Clara Murray from LovingDalston.co.uk wrote a short article about my campaign asking the council to save old street signs. Earlier this year I learnt through correspondence with the council, that irrespective of their potential historical significance, street signs are removed and destroyed if they are considered no longer fit-for-purpose due to their condition.

This prompted Nick Perry, Chair of the Hackney Society, and myself to ask the council to reconsider its policy given the historical significance of street signs that include the former ‘Borough of Stoke Newington’ or the abolished ‘N’ postal district. After a number of chaser email to various people in council since February, a few weeks ago the Mayor of Hackney, Philip Glanville, got involved on Twitter and we received the reassurance we were hoping for that the signs will be protected.

From the article:

HERITAGE LOVERS HAVE WON their campaign to persuade Hackney council to save a slice of the borough’s history. The council has promised to preserve rare vintage street signs, some of them more than a century old.

The number of surviving nameplates has been dwindling fast. They bear either the northeast postal locator from the system that lingered in Hackney until at least 1917, despite having officially ended decades before, or the borough name of Stoke Newington. Stokey was absorbed by Hackney in 1965.

Loving Dalston