On the whole, locallocal history.co.uk is a good site, but there are many aspects of it which are wrong. I have lived in Stoke Newington all my life (since 1952) and in the same road and block of flats for nearly 50 years (from birth till 1956 and again from 1963 till the present) and know the area extremely well. I contacted the owner and told him about the mistakes and, although he amended some mistakes, he refused to amend all of them. He has a photo on the site which he says is of the block of flats I was born in, Binyon House in Milton Grove, and which my Grandparents, Mum and Uncle moved into (and where I was born) when they were first built just after the war and they were one of the first families to move in. But it isn’t Binyon, it is the block opposite, Shelley House. Binyon is, and always has been just 3 storeys high but the photo is of a block with 4 storeys at the end and 5 in the middle, which is Shelley. He told me, that if I am right and that my family were the first to move in and it was a 3 storey block the council must have demolished it, rebuilt it (hence the photo) and then demolished it again, and rebuilt it a second time, as it is only 3 storeys now!!! That is absurd! My family were not rehoused in order to do that. Why on earth would the Council do that anyway, when it was a few years after the war, no money around and there was a desperate need for housing? It would have been a waste of money and an inconvenience to all. The photo is owned by Hackney Archives now and has their name on it. Apparently, he gave it to them, together with the wrong info. I contacted them to tell them but they preferred to believe him, who never lived here, than my family and I, who did and still do live here. Next to Binyon House is Butterfield Green, which was created in the mid 1980’s. He states that up until then, the area between Binyon House and the back of the shops in Allen Road was a bomb site. It was not! I had both family and friends living in the houses in Milton Grove and Shakespeare Walk which were there up until the 80’s when they were demolished. What is worrying, is the fact he built the site for schoolchildren in the area to learn about local history. What they will learn will not be the true facts in all cases. There are just so many mistakes. 🙁
lynrennick
On the whole, locallocal history.co.uk is a good site, but there are many aspects of it which are wrong. I have lived in Stoke Newington all my life (since 1952) and in the same road and block of flats for nearly 50 years (from birth till 1956 and again from 1963 till the present) and know the area extremely well. I contacted the owner and told him about the mistakes and, although he amended some mistakes, he refused to amend all of them. He has a photo on the site which he says is of the block of flats I was born in, Binyon House in Milton Grove, and which my Grandparents, Mum and Uncle moved into (and where I was born) when they were first built just after the war and they were one of the first families to move in. But it isn’t Binyon, it is the block opposite, Shelley House. Binyon is, and always has been just 3 storeys high but the photo is of a block with 4 storeys at the end and 5 in the middle, which is Shelley. He told me, that if I am right and that my family were the first to move in and it was a 3 storey block the council must have demolished it, rebuilt it (hence the photo) and then demolished it again, and rebuilt it a second time, as it is only 3 storeys now!!! That is absurd! My family were not rehoused in order to do that. Why on earth would the Council do that anyway, when it was a few years after the war, no money around and there was a desperate need for housing? It would have been a waste of money and an inconvenience to all. The photo is owned by Hackney Archives now and has their name on it. Apparently, he gave it to them, together with the wrong info. I contacted them to tell them but they preferred to believe him, who never lived here, than my family and I, who did and still do live here. Next to Binyon House is Butterfield Green, which was created in the mid 1980’s. He states that up until then, the area between Binyon House and the back of the shops in Allen Road was a bomb site. It was not! I had both family and friends living in the houses in Milton Grove and Shakespeare Walk which were there up until the 80’s when they were demolished. What is worrying, is the fact he built the site for schoolchildren in the area to learn about local history. What they will learn will not be the true facts in all cases. There are just so many mistakes. 🙁