Hackney Council wants to build an enormous new pavilion on top of some of the playing fields on Hackney Marsh. Here is the plan, showing where the building will be located, near to Cow Bridge and the Middlesex Filter Beds.
To get a clearer idea of just how huge this monstrosity is going to be, some members of Save Lea Marshes measured it out using a few bamboo sticks and hundreds of metres of string. This is the result.
Why, you might ask, does the Council want to put up a new building on top of playing fields, instead of rebuilding the old dilapidated pavilion that is just next door? That’s because they want to replace the old pavilion with a spanking new car park! Clearly the last thing they want is to encourage walking and cycling on the Marshes…
If you would like to check our measurements, you are very welcome to do so. Here they are. The scale is 1cm : 10m. Click on the plan to magnify it.
is it worth mentionning that the large car park that was there for years is now underneath the new cricket pitch, and that this pavilion does replace and appears to be the same size, as the old changing rooms?? Many people who do play football or cricket, do drive to play as they bring their kit/boots/balls/bats etc. This seems to be a like for like to me.
Thanks for your comments Glyn. In response to the issue of the building of the green space, which is necessitated by the desire for a new car park, we would like to make the following points:
Firstly, there is already a brand car park by Hackney Marshes Centre that sports people can use. There is little overlap between the cricket and football seasons in terms of usage. A further car park is also proposed on East Marsh.
Across Cow Bridge (less than 2 mins walk) is a bus stop and people could walk across here to the pavilion. An additional drop off point could be created for coaches just in front of the bus stop, encouraging greater use of public transport which is Hackney Council policy.
We looked into the old car park and many of our members have lived locally for 20 years and upwards – it was seldom used and the google maps show the car park out of use and in disrepair. In fact, it became for a while a haven for wildlife.
We would rather see no more of our marshes become a construction site, especially after the madness of the toxic excavation and failed reinstatement of Leyton Marsh; the reclamation of East Marsh for a coach park (still not reinstated and won’t be in time for 2013 football season as promised) and various other ‘development’ plans for our marshes such as the creation of a trailer park on the former golf course. However, we understand that sport is a right for all and in the context of multiple losses of green spaces, the marshes have become increasingly important for sports such as cricket and football. This is why we are not opposing the construction of new facilities.
However, the building on yet more green space, adjacent to precious black poplars and for the purpose of bringing vehicles on to the marshes via a path that is used by walkers, joggers, dog walkers and cyclists is something we regard as unsafe and unwelcome. It amounts to urbanisation of the marshes.
If Hackney Council are able to add car parks to each edge of the marsh as proposed, these will be perfect routes and serve future ‘events’ perfectly. After all, they have not abandoned their plans for commercial events in future and this is something all users of the marshes must be wary of, regardless of whether you are keen to preserve green space or not.