Folly for a Flyover charms Hackney

Folly for a Flyover hosts a six week programme of cinema, performance and play, including boat tours, screenings and drop-in workshops. Photograph: Assemble

The undersides of flyovers conjure up images of dank underbrush, the rusting remnants of broken appliances and pigeons. Not art cinemas, multi-use cultural spaces or architectural innovation. Yet if you venture down to where the A12 crosses the Lea Navigation at the edge of Hackney Wick, this is precisely what you will find.

Throughout July, Folly for a Flyover will be home to a wide range of cinematic and cultural events, from silent films with specially-commissioned live accompaniment to yoga classes for local people.

The pop-up art space is the creation of a group of East London artists, designers and architects who call themselves Assemble. They came together last year to make a cinema, or Cineroleum, out of a disused petrol station on Clerkenwell Road, and this year they have undertaken an even more ambitious cinematic project.

Folly for a Flyover has come about as a result of a £40,000 award connected to the London 2012 Olympic Games, together with the co-operation of numerous local businesses and groups.

The site has drawn the plaudits of architecture fans for its innovative use of materials and construction techniques.

The objects used to construct the site have been sourced from nearby, including refuse from the Olympic Park. They were put together through a process known as ‘dry assembly’ which means they can be reused for other purposes later on.

As Assemble member Amica Dal says: “Most of the materials come from places around here”. These include paving stones that are off-cuts from London Underground, old railway sleepers and wooden ‘bricks’ made from reclaimed timber from old ferry decks. These have a reddish hue, recalling the red brick of which much of this part of Hackney has traditionally been built.

How they learned how to build things this way, Dal says: “We just experimented with materials until we found a way that would work.”

Assemble has also been keen to involve local groups in the project. Assemble has worked closely with community organisations, including Core Arts, the Pedro Club, Homerton Adventure Playground, and the Trowbridge Centre. They have even consulted with the Hackney Marsh User Group about how to avoid disrupting the bats which use the Lea Navigation as a commuter route.

Dal says: “One of the reasons we do it this way is that people see it and want to get involved”.

During the daytime, everything is free and unbookable, making the sit something of an offbeat community centre. There is a café selling locally sourced food and activities ranging from workshops to boat trips and yoga. On Saturdays and Sundays there will be family-friendly events including puppet-making, optical trickery and bug-hotel building workshops. There will also be performances by local bands, film events, row boats for hire and boat tours of the canals.

In the evening there will be a series of film events, many to the accompaniment of live music prepared for the occasion.

Locals would undoubtedly love to have a cultural smorgasbord like this on their doorsteps forever, but the ultimate fate of the site is still up in the air. Assemble member Fran Edgerly says: “We’ve had a prolonged consultation with the public about what this site might be afterwards, because there is funding for a permanent legacy”.

The project is funded by a Bank of America Merrill Lynch CREATE Art Award and it has been developed in partnership with the Barbican and is to be linked to the Barbican’s Watch Me Move: The Animation Exhibition.

Daytime events: free, no booking required.

Evening film events linked to Watch Me Move: tickets will go on sale on the Thursday at 11am one week before the event.

Tickets are available online, in person from the Hackney Empire or by calling the box office 020 8985 2424.

All tickets for evening events are priced £4. Doors open at 7pm. Films start at 8.30pm (unless otherwise stated). There will be a limited number of tickets available on the door.

Folly for a Flyover
Lea Navigation
Hackney Wick
info@follyforaflyover.co.uk