The Big Lunch - June 6th!

Leswin Road Play Streets is back…forever.

It’s official. Leswin Road will be closed to traffic for one afternoon every month so that the kids can play in the street. With no cars to worry about, the road and the pavements will become our front yard.

There’ll be some footballs, some goals, some big chalks for adding colour to the streets but bring your bikes, skateboards or whatever games and toys you want. Most of all, bring your enthusiasm, your fun and your neighbourly chat.

The events will take place each month on the section of Leswin Road between Batley Road and Evering Road between 3.30pm and 6.30pm with the next one set to take place on 11th July 2014, a.k.a Friday week. Whether you have young ones or not, come out, chew the fat and put names to those faces you pass every day.

DETAILS
Date
Friday 11th July 2014 and then every second Friday of each month from there on in. That’s 8th August, 12th September, 10th October and so on. I’m sure you can figure it out. We may decide to give it a break in the winter but we’ll work that out when we get there.

Place
Leswin Road (between Batley Road and Evering Road)

Time
3.30pm - 6.30pm. Nothing more, nothing less.

Bad weather
Eventually, we’re going to encounter some bad weather. Ultimately, it’s up to us - or more likely our children - if they want to play on. Wrap them up, waterproof them and they probably won’t care.

Food
Last time we got a good deal on some plain cheese and tomato pizzas for the children which were delivered to the street at 5pm. We’re looking into something similar again for each session. If the mood takes you to bake or prepare any bits and pieces to share with your neighbours, then we’ll love you forever but it’s by no means compulsory nor expected. For drinks, there’ll be jugs of cordial. Anything else, you’d best bring yourself.

Who can come?
You, your children, your friends and your children's friends. Invite who you like, really. If it starts turning into Glastonbury, then we might start to reconsider things. But it won’t, and we won’t have to.

Your Car
Park it on another section of the road, please. It’s much better when we’ve got the whole width of the street to enjoy. Prepare for passive-aggressive reminders under your windscreen wipers.

Your Wheelie Bin (No.s 1-22)
We’re going to create safety barriers at either end of the traffic-free zone and, to do that, we’d like to use your brown wheelie bin. Hope that’s ok. Please leave them in front of your house. We’ll make sure we put them back after.

Games
We’ll have some football goals and some big chalk with which the artists can doodle on the pavements. Other than that, it’s really entirely up to your children what they’d like to bring out.

Disclaimer
Your children will remain your responsibility during the event. We know you know this but it needs to be said. So, there it is. We said it.

Going forward
Our Leswin Road Play Streets will doubtless grow and change as we do. We might turn it into a bit of a gala at some point. We might even theme it every now and then. We’ll see what happens. The important part is that the kids have a good time.


If you have any suggestions or would like to volunteer your help as a marshal, then drop me a line. My name is Dan and you can get hold of me as below.

Contact
Please feel free to contact Dan on 07798 855907 or dansung@outlook.com for any further info, or come round to 3 Leswin Road and see if I answer. I might.

Old Fire Station N16 - Studio Available

Brendan Devlin, the Building Development Manager at The Old Fire Station has contacted to let us know about the availability of space in the building:

A spacious studio (169 square feet) available now which would suit an artist, start up company, group of writers or similar.

The ad is on their current website :

Available now! A Studio has become available on the second level of the building, overlooking Leswin Road, facing East so getting all of the morning sun. It is approximately 169 square feet and is £300 per month and available immediately . 

We are looking to engage local people who, in broad terms, can offer benefit through their activities to the community of Hackney; and we are interested to hear from anyone who thinks the space and the building might be right for them. 




Please contact Brendan Devlin on info@oldfirestation.org or 07440 38 36 46

Thinking of getting fit this winter, without a trek to the gym?
There is a great drop in yoga class held at the OFS on Monday nights run by Jane Miller you can find out more about Jane and her classes here

There is also the potential to set up new hoola hoop classes at OFS. If interested please contact Brendan with preferred times and dates - might be a fun way to keep fit and warm this winter!

Spring Newsletter, 'is it an octopus?' and other events!

The latest LARA newsletter is out on email to our subscribers - you can read it here or just click on the Newsletter heading above. Catch up on our local news and what we are planning next - our picnic in the park, the next pub quiz and other local events such as film club, exhibitions, school fairs and more....
Something else that dropped into our inbox today, sent by a local mum drumming up support for a great local community nursery:

“is it an octopus?”

Art exhibition by parents and children of 'Grasshoppers in the Park' nursery

at:

cafe-bistro Nar

35 Stoke Newington Church Street

London, N16 …..

Busses: 73 / 476 / 393 / 106. Trains: Stoke Newington (overground)

from:

25th May - 31st July 2012

Opening times: 10am-11pm, Mon-Sun

“is it an octopus?” is an idea that came about from parents of 'Grasshoppers in the Park' community nursery. Whilst many parents involved in the nursery are creative professionals, the purpose of making something artistic together with our children for public display, is not intended as a showcase of artistic talent, but as a statement about the value of creativity through which the strong emotional bonds with our children are made.

find out about the nursery here: www.grasshoppersinthepark.co.uk

Transition Town Stoke Newington

This sounds like an interesting event :
See the flyer below or go to ttstokenewington.org.uk to find out all about it and book your place.

Our Talented Community and Local Events

We have a new Noticeboard!
We've had a few requests recently to post about events, offers of work and recommendations for tradespeople etc. Here's an update of recent contacts.  Apologies for the late posting and if you would like to 'advertise' your local talent please read the info on our Noticeboard for the quickest way to do it - otherwise, keep sending in the emails and we'll post up whenever we can.

Latest requests:

Dear LARA,

I have been living on Bayston Road for 18 months and would like to extend an offer of Private Tuition to the residents of our area.

I currently tutor a 9yr old girl in Archway, preparing her for the 11+ exam in English, Maths, Science, Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning. I am an Oxford University English Literature graduate and have experience teaching English, Drama, and English as a Foreign Language from beginner to A level standard. I can also teach Spanish (I am a fluent speaker) and Latin (up to GCSE).

As I am local, self-employed and not paying fees to an agency, I can offer a friendly, flexible and reliable tutoring service at competitive rates. If you think this may interest the residents involved in LARA, do please pass on this email. I would love to hear from them. Last year I met lots of young people (ages 3-11) in Stoke Newington, leading the drama component of half-term and holiday creative workshops at Newington Dance Space on Church Street. I know the Easter holidays are coming up and this is a crucial time for revision and extra help outside of school! I am happy to provide more information or references on request.

Many thanks,

Lucy

Contact:
wray.lucy@googlemail.com

*******************************************

Babysitter Needed?

Dear LARA community,

We are 4 lively creative 20 something ladies living in N16 (Bayston Road) keen to gain some extra pocket money in the evenings and weekends. If you could put this up on your blog, we'd be chuffed to bits.

Thanks a lot,
The ladies of Bayston Road

(07929016002)

p.s Here's my personal photo blog if you are at all interested - caraguthriephotos.blogspot.com

*******************************************

and finally not quite a local - but sounds interesting anyway!

 Dear N16 folks,

I live in france and teach english there, and am doing a Jazz poetry performance in Dalston on April 10. could you please inform your members of this event. people and come come along and have a good time in this nice little bohemian bar and we can chat about jazz and poetry and the Beat generation etc. below's the info:

Jazz Poetry Improv Ensemble

Servant Jazz Quarters | 10a BRADBURY STREET | DALSTON | N16 8JNApril 10, 8pm - 10.30pm

door fee: £5

Taran Singh, poetry (english, french, hindi)
Colin Webster, saxophones
Noel Taylor, clarinets
Ollie Brice, doublebass
Pharoah Russell, drums

Jazz Poetry Improv Ensemble brings together performance poetry and free jazz. Taran Singh performs poetry by the Beat Generation poets, black poets and original poems. The musicians improvise around the voice to create the sonic atmosphere that the context and the tone of the poems call for. Each performance is unique, cos entirely improvised in the moment. The poems are fun and the music runs the gamut from blues to jazz to funk to free jazz. Poetry in FRENCH, ENGLISH & HINDI. 

band website: http://taransfreejazzhour.com/jazzpoetryimprov
venue website: http://www.servantjazzquarters.com/events/jazz-poetry-taran-singh

A Big Cheers to the Pub Quiz!

Our first Lara fundraiser was a great success thanks to all the local residents that turned up on the night and made it a great evening. We had a full house and the competition was severe!

Jamie and Jim did a brilliant double act on questions and answers, whilst our youngest quiz master Arthur kept everyone entertained during the grand 'vintage' raffle.

Many thanks to the White Hart for letting us have their room upstairs (a fantastic room for a private party!) and a big thanks to all our committee for helping to set it all in motion.

We managed to raise £133 which will help towards promoting and funding our Big Lunch in the summer and any admin costs for future leafleting/newsletters etc. throughout the year.

Thanks for all the donations to the raffle - which included extra special home made marmalade, a box of chocs, various bottles of fine booze, a pair of genuine Ray Bans, a super stylish photo of the 'Carry On' star Charles Hawtry, a classic retro alarm clock (which went off mid game!) and the grand prize of a designer lamp by local lighting Queen Helen Rawlinson

and the winners ......

Drum roll..........
Top prize went to Rachel..or was it Jim?

If anyone can remember who actually won the quiz and team names, please add in the comments. We were the Tyssen Tearaways!

See you at the next one!

Carols!

A Family Friendly Concert

Recommended by one of our residents:

Sunday, December 18th 2011 Elements of surprise: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons

Venue: Assembly Hall, Stoke Newington Town Hall, Stoke Newington Church Street, London

N16 0JR

Elements of surprise: Vivaldi's Four Seasons

Hackney Proms present a family-friendly, Sunday morning
concert in the Assembly Hall of the beautifully refurbished
Stoke Newington Town Hall.

In this original programme, period-instrument ensemble
Battuta explore the four Classical elements—Air, Fire, Earth
and Water—and their representation in the Baroque period.
Thunder, lightning, storms at sea and the fiery descent into
hell are depicted in thrilling music by Rameau, Rebel and
Telemann, and the more earthly delights of nature by Vivaldi's
most famous work, Le quattro stagioni (The Four Seasons).

Hackney Proms are relaxed, informal Sunday morning
concerts, with coffee and croissants available at the interval.
Children are welcome.

For tickets and more information about Hackney
Proms and Battuta, visit www.hackneyproms.co.uk

Ticket prices:

Adults: £12 • Children over five: £5 • Children under five: free
Senior citizens, full-time students, disabled & unemployed: £8

To book tickets:

Online: www.hackneyproms.co.uk

In person: Bridgewood and Neitzert, 146 Stoke Newington

Church Street, N16 0JU

The Workshop, 77A Lauriston Road, E9 7HA

Broadway Bookshop, 6 Broadway Market, E8 4QJ

Or pay by cash or cheque on the door

Upcoming Events and Local News

Our latest newsletter has been sent out to over 80 email addresses and the number is slowly climbing which is good news! You can also read them here on the blog - just click on the Newsletter heading above.

A few dates for the diary this month:

Last chance to catch -

- Concrete Skin - 
5th - 27th November

Address: Unit A, Leswin Place.

This autumn BHVU Gallery presents Concrete Skin, an exhibition exploring domestic dynamics and ways in which our behaviour within the home is motivated by social expectations. Concrete Skin brings together four internationally recognised artists whose selected works explore the intimate and emotional experiences that we often struggle to put into words.

For more information on this please visit their website www.bhvu.co.uk

This Saturday sees the first of the School Winter Fairs:

- Benthal School Winter Fair - Saturday 26th November 1.30-4pm

- Jubilee School's winter fair is on Friday 9th Dec 3.30 - 5.30 pm,

- William Patten School Winter Fair is on Saturday 11th December from 12.30 - 3.30pm

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- West Hackney Recreation Ground

Do you want to get involved in the future of West Hackney Recreation Ground?

Come along to a meeting of the West Hackney Recreation Ground User Group

The next WHUG meeting with mince pies and mulled wine is on

Monday 5th December at St. Paul's Church Hall. 7.30pm start.

Everybody welcome.

St Paul's Church, Hackney Council and Groundwork are worikng together to bid for the second stage of Heritage lottery funding to transform the park and surroundings of St Paul's Church.

Please contact the User Group on whrgusergroup@gmail.com or 07794 637870 for more information. We want to hear your views and get more local residents involved with the park.

From one User Group to another, it's good to hear from Clissold Park User Group that the Mansion House and Cafe will finally open on the 3rd January.

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If you haven't discovered it yet - go take a peek at The Chocolate Factory Open Studios....

- The Chocolate Factory Open Studios Weekend - 3rd/4th December 11am-6pm; Private View - Friday 2nd 6.30-9pm all welcome!

Farleigh Place, N16 7SX www.chocolatefactoryn16.com

Good news from Hackney Unites about the Sainsbury controversy:

Stoke Newington has been up in arms about the proposals for a massive Sainsbury development in Wilmer Place. Now, following intense local pressure from the community, the developer of the Wilmer Place site has shelved their original plans and is developing new proposals. We also have confirmation that the housing association One Housing will not now be involved in the development. The new proposals will be subject to public consultation before the developer submits a planning application. This is fantastic news, although it does not guarantee that the revised proposals will be acceptable, it does demonstrate that as a community we can have an influence on what happens to our area. Hackney Unites will continue to work with the Stokey Local campaign, but you can get more info from their website: http://stokeylocal.org.uk/latest-news/

...and finally a word of warning from one local Tyssen Road resident:

'I'd just like to alert everyone in the area to something that happened to me last week. I was at home, having just seen my daughter off to school. the doorbell rang and and I answered it. There stood a stocky-looking guy in a high-viz jacket, apparently rather agitated, who told me that he was doing some work on the road on the high street and they had gone through a gas pipe and didn't know how many houses were affected - would I run the tap to check my gas supply was OK? I went down to the kitchen and did as he asked. By the time I got back to the door, having shouted back that the gas was fine, he was gone. And so, as it turned out, was my iphone which had been on the hall shelf.

I failed to ask for ID; someone I told this story to suggested as an alternative simply shutting the door in their face while making the check, and then reporting back to them. It's not how most of us would choose to behave towards other people, but this kind of experience does make one more wary of doorstep requests.

Anyway, please be alert to lightfingered, opportunist, bogus workmen. This one probably won't risk returning to the area, but others may.'

Call to Volunteers, Saturday - FREE Pancake extravaganza!!!

 

A slightly desperate call for Saturday afternoon 5 March.

We are organising a superbe event for Shrove Tuesday in Gillett Square (well, a little bit early) with lots of games and competitions around pancakes. This will be the first event of the Cadbury's Spots vs Stripes events.
I have attached the poster and you can find more info here http://www.gillettsquare.org.uk/webdocs/forthcoming.html

We would need 3 volunteers to help us coordinate the games from 12pm until 4.30pm. You will be provided refreshments and pancakes! (or other food if you don't like pancakes)

It is going to be a lot of fun, tossing and racing with pancakes, pancake limbo, building weirdly shaped ships with Snug play equipment, playing ping pong (I don't know yet where the pancake element will fit in that one.... yet to be devised!), board games
and more

Don't hesitate to contact me e-mail  stephanie@vortexjazz.co.uk or phone 07719529313 if you would like more information,

We hope to see you there!

All the best
Stephanie

SERIOUSLY IMPORTANT MEETING ABOUT WEST HACKNEY RECREATION GROUND - WEDNESDAY 16th FEBRUARY @ 7:30pm in St PAUL'S CHURCH

 

Anyone interested in what happens to West Hackney Recreation Ground, please read this note from Revd Niall Weir and come along to the meeting

 

Dear Friends,

Greetings from St Paul's Church.

As you may know, we are just about to submit an application to The Heritage Lottery Fund for a grant to regenerate West Hackney Recreation Ground.

We've already had one grant of £75,000 from The London Marathon Trust to install a fabulous play area should the regeneration of the Recreation Ground go ahead.

In making up their minds about whether or not to award the grant, The Heritage Lottery Fund needs evidence of local support for this venture and we can best achieve this by reporting to them a great turnout at our forthcoming meeting of the new User Group next Wednesday at St Paul's Church - please see the attachment for further details.

As someone who I know would love to see this regeneration programme happen, not just for our enjoyment but for that of local residents for years to come, may I urge you to come along to this meeting? It will last no more than one hour and there will be enough wine on offer to float a ship.

As well as showing the HLF that there is a load of local support, you can also come along and catch up with recent developments around the project.

Do come, do bring your neighbours - it would be an evening well spent!

With very best wishes,

Niall 

St Paul's West Hackney - stpaulswesthackney.org
________________________________________________________________________________________________

From : The Revd Niall Weir
306 Amhurst Rd : West Hackney : London N16 7UE : 020 7254 3235 : 07840 762783 : Fax 0871 714 6005

The LARA Big Lunch

What? Looking for locals to have a good old get-together.
Where? West Hackney Recreation Grounds on Evering Road
When? July 18th 2010 1pm to 4pm
How? Bring a picnic and one dish to share and you're in!
Who? Anyone living in the LARA catchment area, friends and family.

Looking for: Ideas for games, keen face painters, barbecue superstars, gazebos, deckchairs, ice cream vans, first aiders, party people, foodies, volunteers to help make this a fab fun event for everyone.


Please email lara.n16@googlemail.com, leave a comment below or come along to our public meeting on Thursday June 17th and find out how to get involved.
St Paul's Church Hall 7pm on Evering/Amhurst Road

Find out more about The Big Lunch

Celebrate Hackney, 5 June: help make it a success!

It is now just one month to the biggest community gathering in Hackney for many years; Saturday 5 June and the Celebrate Hackney event, to be held at Stoke Newington School from 10.30am to 4.30pm!

We have over 50 speakers from community groups, in 15 workshops, on greening Hackney, lifelong learning, miscarriages of justice (Celia Stubbs from the Blair Peach campaign will be joining campaigns for Sam Hallam), the arts in Hackney (Roland Muldoon will have lots to say!), defending public services, new initiative to make Hackney a ‘sanctuary borough’ for migrants, Gay Pride, young people, older people, peace groups, faith groups, trade union groups.

It is going to be fantastic. There are also 30 information stalls from local groups and a further four food stalls (Thai, Turkish, Caribbean and Vegan). There will also be children’s activities. We will have a mini-film festival, entertainment from local performers and a ‘question time’ with local politicians (your chance to have your say after the elections).

For more details visit: http://www.hackneyunites.org.uk/

The event is co-ordinated by Hackney Unites, but it has grown so much bigger than we could dare to hope that we now need to ask for help to make it the success it deserves to be.

To publicise the event we are producing a tabloid paper featuring the groups who are involved, and the work they do. We are having 50,000 printed, but we need help to distribute them. We are organising a distribution meeting on 12 May, between 7pm, and 8.30pm, at the Trinity Centre, Beechwood Road , Dalston , E8 3DY .

The aim of the meeting will be to organise the distribution of the tabloid paper. We are asking you to take just 300 papers to distribute door-to-door in the streets near where you live.

We will be organising distribution on a ward-by-ward basis and encouraging teams of volunteers to work together to make it less of a chore and to maximise coverage, so please bring some friends along!

If you can help, please let us know. You can either collect papers from the Trinity Centre on 12 May (the parking restrictions are not in place after 6pm) or we can deliver them to your door. Please let us know what you can do, and how many papers you can take.

Also, if you are able to take a number of papers for display in a community centre, or are able to display them at forthcoming events, then please let us know.

If you want attend on 5 June, can I also ask you to sign up to attend the event. While it is free, we need to be able to estimate numbers (for caterers and stewarding)

http://celebratehackney.eventbrite.com/

If you are on facebook, then please also sign up the event at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=120552934622314
(and then invite your friends to attend so that people get to hear of the day).

If you have a blog, please give us a plug.

We have some great posters for the Celebrate Hackney event, if you could get them stuck up somewhere, please let us know.

Finally, please forward this email to people who you think would be interested in Hackney Unites, the tabloid, and the Celebrate Hackney event.

Thank you to everyone for your help and assistance.

John Page

Local Jazz Poetry Nights

Dear Lara,

I am a musician resident in the area and I run a Jazz Poetry Nights down at the Pangea. I am looking for local poets, jazz musicians who want to showcase their talent. Also if anyone wants to enjoy and be in the audience, feel free to come. Next date is Wed April 21st . Our monthly nights are beautiful and please let everyone check out blog/site at:

www.jazzpoetrylondon.com

Many thanks

Freddy

Tel 07961 833040

Visit to santa's grotto...

Carole Lucas who has the Cobbled Yard at the top of Bouverie Rd has opened a pop-up shop in the mews opposite. We went in there on Sunday afternoon and were invited into the fantastic Santa's grotto. 3.50 for kids to visit with Santa and his chief-of-staff elf. Also mulled wine and pies for adults and some great Jazz from Martha Lewis and Diane McLoughlin. Coming weekend is a different act but definitely worth a trip - beats queueing at Selfridges or wherever the commercial santys are hanging out these days.....

Lara Social Evening

As mentioned in our first newsletter: LARA will be having a social gathering in the New Year. A chance for neighbours and friends to gather, chat, eat, drink and generally have a good time. Watch this space for details.

We'll be looking for volunteers to help with this event so please let us know if you are interested!

Our Talented Community!