’s largest community action group - Adamsgate - who represent thousands of residents in Rainham and South Hornchurch.

Their campaigns manager Graham Williamson said:

“We are officially supporting the protest and asking people to lend their support. I am sure it will gather pace.”

In addition, Hornchurch MP James Brokenshire launched a petition against the prison and has announced details of a public meeting on Friday, March 9, in the hall of Our Lady of La Salette Catholic Church, Rainham Road, Rainham, between 7pm and 9pm.

He said:

“People are very angry that Rainham may get dumped on yet again, this time with convicted murderers, robbers and rapists.”