Movies on The River Lea!!

Tomorrow see the opening of the brilliant new (temporary) movie house in Hackney Wick!! And best of all - it's just downstream from Leabank Square!!!!!

There are going to be amazing activities from - great family movies - to bug-hotel building workshops. From family discos to drawing classes. And much much more!

Please come down to meet these lovely people - some of whom you already know from previous projects - who are making Hackney Wick that little bit extra special for all of us!

To book seats & find out more - please visit http://www.follyforaflyover.co.uk/ and then just have heaps of fun.

Happy Summer Solstice says Robin

Planting Wildflowers for Mabley Meadow

A big ‘thank you’ to everyone who helped to plant up some seeds, for Mabley Meadow today.

Our good friend Chris King has asked us to plant up some wildflowers to add to the beautiful Mabley Meadow this autumn.

It was also great to meet our neighbour and newest Leabank gardeners, Justyna and Andy.
Thanks too to the old hands, Zoulla and Paul. Together we planted up some Betony, Agrimony, Cowslip and Teasel. We’re sure they’ll look stunning in the meadow later this year!

If you haven’t yet discovered Chris’ meadow, you can check out the details at http://mableymeadow.blogspot.com/. And then meander over there in person to see everything in full colour.

Last chance to comment on 'Hackney Wick Hub'

Very many thanks to Ruth for posting this comment - please read it and act on it - it really does affect every single one of us:

The consultation on a major development around Hackney Wick station is to close this weekend and residents have just a couple more days to have their opinions heard.

Plans for more than 150 flats, several shops and retail units around a pedestrian area off Wallis Road, and a "hi-tech" hub of affordable workspaces has been proposed by landowners London Thames Gateway Development Corporation (LTGDC).

At the end of May, the designers and architects behind the project came to the Wick for a couple of days to display and discuss the plans, and now the consultation is drawing to a close.

Any opinions and ideas need to be with them before the end of this weekend (Sunday June 19) because they intend to submit their planning application to Hackney Council on the June 24th, next Friday. Once they have planning application they will find a developer to buy the land.

Outline drawings and descriptions of the proposal are available on the corporation's website, here: (http://ltgdc.org.uk/ltgdc-news/development-news/hackney-wick-hub-proposals/) There is not lots of detail but it gives you an idea of where it will be and says there will retail units, including bars, restaurants, perhaps a bank, shops, and takeaways, 6000sqm of affordable workspaces, and more than 130 studio, one-bed, two-bed and three-bed flats.

Based on chats with the designers it also seems the idea is to have:

Affordable workspaces
The chief executive of the corporation which owns the land has said, in this interview with journalist Paul Norman, that they want to create a "hi-tech" hub for the business and people being priced out of Silicon Roundabout [Old Street] and Shoreditch.

"Something a little bit different"
The chief executive also said they wanted a developer who would do something a "little bit different" with the homes and leisure parts of the development and spoke praisingly of home-grown Wick projects like a recent opera in a warehouse. During the consultation visits, the architects/designers etc were very keen to emphasise their intention to do something a little bit different and make sure it was in keeping with Hackney Wick.
How can the development encourage something a little bit different? What does Hackney Wick want or need in terms of leisure?

No social housing
At the consultation it appeared that there would be no affordable rented accommodation (eg. social housing). This is because of concerns that there is no nearby space for kids/families to play - perhaps they see Vic Park, Hackney Marshes & the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park as too far away?
There "may be" shared ownership housing for sale, but it was not definite.
Should there be affordable housing? Or is there enough in Hackney Wick already?

New shopping street
Some of the units for shops, cafes, restaurants and pubs are large - big enough for a chain shops like Tesco. If Hackney Wick didn’t want big chains, one option is to make the units relatively small in order to deter chains and make it affordable for independent traders or provide space for local creatives to sell their goods. However, the landowners point out that bigger units make the project more commercially viable for the developer.
At the moment the planning application does not specify any unit size in order to allow flexibility for the developer. Is that right?

What do you think...?

Email Thames Gateway Corporation (http://ltgdc.org.uk/contact-us/) to give your views on the Hackney Wick Hub before the consultation closes on Sunday June 19th.

And keep on eye on this blog to see what their final plans are and find out when Hackney Council will make a decision on the planning application.

Leabank Square Swans - Latest

Well - where do we start?!

It is just the 4 of them - Mum, Dad & the 2 cygnets. The other eggs were either smashed by some ignorant people - or were just not fertile.

It's probably just as well that the family isn't that much larger - as they still get a bit of hassle from some of the less disciplined kids (especially as it's half-term).

So they spend most of the day visiting brother, sisters & cousins further along at Windsor Wharf in Wick Village. (Just after Gainsborough School) Please take a walk along and see how many water fowl have started families in the last few weeks.

There are Mallard ducklings, Cootlings and a few more cygnets as well. They all seem to be getting on well enough with each other - considering all the protective mums & dads hovering around their little ones.

But what a lovely hour to spend! The nice folk in Wick Village operate a system of many eyes prevent anti-social behaviour - so encourage nice people to come & sit on their riverbank.

As for the Leabank Square Swans - well - we think that they will still use the nest as a bedroom overnight for a few more weeks. But Mum & Dad are teaching them great foraging skills further & further away from the nest - so they'll soon start spending nights away.

But in the meantime - please help them by keeping a vigilant eye out for their safety.

Thanks.