Hackney has been in touch with us about the caged sports area on Newnton Close, and we would like to share what we have heard and ask for your views — quickly, because there is a deadline.
Where things stand
The existing surface was part-funded by Arsenal FC when it was first installed. It has deteriorated over time, partly because the artificial grass requires specialist footwear to use safely — something that cannot be enforced on an open-access facility. The pitch is due to be relocated in spring or summer 2028 as part of the Woodberry Down regeneration. Hackney is in discussion with Arsenal FC Youth Development about this.
The proposal for the next two years
In the meantime, Hackney is proposing to resurface the area with tarmac. The key point is that this is a short-term, practical solution for the remaining life of the current site — not a decision about the permanent replacement, which will be subject to the regeneration team’s own consultation in due course.
Tarmac makes sense for an unsupervised, open-access space: it needs no specialist maintenance and it lasts. But it also opens up a more interesting possibility. Painted markings on tarmac can support a much wider range of activities than artificial grass. Hackney has shared with us examples of what that might look like: a giant dartboard with a throwing line, and a snakes and ladders board with a spin-the-dice post. Football lines would be retained as well.
To give a sense of what else tarmac markings can support, it is worth looking at the hard-standing areas in Finsbury Park, which on a Saturday morning host netball, volleyball, basketball and table tennis alongside football. The same surface; different markings; a much wider range of users.
What might work here? We could imagine netball, volleyball, basketball, short tennis, darts, snakes and ladders, hopscotch, chess — or something else entirely that we have not thought of.
What we would like to know
We are not trying to prescribe what the area should look like. We are trying to make sure that the design reflects what residents actually want, before the order is placed.
Hackney needs to move quickly to get the new surface laid before the school holidays. We therefore have about one week to gather your views.
Please tell us in the comments below, or contact WDCO directly at wdco.org.uk:
- Do you support the tarmac proposal for the next two years?
- What activities — beyond football — would you like the markings to support?
- Is there anything else you would like Hackney to consider?
We will pass on what we hear.
WDCO — Woodberry Down Community Organisation — represents all residents on the Woodberry Down Estate. Everyone who lives or works on the estate is a member.
Would love there to be the possibility of a netball and basketball facility there! Tarmac is great but definitely need the markings too.
Thanks, Naomi. Is there a group of you ready to play netball or basketball?
A tarmac area seems like a good plan. The darts and snakes and ladders seem like a gimmick, not sure how they would work. Football, basketball and netball lines seem good. Not sure about tennis, no net. It’s temporary, doesn’t really matter
The Snakes and Ladders is provided with a nearby dice spinning machine. And if it would be used by pre-school young people, then perhaps it doesn’t actually have to work. It’s just colourful markings on the ground. As might be the darts board. Thereby making use of the area when the footballers are busy in school.
I think this is a great idea for the younger children it allows the children to have a safe and secure place to run and burn Engery
Whyyyy would anyone get rid of the ONE place local teens can go and safely have fun? And replace it with more stuff for younger children who already have two playgrounds on Woodberry Down – and I have a young child. This is so unwise – you cannot complain about antisocial behaviour and then remove the only provision for young people on the complex. And you can say chess / darts etc could be for them but let’s be honest, it’s not football.
There is no suggestion that it is going to be removed. The very opposite in fact its life is to be extended. I went and looked at the surface yesterday and it is becoming dangerous to play on.
I would personally keep it sport focused. Adding netball and basketball lines seems like a no brainer, but I agree with the previous commenter that it’s better to have it an area where the teenagers can hang out (as they are the primary users today) rather than try to cater it to younger children. In my view that could create tension between families with young children and the local teenagers and I don’t think that would be a positive move.
I think that the current space should be kept as it currently is until such time as the MUGA is moved to Spring Park. There are lots of play spaces for younger children throughout the estate but very little for older teenagers. This is a well loved and well used space, and with the summer holidays and the World Cup coming up it would be a great loss for it to be converted to tarmac. As well as the Arsenal providing training for boys and girls the MUGA is a self managed space during the day where older and Younger children share the space to play football or train. It took a lot of work by past WDCO members to get it extended and upgraded, getting Arsenal, Berkeley Homes, Hackney Council and MHDT to work together.
If the surface is deteriorating Hackney should patch it, like they do so elsewhere. I think the idea of getting a basketball or netball space along with the darts is a good idea, but that could be done up at Rowley Gardens where there is already a caged tarmac playing space. The north of the estate is often ignored and feels neglected, rather than taking a well loved space away, Hackney should upgrade the play space in Rowley Gardens.
Thank you everyone who has made a comment. This has been an excellent response. It is very clear that there are two distinct points of view . On the one hand there are those who believe that the tarmac is a possible solution for a short space of time and that when the area is not being used for football it can be used for younger children . But there seems to be a much wider and very strongly held view that the area should be kept to astroturf for as long as possible. The people who hold this view very much feel that playing football on a tarmac surface is far less satisfactory than on even a decaying astroturf surface. I will feed this back to Hackney.
from whatsapp
Hackney has shared proposals for the Newnton Close sports area with WDCO. They want to resurface it with tarmac and add markings for a range of activities — not just football. We have about a week to feed back. Have a read and share your thoughts. https://wdco.org.uk/2026/06/what-should-we-do-with-the-sports-area-on-newnton-close/
I live right next to it and I’d strongly oppose tarmacing over it, the turf is fine and an open access football pitch like that is such a rarity and it’s clearly appreciated by the community as it’s in use all the time. Another space teenagers actually use productively actively getting made worse is really counter productive
I think the argument goes that the current surface is no longer fit for its purpose and that something has to be done . Replacing it like for like would be very expensive and require maintenance . So the short term temporary measure of tarmac would last only until the replacement was made. Close to block D and the children’s hub
Has there been an evaluation or something that has shown how the surface is no longer fit for purpose as it really seems fine to me? I understand not replacing it with the same thing due to the cost and the fact it would be temporary but paving it over will cost money as well and I can only really see it being made worse. People do football training and other things on there all the time that you simply can’t do on tarmac. I’d strongly suggest soliciting feedback in person from the people playing on it to get an idea on what they would like done as I can imagine most of them won’t be giving feedback online. If the surface is that bad and people would prefer tarmac then fair enough but I would be surprised
I think there surely must have been an evaluation. In fact there have probably been many . I carried out an evaluation this evening when I walked along there to take a closer look . The heavily used area running from goal to goal is in very bad condition and will now I think very quickly become much worse . I’d have said something has to be done before it becomes a trip/broken ankle Hazard .The pitch was being really quite heavily used tonight .When I first arrived it was divided into two parts. At one end there were two teams playing against each other and all they were doing was counting the number of consecutive passes they could make within each team before losing the ball . At the other were younger participants pretty much just kicking it as hard as th
The pitch is well used for football- both causally and for classes. Tarmac is a pretty terrible replacement for this. Understood that Astro of any kind needs boots – but could they look at wet pour rubber as an alternative? Like you’d find in a playground. Less likely to result in split foreheads