Fresh, not Hackneyed

5 April 2012

Mare Street is Hackney's high street. At its northern end it meanders downhill through a quaint semi-pedestrianised street of small-scale Victorian buildings.

Its shops are a vibrant mix of high-street names, such as Primark, M&S, Boots and Clarks, and pound shops and grocers serving Hackney's Turkish and African-Caribbean communities.

As the street passes under a railway bridge by Hackney Central station, the street becomes wider between taller Arts and Crafts buildings until it reaches the new cultural quarter by the town hall.

The fine, brick station building has recently been converted into a smart bar and restaurant, a further sign that the regeneration of Hackney is gathering pace.

The borough might still have some of the highest unemployment in London, and occupy third place on the list of most deprived districts in England, but the cavalry is arriving in the form of the sons and daughters of the middle-classes, young and single professional people and creative types, who are converting abandoned factories and warehouses into trendy homes and small businesses.

It is much cheaper than Islington, of course, and less consciously hip, and this is not the place to find Docklands-style yuppies, but you can find a grant.

Hackney is not embarrassed to ask for help and in recent years has found money to stimulate cultural activities and cash to smarten itself up, and now everyone likes the feel of the place.

It has 21 conservation areas with streets of imposing Georgian terraces or pretty roads of flatfronted early Victorian cottages. Within a short walking distance of Mare Street, there are at least three areas house-hunters would find worthwhile to explore.

The area north of Mare Street has the jewel in the borough's architectural crown, Clapton Square, which has large Georgian houses on two sides overlooking a garden square.

Off the square, there is another fine terrace in Clarence Place, and some interesting newly built live/work developments in Clarence Mews.

Cut through St John's churchyard to Church Path, which almost has the feel of a cathedral close, and you find yourself in Sutton Place, a particularly well-preserved Georgian terrace that leads to Sutton House, one of the oldest houses in London, now owned by the National Trust and open to the public.

West of Mare Street, the London Fields conservation area has street upon street of pretty two- and three-storey early Victorian houses, some flat-fronted, others later and bow-fronted. The area is green and leafy with well-tended front gardens, plenty of trees and has the open spaces of London Fields itself.

Broadway Market, which is full of interesting shops, art galleries and restaurants, including the highly rated Latin American restaurant Armadillo, runs south from the tip of London Fields.

East of Mare Street, in the area just north of Victoria Park and west of Well Street Common, there is a fine Georgian terrace in Cassland Road, a curved row of semi-detached villas in the crescent opposite, and terraces of Victorian houses in the adjoining streets. Lauriston Road has a good mix of shops and restaurants.

Kevin Moore, director of the Hackney Society, says the borough has more than 1,250 listed buildings with nearly 60 buildings still considered at risk.

'House prices in Hackney are half those in Islington, and so there is plenty of scope for people who like to renovate houses and pioneer new areas.

'The local council encourages exciting new buildings, such as the new blue house off Broadway Market and Hackney Road, designed by Fashion Architecture Taste, and, for an inner-London borough, there are still plenty of empty sites where people can build interesting one-off houses or small developments.'

The Empire strikes back
If ever an area deserves a boost Hackney does. The magnificent Hackney Empire in Mare Street has been completely refurbished to the tune of £17.5 million and is now resplendent.

The Empire, always one of London's finest theatres, is once again bringing joy to a borough that for years was dogged by unemployment and abused by poverty. No longer is this London's most dingy borough, the refurbished theatre, loved by locals, is bringing fresh vitality to Hackney.

The theatre has re-opened with a programme offering something for everyone: comedy, opera, drama and variety. This fine red-brick-and-pink-stone building, with its twin domed turrets and delicately painted interiors, was built in 1901 as a variety theatre and played host to Marie Lloyd, Charlie Chaplin and many others.

Rescued from demolition in the late 1980s by Roland Muldoon, who is still the artistic director, the Hackney Empire is now owned by a preservation trust.

This magnificent theatre has become the centrepiece of the council's new cultural quarter assembled around the square on Mare Street, in front of Hackney's fine classical town hall.

The theatre sits on one side of the square, opposite a new £25 million central library and museum, which opened in May last year. On the other side of the road, there is Ocean, one of London's newest music venues, which runs a training programme for young musicians and has a bar and cafè.

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Fresh, not Hackneyed

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