It really was a Bank Holiday weekend of contrasts.
Some of us enjoyed the first Coronation in our lifetime and followed it up the next day with an excuse to meet and socialise with neighbours with a picnic in Tredegar Square. Some great memories to treasure.
Meanwhile the Hac in Morgan Street had back-to-back events.
On Saturday there was a "secret" club night that went on until after midnight. It wasn't a secret for long though, with heavy bass music blasting out from the Hac hitting the residents of Morgan St and Rhondda Grove in particular. Around 9.30pm one female resident was accosted whilst walking home from Mile End station.
After midnight, despite at least two visits from the council's out of hours Noise Response Team, it was still in full flow. Literally full flow, with "ladies" squatting and urinating on Morgan Street in the gutter. At one point the whole north-western junction of Tredegar Square had cars parked across it, with the grid lock extending along to Rhondda Grove. The next morning the street was littered with lots of large NOX cannisters, plastic cups, empty whisky bottles, tissues galore and such.
On Sunday there was the "Night of Execution" with the old listed church being transformed into a boxing venue. The sound levels were lower, but each boxer was encouraged to send in their "entrance music" to the promoter. It finished earlier (by 10?), lots of bouncers and staff to clean the streets; but we still had the unavoidable issues from punters spilling out on to our residential streets afterwards, and a venue with masses of large windows that let the sound pour through them out on to our streets and into our homes.
The Hac's tagline "Bringing communities together" might have to be changed to "Splitting communities apart".
For many, many years we have held our Annual General Meetings at the Epainos Church, and last Christmas they rescued our Carols in the Square with a last minute transfer to their atmospheric (and dry) the Hac. But this is a quiet residential area, as their website says, and we don't want a nightclub experience here.
If you have any thoughts or ideas please get in touch.