Adam Hart, who as head of Hackney Co-operative Developments helped turn a Dalston car park into a popular public square, has died. He was 82.
His death was marked by tributes from the Vortex Jazz Club, whose charitable foundation he chaired, and from Hackney CVS, the voluntary sector umbrella body he helped build as a trustee for 12 years.
Few people did more to shape modern Dalston. Through Hackney Co-operative Developments (HCD), Hart helped fund the Dalston Culture House and Gillett Square, and made the organisation landlord to three of the area’s live music venues: the Vortex, SJQ and the Dalston Jazz Bar.
Building Dalston
Adam Richard Fischer Hart was born in September 1944. He joined the board of Hackney Co-operative Developments in January 1996 and went on to lead the organisation, which had been working on plans for a town square on Gillett Street since 1993.
Under his leadership HCD oversaw the first improvements to its Bradbury Street offices and raised money for the Dalston Culture House, a former factory at 11 Gillett Street completed in 2005. Gillett Square itself opened in November 2006 as part of the Mayor of London’s programme of new public spaces.
Hart also brought jazz to the square. When the Vortex lost its Stoke Newington Church Street home in 2002, he answered its call for new premises. The club moved into the Culture House in 2005, and the following year the Vortex and HCD began the partnership that still runs free cultural events on the square.
He went on to chair the Vortex Jazz Foundation, becoming a director in July 2009, and advised Cafe Oto when it was setting up across the road.
Champion of the voluntary sector
Hart was a founding trustee of Hackney Council for Voluntary Service, serving on its board from 1997 to 2009, with spells as both treasurer and chair.
With the late Adiaha Antigha, a former director of Hackney CVS, he helped forge the Community Empowerment Network, which pushed for a more equal relationship between community groups, the Council and other public bodies.
He sat on the Local Strategic Partnership board as the sector’s social enterprise representative, helping channel millions of pounds into local community projects. He also worked with Hackney CVS to secure 17-19 Dalston Lane when the sector badly needed new premises.
A musician first
Hart was a serious musician as well as a regeneration man. He played trombone and piano with The People Band, the free-improvising collective formed in the mid-1960s whose only studio album, recorded in 1968, was financed by Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts.
He loved boogie-woogie and blues, and liked to recall hearing Thelonious Monk at New York’s Five Spot in 1962. His brother is the violinist Charlie Hart, also a People Band member.
Tributes
Jake Ferguson, former chief executive of Hackney CVS, said: “I was deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Adam Hart. I had the pleasure of knowing and working with Adam over many years. He was a true advocate of the voluntary sector, a family man and a serious piano player to boot!”
Ferguson added: “Adam was also a key part of the Vortex Jazz Foundation and a big supporter of Dalston’s fledgling music scene. He will be sorely missed by all who knew him.”
Hackney CVS chief executive Bejal Shah said his “contribution to Hackney’s communities, organisations and civic life leaves a legacy that will not be forgotten”.
Writing for the Vortex, Oliver Weindling said Hart “won’t be forgotten” and that the club would work to protect his legacy.
He is survived by his brother Charlie.
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