THE NEW Dalston library that was built in Dalston Lane as part of Hackney council’s deal with big money at the prime property site is due to open, says Hackney council, “in late January”.
The town hall can be no more specific, despite the library’s opening having endured a series of postponements (and having been announced in free newspaper the Hackney Citizen as being already open).
The council adds that staff are due to move “books and DVDs” into the Barratt building from 31 December 2011 (yes, that’s a Sunday).
Hackney found itself in the midst of a controversy after Loving Dalston revealed in February 2010 that the council planned to drop the name of CLR James, the Trinidadian writer whose Beyond A Boundary is still in print.
Several Loving Dalston articles later, an internet petition attracted thousands of signatures, and the council backtracked to say it would reinstate the name.

David Altheer 171211

* Backstory: Hackney drops black hero; How Loving Dalston alerted Hackney to threat to CLR James name; Glassed! Panes smash at troubled Dalston library

* On 9 January 2012 the council announced that the library would open on Monday 23 January 2012, or, in Hackney Pressofficespeak, “is set to open its doors on 23 January”. Never mind the verbosity of “open its doors” – it’s the unconfident “set to” that may worry council taxpayers.

* Emboldened underscored words in most cases indicate a hyperlink, a reader service rare among websites. If a link does not work, it is probably because the site to which the URL refers has not been maintained.