Dalston’s Eastern Curve Garden under threat
Behind the Curve: a young couple stroll through the garden.
The popular Eastern Curve Garden in Dalston faces the chop if council proposals to redevelop the area go ahead.
The Town Hall is currently inviting feedback from the public on the plans, which would see the community-run garden make way for a thoroughfare linking Dalston Square with the Kingsland shopping centre.
Open Dalston blogger Bill Parry-Davies has urged the community to fight for the garden, which he describes as an “essential community resource”.
He said: “The Eastern Curve Garden is a place where people meet plants. It’s where children can learn and play safely – a place for growth, creativity and solace amidst the hustle and bustle of Dalston Town centre’s redevelopment. It is an urban wildlife corridor.
“We will have to convince the council of the need to preserve and enhance this essential community resource. If we fail, there will be one very disappointed and angry community.”
The garden opened in 2010 on the site of a disused railway. In a social value report submitted to the council, local organisations described how the place has “grown with its community to become a unique resource”.
It has hosted festivals, workshops and even welcomed BBC Radio 4’s Gardeners’ Question Time, which broadcast an entire episode from the site two years ago.
In 2015, the council announced plans to redevelop four sites across Dalston to create a “cultural quarter”. One of those sites includes a chunk of the garden and its Peace Mural entrance.
The council, whose plans for the garden retain some green space, says the thoroughfare is needed to provide “pedestrian permeability” from Dalston Lane to the shopping centre.
But Parry-Davies added: “The presently secure and intimate environment of the existing Eastern Curve Garden, and its economic self-sufficiency, would be lost forever.”
The council says it is “gathering views from residents, businesses and community groups until 17 April on the draft principles which could shape the development of the Dalston Quarter”.
Town Hall planning chief Guy Nicholson said: “The consultation is focusing on four Council owned sites and a set of guiding principles that could shape the future development of these sites.
“Everyone knows how popular the Garden is and the real need for green spaces in Dalston, and that’s why the long term aim is to have more permanent green space in the area.
“At the moment, the Garden exists due to a temporary agreement with a private landowner. It is important that we focus our combined efforts on keeping the Eastern Curve Garden and appeal to the commercial landowner who holds the key to its long term future.”
For more information about the consultation, please visit the council’s website here.
This article was updated at 16:58 on Monday 6 March 2017 to include a comment from Cllr Guy Nicholson.
Pedestrian permeability! Is it so hard to walk up Kingsland High Rd, which is about two minutes away? And does shopping take precedence over everything? Keep the Dalston Curve garden!
I was under the impression it was always temporary. Who actually owns it? Was it not always a meanwhile site? There needs to be a balance between getting spaces used in the meanwhile and realising when there are bigger plans. I.e if every temp project has a petition to keep it (e.g. Kings x pond used about 4 people a day) then developers will just stop doing them.
The landowner gave permission that the land could be used for a garden on the condition it was TEMPORARY.
If community groups try to renege on agreements like this it is simply sending a clear message to landowners to never repeat the same offer.
Be reasonable.
Why has the Dalston Eastern Curve Garden been not been listed as an Asset of Community Value. It is used by schools for educational purposes so it clearly does have a community value. I wonder if Cllr. Nicholson would support such a move.
Curve garden is my favourite oasis in London. Hot water bottles, blankets, pizza oven, nature , children running free amongst the flowers, amazing coffee, great snacks, love and friendliness , beer, clean toilet, bean bags and sofas, I could go on and on and on, my family and friends would miss this place so so much
The garden is such a fantastic green space. I am glad Cllr Nicholson will be fighting to save it. He will hopefully be at the forefront to safeguard the council land on which the garden sits?
I’ve healed from break ups, grieved lost family and laughed with friends in this space. Everyone is always so warm hearted and community minded. This is the kind of space that communities with financial, mental and physical health strains like sommany in London need to help people feel connected and heal.
Our health is our social capital.
Don’t let this space be lost!
Eleanor
Oh, yes. We must look after the developers! They are having such a touch time of it in Hackney these days…
Ditto to the last comment! Save the Landowners!!! What a wonderful job they are doing. Landowners and Developers Unite! You have nothing to lose but your millions!!!
A fair point. The alternative may well have been the eastern curve lying derelict and inaccessible for many years.
Would you miss it so much that you’d try to set something new up on another piece of derelict land?
Has anyone found a petition up and running to show the level of opposition to this that there is?
Exactly, roll on the executive flats! Hopefully they’ll then complain about noise levels and we can get some of the pesky local pubs, bars and restaurants closed down.
Next16 there is a deficiency of green space in Dalston- it is not just about the size of the space it is also the size of the buildings around it-for example dalton square opposite is very windy-
The point about a temporary arrangement is a red herring. The private landowner will need to permit the footpath going through their land. If it’s about money, and sure it is, we should pay the owner as a community to sell the land to us to use as a community garden.
The beauty of the curve garden is that it’s such an organically grown space. It grew from something generous and temporary to be such a valuable resource that now everyone is fighting to save it. Totally agree that places like this help the social and mental health of our communities which is priceless. Perhaps this is something that should be bought by the community for the community. We really need more public benefactors at times like this!
It is very important to register the Dalston Eastern Curve gardens as an Asset of Community Value . It is exactly what they are – Dalston lacks green space and these gardens provide a haven for all people who live in Dalston – for those who live in the flats in those windy areas of tall buildings – for parents and children the gardens are a safe, traffic free space where children can learn about plants and gardening. The trees are full of birds , spring is here, the gardens are flowering – don’t destroy this beautiful community space to build yet more concrete blocks to squeeze yet more people into expensive flats in Dalston for profit.
Will the developers never be satisfied until they have covered every corner of Dalston and Hackney with concrete and cement.
There is a consultation process at the moment, so people should tell the Council what they think about maintaining the Curve Garden in its current form:
https://consultation.hackney.gov.uk/planning-regulatory-services/dalston-quarter-consultation/
You can see the “online survey” is not conducive to allowing you to provide your actual opinion – I suggest that just answer the fourth question (general comments) to say: a key principle of development should be a commitment to maintain the Curve Garden in its current form.
Please do this as it will take less than 5 minutes.
Hopefully enough people will show support for the Council to consider it important to save the Curve Garden.
Exactly.