- www.leevalleyestates.co.uk This is the lastest list of news from our website. en-uk http://82.110.105.85/test-lve.co.uk/news_detail.html?id=114 Haringey People reports on the latest progress of a major regeneration scheme at Tottenham Hale. Housing is at the heart of the £400 million development at Hale Village.The development is a combination of new homes for rent and shared ownership, as well as accommodation for students and private housing.Haringey Council is working alongside Lee Valley Estates, the Homes and Communities Agency and the Newlon Housing Trust on the scheme.The first phase of the development is already up and running.  Emily Bowes Court provides accommodation for around 700 students.And a topping out ceremoney (pictured) has been held for a new complex being built by Willmott Dixon which will provide 154 new affordable homes.In all, the Hale Village development will provide 1,100 new homes - of which 542 will be affordable homes.  Some of the affordable housing will be part rent/part buy.  There will also be some much-needed social rented homes too.  The council will have nomination rights to house families from the borough's waiting list.  In addition to the housing, plans also include:a hotelshopsgreen spacesimprovements to the transport network in the area, including a green link for pedestrians and cyclists from Tottenham High Road to the Lee Valley Regional ParkCllr John Bevan, Cabinet Member for Housing, said:"Housing is at the heart of our plans to transform Tottenham Hale.We're working closely with other organisations and agencies to provide much-needed homes and accommodation for a wide range of local people.It will provide homes, with unsurpassed transport connections, for many people who currently find it difficult to find affordable property - including key workers." Website link takes you to 'Haringey People' online magazine. http://82.110.105.85/test-lve.co.uk/news_detail.html?id=112 A LEYTON shopkeeper has welcomed plans to revamp 16 shops along the High Road.A total of £400,000 from the central government and the Olympic budget has been put into the project to improve shop fronts and encourage businesses to move into the area ahead of the Olympic games.The first phase will include work to the fronts of 16 shops on High Road on the junction with Adelaide Road.Signs, doors, fascias and other parts of the buildings will be renovated and historic features will be returned to their former glory.Arif Bung is owner of Blackwells Newsagents, which is one of the businesses to benefit from the scheme.He said: "This is a good project.  There has been an excellent response from the shop keepers here."It will be a big improvement to the area.  The whole street will look better in time for the Olympics".Surveys are currently being carried out on each of the buildings to create a detailed plan of the worked needed.The renovation is expected to start in July 2011 and be complete by November.The council said if the project is successful and more funding can be found it will be rolled out in other areas.Waltham Forest Council leader Cllr Chris Robbins said: "This is a fantastic opportunity for us to smarten up the appearance of Leyton in the run up to the Olympic Games and encourage more people to come here."We want this area to become a thriving retail centre in our borough, and we think the best way to do that is to help shop keepers imprive the appearance of their premises so they look fresher and more inviting."Chair of Waltham Forest Business Board, Michael Polledri, said: "Waltham Forest Business Board are delighted to be part of this excellent initiative."We believe that once the works are completed this will be another major visible example of the Olympics legacy benefiting Waltham Forest and, in this case, Leyton in particular". http://82.110.105.85/test-lve.co.uk/news_detail.html?id=111 Jeanette Sitton enjoys the view in the Paddock's new bat garden from the comfort of wooden bench donated by Lee Valley Estates.The secretary of Lee Valley Bats helped create the new garden, which is due to be officially opend in the new few weeks, as a watching post for the wildlife in the nature reserve, off Ferry Lane, Tottenham.  http://82.110.105.85/test-lve.co.uk/news_detail.html?id=106 Lee Valley Estates is delighted to provide sponsorship to the Bat Garden in the Paddock by donating a beautiful wooden bench.  The solid oak resting spot was installed on 7 July.  We also look forward to co-hosting the official opening of the Bat Garden.  This will take place on the third floor terrace of our headquarters, Heron House which looks out across the garden's tree-tops. The Bat Garden is situated within The Paddock Community Nature Park on Ferry Lane N17, which is managed by the London Borough of Haringey with support from the Friends of The Paddock . In 2007 Lee Valley Bats had the idea to create a night scented garden at the Paddock specifically designed to attract wildlife and, in particular, bats.  Bats feed on insects, such as moths, midges and other small flying insects, which are attracted to the scents of plants. LVB approached Haringey who own the land and were granted £2000 to develop this vision.  A wood chip path was laid by British Trust for Conservation Volunteers (BTCV) and the local community.   A wildflower meadow has been created and is now visited by bees, butterflies, moths, dragonflies and damselflies, to name a few. Once bats learn of this new foraging area, it is hoped they will be regular visitors too. Last but not least, a small pond was built, providing the Paddock with its first area of habitable standing water, which is already regularly visited by dragonflies. It was built with funds from the Bat Conservation Trust. Lee Valley Bats, founded in 2007 and Friends of The Paddock, founded in 2000, are voluntary organisations.  The hard work of their volunteers attracted the attention of one of the Lee Valley Estates directors who visited in 2009.  Upon meeting the co-founder of Lee Valley Bats, Jeanette Sitton, Lee Valley Estates offered to contribute. Michael Polledri MBE, Chairman of Lee Valley Estates said, “Lee Valley Estates is delighted to help the community in a very small way to realise this wonderful natural asset”.  A walk around the Paddock is free and visitors can now stop and relax on the Bat Garden's bench. Lee Valley Bats are dedicated to bats through education and community action.  A visit to their website will tell you how bats are an important part of the ecosystem and how they benefit us all.  For example, bats keep our insect populations under control, by eating around 4,000 of them each night.  LVB run free educational courses at the Paddock in winter, (during bat hibernation months), on a variety of wildlife topics. The Paddock was once recreational land for the Lebus furniture factory, but was left to grow wild when the factory closed.  Horses were allowed to graze on it, so the piece of land became known as The Paddock.  The Lebus site is now home to a new mixed use regeneration project, Hale Village, owned and developed by Lee Valley Estates.  It is already home to students from the University of Arts and the next phase will be affordable housing. The contractors at Hale Village, United House, kindly loaned three men and one digger on 7 July to remove deep-rooted dogwood stumps in the Bat Garden.  This has more than doubled the size of the planting area. Lee Valley Bats’ honorary patron is the BBC wildlife filmmaker Simon King FBNA (co-presenter of BBC Springwatch, Autumnwatch and Big Cat Live). For further information, contact Laura Cruickshank at Lee Valley Estates on 020 8885 8530, or laura@lee-valley-estates.co.uk  Notes:LVE sponsored bench in the Bat Garden, The Paddock N17 The Paddock is a part of the Lee Valley Site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation and has been identified in LB Haringey’s Biodiversity Action Plan as a possible new site for ‘Local Nature Reserve’ designation. Local Nature Reserves are places with wildlife or geological features that are of special interest locally. They offer people special opportunities to study or learn about nature or simply enjoy it.  LB Haringey works closely with community groups and charities in the management of its parks and open spaces and welcomes the opportunity to work with business partners such as Lee Valley Estates. The bat garden project has been a particularly fine example of cooperation with The Friends of The Paddock, Lee Valley Bats, BTCV, Froglife, The Bat Conservation Trust and Lee Valley Estates supported by LB Haringey working together to improve the natural environment for both wildlife and people alike.  The provision of a new bench will help enable people to enjoy the newly created pond and meadow habitats which support the delivery of Haringey’s Biodiversity Action Plan. Ian Holt, the Conservation Officer from LBH has taken this project under his wing and recently completed a draft management plan.  Having consulted the Friends of the Paddock the next stage is for the Friends of the Paddock and LB Haringey to meet to formerly adopt it.  http://82.110.105.85/test-lve.co.uk/news_detail.html?id=107 ALL MAPPED OUTRule No 1 for first-time buyers: know the Tube network, says Tom Lewis, ES Hale Village, next to the station, is Haringey borough's biggest development project since the Sixties£400 million scheme that includes 1,200 new homes, a student campus for Universitey of the Arts, hotel, retail and office space.The developer is Lee Valley Estates.  The new homes are expected to be popular with young Londoners priced out of Islington, Camden and Shoreditch.  542 of the new homes will be provided by Newlon.  To register, call 0800 058 2544, or go to sales@newlon.org.uk. http://82.110.105.85/test-lve.co.uk/news_detail.html?id=105 Three cameras each showing a live feed have been installed at the Hale Village development site.Anyone can now see the progress being made, second by second, at this key regneration project in north London.Please feel free to take a look:For views of Blocks SE, C and the side of W: http://81.145.56.36:8093For views of Blocks W. NW1, NW2, N and skimming C: http://81.145.56.36:8094For views of Blocks P1-5, SE, SW, W, C, N: http://81.145.56.36:8095 http://82.110.105.85/test-lve.co.uk/news_detail.html?id=104 A FINAL section of concrete is laid by Tottenham MP David Lammy to complete the latest stage of the Hale Village development.The £400million regeneration project off Ferry Lane, Tottenham Hale, hosted a topping out ceremony on the roof of the Newlon Housing Trust's landmark project.  The building will offer 154 new affordable homes on a part-buy, part-rent basis, and new headquarters for the Newlon Group.In all, the development will be made up of 542 new affordable homes, built in four distinct areas, offering homes for key workers, first time buyers and rented social housing for families.Mr Lammy, pictured, said "In these tough economic times I am delighted to see the fruition of this exciting vision.Developments that create jobs and improve the housing stock are essential to the much deserved regeneration of this area". http://82.110.105.85/test-lve.co.uk/news_detail.html?id=103 The £400 million regeneration project at Hale Village, is moving forward fast. On Friday 18 June, David Lammy MP laid the final section of concrete on the roof of Newlon Housing Trust’s landmark new housing project, the latest part of this major regeneration scheme, one of the largest in London.  The new building, built by Willmott Dixon, will contain 154 new affordable homes, available under New Build HomeBuy (part buy-part rent), as well as new Headquarters for the Newlon Group, bringing new residents and employees to the borough. At Hale Village, Newlon Housing Trust is building 542 new affordable homes in four distinct areas, providing new homes for Key Workers, first time buyers and families through social renting. David Lunts from the Homes and Communities Agency, which has invested in infrastructure and social housing development grants, was on hand to mark this milestone, along with Cllr Lorna Reith, Cllr Reg Rice and Michael and Jon Polledri of Lee Valley Estates.   David Lunts praised the Polledri family for their “courageous and heroic” determination to build Hale Village.While David Lammy said how Hale Village fitted in with his view for only wanting the best of everything for Haringey. The Hale Village development site, being owned and managed by Lee Valley Estates, will also comprise new private housing, a hotel, a new shopping street and new green space. It will transform this large area of former industrial wasteland next to Tottenham Hale station and open up a vibrant waterfront area, creating much needed jobs and homes for the people of Haringey.  David Lammy MP said, “In these tough economic times, I am delighted to see the fruition of this exciting vision, which brings new jobs and 542 mixed occupancy affordable homes to Tottenham. Developments that create jobs and improve the housing stock are essential to the much deserved regeneration of this area.” Regional Director of the Homes and Communities Agency, David Lunts, said, “We’re making a vital contribution to the provision of high-quality, affordable homes through our support for this scheme. With a range of facilities being delivered alongside the new homes, Hale Village will give Tottenham Hale an economic boost and help to open up more development opportunities in the area.”    http://82.110.105.85/test-lve.co.uk/news_detail.html?id=100 The regeneration of Tottenham Hale has also led to the head of developer Lee Valley Estates being made an MBE.Michael Polledri has been recognised "for services to enterprise and regeneration in north London".Mr Polledri's firm is behind the development of the £400million Hale Village in Tottenham Hale, expected to be completed in 2014.He said: "I am delighted and humbled to receive this wonderful honour. Any contribution I have made in this part of London I view as an achievement on behalf of the Lee Valley Estates team and our external partners."He added: "We aim to create high quality, sustainable and affordable developments, giving good value for money in both our commercial and residential schemes."Importantly, this is the aspiration of people in the local communities where we work." http://82.110.105.85/test-lve.co.uk/news_detail.html?id=98 THE businessman behind the restoration of the former Leyton Town Hall has been awarded an MBE. Michael Polledri, chairman of Lee Valley Estates, is one of a number of people in the borough who were recognised in the Queen's birthday honours list. Mr Polledri was awarded the MBE for services to enterprise and regeneration in North London. The father-of-four is a trustee and director on a number of boards, including chairman of Waltham Forest Business Board, a governor of Waltham Forest College and a member of Waltham Forest Local Strategic Partnership. Mr Polledri, along with partners, set up the company in Leyton in 1987 and Lee Valley Estates now operates on 17 sites in London, totalling over one million square feet of commercial, industrial, retail, office and residential property. “I am delighted and humbled to receive this wonderful honour," he said. "Any contribution I have made in this part of London I view as an achievement on behalf of the Lee Valley Estates team and our external partners. ”We work closely with the boroughs of Waltham Forest, Enfield and Haringey, and many partners in the private sector. We aim to create high quality, sustainable and affordable developments, giving good value for money in both our commercial and residential schemes. Importantly, this is the aspiration of people in the local communities where we work.” The multi-million development of the Grade II listed former Town Hall in Leyton has restored the building to its former glory and it now includes a business centre, with a variety of tenants including a language school, church and estate agent. http://82.110.105.85/test-lve.co.uk/news_detail.html?id=99 THE man behind a £400 million regeneration of Tottenham Hale has been honoured in the Queen's Birthday Honours List. Michael Polledri was made an MBE for his role as chairman of Lee Valley Estates for services to enterprise and regeneration in north London. Mr Polledri and his partners set up their first company in Leyton in 1987, and now operate on 17 sites, trading as Lee Valley Estates. The company is now developing Hale Village, in Tottenham Hale, made up of housing, businesses, GP practices and schools. Hale Village is expected to be completed in 2014, and marks one of the largest investments in the east of Haringey in recent decades. The businessman said: "I am delighted and humbled to receive this wonderful honour. Any contribution I have made in this part of London I view as an achievement on behalf of the Lee Valley Estates team and our external partners. "We aim to create high quality, sustainable and affordable developments, giving good value for money in both our commercial and residential schemes. Importantly, this is the aspiration of people in the communities where we work." http://82.110.105.85/test-lve.co.uk/news_detail.html?id=97 American Bungalow Magazine published a very interesting and well informed story on the Harris Lebus Furniture Maker:In an out-of-the-way corner of Tottenham in northern London, a narrow footpath leads across a meadow from the banks of the River Lea to a row of brick industrial buildings that clearly have seen better days.  The buildings' current occupants are the sort of businesses most of us take for granted: a manufacturer of decorative cake bases, a moving company, a recording studio.Separated from this hidden pocket of enterprise by a row of burly sycamores is a garden, normally secure behing a padlocked gate but open this morning to nearly residents - recent immigrants who work the soil, keeping their homeland traditions alive while subsidizing their hopes for a better future.  The garden is a riot of bright colors and soft edges.  Blue barrels gather rain.  Narrow limbs dropped by the sycamores have been roped into arbors for bean and tomato vines.  Wild currants and blackberries grow in thickets wherever their exuberance is tolerated.  An elderly man and his daughter emerge through their open gate, their bags bulging with peppers and cucumbers.Up the road toward Ferry Lane, a massive crater is being excavated by a pair of gigantic laboring cranes.  Hoardings (Brit-speak for temporary billboards) announce the construction of a multistory apartment building with waterfront views.  One of the banners reads "In harmony with nature".  Another declares the coming of development "A place for reflection".  Gulls keen overhead.  Meanwhile, an unbroken stream of traffic flows across the humpback bridge that borders the construction site.  the bridge's hollow arc amplifies the screech of braking buses and the rumble of heavy trucks.Rediscovering Harris LebusAs I was to learn, a hundred years before, this stretch of riparian real estate had been home to a very different sort of activity.During the summer of 2007 I had the opportunity to take on some speculative work.  Russ Herndon, a Bloomington, Ind., designer and neighbor, had a distinctive English Arts and Crafts sideboard.  His dealer, Chuck Johnson, of Southern Indiana Arts and Crafts Antiques, believed the sideboard might have been made for Liberty & Co., the firm whose shops in Regent Street, London, made Arts and Crafts-influenced furnishings and other wares available to middle-class buyers before and after the turn of the 20th century.A collector of English and American Arts and Crafts, Russ was no newcomer to the genre; he counted Stickley, Roycroft and Limbert originals among his holdings.  But this sideboard, about whose origins he could not be certain, was one of his favorites, in part because of its refinement relative to the severity of many American Arts and Crafts classics.The cabinet's style is distinctly English, with exaggerated bevels, broad overhangs, graceful arches and bold interplay between the vertical and horizontal elements.  Still, there is something homely about it.  The oak is plainsawn, not quartered.  The grain of the drawer faces isn't matched.  The drawers were dovetailed by machine.  Hardly the sort of quality we associate with the finest Arts and Crafts.  Yet it is a beautiful, functional object.  I asked Russ if he would let me craft a reproduction, and he agreed.  We called it the Liberty sideboard.Several months later Russ told me he had contacted the U.K.-based Arts and Crafts dealer Mark Golding, who directed him to a page from an auction company's website.  There on the screen was a cabinet idential to Russ's.  "An Arts and Crafts oak mirror-back sideboard . . . registered in 1903", read the description.  Harris Lebus had been the maker.Harris Lebus?  Neither of us had ever heard the name.A search of the web turned up a brochure that had been produced in conjunction with an exhibition, "Investigating the Past - The Harris Lebus Factory". (An Acrobat PDF brochure is available online; Google "lebus exhibition".)  The company had lasted a very long time - from its orgins in the 1840s until the mid-20th century.  It had been substantial, employing some 6,000 workers at its peak during the 1940's.  It had been founded by a Jewish tradesman and had been well known during the 1900s as an employer of Jewish immigrants.  It seemed clear that interest in the company had been revived by the local government, which was working with a group of property developers on the riverfront projects.This seemed a story worth pursuing.  The Bruce Castle Museum had hosted the exhibition.  I contacted Deborah Hedgcock, the curator, and booked a trip.Early YearsHarris Lebus had its origins in the 1840s when Louis Lebus, a German-Jewish cabinetmaker, emigrated to England from Breslau.  Louis enjoyed good fortune in England.  He set up shop as a cabinetmaker in the port city of Hull, where his business flourished.  He then moved to London, where he outgrew one set of premises after another, and in 1875 he moved with his family to the relatively prosperous Georgian neighborhood of Wellclose Square.  After he died in 1879, his eldest son, Harris, took over the firm.  Six years later, he relocated to Tabernacle Street in Finsbury, in London's East End.London's furniture industry had changed markedly in the mid-19th century.  As a growing middle class aspired to live in style, the demand for affordable furniture prompted the development of furniture manufacturing in the East End.  Unlike West End shops, which a long tradition of refined craftsmanship grounded in the apprenticeship system, the East End offered opportunities for entrepreneurs of large ambition and little means, many of whom kept costs low by working to order and dividing furniture construction into a series of simple processes that could be carried out by workers of limited skill.By the mid-1880s, Harris Lebus was no small-time trademan but the head of an established firm with dedicated manufacturing premises outside his family's home.  Although the company had not originated in the hardscrabble world of East End furniture making, it prospered mightily in that milieu.  By the 1890's Lebus had become England's largest furniture maker, with around a thousand employees.Between 1890 and 1910, the company produced some of its loveliest Arts and Crafts designs, one particular line of which is exemplified by the 1903 sideboard.  The pieces were made in oak and incorporated stylistic elements as varied as exaggerated bevels and bracket-supported overhangs, ring-turned feet, beaten copper panels with Art Nouveau motifs, capped finials and heavy, Gothic hardware.  It was not unusual for several of these elements to appear in a single piece.  The company's designs are further notable for their wide stylistic variation; some pieces are graceful and refined, others angular and chunky.  Delicate and muscular are often combined, as are Gothic and Art Nouveau.These conflations suggest that Lebus was guided more by market fashions than by the depth of aesthetic integrity for which the Arts and Crafts movement's leaders strove.  Indeed, Patch Rogers, an English antiques dealer formally trained in furniture restoration, says that among producers of English Arts and Crafts furnishings he "would probably class [Lebus] as scraping the [bottom of the] second division."  In contrast to the movement's idealistic protagonishts, Rogers says, Lebus should be understood as a successful "responding to a huge consumer hunger for furniture".And respond Lebus did, producing wardrobes, dressers, dining sets, hallstands and sideboards.  The company had a private phone line for calls from Maples, a large furnishings store located near Heal's on the Tottenham Court Road in downtown London and Lebus's most valuable commercial account.  A salesman called on Maples twice daily to take orders.  The company also exported to South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, India and South America, in addition to France, where they had a showroom on Paris' rue de Faubourg Saint-Antoine.  In New York they sold their products through Wanamaker's.Lebus further responded to the demands of commercial survival by regularly updating its premises and equipment.  In January 1900, needing room for further expansion, the company purchased 13 1/2 acres of land in Tottenham - at the time a village north of London on the marshy banks of the River Lea.  The river location was ideal for receiving materials, many of which came from overseas - hardwoods from the United States and softwood from eastern Europe.  The new factory was also located in two railroad lines.  The Lebus works at this location would eventually cover 43 acres.Longevity through VersatilityUnlike Morris's Firm, Mackmurdo's Century Guild, Ashbee's Guild of Handicraft and others, the Harris Lebus Co. was no small group of artisan-philisophers but a factory-based capitalistic enterprise.  Its wares were made by specialized workers in diverse departments, a practice that would have made the movement's luminaries shudder.Nor is Harris Lebus known for the signature designs of a Voysey or Mackintosh.  Whatever artistry its Arts and Crafts-style furniture possessed was patiently brought forth by the company's principal design, one Mr. Archer, who had to suffer the indignity of seeing his creations tweaked by profit-driven directors.  The company also made parts for other furniture manufacturers and occasionally subcontracted production to other shops.Notwithstanding Lebus's capitalistic raison d'etre and unabashed reliance on popular designs, it would be a mistake to regard the company as lacking principles or values.  Through several generations, the family directors steered a steady course, neither ruthlessly exploiting their workers not abandoning their enterprise on the grounds that they would never achieve social or artistic perfection.  The company's Arts and Crafts furniture may have been made in a factory, but the workers who made it enjoyed conditions radically superior to those endured by their Dickensian predecessors.Harris Lebus continued operating into the 1960s, keeping thousands of workers employed through some of England's most challenging years, largely by virtue of its success in adapting to changing times.  During the first World War, the company produced material for the ground war on the continent as well as parts for Handley Page and Vickers-Vimy aircraft.  During World War II, with 6,000 employees, the company manufactured Horsa gliders and Mosquito jets, assault-landing craft, and wooden replicas of Sherman tanks designed to deceive German pilots flying air reconnaissance.  In the postwar years, it participated in a government-sponsored plan to provide affordable utility furniture to returning veterans and their families whose homes had been destroyed by bombing and rocket attacks.This very longevity may be one of the reasons for Lebus's lack of visibility among today's Arts and Crafts enthusiasts. In contrast to the movement's leaders, who went down with their ships early in the century rather than adapt to changing fashions after the first World War, Lebus deftly responded to public demand, turning out wares in more streamlined modern styles for another 50 years.Ironically, much of the company's newfound visibility has resulted from the assessment and cleanup of the urban brownfield that eventually resulted from its closing.  Around 2004, the Borough of Haringey pursued plans to transform the former Lebus property north of Ferry Lane into a river asset, which entailed testing for toxic residues left from earlier uses of the land.  That investigation led researcher to rediscover the almost forgotten company.  Recognising that the Lebus story held the potential to strengthen community identity, the borough subsidixed the exhibition at the Bruce Cast Museum.  Today, Hale Village, a mixed use development that will include a significant percentage of affordable housing, is under construction, with completion expected in 2012.HeritageWhat of the considerable body of Arts and Crafts furniture Lebus produced?  An increasing numer of pieces pass in and out of antiques stores today, all things Arts and Crafts having found new appreciation during the past 40 years.  The furniture is there; awareness of the company has just been slow to emerge among Americans.Its relative obscurity notwithstanding, the story of Harris Lebus furniture offers new perspective on how Arts and Crafts ideas influenced daily living among the growing English, European and American middle classes during and after the movement's golden age.  Much as the Craftsman or California bunglow became a commonplace embodiment of what Morris might have called a "artful life for the people", the easily taken-for-granted "second division" Arts and Crafts furniture manufactured by Harris Lebus lent new and graceful meaning to living in style in Great Britain and around the world at the turn of the 20th century.By Nancy HillierWriter and cabinetmaker Nancy Hillier lived and worked in England for 16 years before returning to the U.S. in 1986.  She is grateful to the following individuals and institutinos for their contributions to this article; Roy and Mimi Griffiths, Keith Bartlett and Mary Fran Gilbert, Paul Collier, The Geffrye Museum, London, Bruce Castle Museum, London and The Westminster Archives. http://82.110.105.85/test-lve.co.uk/news_detail.html?id=95 David Spittles in the Evening Standard writes:STRIKE NOW AT THE STADIAAt Arsenal and Spurs there are premier buys without the premiumThe football season reaches its climax this weekend, when Chelsea could clinch the Premiership.  Arsenal and Tottenham are out of the race but the spotlight is shining on two regeneration zones around their respective stadia, where hundreds of new affordable homes are being built.  Fans of each club are likely tto be among the key workers and shared-ownership buyers to qualify for housing.Hale Village, next to Tottenham Hale station, is Haringey borough's biggest development since the Sixties - a £400 million scheme that includes 1,200 new homes, a student campus for the University of the Arts, hotel, retail and office space.The 12-acre site borders protected parkland and the Lea Navigation canal, meaning there will be waterfront homes.  The developer is Lee Valley Estates but nearly half of the new homes will be provided by Newlon, and they are expected to be popular with young Londoners priced out of Islington, Camden and Shoreditch.  To register, call 0800 058 2544, or go to sales@newlon.org.uk or www.leevalleyestates.co.uk It certainly has the potential to become a popular address.  Tottenham Hale is one of the best connected stations in outer London.  It is on the Victoria Line and the Stansted Express route, plus is has a quick train link to Stratford.  There is even a black cab rank - unusual for outer London.From the blocks now rising at the site it is easy to see why Tottenham Hale will function as a decent place to live in new-era London.  The east-west vista takes in Stratford's Olympic Park, Canary Wharf, the Gherkin, the BT Tower and Ally Pally.Enlivened by students, office workers and neighbourhood shops, the expectation is that it will be a vibrant place, while more upmarket amenities will make it a much-needed new leisure destination for Tottenham.  An early arrival is The Lock Dining Bar at Hale Wharf, set up by a West End restauranteur and a former Gordon Ramsay chef.An 18-storey tower forms part of the residential element.  Housebuilder Bellway is also constructing apartments, to be released http://82.110.105.85/test-lve.co.uk/news_detail.html?id=94 Last week's WF Guardian article, celebrating the history of the LMO, was read with much enjoyment by our tenants at the Legacy Business Centre.Security services company Prickly Pear says:"Great article!As a life-long resident of these parts, it is great to see this building being renovated and brought back to life in a way that supports our diverse community.  Well done to all at LMO/Legacy Business Centre!"Marketeer Sunbaba says:"Congratulations it makes for a really interesting read".Thanks for the feedack! http://82.110.105.85/test-lve.co.uk/news_detail.html?id=93 Newlon's new HQ ready for summer 2011  The second building at Hale Village is making huge progress, visible day by day.You can see construction workers preparing the sixth floor at the next corner along from Unite Group's Emily Bowes Court.This block will be home to our affordable housing provider partners Newlon Housing Trust.  Newlon Group are looking forward to moving to their new Group HQ at Hale Village in summer 2011.  They have outgrown their current office space in Hoxton. In their partners newsletter Newlon explain:At Hale Village we are building 542 new affordable homes in four distinct areas as well as our Group HQ.  The Hale Village site will also comprise private housing, a hotel and a new shopping street, as well as green space.  It will transform this large swathe of former industrial wasteland and open up a vibrant waterfront area, as well as providing new high quality affordable housing and jobs for local people.