Hackney, the worst place to live in Britain?

[MrsOhHu]

It certainly is bad if you need the council to do anything. It's really bad. It is a place for criminals run by criminals. It also has some fantastic people, good houses and lovely green space. Sadly Hackney is losing a lot of the people a borough should be proud of.

Oh yes, I know the caff. Used to go there when DS1 was a baby.

thought I'd show solidarity to the area too - although from the cusp of hackney/bethnal green so more officially tower hamlets! For breakfast caffs I can recommend Mess on Amhurst road...

I went past there yesterday and they were queueing out the door! So it must be good!

Has anyone been in refurbished Pembury since it reopened? It is non-smoking, which would be good, but they have frosted glass windows and doors so you can't see what's inside before you go in...which always unnerves me.

mess is lovely. quite posh too . though the benches are a bit weirdly placed for breastfeeding....

the Pembury Tav has good beer, so I hear. I think they do food as well. I thought you meant the Pembury Estate! Lots of dog fighting at the moment.

I have to admit I've never actually set foot on the Pembury Estate, wimp that I am. DS1 has a friend at school who lives there, but he's never been invited round - she invited him to a birthday party but it was at Kidzmania.

Not that I would have any issue with him going round there, should he be invited, I hasten to add.

I found one of our dogs 2 floors up, making friends and influencing people. He got lost! I have quite a lot of friends who live there.

i hate it - i am assured there are areas i havent been to which are nice - i seem to get to visit the larger estates and meet hackney council people - who are the most rude obnoxious horrible horrible horrible horrible people i have ever met in my life.

LOL at "making friends and influencing people"

custy I didn't know you sometimes came to Hackney! You'll have to stay over and come to a meet-up sometime, although we always go out mid-week and are quite sedate...

i only do shitfaced{grin}

by hackney council people - i meant paid people - not tenants

That's what I assumed you meant!

I have yet to meet a council employee who would not be better used as compost.

Pembury Tavern great for real beer fanatics. Lighting a bit harsh for me - I prefer to hide my wrinkles in the shadows.

Dino - the veg is pretty ropey in Ridly road - My experience is that you have to eat it within 24 hours or it starts going mouldy/mushy

I know what you mean about the veg in Ridley Road, Goldenoldie. It's great if you are cooking LOADS AND LOADS of stuff all at once immediately! Not so good for the weekly shop though.
Has anyone else noticed that business are leaving Lower Clapton Rd in their droves? 2 estate agents have gone, an art gallery has gone, a music pub has gone, even the strange shop at the front of the Strand building has gone. It's becoming really really shabby. Juno's left the Narroway several years ago and the other good present shop by the old bank has become a shoe shop. The old bank is still empty. It closed because they were fed-up with people fighting in the queues. Battles break out on a regular basis in Barclays. The Ocean fell into criminal hands and is still closed. Central Hackney is a shameful mess. I really don't like going down the Narroway and under the dripping bridge into Mare St.

Really that you would think that of all council employees. Dh has worked for council since left school (30 yrs). He is such a hard worker and always does his best for tenants (i know this is not the norm, as he tells me what other employees are like. Often has to go back to put the job right)

I cannot believe he is the only person like this in the council. He could have been working in tenants houses all week and 99% may have been awful dirty conditions and the tenants may have been rude and stoned but he would never say all the tenants are like this, because he knows this is just not true!

your right i apologise

let me rephrase
all the council employees i have ever met are twats.

thinking about it so are all the ressies i've met too

i dont want to be discriminative

goldenoldie, you have so not got wrinkles!

Actually, shopping habit in Ridley Road pre-dates DINKY days and goes back to when my flatmate and I were very skint and bought cheap veg to cook up large curries and the like. We were of course saving our cash for life's real essentials, like beer and Golden Virginia.

MrsOhHu, you hate it so much - don't you think that you should really move?

I expect that Hackney's ok if you are white and middle class and if you live in a reasonable area. Saying that, de Beauvoir has a lot of problems it seems.

Oh, I give up.

I'm sorry you feel like that, Dinosaur. How did you find Kidzmania? I haven't been there but it is so close to where I live. Dd is now old enough to enjoy going somewhere like that.

I don't like it when Hackney gets slagged off. It has a lot of really good things going for it, and we are so close to the centre of town. I am not happy that there is another bloody betting shop on Lower Clapton Road, at the corner with Clarence Road, they are cropping up everywhere, these awful things. Not that I would want a Starbucks in its place.... And the schools are pretty good if you look carefully. We are very pleased!

Sorry, give me a Starbucks rather than a betting shop anyday.

And where are these schools? - I've been looking very closely for 10 years and the only one with good SATs I've found in Hackney is a Jewish one, but sadly we don't qualify.