Wednesday, 28 October, 2020
Hackney has a lovely little museum. It’s housed in the modern library building beside the town hall. Despite its small size, they’ve managed to capture the history and spirit of the area. The focus is on immigration to Hackney and its oldest exhibit is from Saxon Times – it’s a logboat believed to have been made from a tree felled in 950 to 1000 when the tree was 200-250 years old. It was found near the Lea River in 1987. If such things fascinate you, you can read about it here. You’ll also see photos since my own were hindered by too much glare. The logboat itself is under glass in the floor but there is usually a model of it on the floor – it’s been stored away for now.
Of course the museum has been closed for some time but opened mid October with an exhibit of photos taken in the 1980s. I booked my slot online and waited for the day to arrive. Then on that day, I planned my route over there so that I could make the most of the time outside.
My walk started with a walk past these two ‘ladies.’ Ming Hai, a rather terrible Chinese restaurant and Casablanca, a Caribbean restaurant. I’d say both are worth a miss for food but they are constants around here. Ming was closed for some time and just reopened a week or so ago. Every day the owner comes out at the same time to open the shutters and set up her day. Her customers are loyal. Casablanca seems to be open for long, long hours – from early until quite late. People come from far away and we have our theories about its role in the community, based on who comes, who goes, and who hangs around outside.
At the junction of Dalston Lane there’s Navarino Mansions. They were built in 1904 by the Four Per Cent Dwellings Company (now IDS, Industrial Dwellings Society) a group of Jewish philanthropists to relieve the overcrowding in homes in the East End of London. I love these buildings and they definitely deserve a lot more photographs and research but for now here are three images.
Navarino Road is an elegant street and quite different in character than how I started on Wayland Avenue (Navarino Road beginning on the other side of Dalston Lane). I can imagine that this street was settled by people who had a bit more money in their pocket.
I always turn down Wilton Way. I love the villagey feel of that street. To my right a bit is Violet, the bakery which baked the cake for the royal wedding of Harry and Meghan. I’ve been going to Violet since I moved to Hackney. and Claire its American owner was an unknown. Claire lives on Wilton Way still but I don’t know where exactly. Today I turned left instead to head towards the back of the Hackney Empire and eventually the library.
After Wilton Way’s residential area there’s a pretty dramatic fork in the road, with one side (to the left) called Penpoll Road, a colourful but mysterious name.
On Sylvester Road is the Edwardian (1901-1914) Sylvester House – three blocks of four storey buildings with dormer attics. I love its red brick architecture
I also wanted to walk along Sylvester Path which runs from Sylvester Road back to Wilton Way. This is a narrow path where once stood some of Spurstowe’s Almshouses. These almshouses were first built in 1666 and rebuilt in 1819.
Another feature of Sylvester Path is the Ship Tavern. It’s also a hotel and has a pretty lovely bar area. I haven’t yet found out what year the tavern was built. It has entrances on Mare Street and on Sylvester Path.
I love walking at the back of the Hackney Empire, also on Sylvester Path. I try to imagine everyone who has walked back there and think about whose footsteps I am walking in. Russell Brand, John Cleese, Craig Ferguson, Dawn French and Lenny Henry, for the modern set. Charlie Chaplin, W. C. Fields, Stanley Holloway, Stan Laurel, Marie Lloyd, and Julie Andrews all performed there, when the Hackney Empire was a music hall. They would all have come back here to go through the stage door.
By now it was time to get over to the museum. The security officer unlocked the door and let us in and at the entrance a volunteer talked to us about the history of the museum and how it represented the many people who came together to create the diverse borough that it is.
I’ve stolen the description of the photography project from the page for the book that will be on sale soon. Some of the sales money will go to support the Rio (shut since March) through the Covid-19 crisis, and towards new community archiving and youth workshops.
The exhibition is from a collection of slides and photographs that were taken during a community project by The Rio Tape/Slide Newsgroup in the 1980s, who met in the Rio Cinema basement. The group taught unemployed local young people photography and sound-recording skills and then sent them out to report on Hackney life. The resulting ‘newsreels’ were then shown on screen at the Rio before the main feature.
The slides were rediscovered in a battered filing cabinet in the Rio basement during renovation work in 2016. They are a treasure trove of radical community photography depicting protests and activism, street scenes, work, play and ‘80s Dalston style.
In my own words, I found the exhibit very interesting. The 1980s were a time of great change for Hackney. The people stuck together through the tough Thatcher years, the miners’ strike, and the time of squats and protest. You can see the photos at https://www.instagram.com/riocinemaarchive/ but here a few of my favourites.
We walked back along Mare Street, passing the town hall, the front of the Empire and on to the shops. Hackney has changed so much since the 1980s. Even when we arrived in the early 2000s there was a lot of dereliction, burnt out and ransacked cars sat abandoned, rubbish was everywhere, in every nook and cranny people could find. We watched while a stalwart furniture shop (E. Gibson), where the buses once stopped on Amhurst Road, burned all night. We climbed to the top of a nearby building and watched as a piece of Hackney’s history tumbled. In its place there are modern shops and a hotel. Bit by bit Hackney is being rebuilt and changed almost beyond recognition. What hasn’t changed much is the spirit of the Hackney people. They are multicultural and they can be loud and outrageous. In this time of Covid-19 they also stand together to do what they can for their neighbours, to support the small businesses, and to carry on doing what must be done. It’s not always orderly but it’s that very chaos that makes Hackney unique.
At the entrance to the museum stands this statue. The plaque reads ‘Charity’ by Van Spangen and Powell, Mile End. This sculpture dates from around 1800 and once stood on St Leonard’s Parochial Schools in Kingsland Road, Shoreditch before being moved to St Leonard’s Children’s Home (orphanage) in Hornchurch, Essex. St Leonard’s (where I’m often sent for health care) was once a workhouse. I wonder how many of these workhouse children and orphans stayed in Hackney (then Shoreditch) and their descendants appear in the exhibit photos or on the streets of my borough.
