Meeting next week to catalogue the borough’s best loved architectural features

An official campaign challenging Hackney Council’s policy towards street art such as ROA’s popular graffiti rabbit launches with a public meeting next week.

Supporters of the borough’s architectural quirks - from Banksy’s mural in Stoke Newington Church Street to old shop signs and stonework - will be gathering at Fellows Court Community Centre, in Weymouth Terrace, Haggerston, on Thursday (December 2).

They will be kick starting Wild Hackney, a new push to persuade town hall chiefs to discuss environmental enforcement policy.

The council was forced to withdraw its threats to remove a 12ft-tall painting of a rabbit on the walls of The Premises Studios in Hackney Road in early November after more than 2,000 people signed a petition in protest.

Now Wild Hackney’s founders Liane Hartley and Kate Nelson, with the support of the studios’ bosses, are compiling a catalogue of popular features they value.

They are inviting residents to take photographs of their favourite sights to next week’s meeting.

“This isn’t just about the rabbit. There are quite a lot of informal things in our landscape that we want protected,” said Liane.

“These are the things that make you love your neighbourhood and make you feel a part of the community.”

The meeting will start at 6.30pm. For more information, go to www.mendlondon.blogspot.com.