A revolutionary “zero-carbon” house which removes harmful emissions instead of releasing them into the atmosphere is to be built in Hackney.
The environmentally friendly, two-bedroom home is one of the first designs to take in carbon dioxide, which contributes to global warming, rather than causing it. Read the rest of this entry »
Katmaidog says: This is my first edited movie; made with Windows Moviemaker, and it depicts the London that I know. It was filmed in 2005/2006 in and around the Whitechapel area of East London, where I live (with the exception of the busker, who was filmed last weekend in the London borough of Greenwich.)
All of the music (with the exception of the title and credits tracks) was as is, part of the scene.
What’s it really like living on an East London estate? This film was made for the council to get the kids and older residents talking!
A nostalgic tour around Old Ford including Parnell Road & Roman Road
The borough of Hackney borders Haringey and Waltham Forest. Newham lies to the East and to the South is Tower Hamlets and a tiny border with the City of London. Islington occupies the entire Western border.
Along with Tower Hamlets, it comprises the only parts of east London that are considered part of Inner London, and as such, faces many of the same problems as any other inner-city area, and is known for being one of the poorest and most crime-affected London boroughs.
However, Hackney is also the epicenter of the London art scene, and home to numerous clubs, bars, shops and restaurants, much of which is centered on Hoxton Square. Read the rest of this entry »
The borough of Barking & Dagenham borders Havering to the east along the River Rom and Newham to the west along the River Roding forming much of the border. To the south is the River Thames across which are the boroughs of Bexley and Greenwich. To the north the borough sticks a thin finger in between Havering and Redbridge in order to encompass Chadwell Heath.
Barking & Dagenham is a relatively new borough, being created in 1980 out of the former borough of Barking, itself only created in 1963 from bits of the former municipal boroughs of Barking and Dagenham, along with some bits of Essex.
The main towns within the borough are:
BeerInTheEvening lists 11 pubs in Barking, 2 in Becontree, 3 in Chadwell Heath and 8 in Dagenham, which gets the drinking well covered. Several nightclubs, discos, and cinemas round out the options.
Areas of interest within the borough include the ruined Anglo-Saxon Barking Abbey, built in 666AD. The Abbey is the venue for the Barking Carnival, taking place in May, which has an open-air concert of classical music as well as children’s rides and a pageant. The Broadway Theatre, situated within Barking Town Centre, is one of the last places to see a traditional East End variety show, featuring top acts, tea dances and amateurs. The Dagenham Town Show takes place at the beginning of July including trade and craft stalls, funfair, concerts and arena displays. Valence House is a stunning seventeenth century building is now a museum and treasure trove of local historical information.
The borough has always been solidly Labour, though the 2006 elections saw a worrying 12 Councillors elected from the British National Party, a fascist party that has also gained ground in other east London boroughs in recent years by pandering to the worst types of racial, religious and ethnic stereotyping.
I have probably missed quite a few good bits about the borough. If you know of any glaring errors I have made, or would like to speak up for some place or aspect of the borough I have missed, please do!
Cheap studio space made Bethnal Green a favourite with artists. But now others are moving into this part of east London. Ellis Woodman looks at how Stephen Taylor Architects’ new residential project copes with a tight street layout that is a legacy of the area’s less affluent past.
Building Design, a weekly paper for architects is running an article (free registration required) about the history of the Nichol in Bethnal Green, from Arthur Morrison’s 1896 novel A Child of the Jago through the 1990’s “Young British Artists” who descended on the place and left quite a bit of unique architecture behind.
Now it seems there are a bunch of new plans and projects underway to turn yet more of the area into £450,000 studios and flats. Chance Street is to be made over into an office space and dwellings complete with concertina gates and fashionable, but tiny rooms, even by London standards.
Sort of a cross between “modern” office building and university dormitory, the building says two things to me:
Blah.
