HYPERLOCAL HISTORY MONTH: Looking forward (I'm not sure things happening in September really count as History, but they are Hyperlocal)
Major roadworks at Bow Interchange
Serious cloggage is coming to the Bow Roundabout in September (and maybe beyond). I can tell this because TfL have announced temporary timetables are being introduced on bus routes 25, 205, 276, 277, 425 and D7 starting on Saturday 31st August. This is "to help with reliability during roadworks at the Bow Roundabout and displacement of traffic onto local roads", which sounds like it could be very messy because there are so few local roads to displace traffic onto. The 277 and D7 don't go anywhere near the Bow Roundabout, suggesting this will be serious displacement.
I've checked for futureroadworks online and discovered two possible candidates. In both cases the owner of the roadworks is TfL.
» High Street Stratford(12 Aug 2024 - 2 March 2025): "Works to include but not limited to kerb realignment, full depth reconstruction and resurfacing and traffic signal works as part of Silvertown Tunnel Monitoring and Mitigation Works."
» Blackwall Tunnel Northern Approach(9 Sep 2024 - 16 Jan 2025): There are no further details at this time, but the ⛔ symbol appears to be located in the underpass under the roundabout and that would be four months of misery.
• Robin Edwards [Conservative]: Robin is Deputy Chairman Political for Stratford & Bow Conservatives. He stood in this ward in the 2022 election and got 2% of the vote.
• Rupert George [Green]: Rupert is the Green Party's national Policy Communication Manager. He stood as a candidate for Harrow West in the General Election and got 5% of the vote.
• Abdi Mohamed [Labour]: Abdi is a Public Affairs Manager for the charity Scope, also Chair of the GMB union's London group for BAME workers, also a local school governor.
• Siobhan Proudfoot [Liberal Democrats]: Siobhan stood in a neighbouring ward in Bromley-by-Bow in the 2022 election and got 2½% of the vote.
This is for the council by-election triggered by the previous councillor being elected as a Labour MP. Interestingly the party that runs Tower Hamlets, Lutfur Rahman's Aspire, hasn't put up a candidate. The by-election takes places on on 12th September.
309 bus straightened out
From Saturday 31 August route 309 will be diverted within the Aberfeldy estate in Poplar. This follows a consultation last summer. Buses will now run direct along Abbott Road in both directions and will no longer serve Blair Street or the shopping centre. The stated intention is "to support increased demand for bus services on either side of Abbott Road as new homes and communities continue to develop". The unstated intention is to speed up buses by not twiddling so much. However...
In the consultation, the expectation was that a new westbound bus stop would be added alongside Braithwaite Park, but this has not yet happened. This means the effect of the 309's route change will be to close five bus stops and add no new ones, which is a pretty poor show and helps nobody locally. Some residents at the eastern end of the estate will now be over 500m from a westbound bus stop, which wasn't anticipated in the consultation and isn't what was promised. Presumably TfL know why they're rerouting the 309 before adding the necessary extra bus stop, but what a slap in the face for one of Tower Hamlets' poorest communities.
Open House comes to E3
Five E3 properties are opening up for Open House next month. I mention this not because you should go but in case you want to start researching your own area. Booking starts next Wednesday.
And that's a proper independent bookshop, not a second hand repository. It's called Bard Books and it opened on 2nd July inside a former Estate Agents at the Mile End end of Roman Road. It looks bright and jolly with flowery tables, shelves of curated paperbacks, a separate children's trolley and books on more serious topics. They've gone big on events like author meets, writers' workshops and toddler gatherings, and are also opening as a bar in the evenings (think wine and a bowl of nocerella olives or an Aperol with babaganoush). As a business it feels much more like something that'd open in Stoke Newington than in Bow, but I guess E3's further along the gentrification conveyor than I thought. I wish them well.
All Points East has started
Can you hear it? I can hear it, pumping across from Victoria Park, thumpty thumpty thump. I think that's Thundercat pounding the bass, later it'll be Victoria Monét and Kaytranada, then the same again all this weekend and next. Tickets for Ezra Collective, Beabadoobee, Jockstrap, LCD Soundsystem and Death Cab For Cutie sold out yonks ago and are helping to subsidise my council tax.
But what you may not know is that for the four days inbetween (that's Monday 19th - Thursday 22nd) the corral in the park opens up for In The Neighbourhood, a community free-for-all. Most of it is school summer holiday filler with sports and joiny-in things, but you can also watch Barbie on the big screen, get your bike fixed, meet Bard Books, do yoga and go for a mindfulness jog with Run Dem Crew. If nothing else it'll be a lot less thumpty thumpty thump for a few evenings.
