LOVING DALSTON’S expose of Hackney council’s decision to drop the name CLR James from the new library and archives building and the council’s subsequent about-turn has had a further result. (Completists can see whole series of stories, starting with Owzat!, below.)

The council today 13 Oct 2010 phoned Loving Dalston to say that the other name involved, Rose Lipman, which adorns the present premises of the archives in Downham Road, De Beauvoir, London N1, will be retained.

Councillor Jonathan McShane, the council’s community-services cabinet member, says: “There are no plans to rename the Rose Lipman Centre [sic]. It will remain a community resource and the Beavers playgroup and the De Beauvoir Tenants and Residents Association will still use it. And, as part of the Dalston Square project, Hackney Archives will move to the new £4.4 million building that will also become home to the current CLR James Library.”

The suggestion is that the council always intended to keep the London-born Lipman’s name on the archives-community-centre building after the archives were removed next spring to the new premises in the Dalston Square development.

Hackney has forgotten that it discussed with Loving Dalston in February the possibility of retaining the James and Lipman names merely inside the new building.

After an internet petition to save CLR’s name won thousands of signatures, the council apologised for not consulting James’s widow.

David Altheer 131010

* Backstory: Black hero CLR dropped by Hackney council; Diane Abbott asked to help 

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