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Hackney chitter-chatter &tc

Fozzie Bear said:
Oh! Er, no.

We went and it was quite nice, but actually a bit posher in terms of fixtures and fittings than we wanted. Possibly because it was the first day they had way too many over attentive staff and were encouraging table service for beer.

Also the beer was lager, cider or hoegarden which is a bit weird in London in 2016.

And the toilets are now downstairs, which blew my mind I can tell you.

Basically it is OK but probably the duty of every right thinking person to go in there and try to bring them down to our level.

We didn't eat or see anyone else eating so can't comment on that.
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Do you remember what cider it was? :hmm:
 
Rutita1 said:
'Drunken hipsters & thoughtless brats’ leave London Fields looking ‘like a warzone’ What the Daily evening Fascist exaggerating? :eek:

But seriously....

I remember about 8 years ago when LF made the inflight magazine on Easyjet....It knew it was all over.
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I used to walk through London Fields every day on my way to/from work. The rubbish strewn absolutely everywhere every time there was good weather used to really piss me off. And every morning there'd be staff from the council out picking it up. I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I agree with the ES (on this anyway).
 
efc0d54338a42d4a0545bf1b80b437d6.jpg

Near Haggerston station.

Spent proper time in Hackney this weekend probably for the first time since I came to London 17 years ago.

Broadway Market was a bit much for me but I walked through London Fields last night, it was really clean, really peaceful.
 
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Fozzie Bear said:
Oh! Er, no.

We went and it was quite nice, but actually a bit posher in terms of fixtures and fittings than we wanted. Possibly because it was the first day they had way too many over attentive staff and were encouraging table service for beer.

Also the beer was lager, cider or hoegarden which is a bit weird in London in 2016.

And the toilets are now downstairs, which blew my mind I can tell you.

Basically it is OK but probably the duty of every right thinking person to go in there and try to bring them down to our level.

We didn't eat or see anyone else eating so can't comment on that.
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Hmm. I'd bestir myself and go there but the beer options sound pants.
 
So I did a tour of the Rio on Sunday. Didn't really seem to be publicised -- noticed a sign up when I went past. Got to see the projection room (they're still set up so they can show 35mm films) and the basement where there used to be a recording studio/meeting room where lots of political groups got together (still lots of political posters up). Also a lot of old photos of local cinemas -- in the 30s/40s, there were 14 in Dalston alone -- and architectural plans of the building.

The tours seem to be part of a consultation about them putting a second screen in the basement (it's being used as a cocktail place at the moment). They reckon they need about 60k to kit it out and are starting a crowdfunding thing in the next week or two, with the aim of having it up and running by the end of the year.

I asked how this was going to work in terms of their ongoing pay dispute -- as I pointed out, a lot of people are going to be very reluctant to give them money while that is unresolved. The guy doing the tour looked really uncomfortable and mentioned that staff had recently had a pay rise in line with the new minimum wage. :rolleyes: It seems that if they can put this screen in, they should be able to get things on a much more stable footing financially -- which would be great -- but really, I think they need to sort the pay stuff out first. (Made sure I wrote this on the feedback form too.)
 
Sue said:
I asked how this was going to work in terms of their ongoing pay dispute -- as I pointed out, a lot of people are going to be very reluctant to give them money while that is unresolved. The guy doing the tour looked really uncomfortable and mentioned that staff had recently had a pay rise in line with the new minimum wage. :rolleyes: It seems that if they can put this screen in, they should be able to get things on a much more stable footing financially -- which would be great -- but really, I think they need to sort the pay stuff out first. (Made sure I wrote this on the feedback form too.)
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People I know who work there have been sacked. So that's interesting.
 
rich! said:
People I know who work there have been sacked. So that's interesting.
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I'd be surprised if they weren't aware of these plans tbh as it sounds like they've been on the cards for quite a while. Still shit though obviously.
 
Sue said:
I'd be surprised if they weren't aware of these plans tbh as it sounds like they've been on the cards for quite a while. Still shit though obviously.
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There was some suggestion that the Rio Board had been "borrowing" workers' wages to fund doing the place up. Sounds properly shit if so (rather than this being a way of explaining a lack of pay rise for many years, which is also shit).

Did they say if they were doing more of the tours? I'd like to check the place out and it would be good if more people made the points you did...
 
Fozzie Bear said:
Oh that's interesting Sue - I completely agree about the pay dispute. There was a good lively picket the other week.

It would be great if they could sort the place out without being shit to the people who work there.

I've been curious about the recording studio etc for a while:
Sound Kitchen: Britain’s first recording studio for women
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Absolutely.

Thanks for the link -- very interesting. Seems all kinds of feminist/left groups used to meet there. Apparently there's a documentary maker who's interested in making a film about all this before work starts.
 
Fozzie Bear said:
There was some suggestion that the Rio Board had been "borrowing" workers' wages to fund doing the place up. Sounds properly shit if so (rather than this being a way of explaining a lack of pay rise for many years, which is also shit).

Did they say if they were doing more of the tours? I'd like to check the place out and it would be good if more people made the points you did...
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I'm not sure about more tours -- as I said, I only found out by accident -- but it might be worth giving them a ring to check. Obviously the more people who raise this stuff, the better. (There were six of us on the tour I was on and I think I was the only local -- if that reflects the makeup of the other groups, this stuff is likely not being mentioned because people aren't aware of it.)
 
Sue said:
Absolutely.

Thanks for the link -- very interesting. Seems all kinds of feminist/left groups used to meet there. Apparently there's a documentary maker who's interested in making a film about all this before work starts.
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Yeah I think it is the same person who did "Breaking Ground" - a film about the London Irish Women's Centre in Stoke Newington...
 
Any other Hackney Council leaseholders on here? My new pastime is challenging their invoices for repairs.

It's really confusing and tedious, but I have just got them to cancel a bill for two grand because of their various cock ups. :cool:

Seems like since Hackney Homes came back into the council, they are going through a lot of old paperwork and banging out bills all over the place to get dosh.
 
Fozzie Bear said:
Any other Hackney Council leaseholders on here? My new pastime is challenging their invoices for repairs.

It's really confusing and tedious, but I have just got them to cancel a bill for two grand because of their various cock ups. :cool:

Seems like since Hackney Homes came back into the council, they are going through a lot of old paperwork and banging out bills all over the place to get dosh.
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i am surprised they have retained auld paperwork as i understand their favoured way of record-keeping is putting a fuck load of stuff in a skip and archiving it in landfill.
 
Pickman's model said:
i am surprised they have retained auld paperwork as i understand their favoured way of record-keeping is putting a fuck load of stuff in a skip and archiving it in landfill.
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Seems like they have kept some of it but not all... which was quite handy. ;)

Pisses me off though because I'm sure a bunch of people are probably being charged for stuff which is a load of bollocks but not everyone will have the time or confidence to challenge it.
 
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