Church gardens and play area, Hackney, East London

The Church gardens, Hackney. Accessible via all buses to Hackney Central, Hackney Central Rail station.

The bit behind the church tower in Hackney, off of Mare Street used to be the sole haunt of tramps shadow boxing and drinking, and yout waiting to nick something. Now Hackney Council in their wisdom have done something vaguely useful for a change and redone the gardens. The old churchyard and surrounding area have been tastefully revamped, with good and sensitive referencing to the past and a good play area installed. Of course, the tramps are still there, only shoved over to the corner near the (shocking!)20p loos, which is a pain in the arse. It's like they are on tramp leylines and can't deviate too far from them, although I guess they just need an offy and the post office for their giros. Anyway, they are the worst bit, as the loos are clean (as they should be to get in for 20p), but you have to run a tramp gauntlet to get there, which no kid is going to want to do alone. Plus, they really should have just employed someone to look after the loos, and shoo the tramps off. But that's Hackney Council for you.

So i'll approach this review with two hats.

First, history teacher.
Hackney used to be a beautiful village famous for its' baths. None of that remains, obviously, but the churchyard gardens are a way of reaching back to that past and making it accessible. The new signposts (already unfortunately defaced by idiot vandals tagging them, numbskulls) are informative on the role of this particular area, and point out areas of interest. Who knew that the Beaufort scale of measuring wind was actually invented by someone, and that someone a Lord buried here? The clocktower is also pointed out, although not open. The history of the churchyard is illustrated with photos and text. Its' not worth, as a teacher, planning a whole days' outing for, but if I were primary rather than secondary, and nearby, i'd use this site as a good example of teaching KS2 continuity and change. What has changed? What is different? etc. A Year 6 child could easily grasp these concepts and a simple worksheet could be knocked up using the signposts easily enough, and a few old photos. Or you could do a "Who is?" worksheet using the gravestones and memorials. A nice exercise would be to combine a bit of KS2 Geog and use a simplified map of the area to locate parts from different centuries, as the area ranges from 13th to 19th century. You'd be surprised how many children reach KS3 without knowing how centuries and chronology work. I think it's definately worth an afternoon for primary teachers round here . Go after lunch and after they've all already been to the loo.

Now, as a mum.

The churchyard gardens themselves are beautiful, but avoid the plain grass area as people let their dogs poop there. As ever. Don't get me started on people and dogs. Frankly, i'd DNA register all dogs and their owners and MAKE them clean up after themselves. Round here, if you registered all the people with idiot big mastiffs etc, you'd get half the criminal community to boot and halve the amount of dog crap everywhere because these men are all too "big" to pick up dog poo. Anyway.......

The childrens play area is a joy for mums of toddlers and babies. It's safe, enclosed, away from traffic, and beautifully kept and planted (thus far, but this IS Hackney, so who can say for how long?) The play area is soft to land on, made of that weirdo rubber stuff, and the range of equipment good and geared at toddlers only, so big kids don't come here, a good thing. It's all prams and toddlers. The slides are small, the swings are small and so on. Mini roundabouts were fiercely competed for when I was there. There's shade provided by trees, benches and a lovely lawn. I felt perfectly ok BF here, even though there were dads and some Orthodox ladies about. And there's an M&S over the Narroway to get some sarnies if you want.

All new, shiny and nice. And security in the form of rangers is apparently in evidence to keep it that way. Or at least not let the White Lightning Warriors into this bit.