 Hackney Downs from the centre of the Downs looking northeast. (October 2005) Hackney Downs is an open space in Lower Clapton, Hackney. It borders on Stoke Newington to the west and Shacklewell to the south. Although it is strictly speaking in Clapton, those who live in the environs are likely to refer to 'Hackney Downs' as an area of Hackney in its own right. Lower Clapton is an area of the London Borough of Hackney. ...
Hackney Town Hall was built in the 1930s for the old Metropolitan Borough. ...
Stoke Newington is a place in the London Borough of Hackney. ...
A district within the London Borough of Hackney, roughly between Dalston and Hackney Central. ...
The Downs is one of the larger open spaces wholly within Hackney borough. It is a surprisingly well-kept, though rather underused, park. It has a play area, basketball courts, football pitches and a bowling green. But on weekdays outside school holidays, it is largely unused except for the odd dogwalker and those shortcutting between Stoke Newington and Hackney Central, and it only really comes alive on weekends. It may be that the reputation of the social housing to the north and south of the park acts as a deterrent, but in latter days, these estates are much more pleasant places and there is a permanent park ranger present, so Hackney Downs is now as safe a place as any Hackney park. The Hackney Empire is one of the oldest surviving music halls in Britain. ...
Occupying, as it does, a fairly central place in Hackney, the park used to be the yearly venue for the popular Hackney Show, but this event—which helped to give a sense of community and identity to an often-troubled borough—has been sadly discontinued in recent times as a cost-cutting measure, as have the regular Fireworks Night shows. This is a great shame, because the large open areas of grass in the park readily lend themselves to crowd events. Bonfire Night, also known as Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes Night or Fireworks Night, is a celebration (but not a public holiday) which takes place on the evening of the 5th of November every year in the United Kingdom, New Zealand and formerly Australia, although in recent years the celebration has...
Hackney Downs School
 Mossbourne Community Academy, the successor to the ill-fated Hackney Downs School. (October 2005) The south side of the Downs was once the site of the ill-fated Hackney Downs School, controversially described in the 1990s as the 'worst school in Britain'. The school started out in 1876 as the Worshipful Company of Grocers Hackney Downs Boys' School, later shortened to plain Hackney Downs, though it remained a boys-only school. As a grammar school, it won an excellent reputation, with ex-alumni including Nobel prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter, fellow playwright and actor Steven Berkoff and Oscar-winning actor Michael Caine. A grammar school is a type of school found in some English-speaking countries. ...
The Nobel Prize in literature is awarded annually to an author from any country who has produced the most outstanding work of an idealistic tendency. The work in this case generally refers to an authors work as a whole, not to any individual work, though individual works are sometimes...
Jump to: navigation, search Harold Pinter Harold Pinter, CH, CBE (born October 10, 1930) is a British playwright and theatre director. ...
Jump to: navigation, search Steven Berkoff and the Theatre of Self-Performance Steven Berkoff (born August 3, 1937) is an actor, writer and director. ...
Michael Caine Sir Maurice Joseph Micklewhite, CBE (born 14 March 1933), known professionally as Sir Michael Caine, is an Oscar winning British film actor. ...
In 1974, it became a comprehensive school, and inherited more than its share of the problems of this deprived inner-city borough. Just before its closure, over 70 percent of the boys spoke English as a second language, half came from households with no-one in employment, and half the intake had reading ages three years below average. Things came to a head in the 1990s, when the school made national news by being described by the then Conservative government as the 'worst school in Britain'. Eventually, as a result of direct government pressure, the school was forced to close in 1995. A comprehensive school is a secondary school that accepts school students or pupils of all abilities, as opposed to a grammar school which depends on a system of selection. ...
Conservative Party, as a proper noun, can refer to: Canada Conservative Party of Canada (since 2003) Progressive Conservative Party of Canada (1942-2003) Conservative Party of Canada (historical) (until 1942) Their respective affiliated provincial parties Chile - Conservative Party Colombia - Colombian Conservative Party Denmark - Conservative Peoples Party New Zealand - Conservative...
The decision remains controversial to this day, opponents of the closure pointing out that Hackney Downs was singled out for special treatment by the government (presumably pour éncourager les autres) and that its academic results were not significantly worse than many other inner-city comprehensives, especially considering the problems it had inherited, including the steady 'decanting' of problem pupils—who had frequently been expelled from their original schools—to Hackney Downs. Ironically, this process may have started because of the school's good reputation.
The site of the old school now sports the brand-new Mossbourne Community Academy, which opened in 2004. This is co-educational and is part of the Labour government's policy of establishing city academies. This policy too is controversial, as these schools, which are intended to boost deprived inner-city areas, are publicly funded independent schools, with sponsors from the voluntary sector, business or faith groups. Critics of government educational policy consider this as an attempt to undermine local education authorities (who have no say in the running of the schools) and the entire state school system, that it allows control of schools by private agencies who may have no proper experience of the educational sector, and perhaps even that is an attempt to reintroduce grammar schools by stealth. The name Labour Party or Labor Party is used by several political parties around the world. ...
Be that as it may, the new academy is an undeniably impressive building. Designed by The Richard Rogers Partnership, it is the largest wooden-frame construction in Western Europe. An interesting feature is that it is designed without corridors, as these are said to be the most frequent site for bullying in schools. Richard George Rogers, Baron Rogers of Riverside (born 23 July 1933) is a British architect noted for his modernist and functionalist designs. ...
Nearest stations Hackney Central railway station is a railway station on the North London Line, in Hackney, East London. ...
Hackney Downs railway station is in the London Borough of Hackney in east London. ...
External Link - Mossbourne Community Academy
Reference - The School That Dared to Fight An account of the struggle to keep Hackney Downs School open.
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