Dalston
Encyclopedia
Dalston is a district of north-east London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, England, located in the London Borough of Hackney
London Borough of Hackney
The London Borough of Hackney is a London borough of North/North East London, and forms part of inner London. The local authority is Hackney London Borough Council....

. It is situated 4 miles (6.4 km) northeast of Charing Cross
Charing Cross
Charing Cross denotes the junction of Strand, Whitehall and Cockspur Street, just south of Trafalgar Square in central London, England. It is named after the now demolished Eleanor cross that stood there, in what was once the hamlet of Charing. The site of the cross is now occupied by an equestrian...

. The area is identified in the London Plan
London Plan
The London Plan is a planning document written by the Mayor of London, England in the United Kingdom and published by the Greater London Authority. The plan was first published in final form on 10 February 2004 and has since been amended. The current version was published in February 2008...

 as one of 35 major centres in Greater London
Greater London
Greater London is the top-level administrative division of England covering London. It was created in 1965 and spans the City of London, including Middle Temple and Inner Temple, and the 32 London boroughs. This territory is coterminate with the London Government Office Region and the London...

. Its historical borders are Kingsland Road and Kingsland High Street in the west, London Fields
London Fields
London Fields is a park and the name of an area of London, situated in the eastern borough of Hackney. The park itself was first recorded in 1540. At this time it was common ground and was used by drovers to pasture their livestock before taking them to market in London.London Fields is just over ...

 in the east, Downs Park Road in the north and the Shoreditch
Shoreditch
Shoreditch is an area of London within the London Borough of Hackney in England. It is a built-up part of the inner city immediately to the north of the City of London, located east-northeast of Charing Cross.-Etymology:...

 parish boundary in the south. Its main shopping street, Kingsland High Street, follows the route of the Roman Ermine Street
Ermine Street
Ermine Street is the name of a major Roman road in England that ran from London to Lincoln and York . The Old English name was 'Earninga Straete' , named after a tribe called the Earningas, who inhabited a district later known as Armingford Hundred, around Arrington, Cambridgeshire and Royston,...

, and has the road number A10. Modern Dalston is often seen as the area surrounding both sides of Kingsland High Street, even though some of the west side is within the London Borough of Islington
London Borough of Islington
The London Borough of Islington is a London borough in Inner London. It was formed in 1965 by merging the former metropolitan boroughs of Islington and Finsbury. The borough contains two Westminster parliamentary constituencies, Islington North and Islington South & Finsbury...

.

History

The name Dalston is thought to have derived from Deorlaf’s tun (farm) in
much the same way as nearby Hoxton was named after the farm of ‘Hoch’.

The village was one of four small villages within the Parish of Hackney
Hackney (parish)
Hackney was a parish in the historic county of Middlesex. The parish church of St John-at-Hackney was built in 1789, replacing the nearby former 16th century parish church dedicated to St Augustine . The original tower of that church was retained to hold the bells until the new church could be...

 (along with Newington
Newington Green
Newington Green is an open space in north London which straddles the border between Islington and Hackney. It gives its name to the surrounding area, roughly bounded by Ball's Pond Road to the south, Petherton Road to the west, the southern section of Stoke Newington with Green Lanes-Matthias Road...

, Shacklewell
Shacklewell
Shacklewell is a district within the London Borough of Hackney, roughly North-east of modern-day Dalston, .-History:...

, and Kingsland
Kingsland, London
Kingsland was a small road-side settlement centred on Kingsland High Street, on the Old North Road , Middlesex. It has now been subsumed within inner city London, principally as part of Dalston in the London Borough of Hackney and has lost its separate identity.-Origins:Kingsland derives its name...

) that were grouped for assessment purposes, together having only as many houses as the village of Hackney
Hackney Central
Hackney Central is the central district of the London Borough of Hackney in London, England. It comprises the area roughly surrounding, and extending north from Mare Street. It is situated north east of Charing Cross...

.

John Rocque's map of circa 1746 shows the village of Kingsland centred around the crossroads at Dalston Junction and the small village of Dalston further east along Dalston Lane.

Around AD 1280 a leper hospital was founded in Dalston by the citizens of London and in AD 1549 it was attached to the chapel of St Bartholomew as an outhouse.

During the 18th and 19th Centuries the area changed from an agricultural and rural landscape to urban one. By 1849, it was described as a recently increased suburban village, with some handsome old houses, and by 1859 the village had exceeded its neighbour and with the railways and continuous building, the village of Kingsland disappeared.

Redevelopment and future

The gentrification of the area has led to a rapid increase in the price of property. The process of change has been accelerated since the East London line extension
East London line extension
The East London line extension project is a British railway engineering project in London, managed by Transport for London. The project involves extending the East London Line and making it part of the mainline London Overground network...

 (to be renamed the East London Railway on completion) and since the reopening of Dalston Junction Station
Dalston Junction railway station
Dalston Junction railway station is in the Dalston area of the London Borough of Hackney at the crossroad of Dalston Lane, Kingsland Road and Balls Pond Road...

 was confirmed in the run-up to London's successful bid to hold the 2012 Olympics.

Entertainment

Dalston has always been an important transport and shopping centre. It was also, at one time, an important entertainment centre, with four or five cinemas within a radius of half a kilometre, and the Dalston Theatre, a former hippodrome
Hippodrome
A hippodrome was a Greek stadium for horse racing and chariot racing. The name is derived from the Greek words "hippos and "dromos"...

 and music hall
Music hall
Music Hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...

 that later became the Four Aces blues club and the Labyrinth nightclub. The Dalston Theatre was demolished in February 2007, despite an active local campaign to save it.

The last survivor of Dalston's 20th-century entertainment boom is the Rio Cinema
Rio Cinema
The Rio Cinema is a purpose-built, single-screen, 402 seat cinema in Dalston, London Borough of Hackney. The building dates from 1915, has a 1930s art deco facade and is English Heritage Grade II listed. It offers a mix of popular mainstream films and art house releases, selling about 70,000 -...

, one of the very few cinemas left in East London and, indeed, one of the few independent cinemas left in London. Besides its regular programmes of popular and art movies, the Rio also features film festivals and children's matinees. In one scene at least, the Rio Cinema is seen in the movie 'One Day' starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess.

Arcola Theatre
Arcola Theatre
Arcola Theatre is a studio theatre in Dalston, in the London Borough of Hackney. The theatre's ambition is to create and present high-quality theatre with a social and political relevance to its multicultural local community as well as a wider audience....

 in Ashwin Street produces some fringe theatre and is a centre for a number of theatre-related community activities such as its theatre writers' programme, youth theatre and over-sixties drama.

Dalston was a hub for 1970s and 1980s pub rock venues but these are largely defunct. However the new Dalston Culture House, the first wing of which has opened on Gillett Square, hosts the Vortex Jazz Club
Vortex Jazz Club
The Vortex Jazz Club is a London venue that primarily features live contemporary jazz. The club's official website features book reviews and jazz CD reviews by critic Chris Parker....

, recently moved from Stoke Newington
Stoke Newington
Stoke Newington is a district in the London Borough of Hackney. It is north-east of Charing Cross.-Boundaries:In modern terms, Stoke Newington can be roughly defined by the N16 postcode area . Its southern boundary with Dalston is quite ill-defined too...

.

Centerprise is a long-established BME community bookshop where regular events take place in the coffee bar. Fassett Square
Fassett Square
Fassett Square is a small residential square in the London Borough of Hackney between Hackney Central and Dalston, just to the north of Graham Road....

 in Dalston was the inspiration for the fictional location of the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...

 EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...

, Albert Square.

Notable people

  • Emily Lloyd
    Emily Lloyd
    -Early life:Emily Lloyd Pack was born in London, the daughter of Sheila , now known as , a theatrical agent who was a longtime secretary at Harold Pinter's stage agency, and Roger Lloyd-Pack, a stage actor, well-known as Trigger in the British hit sitcom Only Fools and Horses. Her grandfather,...

    , actress
  • Alan Spenner- Bass player with The Grease Band
    The Grease Band
    The Grease Band was a rock band that started out as Joe Cocker's backing band. They recorded two albums in the 1970s. They are probably most widely known for their performance of The Beatles song, "With a Little Help from My Friends", with Joe Cocker at the Woodstock Festival in 1969...

     and Roxy Music
    Roxy Music
    Roxy Music was a British art rock band formed in 1971 by Bryan Ferry, who became the group's lead vocalist and chief songwriter, and bassist Graham Simpson. The other members are Phil Manzanera , Andy Mackay and Paul Thompson . Former members include Brian Eno , and Eddie Jobson...


Shopping

Established in the 1880's Ridley Road Market
Ridley Road Market
Ridley Road Food Market is a market situated in the London Borough of Hackney, North East London. Opposite Dalston Kingsland railway station just off the Kingsland High Street section of the A10 about three miles north of the City of London. This market specialises in food from around the world...

 is opposite Dalston Kingsland railway station. Fruit and vegetables, some fairly exotic, are available, and the local halal
Halal
Halal is a term designating any object or an action which is permissible to use or engage in, according to Islamic law. The term is used to designate food seen as permissible according to Islamic law...

 butchers, clustered around the high street end of the market. Ridley Road market is reputedly the basis for the one found in BBC's EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...

. The Kingsland Shopping Centre (formerly Dalston Cross) is just south main market street.

Area profile

Contemporary Dalston is a lively neighbourhood with an ethnically varied population. Architecturally it is a mixture of 18th and 19th century terraced house
Terraced house
In architecture and city planning, a terrace house, terrace, row house, linked house or townhouse is a style of medium-density housing that originated in Great Britain in the late 17th century, where a row of identical or mirror-image houses share side walls...

s and 20th century council estates. It is currently undergoing rapid gentrification
Gentrification
Gentrification and urban gentrification refer to the changes that result when wealthier people acquire or rent property in low income and working class communities. Urban gentrification is associated with movement. Consequent to gentrification, the average income increases and average family size...

, partly because of the construction of a new railway station at Dalston Junction
Dalston Junction railway station
Dalston Junction railway station is in the Dalston area of the London Borough of Hackney at the crossroad of Dalston Lane, Kingsland Road and Balls Pond Road...

, part of the extension of the East London Line
East London Line
The East London Line is a London Overground line which runs north to south through the East End, Docklands and South areas of London.Built in 1869 by the East London Railway Company, which reused the Thames Tunnel, originally intended for horse-drawn carriages, the line became part of the London...

 completed in 2010 and partly due to the revitalisation of large parts of east London in the build-up to the 2012 Olympics (Hackney
London Borough of Hackney
The London Borough of Hackney is a London borough of North/North East London, and forms part of inner London. The local authority is Hackney London Borough Council....

 is one of the four host borough
Borough
A borough is an administrative division in various countries. In principle, the term borough designates a self-governing township although, in practice, official use of the term varies widely....

s of the Games).

Dalston has attracted new immigrants to the UK for over one hundred years; at the turn of the century it was a popular Jewish area for the newly arrived from central Europe. In the fifties and sixties, as the Jewish community became more affluent, they were replaced by a large Caribbean community in Dalston, which is reflected by the wide choice of Caribbean foods available in Ridley Road. As the Caribbean community slowly drifted out of Dalston it then became popular with the Turkish, as well as the Vietnamese. Recent émigrés to the community are the Polish community judging by the numbers of Polish delicatessens now appearing and other stores catering to Polish tastes.

Fassett Square
Fassett Square
Fassett Square is a small residential square in the London Borough of Hackney between Hackney Central and Dalston, just to the north of Graham Road....

 was the inspiration for the BBC Soap EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...

. Originally, there were plans to film the series there, on location. However, Fassett Square (Albert Square
Albert Square
Albert Square is the fictional location of the BBC soap opera EastEnders. It is ostensibly located in the equally fictional London borough of Walford in London's East End. The square's design was based on the real life Fassett Square in Hackney, and was given the name Albert Square after the real...

) and Ridley Road Market (Walford Market) were rebuilt on the set in Elstree, Borehamwood to have a more controlled filming environment. The origin of the area of Walford was from Walford Road and many of the houses on the show use the same exterior design. Both Barbara Windsor
Barbara Windsor
Barbara Ann Windsor, MBE , better known by her stage name Barbara Windsor, is an English actress. Her best known roles are in the Carry On films and as Peggy Mitchell in the BBC soap opera EastEnders....

 and Tony Holland
Tony Holland
Anthony John "Tony" Holland was an English television screenwriter best known as a writer and co-creator of the BBC soap opera EastEnders.-Early career:...

, one of the original creators of the show, lived at different times on the street.

That is not the only connection with entertainment industry. Around the corner, music hall
Music hall
Music Hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...

 artiste Marie Lloyd
Marie Lloyd
Matilda Alice Victoria Wood was an English music hall singer, best known as Marie Lloyd. Her ability to add lewdness to the most innocent of lyrics led to frequent clashes with the guardians of morality...

 (1870–1922) used to reside on Graham Road. The house now has a Blue Plaque.

In April 2009 The Guardian wrote an article on Dalston being the coolest place to live in Britain, follow this link to the full story

Dalston has its own hyperlocal news website, Dalston People. Funded by Associated Northcliffe Digital, the owners of the Daily Mail and Metro, the site is a pilot project and is written by local residents.

Pop-culture references

  • The seventh track on Razorlight
    Razorlight
    Razorlight are a UK based indie rock band formed in 2002. They are primarily known in the UK, having topped the charts with the 2006 single "America" and its parent self-titled album, their second...

    's 2004 debut album Up All Night
    Up All Night (Razorlight album)
    Up All Night is the debut album by English indie rock band Razorlight, first released in June 2004. The album reached #3 in the UK Albums Chart upon initial release...

    , is named Don't Go Back To Dalston.
  • Bad Manners
    Bad Manners
    Bad Manners are an English 2 Tone ska band. They quickly became the novelty favourites of the UK pop scene through their bald outsized frontman's on-stage antics, earning early exposure through their Top of The Pops exploits and an appearance in the live film documentary, Dance Craze.They were at...

    ' 1980 song "Night Bus to Dalston" is the B side of hit "Lip Up Fatty".
  • The fifth track of Snowpony
    Snowpony
    Snowpony are a British indie rock supergroup initially formed in 1996 by Katharine Gifford and Debbie Googe.-History:Gifford, who at the time was in Moonshake, gave Googe a tape of songs she had been working on before Moonshake went on a US tour. Googe, who then had recently left My Bloody...

    's 2001 album "Sea Shanties for Spaceships", is named "into the heart of dalston".
  • In the second series of TV show The Mighty Boosh
    The Mighty Boosh
    The Mighty Boosh is a British comedy troupe featuring comedians Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding. Developed from three stage shows and a six episode radio series, it has since spawned a total of twenty television episodes for BBC Three and two live tours of the UK, as well as two live shows in the...

    , Vince, Howard, Naboo and Bollo share a flat in Dalston and in the third series they work in a second-hand shop - 'Nabootique' - there.
  • Mike Leigh
    Mike Leigh
    Michael "Mike" Leigh, OBE is a British writer and director of film and theatre. He studied theatre at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and studied further at the Camberwell School of Art and the Central School of Art and Design. He began as a theatre director and playwright in the mid 1960s...

    's Naked
    Naked (film)
    Naked is a 1993 British film directed by Mike Leigh. Before this film, Leigh was known for subtler comedic dissections of middle-class and working-class manners. Naked was more stark and brutal than his previous works...

    featured exterior shots of 33 Saint Marks Rise. The interior scenes were also filmed in the top floor flat of this house.
  • In Stephen Frears
    Stephen Frears
    Stephen Arthur Frears is an English film director.-Early life:Frears was born in Leicester, England to Ruth M., a social worker, and Dr Russell E. Frears, a general practitioner and accountant. He did not find out that his mother was Jewish until he was in his late 20s...

    ' film Dirty Pretty Things
    Dirty Pretty Things (film)
    Dirty Pretty Things is a 2002 film directed by Stephen Frears and written by Steven Knight, a drama about two illegal immigrants in London...

    , Audrey Tautou
    Audrey Tautou
    Audrey Justine Tautou is a French model and film actress, best known for playing the title character in the award-winning 2001 film Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain, Sophie Neveu in the 2006 thriller The Da Vinci Code, Irène in Priceless and Coco Chanel in Coco avant Chanel...

    's character Senay Gelik lives in a flat overlooking Ridley Road's street market.
  • In the Doctor Who
    Doctor Who
    Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...

     episode "Love & Monsters
    Love & Monsters
    "Love & Monsters" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. In this episode, an ordinary man named Elton Pope becomes obsessed with a man called the Doctor and his strange blue box, and joins a group of like-minded people in hopes of finding him...

    " Obsessive fan "Elton" had a market stall on the Ridley Road.
  • The 2007 film Run Fat Boy Run (directed by David Schwimmer
    David Schwimmer
    David Lawrence Schwimmer is an American actor and director of television and film. He was born in New York City, and his family moved to Los Angeles when he was two. He began his acting career performing in school plays at Beverly Hills High School. In 1988, he graduated from Northwestern...

    ) was filmed in Dalston (St. Marks Conservation Area). Dennis (Simon Pegg
    Simon Pegg
    Simon Pegg is an English actor, comedian, writer, film producer, and director. He is best known for having co-written and stared in various Edgar Wright features, mainly Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and the comedy series Spaced.He also portrayed Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in the 2009 Star Trek film...

    ) stays in a flat on Sandringham Road across the road from St. Marks Church.
  • Dalston Songs is a staged song cycle with seven singers created and composed by Helen Chadwick
    Helen Chadwick (musician)
    Helen Chadwick is a British musician and singer who has written over 200 songs, mainly for unaccompanied voices. She has made six solo albums and several with other artists. She composes for radio, theatre and opera and creates song theatre performances, both solo and with her group. As a singer...

     and choreographed by Steven Hoggett. It was based on interviews with people in East London about home and was performed in 2008 at the Royal Opera House
    Royal Opera House
    The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...

    .
  • The Prodigy
    The Prodigy
    The Prodigy are an English electronic dance music group formed by Liam Howlett in 1990 in Braintree, Essex. Along with Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers, and other acts, The Prodigy have been credited as pioneers of the big beat genre, which achieved mainstream popularity in the 1990s and 2000s...

     made their live debut at Labyrinth in Dalston, London’s Four Aces Club in 1990.
  • Award-winning short-film director Paul Fuller (Scarytree Films) is based in Dalston and shot most of his films in the area.
  • In The Mighty Boosh
    The Mighty Boosh
    The Mighty Boosh is a British comedy troupe featuring comedians Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding. Developed from three stage shows and a six episode radio series, it has since spawned a total of twenty television episodes for BBC Three and two live tours of the UK, as well as two live shows in the...

    episode "Eels", character Howard Moon is referred to as "the biggest ball fondler in Dalston".
  • September 2011 [Britney Spears] records pop video criminal.

Transport and locale

Nearest railway stations
The nearest National Rail
National Rail
National Rail is a title used by the Association of Train Operating Companies as a generic term to define the passenger rail services operated in Great Britain...

 stations are Dalston Kingsland
Dalston Kingsland railway station
Dalston Kingsland railway station is a railway station on the North London Line in London, England. It is in the Dalston area of the London Borough of Hackney, on the western side of Kingsland High Street and opposite Ridley Road Market. The station and all trains serving it are operated by London...

(North London Line
North London Line
The North London Line is a railway line which passes through the inner suburbs of north London, England. Its route is a rough semicircle from the south west to the north east, avoiding central London. The line is owned and maintained by Network Rail...

)
and Dalston Junction
Dalston Junction railway station
Dalston Junction railway station is in the Dalston area of the London Borough of Hackney at the crossroad of Dalston Lane, Kingsland Road and Balls Pond Road...

(East London Line
East London Line
The East London Line is a London Overground line which runs north to south through the East End, Docklands and South areas of London.Built in 1869 by the East London Railway Company, which reused the Thames Tunnel, originally intended for horse-drawn carriages, the line became part of the London...

) both are served by London Overground
London Overground
London Overground is a suburban rail network in London and Hertfordshire. It has been operated by London Overground Rail Operations since 2007 as part of the National Rail network, under the franchise control and branding of Transport for London...

.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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