Leader – Pantomimes, Canalival and eerie Christmas calm…
Never mind that rose-red theatre on Mare Street, its next door neighbour, Hackney Town Hall, is where the real pantomime has been running – when it comes to the Stoke Newington Sainsbury’s development, that is.
Hackney Council’s “no it isn’t, yes it is” routine has given audiences ample chance to see the spectacle of the planning subcommittee considering Newmark Properties’ contentious scheme – fun for all the family.
Perhaps the previous two meetings were just dress rehearsals, but one thing’s for sure: the curtain is rising on this performance for the third time. Dare we imagine that the subcommittee might say “oh no it isn’t” to claims the Sainsbury’s scheme is set to benefit Stoke Newington?
This aside, 2013 will be remembered as the Year of the Canalival – an ill-fated water-based shindig that involved thousands of revellers trashing the Regent’s Canal in Haggerston.
It was the year Iain Sinclair finally left Hackney (not permanently) and ‘broke for the border’ as Penguin are putting it in their blurb for his new book American Smoke, about our cousins across the Atlantic.
And it was the year Hackney Council mistakenly said the new Speaker of Hackney was the Dungeon Master from 1970s role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons.
Meanwhile, the council was busy trying to ‘pave paradise’ and put a new permanent car park on Hackney Marshes. The planning application relating to this contentious development was withdrawn at the eleventh hour in September, and it’s all gone quiet since then.
But there are local elections in May 2014, so ruling Labour councillors will no doubt be wishing for an uneventful next five months. Further evidence of a projected news slowdown: fans of fast paced inner-city living will be appalled to discover that many non-Londoners skip town over the festive season, leaving the place feeling as deserted as some sleepy and insignificant hamlet.
So as we prepare for what should be a quiet Christmas, and an uncommonly quiet aftermath, let’s be thankful for living in such a normally eventful place.
Merry Christmas and a happy new year to all our readers.
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