In Brief

 Stoke Newington surfers are falling off their boards in disbelief at the latest series of adverts from Debenham’s. As part of a supposedly spoof series of ads – Dundee Dog and Duck Darts Club, Hastings Ladies Kickboxing Club (you get the picture) – the department store is attempting to sell its trendy and expensive clothing by attempting to be funny, in a somewhat arch way, and ending up by being patronizing. Indeed, the Stoke Newington Surf Club (based on the New River opposite Clissold House and currently awaiting a wave machine) – one of the societies which Debenham’s think they have invented – are currently consulting their distinguished lawyers about this disgraceful and illegal appropriation of their name. Both Club members are deeply upset about this. N16’s attempts to arbitrate by asking Debenham’s to reproduce the advert in the Xmas issue (for a moderate fee) – which might be interpreted as an amusing, ironic, self-referential and possibly profitable notion – have been met by a stony silence from the company. An excellent opportunity missed. Never mind. Surf’s up!

In Issue 32 we published an article by Ken Worpole on the Allen Road panorama photo project. As you may recall, in 1972 Richard Scott took a series of photos to create an image of one entire side of Allen Road, which at the time was one of the few local community shopping streets left in central London. Originally built in the mid-19th century, Allen Road provided a complete shopping environment for a handful of local streets, and even in 1972 there were still 35 local specialist shops. The original panorama is 35ft by 660ft and made up of 174 slides. Hackney Museum has received a £14,400 Heritage Lottery Fund award to clean, scan and digitise the slides and then 'stitch' the files together to produce the complete panorama and run an oral history project. A contemporary panorama will also be made to illustrate the changes Allen Road has gone through. Did you live or work on Allen Road in the 1970s? What was it like? Hackney Museum wants to hear your memories. Contributions will be used for the Allen Road exhibition to be held next year at the Museum. If you are interested in getting involved in this history project, please contact Sophie Perkins at Hackney Museum on 020 8356 2552 or email s.perkins@hackney.gov.uk

Clissold Carols. Yes, it’s that time of year again. Turn up at Clissold Park at 11am on 15 December, enjoy the tea and mince pies and join St Mary’s Church, Betty Layward and St Matthias School choirs in singing your favourite carols. Organised in association with those great benefactors, the Stoke Newington Business Association, and featuring the Robinsing Singers. Most of the carols are great, but if I hear ‘Away in a Manger’ one more time…

So, another murder in our own little Berkshire. A young kid, minding his own business, is apparently singled out as revenge for some teenage gang matter about which he knew nothing. Right next door to ‘affluent’ Church Street (Evening Standard), as if the horrific killing of an innocent should only occur in some sort of ghetto, well away from the ‘media bohemianism’, overpriced organic leeks and expensive houses of our People’s Republic. Etem Celebi, a popular, local lad, was friendly with a lot of kids round here, and his senseless shooting has brought home to them the gruesome reality and futility of gun crime. It’s one thing on ‘Murder Mile’ or on a rap album, it’s quite another when it happens to someone you knew and went to school with. If it’s possible for anything good to come out of this tragic business, then an increased revulsion against local gun crime is probably it. N16’s sympathy goes to Etem’s friends and family.

Following on from this, Hamdy’s newsagent on the High Street, just across from the estate where Etem lived, printed up T-shirts with his image on the front to raise money for the family. The staff were understandably incensed when a Police Community Officer came into the shop and demanded that they remove them from sale as they were illegal, having no registered charity number. They told him, in a rather less than friendly manner, to leave the shop and not return. The guy seems to have a strange notion of what constitutes ‘community’, but he hasn’t been back.

Visit our website n16mag.com and discover opening days and hours for Stokey’s restaurants over the Christmas and New Year period. We are currently updating our Eating Out page and,this information will shortly be available. We are also expanding the What’s On page on the site to include job vacancies, so all you local employers looking for staff, look no further. This service will be free – simply email us your requirements (as a Word document, please) and we’ll put it up.

It seems that Tesco is on its way to the parish. Hackney Council have confirmed that the new development (‘luxury apartments’) directly to the north of the Police Station on 39 Stoke Newington High Street has A3 (food and drink) permission on the ground floor, and an application by Tesco to sell alcohol has appeared on the wall. N16 contacted the company and we were told that a Tesco Express will be opening on the site on 1 February 2008. A protest website – ww.n16tesco.org – has recently appeared. Also, Richard Midda, owner of the old Vortex has obtained an A3 licence for the first floor of the new building on the site, as well as the ground floor. This is despite Midda having told everyone who asked him that he had no intention of doing this, and that the upstairs would be reserved for flats.

Could you spare a Wednesday evening once or twice month after Christmas? The Hackney Winter Night Shelter are looking for volunteers to help them run their winter night shelter for homeless people from January to March 2008 at St Mary’s Community Centre, Defoe Road, N16. St Mary’s Stoke Newington is one of several local churches which host the Night Shelter, now in its sixth year. They aim to provide a friendly welcome, a warm meal, cheerful company, washing facilities and a bed for around 15 to 20 people each Wednesday evening. The Shelter opens at 8pm and closes at 8am the next morning. They have few rules, except for no drink, no drugs, no violence or physical or verbal abuse. The work is fun and rewarding and many volunteers return year after year. Volunteers fill a number of essential roles – cooking, welcoming guests, joining them for a meal, etc. but they particularly need helpers willing to stay overnight, to help clear up or cook breakfast the following morning. If you would like to get involved, but cannot make Wednesday evenings or Thursday mornings, the churches which are running shelters on the other nights of the week may well be looking for volunteers. This is particularly true of Rectory Road, which hosts the shelter on Monday night/ Tuesday morning. If this appeals to you. contact: St Mary’s Shelter Volunteer Coordinator: Mark Perrett: 020 7254 6072 . More info at www.hwns.org.uk