How We Got Here — The Full Story
When Colvestone Primary School closed, the community acted quickly to ensure it remained protected. Residents secured the building’s status as an Asset of Community Value (ACV), recognising its importance to Dalston — culturally, historically and socially.
For decades, the school had reflected the community around it. Over 80% of pupils came from Black and Global Majority families, many connected to the life and labour of Ridley Road Market. As families were priced out of Hackney, the school roll fell, leading to closure — a closure that removed daily footfall and weakened the small ecosystem that supported the market’s vibrancy.
Dalston has transformed rapidly.
Mass redevelopment and rising land values have displaced long-standing Black and Global Majority families and businesses. Yet the area around Ridley Road, one of Hackney’s most important Black cultural and economic spaces, has seen chronic underinvestment in community-led spaces, enterprise infrastructure and creative or social third places.
Meanwhile, the area lacks:
accessible, affordable, community-led spaces
intergenerational, culturally-rooted rooms for gathering
cafés, indoor social spaces and enterprise space
places that support youth, elders and families
infrastructure that uplifts Ridley Road Market
Ridley Road remains culturally powerful, but vulnerable without supportive infrastructure.
Residents began asking:
How do we protect this place, and who should lead the change?
The Colvestone Corner Collective emerged with a shared commitment to land justice: ensuring communities historically excluded from land and decision-making can shape and steward the spaces that define local life.
Our proposal for Colvestone Corner seeks to create a Black and Global Majority–centred, intergenerational, accessible third space, fully welcoming and inclusive of everyone, that supports Ridley Road, strengthens community roots and celebrates the cultural excellence of Hackney’s communities.
This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reclaim community space, anchor local culture and shape a future rooted in belonging, opportunity and shared stewardship.