News November 2006
Sax and the City
The sound of 200 saxophones filled the air in Dalston last Friday night as Hackney people celebrated the new Gillett Square in Dalston, and the opening of the London Jazz Festival.
The Dalston Saxophone Massive, led by Andy Sheppard, played a specially composed piece to herald the opening of the square, the first in Mayor Ken Livingstone’s citywide 100 Public Spaces Project. Earlier in the day, Hackney’s Mayor Jules Pipe, and Ken Livingstone spoke to the crowds, and Adisa the Verbaliser, Hackney’s Poet Laureate read a poem he had written to commemorate the occasion.
The Gillett Square development has seen the transformation of a run-down car park into a bright, open public space, featuring the legendary Vortex Jazz Club, which has moved from its original home on Stoke Newington Church Street. The square also houses affordable retail units and work space for local businesses.
Mayor Pipe said, ‘It was a fantastic occasion. The new Gillett Square is a great achievement and a real step forward towards the regeneration of Dalston. We are all proud that Hackney was chosen for the first of Mayor Livingstone's 100 new public spaces.’
Mayor Livingstone said, ‘As the first of the `100 public spaces’ to receive funding and reach completion it shows that with good planning, design and attention to careful landscaping we can improve many of London’s run down but precious open spaces and turn them into places we want to go and pass time in rather than to avoid.’
The architects behind the new square were Hawkins Brown and Whitelaw Turkington. The project was a partnership between the Greater London Authority, Hackney Co-operative Developments, and Hackney Council.
Page updated: 28 Feb 2007