AN INNER CITY SANCTUARY UNDER THREAT
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The London Borough of Hackney is about to violate its own guidelines for preserving the tranquillity of Abney Park, the historic garden cemetery, now urban woodland, which is the heart of Stoke Newington’s Conservation Area. In contravention of their own policies, planners are recommending approval of a multi-storey school building. The controversy is not over the principle of a school, but its excessive scale and insensitive design. It will be a massive over-development of its site, and will shatter the peace of this sanctuary, which has few parallels in any inner-city area of England.

As recently as August 2004 the Council’s Stoke Newington Conservation Area Appraisal warned of "the threat of inappropriate development around the edges of the Cemetery". It says the belt of gardens beyond the cemetery wall "has created a very intimate, quiet setting", extending "the rural quality of the cemetery beyond its immediate confines". It notes that recent developments have made inroads on this protective belt, and goes on: "In future, new development should be kept as far as possible away from the walls of the Cemetery, to preserve the setting of the Cemetery, and its unique sense of privacy and peace".

The Planning Department is ignoring this policy in the case of the site of the former Social Security office at 17 Manor Road. In June 2005 it will ask Councillors to approve a massive school for at least 350 boys which will have two storeys below ground and four above. The playground will be raised to the height of the top of the cemetery wall. The drawing below shows how it encircles the mound where Dr. Isaac Watts, a founder of the English hymn tradition, used to sit while living at the home of Sir Thomas Abney. There are plans to restore the mound as a place of quiet retreat, with a seat around the tree, but the raised playground, if permitted, will overlook it from a distance of a few feet. The planning application involves demolishing the ancient perimeter wall at this point in order to excavate for the two below-ground storeys.

The Council’s Appraisal says development around Abney Park:

..."should not encroach on the setting... by careful attention to scale, bulk and siting

..."should not generate noise or other disturbance to the Cemetery

..."must preserve the existing domestic character of the surrounding buildings

..."must be carefully sited so as not to interrupt existing views and skylines"

On all four points the current proposal would need very substantial modification.