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Dalston is a district in the London Borough of Hackney, England. Its historical borders are Kingsland Road and Kingsland High Street in the west, London Fields in the east, Downs Park Road in the north and the Shoreditch parish boundary in the south. Its main shopping street, Kingsland High Street, follows the route of the Roman Ermine Street, 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. As such, it bestrides the main route north from the City of London.
Redevelopment and future
While any investment in a 'run down' area is generally a good thing, the gentrification of this area is leading to a rapid increase in property prices, leading to understandable resentment from people priced out of the area in which they grew up. This process has been accelerated since the East London Line extension, reopening Dalston Junction Station, was confirmed in the run-up to London's successful bid to hold the 2012 Olympics.
Entertainment
Dalston has always been an important transport nexus 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 old music hall on Dalston Lane (Dalston Theatre, later the Four Aces blues club and the Labyrinth nightclub, now disused). Hackney Council plans to build, among other things, a multi-screen cinema on the site of this historic theatre. Local residents have formed a campaign group known as Open Dalston to protest against the underhand way their area is being altered without public consultation.
The last survivor of Dalston's 20th-century entertainment boom is the justly celebrated Rio Cinema, 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.
Arcola Theatre in Arcola Street produces some of London's best quality fringe theatre and is a centre for a number of theatre-related community activities such as its theatre writers' programme, youth theatre and 60+ drama.
Dalston once sported some excellent 1970s-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 renowned Vortex Jazz Club, recently moved from Stoke Newington.
Also worthy of note is Centerprise, a long-established community bookshop where regular events take place in the coffee bar. And Fassett Square in Dalston was the inspiration for the fictional location of the BBC soap opera EastEnders, Albert Square, cementing its relationship with the entertainment industry.
Shopping
Dalston is not a glamorous shopping centre but it has become legendary in northeast London, mostly thanks to its excellent Ridley Road street market. The keyphrase here is 'value for money' and for food shopping it is hard to better this area. Fruit and vegetables, some fairly exotic, are available at ridiculously low prices, and the local halal butchers, clustered around the high street end of the market, are hard to beat in terms of quality and price. The Kingsland Shopping Centre mall (formerly Dalston Cross) is a useful, if drab, supplement to the main market street. It has recently been extended to house a Matalan budget clothes store over the car park.
The ancient shopping street of Broadway Market, to the South East of the district, boasts a wide selection of 'up and coming' boutiques, pubs and cafes. Thanks to these, and the successful Saturday Farmer's Market, this area immediately adjacent to London Fields is regarded as thriving.
Area profile
Contemporary Dalston is a lively neighbourhood with an ethnically varied population. Architecturally it is a mixture of 18th and 19th century terraced houses and 20th century council estates. It is currently undergoing rapid gentrification, partly because of the planned construction of a new railway station at Dalston Junction, part of the extension of the East London Line due to be completed in 2010.
Pop-Culture References
- The seventh track on Razorlight's 2004 album Up All Night, is named Don't go back to Dalston. The song is not disparaging towards Dalston, as it merely seems to be a place where the subject of the song would otherwise return.
- Bad Manners' 1980 song "Ska Night Bus to Dalston" is the B side of hit "Lip Up Fatty".
- In the second TV series of The Mighty Boosh, Vince, Howard, Naboo and Bollo share a flat which is supposed to be in Dalston.
- Mike Leigh's Naked is filmed in St Marks Rise.
Nearest places
- De Beauvoir Town
- Hackney Central
- Haggerston
- Kingsland
- London Fields
- Newington Green
- Shacklewell
- Stoke Newington
Nearest railway stations
External links
"Dalston"