Stoke Newington International Airport to be demolished

Final call: gates closing at Stoke Newington International Airport

Stoke Newington International Airport (STK), a locally run arts venue, is to be closed down and demolished.

The venue is set to close by 1 April, and there are plans for the land to be developed after the site has been demolished.

Greg McLaren, one of STK’s founders, said: “It is sad to lose. We knew it couldn’t be there forever, but there was so much more we want to do.”

The space has been a creative hub for a wide circle of performance artists in the Stoke Newington area over the past five years, giving them a platform to show their work.

Since it was founded, STK has been putting on big events every month, including a huge variety of shows, some of which have also been staged internationally.

Initially, local people heard about it only through word of mouth. Mr McLaren explained that it gave people “the sense of going down the rabbit hole” when they discovered it.

He said: “It is one of the very last places in Hackney like this”, adding that other artistic performance spaces have also had to close down because they have been unable to pay the rising rents. “The thing that gave Hackney its flavour is not there anymore,” he added.

The founders hope that STK will be reborn somewhere else once they find a new space and pursue some of their personal projects.

They plan to send the place off with a bang and have events lined up every weekend, culminating in a huge closing party involving a march from the venue down to Dalston.

stkinternational.co.uk/STK/STK.html