Cries of ‘yuppie scum’ at protest against subsidised Hackney Heart cafe
Subsidised cafe Hackney Heart. Photograph: Josh Loeb
The manager of a trendy café at the centre of a row over alleged favouritism by Hackney Council has defended the enterprise, saying it does not compete with local businesses.
Traders in the Narrow Way in Hackney Central have complained about sky-high rents – but now it has emerged the Labour-run council sub-lets premises on the street to pop-up café-cum-gallery Hackney Heart rent-free.
Figures obtained by Conservative London Assembly Member Andrew Boff show the Town Hall is subsidising Hackney Heart to the tune of £16,000 over six months as part of its regeneration of the Narrow Way.
Hackney Liberal Democrat spokesperson Tony Harms said: “It appears that the people of Hackney are, without any consultation, subsidising a commercial enterprise in a prime location, and one which will compete with established businesses in the area.”
Protest
Anti-gentrification protesters staged a sit-in at the café this weekend.
Jane MacIntyre, who runs Hackney Heart, said: “It was a sit-in in inverted commas because they didn’t actually come in the shop, but I had people outside the shop shouting at me and calling me yuppie scum.
“I tried to explain Hackney Heart is open to anyone.
“One of the protesters ended up saying he wanted to run a film night here and wanted to help out in the shop.”
Ms MacIntyre said Hackney Heart is run with help from one volunteer and one staff member paid the minimum wage.
She added: “I welcome this publicity in one sense as it has given me the chance to do some outreach work and give a massive shout-out to anyone who wants to use this space.
“It’s for community use. We’ve held a lot of free events here and I have a track record of running community events.”
Critics have cited the council’s comparatively less accommodating attitude towards longstanding bookshop and arts space Centerprise, which specialised in catering for the black community and which was forced out of its premises in Dalston last year after the Town Hall hiked up its rent.
Tony Harms said: “The council insisted that Centerprise, a well established and valuable local resource for the black and minority ethnic community, should pay a market rent.
“It seems extraordinary that they should now offer this prime location in the Narrow Way rent free to a commercial company. Having decided to pedestrianise the Narrow Way, against the wishes of local traders, is the council now saying that shops cannot be let?
“They must be more open about this very worrying situation.”
‘Flexible’ arrangement
Hackney Council did not reply to an enquiry from the Hackney Citizen asking whether there was any competitive tendering process to run Hackney Heart.
A council spokesperson said the lease was “flexible”, adding: “If a big retailer comes along we will obviously go for this to improve the street and try and find an alternative location for Hackney Heart.
“We are also working with the landlord to help him find an appropriate long term retailer to go into the space.
“The lease on the property was offered by the Hackney Central Town Centre Partnership in agreement with the landlord and there was only one volunteer willing to take it on.
“The shop barely breaks even and is unlikely ever to make a profit.”
‘Whatever you want it to be…’
Andrew Sissons, the council’s Head of Regeneration Delivery, said: “The current Hackney Heart leaseholder is contracted to voluntarily run the space on a day-to-day basis during the period of the lease.
“The shop is available for the community to use for events and activities which engage local people by sharing information and providing creative opportunities for people to contribute to the current discussions about the regeneration of the Narrow Way. ”
Jane MacIntyre said: “This idea that I’m a rival to the other shops in the Narrow Way I don’t understand.
“I’ve got a really good relationship with other traders in the Narrow Way.
“I don’t want to take any business away from them. I’m not taking business away from them as I’m doing something very different.
She said Hackney Heart is not a commercial enterprise, adding: “People can come in here and not buy anything. People can take books away for free. Many, many people come in here and don’t buy anything. Elderly people come in just for a chat.
“It’s a free gallery space and a free events space.
“It’s almost what anyone wants it to be.”
She added that the premises had been empty for a year before Hackney Heart opened around two months ago.
The regeneration of the Narrow Way and landmark pedestrianisation of the street have been criticised by some traders who have expressed worry about what they have branded the ‘yuppification’ of the area.
Last year Hackney Council was forced to go back to the drawing board and commission new images of the Narrow Way after an artist’s impression of the street was slammed for being ‘too white’.
At the time Black and Ethnic Minority Network chief officer Ngoma Bishop said the original image “revealed Hackney’s transformation into a borough inhabited almost entirely by young white people”.
Update at 11.54am on 3 February 2014:
Hackney Council claims there was a competitive tendering process to run Hackney Heart but has not said whether the opportunity to take on the lease was advertised anywhere.
Related:
Regeneration is one way street, fear Narrow Way traders
Is it not enough that Hackney Council have misappropriated funds earmarked for the Narrow Way for their own vanity project for a designer outlet area for the wealthy?
Now they are going one better by driving out traders by offering rent free shops to their Labour cronies.
I am sure the Narrow Way would be better off and more attractive with a Poundland instead of a place that at least tries to breathe some life into the community.
What a stupid idea, the Narroway needs real shops for people who actually buy stuff there. Hackney Council could lower the rates to attract real business’s to this area. Mary Portas has a lot to answer for….
Andreas has a point.
I’m starting to get alarmed lately by all these claims that anyone white in hackney is a yuppie, my bank balance determines this to be a lie. I’ve lived in Hackney for 32 years and I thought the statistics indicated that the Turkish community was the largest group in hackney.
Any one who takes over a shop CLOSED for a year is a yuppie. How long was centerprise subsidised for?
There’s still plenty of shop fronts which have been closed up for years, instead of criticising shops which are clearly doing something for the elderly, why don’t these people do something more for the community like open up a SAMS or 99p shop
I love the concept of the Hackney Heart. What I find alarming are those in positions of power to make decisions that directly affect the well being of its citizens. Hackney council doesn’t have to bend over backwards to accommodate the BME community as they usually do so in a derogatory way i.e. the wooden boxes flung about the Narroway. Yuck! If Yuppies wish to shop in Hackney them let them and the local shop keepers ought to be pleased that they do.
I have lived in Hackney for 20 years and the Narrow Way is not somewhere I go to a lot for shopping. I can see the value of attracting businesses there by offering rent free periods, they could extend that by offering rent holidays for existing businesses. Does Hackney own all the leases for the shops in that area?
All this free advertising for the Hackney Heart has tempted me down there. I might spend money at other shops on the street. Money I would not have spent if it had not been for the new business.
“If a big retailer comes along we will obviously go for this to improve the street and try and find an alternative location for Hackney Heart.”
Why a ‘big’ retailer? Presumably High Street multiples only welcome now
Alarmist over-reaction to a benign presence on the street. How is an empty shop better than a chilled-out space where you can just sit and enjoy a atmosphere that simply doesn’t exist elsewhere? I sit and write there, just as I could in the library.
The Hackney Heart didn’t start the regeneration of this area. Just because gentrification is moving apace now makes it an easy target. No trader on the narrow way has to work harder because of the Hackney Heart – it’s just not competing as it does something no-one else does. Indeed, more types of retail premises, and more original uses of shops create more footfall, and everyone gains, right?
Centerprise was never subsidised by Hackney Council. The building was bought with funds granted to Centerprise by the the GLC under the Urban Programme under a fair and competitive bidding process in 1983/84. Hackney Council as managers of the fund diverted the grant to themselves. Their reason was that should Centerprise fold, then the building will automatically revert to them. After 42 years of not folding up, Hackney Council seized the property under dubious circumstances. We are pursuing the matter in the courts until victory is achieved. Justice delayed is never justice denied.
Do “yuppies” even exist in 2014? There’s rumour that some of the pitch forked mob were also to be heard shouting “bounder” and “cad”.
Here’s a couple of helpful links to an abundance of Shakespearean insults they might like to try out next time – http://www.insults.net/html/shakespeare/ – and – http://www.pangloss.com/seidel/Shaker/
Meanwhile, there’s that much more troublesome knee jerk insult in this story, the use of the word “scum”. Come on people, do we really believe it necessary or appropriate to dehumanise members of our community in this way? Does it make the “HATE” easier?
The only reason this cafe exists is that no-one wanted to take the space on a commercial basis. Would the nay-sayers really prefer to see an empty shop? Talk about dogs in mangers!
Gerry, it is incorrect that no one wanted to take the space on a commercial basis… the guy who runs the shop next door was in discussions about opening a cafe there himself.
This article is very poor and makes me wonder if the journalist is a friend of Ms Mackintyre. It reads like a Hackney Heart press release.
She is given a lot of space, as is the council, but none of the traders on the narrow way are quoted, neither is anyone at the protest and no-one from Centerprise was called either.
I expected better standards from the Hackney Citizen.
This article is very biased. It contains a lie from Jane Egginton/Macintyre that one of the protesters later asked to do a film night there. This is simply not true and it seems she has a track record of lying about this money making concern of hers; she told shop keepers she was paying rent – lie, she told people she was volunteering while in fact she pays herself, and that local shopkeepers support her, when they do not.
The the issue is not about her though, it is about Hackney Council spending £16,000 of taxpayers money on supporting one sole business [are there more it is giving our money too one wonders?], while other local businesses are going bust. Gerry, above, naively asked do the protesters “prefer to see an emptyy shop?” embaressingly not understanding the reason shops were empty on the Narroway was due to the rents! No one wants empty shops. But the issue is why did Hackney Council support this enterprise over any other?
Last year it evicted Centreprise cafe and bookshop, after raising their peppercorn rent to £37,000pa, and AFTER Centreprise RAISED that money. Rose’s bookshop on Clarence Road, another local black run shop, was also forced out of business last year, due to high rents.
So this is not just ‘natural’ process. Hackney Council is favouring one sort of person/shop for one section of the community over another, without putting it in their manifesto or to the vote.
A few years back Cllr Guy Nicholson stated at a meeting on Trelawney Estate, that he wanted the Narroway to be like Broadway Market with artisan butchers selling French rabbits etc etc. This is what it is about. A deliberate strategy by the local Labour Party to gentrify Hackney, to the detriment of local working class people.
This situation really needs to be considered through the prism of the Council’s policy of “regeneration” and the role of Guy Nicholson – the Council’s lead on Regeneration strategy. Protesters and aggrieved local traders are, I very much doubt, upset about the use of an empty shop for a good cause, but about the insidious and unaccountable purpose behind this particular shop. What we have here is a situation where legitimate, long-standing local traders have to pay high rents and business rates, while a local tax-payer-funded concern avoids all of this expense, not in the name of charity (for example), but because the Council wants to use it as a wedge to gentrify the Narrow Way, with all that then follows: higher market rents for local traders who supply commercial services to working class residents. The impact on local property prices follows, etc… We end up with a situation like Broadway Market and, I anticipate, similar “regeneration” outcomes for market traders in Ridley Road. It’s one thing for entrepreneurs to try and make a go of it, it’s a whole different kettle of fish for the Council to use tax-payers’ £££ to attempt to socially engineer an outcome which will not benefit the majority of the existing population.
Reading that hackney is becoming too white, or that is transforming into a mainly young white people area, like it is an issue is offensive and racist.
Fact is that hackney is improving.
Offending people because are white or “yuppies” is outrageous and a sign of pure ignorance racism.
I have a business in the area, I am white, and offended.
Strange that this attitude is taken by the Council here when not dissimilar initiatives by the Off Market collective were pushed out. The Free Shop in Clapton Rd was very popular – evicted. It moved to Dalston Lane – evicted.
No surprises, though, for an authority which is under investigation for ignoring freedom of information requests. That’s illegal, by the way.
In response to Richard’s comment accusing me of lying: one of the protesters has not only arranged to do a film night at Hackney Heart, but a free advice workshop for people with housing, mental health and substance abuse issues. This is part of a free event on the 14th Feb at the shop to which all are invited. I did not tell traders that I was paying rent; when the shop opened, a Town Centre Partnership Meeting was held in Hackney Heart to which all traders were invited. I did not tell people I was volunteering but that it was a not for profit enterprise, which it is. One of the many local traders who supports me is Rose the bookseller you mention. Her shop was not closed down because of high rents as you state but due to problems with the building structure, but she now has a stall at my market on the Narrow Way. Rose is just one of the many local traders who supports me and was there on Saturday doing just that in person.
Jane… I was also at the protest, along with Richard. Since the protest I have been in contact with all of the other protesters. You are lying. Whoever is running this event was not with us.
My colleague and I was at the protest and we immediately left after the pictures were taken and did not take part in any conversation or discussion with Jane as we were running late for another appointment. Can Jane name the person who asked for a volunteering job? That will certainly clear the air, clearly such a person would have introduced him or herself.
I am really appalled by all of this. On what planet is it acceptable to publicly attack a person for trying to do something valuable and worthwhile for her community. If you have an issue with the way it was funded that is fine take it up with the council. If we break this all down a little we all know that funding for facilities and activities for the youth, the aged and those who suffer from mental illness has been drastically reduced over the last few years. This project seems to me to be trying to fill some of those gaps with workshops and activities open to all which are provided for a fraction of the price of the services that have been cut. There is nothing about Hackney Heart that is elitist or yuppy. Sounds to me like there is another agenda here for the gang of thugs who thought it appropriate to stand outside of a shop front and hurl bullish insults at a women who is working hard to try and create something for the community. By the way if you are so concerned that You are being lied to why not show up for the workshop on the 14th and witness first hand some of the good that is being done and maybe make a valuable contribution to the community as well by doing something positive rather than berating someone who is just having a go at doing something for others.
No one is personally attacking Ms Macintyre. Our issue is with the use of public funds. However, she lied about us, and we are challenging that lie. Were you actually there to see a gang of thugs, or are you just taking Ms Macintyre’s word for it?
I am sorry that Emmanuel did not have time for a dialogue on the day of the protest, but it is great that some people did. I invite anyone who was involved with the protest to give their full names and state their interest – whether it as traders, local residents, etc. I reiterate my invitation to everyone to come along on the 14th Feb to contribute, complain or just have a conversation.
@Jane Why should Emmanuel waste his time speaking with you when you can’t give a straight answer or tell the truth? You do realise there is only so much Bull Sh*te people can take.
You also appear to have not mentioned the reason why you want their names???
You forgot to mention making a report to the police about being harassed, racially abused, suffering anti social behaviour at the hands of protestors etc
See, I pretty much pegged you years ago as an opportunist and a smart calculating business woman. I NEVER bought into the mother earth, Mother Theresa act about wanting to save Hackney and all the poor imporvrished people and the Pedro Club blah blah.
It was all in aid to get funding and Charity status for Clapton Improvement Society, which you got. What have you done for the Pedro Club?
But you know when you showed your true colours? When you demanded I paid you for writing a piece for Hackney Hive. This was soon after I started the site. No budget, no ads, had to stop running my business due to ill health and a whole string of catastophes. I told you it was a community effort, yet you insisted on being paid and having all your various projects mentioned and that of your favorite photographer too.
Where was your sense of community spirit then? Why didn’t you help my poor impoverished black a$$? Eh?
I better stop and save the best for my site.
As you were.
This is NOT a ‘racist’ or ‘anti-white’ issue… as someone white who was born and has lived in Hackney my whole life (yadayadayada) and spent many years working in the community around here I would be lying if it didn’t gall me to know that the council would happily subsidise this type of venture, which, as very nice as I’m sure it is, seems to offer very little in the way of outreach for those who really need it, while places like Centreprise, Pedro, Chats Palace, The Wally Foster Centre and countless other places have had to struggle for any council support they have received over the years or in some instances have just been left to hang.
But I guess it is easier to sell organic herbal teas than teach theatre to kids on housing estates who genuinely fear straying into certain postcodes huh…
…although having said that I see that the Clapton Improvement Society will offer free guidance to benefit claimants if they want food hygiene and market stall training, so they too can have a food stall on Chatsworth Road Market.. oh so that’s okay.. forget I said anything…
I’m not sure why the Hackney council taxpayer has to subsidise a cafe when cafes are being set up left, right and centre without funding in Hackney.
Would it not be better to lower business rates rather than fund certain enterprises on a selective basis.
I suppose at least it’s not Costa Coffee/Starbuck etc..
I’m surprised the council would give Hackney Heart a subsidy but not try and work out something for Centreprise ..
Mob mentality. Any problems take it up with the council. Only they can sort things out. The cafe is no more than a community centre. An all nations community centre not one with black or white concerns but every bodies.
Businesses run rings round the council.
The council should stick to its core purpose at which it is very efficient and be completely neutral where business and “regeneration” are concerned.
I’m sure the Hackney Heart is a lovely, benign, well intentioned place. I went past but couldnt really be bothered going in it looked really boring. Sorry but its not all that attractive to local people.
I might be wrong but I thought it was part of the council’s post-riots initiative? If that is true (and anyway….) wouldnt it have been more dynamic to set something up with and for young people of the area – cooking classes, choosing healthy menus, designing, decorating and running their own funky cafe and maybe, just maybe, persuading other young people to come in and eat healthily instead of going to the dreaded Macdonalds opposite?
There are loads of trendy cafes popping up all over Hackney and they all seem very much the same sort of thing.
At least you could get proper Caribbean scoff at Centerprise.
Bit of a missed opportunity if you ask me.
In speaking to some Hackney black residents. They feel that they are being driven out and forced to close their businesses and moved away from their families by what they believe to be racist individuals that don’t have the best interest of the community at heart. It is their self interest and the interest of their relationship with various companies that they are concerned with more than the benefits to the community they serve. They firmly believe that there is a conflict of interest and that these people should go.
They do not get the service they require in regards to the constant raising of rent, service charges and council tax.
I believe that they can do better. It is whether they want to.
Hackney residents are not being consulted in any way shape or form about decisions regarding their welfare etc. There has to be something wrong with this behaviour about
They don’t feel that it makes any sense complaining as the majority of these unseen people support this behaviour and are in collusion.
Hackney deserves better.
Let’s rally together to challenge these attitudes and expel them.
Hackney is not a gravy train for personal gain it is our home.