Clissold House and the other buildings in Clissold Park have been recurring subjects of CPUG’s work for more than two decades. Our surviving records show the group contributing to plans for the House, representing park users on cafés and other facilities, raising accessibility concerns and discussing how buildings in the park should be used.
The major restoration of Clissold House and the park forms an important part of this story and is covered in detail elsewhere in our Park History section. This page focuses more broadly on CPUG’s continuing involvement with the House, cafés, the Pump House and other park buildings.
Hackney Council owns and manages Clissold Park and is responsible for its buildings and commercial arrangements. CPUG’s role is to represent park users, contribute to consultations and raise issues about how these public facilities operate.
The café and Clissold House
Café provision appears in CPUG’s earliest surviving records.
In 2002 CPUG used the results of a survey to help prepare a brief for the café and commented on proposed terms. The group also pressed for a short-term café to operate while longer-term arrangements were being considered.
A temporary mobile café was operating by April and the café in Clissold House had reopened by the end of August under a renewable short lease. These were Council and operator decisions, but the records show CPUG contributing to the discussions and the development of the café brief.
Campaigning for the restoration
Concern about the condition and future of Clissold House became one of CPUG’s major long-term campaigns.
By 2002, the group was already contributing to proposals for restoring the House and park, meeting Council officers, architects and consultants and commenting on plans. The restoration process subsequently went through several changes and setbacks before the successful Lottery-funded project was secured.
CPUG continued to represent park users as the plans developed, participating in the Project Reference Group and later the Stakeholder Forum and scrutinising issues including access, facilities and the future use of the House.
The full story of this long campaign and CPUG’s involvement is covered in Restoring Clissold Park and House.
After Clissold House reopened
The completion of the restoration did not end CPUG’s involvement with the House.
After Clissold House reopened in 2012, the group raised concerns about café prices, public access and facilities. CPUG sent Hackney Council a detailed letter setting out these issues and received a Council response. Several matters remained unresolved and continued to appear at subsequent meetings.
The House has remained a public building as well as a venue for private events, and the balance between these uses has periodically been discussed by CPUG.
Access and facilities
Accessibility has been a particularly persistent issue at Clissold House.
CPUG raised access questions while the restoration was being planned and carried out an access inspection during the works in 2011.
After reopening in 2012, the group continued to raise practical concerns about using the building and its facilities. Other issues over the years have included toilets, water supply, signage and public access.
Problems with the lift and accessible toilets were still being discussed in 2023.
These discussions overlap with CPUG’s wider work on Access and inclusion, reflecting the importance of how buildings operate in practice as well as how they are designed.
The Pump House
The Pump House has also been the subject of long-running discussion.
CPUG raised questions about the building and its future use over a number of years. In 2017, for example, the Pump House continued to feature in the group’s scrutiny of facilities and park management.
After years of CPUG raising questions about the vacant building and repeatedly pressing for it to be brought back into use, Fink’s Pump House opened in March 2023. The surviving records show CPUG keeping the future of the Pump House on the agenda over a number of years and continuing to press for a new use for the building.
Representing park users on café provision
Café provision has repeatedly returned to CPUG meetings as operators and arrangements have changed.
In 2019 CPUG participated in presentations relating to a café tender, providing an opportunity to consider proposals from the perspective of park users.
The issue became particularly significant again in 2024. CPUG raised concerns about future café provision, including affordability and what users should be able to expect from a café operating in a public park. The Chair’s annual report records that concerns raised by CPUG influenced the wording of the subsequent café tender.
In 2025 CPUG continued to follow the new arrangements. Meeting records reported the award of the Finks contract and forthcoming reopening of facilities, while later records confirm that CPUG’s historical display boards had been installed in the café ahead of its opening.
Using Clissold House for the community
CPUG has also raised questions about community access to Clissold House.
In 2025 the group sought free use of rooms in the House for fundraising events. The initial request for two free evenings was declined, but CPUG continued discussions with Hackney Venues and later records confirm that fundraising room access was secured.
This reflects a wider recurring question in CPUG’s work: how a historic building that hosts commercial events can also remain accessible and useful to the community and people who use the park.
A continuing part of our work
From contributing to a café brief in 2002 and campaigning for the restoration of Clissold House to scrutinising café contracts, accessibility and community use today, the park’s buildings have remained a substantial part of CPUG’s work.
The buildings and operators have changed, but many of the underlying questions have remained similar: what facilities should be available, how affordable and accessible they are, how historic buildings should be used and how the needs of park users are represented when decisions are made.