tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1666872559007076569.post8455821351646249028..comments2024-03-15T22:41:23.325+00:00Comments on London underfoot: Capital Ring 12/13: Highgate - Stoke Newington - Hackney WickDes de Moorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08533475300522834830noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1666872559007076569.post-34927541231528364842023-05-15T21:02:53.659+01:002023-05-15T21:02:53.659+01:00Hi Julian, glad you appreciated it and thanks for ...Hi Julian, glad you appreciated it and thanks for your detailed comments, your corrections and amplifications. I always assumed that tower was part of the Copper Box! Will incorporate your corrections when I get a chance. Cheers -- DesDes de Moorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08533475300522834830noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1666872559007076569.post-12393420416906340122023-05-08T21:09:32.519+01:002023-05-08T21:09:32.519+01:00Hi, thanks for this very detailed description of t...Hi, thanks for this very detailed description of the locations along this walk. I lived in Muswell Hill back in the 1970s when they opened the walk along the Old railway. In the 1980s I moved to Stroud Green so at different times I used to walk the sections between Highgate Woods and Alexandra Palace and then between Highgate Woods and Finsbury Park. Other great memories of those times were the creation of the Jackson's Lane Community Centre and the long-running campaign to stop the widening of the Archway Road and the public inquiry into the project. <br /><br />More recently I moved to the other end of the ring and became familiar with the Marshes and Hackney Wick. <br /><br />I would like to add a couple of comments on the latter part of the walk when it gets to Hackney Wick and the Olympic Park. <br /><br />You say of Here East "Behind those hoardings they were building the Media Centre on the former site of the old Hackney Wick Stadium". I would have to say for the most part, the Media Centre/Here East is built on the former common land at Arena Fields, which is where the children from the Gainsborough School used to play, using their bridge to get across the canal. The Olympics Act allowed the Olympic Delivery Authority to build on that piece of common land, which otherwise would not have happened. The old dog stadium may intrude a bit on the site but for the most part was further east. It was on the west side of Waterden Road on its previous alignment when it ran nearer to the Old River Lea. <br /><br />A bit further on you write "On the left is the distinctive tower of the Copper Box". I am not sure what tower you are referring to. As far as I am aware the Copper Box doesn't have a tower. However, there is a tower which is part of the Energy Centre, which is just over the road from the Copper Box, which in turn was built on the site of the King's Yard https://www.power-technology.com/projects/olympic-park-energy-centre/. The ODA originally promised to keep King's Yard, the brother site of Queen's Yard on the other side of the canal but then broke their promise. Part of the King's Yard was retained, http://www.gamesmonitor.org.uk/archive/node/414.html. King's Yard included curved roofs on timber Belfast trusses.<br /><br />Finally, you refer to the "Wallis Road footbridge, opened in 2013, which even has a lift at the far end". Sadly, one of the consequences of the construction of this bridge and the lift that was later added was they took land away from the Eton Mission Rowing Club http://www.gamesmonitor.org.uk/archive/blog/1972.html and https://spitalfieldslife.com/2011/07/12/at-the-eton-mission-rowing-club/.<br /><br />There is a wonderful mix of sardonic comment in this Hackney Wick section of your blog. I particularly loved "The district, much of which forms a conservation area, is still in the process of being transformed into the sort of residential neighbourhood that estate agents describe as ‘vibrant’, while rendering it unaffordable to the people who created that vibrancy in the first place" and "In 2015, Michael Vallance, who had run a car repair business in the yard since 1992, left claiming he was forced out by ‘arty types colonising east London’. Without a trace of irony, Crate, who took over the vacant unit as an events venue, gave it the suitably funky name ‘Mick’s Garage’" and of the Lord Napier "It was restored and reopened in 2021 as a comfortable but determinedly on-trend bar and venue, and the new owners have retained its former decorations, including a slogan across an upper floor which bluntly summarises the recent history of the area as ‘From shithouse to penthouse’."<br /><br />Thank you.Julian Cheynenoreply@blogger.com