Battle to save the Acorn pub in Haggerston loses out to the wrecker’s ball

Loving Dalston BUSINESS & DEVELOPMENT, COUNCIL, Hackney, LATEST, NEWS, Shoreditch
Acorn©DA0121:© davidaltheer@hotmail.com pub Queensbridge and Whiston rds, Haggerston 260121
Cut down: January 2021 and scaffolders ready the Acorn for the demolition crew
© NN
Dominator: as so often with commercial new-build, it will be higher than its neighbours

Acorn1016Q: pub Queensbridge and Whiston rds 281016 © DavidAltheer [at] gmail.com
Classic boozer: a typical pub, nothing flash, but to locals, it was special
* Update March 2021: in January this year the scaffolders readied the building for demolition and within a few weeks the end had come for one of Hackney’s last true Cockney pubs

 

THE ACORN, THE VICTORIAN PUB opposite Haggerston Park in south Hackney, has been demolished.

Loving Dalston first alerted Hackneyites in 2016 to the threat to this E2 8PB boozer, centre of a community in the housing estates near Queensbridge Road, and subsequently a campaign was begun to save it. 

But a planning-appeal body has overruled Hackney council to allow a developer to demolish the 1866 building and replace it with nine flats. Paradoxically, the plans include a licensed basement venue, although it’s unlikely to be much like the Acorn that made the Cockney and other working-class locals feel so comfortable.

Acorn1016: Acorn pub Queensbridge and Whiston rds 281016 © DavidAltheer [at] gmail.com
Lovely ironwork that adorned the modest 1860s exterior
Lisa Shell, who chairs the Hackney Society, told Loving Dalston that despite efforts by Camra, the Hackney Society and Hackney council planning office, the Planning Inspectorate, a government body, upheld owner Macneil UB40’s appeal against the council’s refusal to replace the Acorn, at the corner of   Queensbridge and Whiston roads, with a seven-floor building — plus a basement “drinking establishment”. 

She said: “A recent submission to Hackney planning by the owner suggests that preparations are now under way to swing the wrecker’s ball at yet another historic Hackney pub.”

As the Update, top, reports that has now happened.

David Altheer 131118

* Backstory: Last-minute push to save pub for the people; Property investor silent on Acorn plans; Precious but little-known pub; London pubs in trouble 

* All pictures on this page © DavidAltheer [at] gmail.com, and all for sale for reproduction. Most photographs are available in bigger formats. 

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