The History of the River Lea with Laurie Elks

The Lee Valley Park was the brainchild of a famous Hackney mayor, Lou Sherman, whose aim was to restore the neglected open spaces of the Lee Valley for public use. This modest vision was transformed when the Lee Valley Park Authority was set up in 1967 and pursued a vision of creating a series of great regional leisure centres with little thought for local people or for open space. Laurie Elks describes how a group of local Hackney residents fought back when the Park Authority planned to dig up the Walthamstow Marshes to extract gravel to help pay for these ambitions. The Save the Marshes group vanquished the arrogant Park Authority – saved the Marshes – Hackney’s countryside - and helped make the Park Authority rethink what it should be trying to achieve. Part of @thehackneysociety 's Hackney History Festival at Sutton House, Hackney, May 2026, filmed by ‪@worldwrite‬ #hackney #rivers #history #hackneyhistoryfestival