Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Haringey's Warehouse Districts Under Threat?
An item at tonight's Council Cabinet meeting has thrown into question the future survival of Haringey's two warehouse districts and the artistic communities who live in them.
Both the Harringay Warehouse District and the Fountayne Road community now face an uncertain future following the publication of a Haringey Council report, "Tackling Unauthorised Living in Industrial Areas". (Report attached)
The report, which was discussed at the full cabinet of the Council today, recommends a two-year project costing £600,000 which will seek to deal with "the growing problem of unauthorised residential and live work uses in and around (the) Industrial Sites" in Haringey. The recommended process is "to establish a special multi-disciplinary team to fully investigate and address the problem through a combination of regulation, improvement, enforcement and, where necessary, prosecution".
The alarm bells were ringing for me since earlier in the week I had discovered that these areas are earmarked as being amongst those that will "will accommodate the majority of development in the borough over the next 20 years".
In Facebook and Twitter conversations this afternoon, warehouse residents shared their fears that the vibrancy their communities bring to the borough will be overlooked and their communities sanitised and destroyed.
In response to my Twitter requests to Council Leader Claire Kober this evening to protect these communities, Cllr Kober sought to offer some reassurance:
@harringayonline some people in unacceptable conditions. My concern is for safe, decent properties. No intention to undermine communities
@harringayonline no intention to damage what's good. Priority is to go after rogue landlords just as we do elsewhere in borough
When I asked if she would ensure that warehouse residents will be involved, the Council Leader replied:
@harringayonline don't see any problem involving residents. Will ask officers to consider how best to achieve
I very much hope that the approach the Council takes in this project will support these communities rather than beginning the process of whittling them away.
Tags for Forum Posts: local plan, local plan 2014, site allocation plan, warehouse district
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Possibly worth hearing from the warehouse folk too before painting things too black and white, Ruth. It sounds like it is causing some real problems, but it is also, at least in part, a thriving creative community.
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Permalink Reply by Ruth on
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Of course, I know many people involved here on all sides but some evidence coming up here of unacceptable disturbances.
Let's have the counterbalancing arguments from the Warehouse residents, I am ready to read these too.
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Permalink Reply by Sharon on
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Me too, the picture I've painted isn't black, I'm talking about my personal experience. There was a LOT of noise on Friday night, party goers leaving and arriving at the parties are really noisy too. They are not huge problems but can be a nuisance. I feel that they don't respect the community and distance themselves from us. A little middle class hipster ghetto.
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Permalink Reply by Brian Moreau on
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You get unacceptable disturbances in residential areas too.
Look at wood green at night!
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That is because a botched repair was made by Thames water contractors who had to come back and fix it a second time.
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All in all a knotty problem, by the sounds of it - and perhaps the reason the team has been established. Has anyone raised these issues on HoL before and I've missed it?
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Permalink Reply by Takaokagiejin on
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I have raised it a number of times here but everyone seemed more thrilled by the idea that these artists are some rare species to be nurtured while they grow the next Shoreditch eg
http://www.harringayonline.com/forum/topics/omega-works?commentId=8...
And here
http://www.harringayonline.com/forum/topics/167-hermitage-road-is-i...
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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FPR can you explain a bit more plainly your own situation and what you're asking? Have I got it right that you live in a building which was a former factory or something like that? And you'd like cheap rent for yourself and other people living there?
So exactly how do you see that being arranged and working? By relaxing or abolishing controls and letting the owner or lessees ignore planning, building control, fire safety and other regulations? To have no restrictions on noise or waste? Or should someone - who? - subsidise the owner, lessee, or sub-lessee?
And by the way, what do you think of Oli's discussion and the comments here?
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FPR, I'm not "playing the man" and not the ball. I'm not scoring points or goals. This isn't a game; it's people's lives and livelihoods as we all battle with an insane housing market and a brutal government which treats people and their homes purely as commodities to be traded and exploited.
I was asking you for some information. I wrongly got the impression that you were among the residents of the former trading estates/ industrial buildings. I apologise for getting that wrong.
But even if it was correct I would still not be playing a "game" or "scoring" a point. It would still be your home and your workplace being discussed.
I'm entirely in favour of the principle of fair rents and rent controls. But as ever "the devil is in the detail". An automatic subsidy for "talented creatives" or creative businesses? Well, the people I know who are "creatives" seem have the same "normal" problems and live in the same "normal" streets as other people. In fact, thinking about some of our neighbours and friends within walking distance I start to wonder who isn't a "creative". Apart from me of course and I may be the only non-creative around here.
Should we exclude the chef a few streets away? Or someone who makes beautiful knitted clothes for her church? The piano teacher? The poet/tango teacher? A former journalist and amateur composer? The graphic designer and video maker? Is running a nursery uncreative? How about car mechanic - is that excluded from the pantheon? Is nursing an "uncreative" job, or can they have a rent subsidy too? And I haven't even mentioned sport, singing, gardening etc - the list is endless.
Does "culture" need to be corralled into a fake "Cultural Quarter"? Chasing the "Bilbao Effect" often fails. Except that developers always seem to make money from it.
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(This is a repost with these added links which may be of interest.)
§ Webpage about Bilbao & starchitects. § Dumbo in Brooklyn § What happens next when Culture-led regeneration doesn't work?
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Permalink Reply by ingo pless on
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Right on!
And the untalented ones, I'm like that, inclusive ;).
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