Local and Lovely - by Gillian Lawrence

Gillian Lawrence wrote a piece about our collaboration with NANA and the Islington History & Architecture Group on her blog, Up Your Street. She has kindly allowed us to publish it here. We hope you enjoy.

Years ago there was a public toilet down Chatsworth Road on the way to Chats Palace. Now it’s The Convenience, a scrubbed up and scrubbed out homely café  where NANAs grandmas cook away plating up nourishing feasts,  and in the evening a chef does Hanoi Nights.

That’s busy enough amidst the gleaming tiles and inventive menu cards.

The Buildings Exploratory for seniors in Hackney and now Islington has teamed up with NANAs so that seniors can come along, sit ,chat, go for a guided walk, share information all about the history of Clapton and have a nice cup of tea. People from our Hackney community get to meet and learn. There are daughters of the Windrush generation, residents  who have lived in their Hackney homes since birth having  managed to escape the dreaded doodlebugs and rent-rise evictions, sons of labourers who have travelled along the Thames living and working by the Lea,  those who live in flats where the stench from the Stratford tanneries in days of yore choked their mouths and followed them on their way to work at Lesney’s.

We can’t talk fast enough to get our stories out and shared whilst our facilitator eggs us on with grey photos gleaned from The Hackney Archives.

The meet-ups are every fortnight at 10.30 am for a couple of hours which leaves ample time to stroll along Chatsworth Road and see the old kitchen utensils in a local vintage shop or smell the crepes from The Creperie.

Change is daily and that’s why it’s good to sit in The Convenience and take a breather,  cherish what we know, and make each other laugh about how things were and will be. And it’s good to come together from all sorts of backgrounds and reinforce neighbourliness. That’s what it’s really all about.

Visit Gillian's blog, 'Up Your Street' here: http://ww.upyourstreet.wordpress.com/

Senior BEEs activity - Spring term

Our Senior Building Exploratory Explorers have been busy this term. Below we show highlights with a Canal trip in January, visiting the RIBA exhibition in February, and a discussion of Hackney's Heritage at Risk in March of this year.

Islington group review this term's activities

Our Islington History & Architecture Group completed a term of interesting walks and visits last week, and kindly reviewed the sessions for us.

Here are some of their comments, as well as images from this term's visits.

"I particularly enjoyed the visit to Diespecker Wharf because although I'm fairly familiar with that area I saw a different side of it. The presentation was excellent."

"The talk on Islington's Lost Cinemas: I found this fascinating and am now able to see the buildings I walk past regularly in a different light."

"It gets people out to places we would not go to and keeps you in touch with the places of interest in the area."

My Haggerston: rescheduled walk date to be agreed

Dear friends

We would like to apologise for the postponement of the "Haggerston Treasures" - My Haggerston walk, which was to take place on Saturday 29th March. We are rescheduling the walk and have an option of three different dates: please click on the link below to add your availability to these dates, and we will email round for you to sign up to the most popular date chosen.

“My Haggerston - Haggerston Treasures walk": http://doodle.com/b8txyusc9vcps4ez

Please select the dates that you are able to attend by adding your name to the schedule.

The dates are:

Saturday 26th April 11:00am OR

Saturday 10th May 11:00am OR

Saturday 17th May 11:00am

Many thanks from us all at The Building Exploratory 

Peckham Rye Park & Common - proposals to be discussed at adventure playground fun day this Friday

We are working with Southwark Council to consult with local people in Peckham about the proposed changes to Peckham Rye Park & Common. 

The proposals are to:

• Build a new One O'Clock Club (now known as a play room) next to the adventure playground
• Build brand new changing rooms near to the football pitches
• Remove the existing playroom building and changing room containers to make way for a fantastic new open access play area for local children 
  

Fun Day Friday!
Come down to the Adventure Playground FUN DAY this Friday between 12pm and 4pm to discuss the plans with the project team and to share your views.

Make a tile, take a tile!
Local artist Sally Crowley will be making clay tiles with children, using natural objects found in the park.

More details and a press release from Southwark Council follow below.
Email us to let us have your views.

Tour South Haggerston with us - 29th March

Haggerston Treasures

- A walk by The Building Exploratory on Saturday 29th March at 2.00pm

 

Join Nicole Crockett on a guided tour of some of the listed buildings of the southern part of Haggerston. The walk begins on the lawn just outside the main entrance at the Geffrye Museum and ends at Shoreditch Town Hall. The walk is approximately 1.5 - 2 miles long and will take around an hour and a half.

 

All walks are FREE but booking is essential.

Call the Geffrye Museum Booking Officer on 0207 749 6024

email: dpatten@geffrye-museum.org.uk

Find out more about the four spring walks on offer here

Building a new Peckham Rye Playroom

The Building Exploratory has been appointed by Southwark Council to speak to local people about creating a new, fit for purpose building for Peckham Rye Playroom.

 Peckham Rye Playroom last Summer when the weather was much better than it is now!

The hut in which the Playroom is based was originally one of a group of huts built during WW2. They were originally built as barracks for anti-aircraft gunners based in Southwark Park and later were used to house Italian POW's. You can find out more about the history of the park here

The Playroom is housed in the last of these huts but is sadly becoming unfit for purpose, so the intention of Southwark Council is to build a new purpose built home for the Playroom.

This week we have been speaking to lots of parents, carers and staff about what they like about the current facilities and what their priorities would be when building the new Playroom.

If you attend sessions at the Peckham Rye Playroom, we would like to hear from you about how you use the facility and about any ideas you have that could improve the new Playroom.

Keep an eye out for upcoming events where we will be speaking to more park users and local people about the new plans. We will also be providing opportunities to find out a bit more about the history of the park and get involved in some creative activities.

To let us know your thoughts or to find out more please email us