DE BEAUVOIR ASSOCIATION

Records consist of minutes, accounts, meetings and correspondence

<p>The record of activity of the Association can also be studied through the open committee minutes of Hackney Council (after 1982), and the main council minutes before and after that date. Also through the pages of the Hackney Gazette (copies on microfilm and available in the searchroom of Hackney Archives Department). In addition to this deposit a set of the De Beauvior is available in the local history library.</p>

Acc 1989/3

Deposited by: Alan Rayner

Date of deposit: February & April 1989

Condition of deposit: Donation

The De Beauvoir Association was formed in 1968 in reaction to Hackney Council's plans to demolish the whole of De Beauvoir Town, starting with the southern, canal end. The first phase, up to Downham Road, was already underway, but the Association managed to halt further development, though the section of the area between Downham and North-church Roads was only saved after a public enquiry in 1973. For this purpose the Association formed a Southern Area Action Group.

After 1974 the Association continued to represent local residents' views on Council plans affecting the area, to take up tenants problems, to press for council action against industrial noise nuisance, campaign for the opening up of the towpath of the Hackney section of the Regent's Canal (eventually achieved), to develop play facilities in the area and press for environmental improvements in the area.

Early in its career the Association formed the De Beauvoir Trust, which by 1974 owned 35 houses in the area and had modernised up to 20 of them. The Association also took part in a GIA Improvement Steering Committee, made up of council officers and residents. News and views were published through a newsletter, the De Beaver.

By the mid 1980s activity in the D.B.A. had slackened and at the time of the deposit, it was no longer in active existance, although it hadn't ceased to exist.