Elaine Maffrett: community outreach

Everyone has a story. Here Elaine Maffrett, shares how Islington community centres have shaped her life. Interview by Nicola Baird.

Elaine Maffrett is born and bred Islington: she was born at 48 Tyndale Mansions and then got her first flat in the same block. “It looks really posh, off Upper Street, but actually it was just good social housing built in 1926,” says Elaine explaining that her flat was tiny and had no heating or hot water. It did have  a full-size bath in the kitchen though, that could be covered to make a counter if you placed a big board on top of it. “I think they were built with toilets and no bathrooms. I doubt they look like that now!” she laughs.

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It’s not the only big change Elaine has seen at Tyndale Mansions. “That green in the front, next to the Town Hall, used to be sectioned up into allotments for each flat. It would have been covered in vegetables as people were growing their own food, and then once rationing ended (in 1954) everybody planted roses, but at some point in the late ‘60s, early ‘70s, it was changed into one piece of grass,” she says clearly imagining what veggies she’d like to see growing there again.

Fifty years later Elaine is still in Islington. “Sometimes I think, oh, is it a bit boring that I’ve just stayed here? But, actually, the security of getting a council flat when I was 18 then enabled me to go on and lead a productive, healthy life and contribute to the community I live in and that was so important. I’m a very proud social housing tenant and I really value it. I also think how lucky I am to have been able to stay here as well. I don’t think there are much better places than Islington.”

Repair Cafe

Islington Faces met Elaine in January at Cally Clock Tower Centre in Caledonian Park at a Repair Café buzzing with locals trying to get their precious broken items fixed – from coffee bean grinders to jeans – so they didn’t need to be thrown away.

“When I was growing up Caledonian Park was a scary place to be,” remembers Elaine. “There was a lot of prostitution from King’s Cross, and the Market Estate was in really poor repair and quite a frightening place. If you look back at any pictures or films from the ‘80s of Caledonian Park there wasn’t even one tree. Now there’s a safe children’s play area, the clock tower is a wonderful monument and the history in the place is great. It’s a success story for Islington and the good changes that have taken place in the last 40 years.”

Elaine is also impressed by how well used Cally Park is by dog walkers, runners, parents who meet up after dropping their kids off from school as well as having a thriving friends’ group, community gardening, a junior 2km Park Run, and an Age UK Islington and super popular Knit & Natter groups. Many visitors to the park also make good use of the Tolpuddle Café.

Tyndale Mansions

Elaine’s early years were spent living with her grandparents at Tyndale Mansions, where her mum and her siblings had also been brought up. “I also spent a few years (from 7-13) living with my aunt and uncle in Walthamstow, but I came back to Islington to my grandparents at 13 and went to Islington Green School,” she says.

If you’ve been to Islington Green Secondary in the 1970s then you’ll know about Pink Floyd and The Wall. It’s a similar sort of notoriety (or maybe fame) to the students who went to EGA Secondary when American First Lady Michelle Obama visited in the 2010s. It just happens that Elaine’s daughter attended EGA at that time.

“I joined Islington Green about six months after the Pink Floyd group, so I missed out,” says Elaine. “But I know lots of people that sang on Another Brick In The Wall (released 1979). It was an interesting school at the time. It had quite a poor reputation. But then we got a headmistress, Margaret Maden*, who turned it around, raised standards and changed the ethos of the school. It was about the same time as Margaret Thatcher came in, and there was quite a few similarities between them. She allowed the students to sing because the Pink Floyd song was recorded just around the corner on Britannia Row, but she wouldn’t agree to them being in the video. So, the children in the video are not the ones that actually sing on the song – they’re from another school,” says Elaine.

Despite the positive changes at the school Elaine did not do A levels. “My Grandma died in December when I was 17 and my grandfather (who was brought up in Hackney and Islington) did not like the idea of me going to sixth form college. He said I had to get a job. It was a difficult six months. I went on the council housing list, and they were going to put me in a hostel in King’s Cross which in 1984 was not somewhere you wanted to be. It was through the help of the Tyndale Mansions Tenants Association that at 18 I luckily got a single flat that had been empty for over seven years.”

Elaine talks about growing up in Islington with great affection But a moment she really regrets is when she was seven years old and had moved to live with her uncle and his wife in Walthamstow. “The school I was put into insisted on calling me by my first name on my birth certificate, so much to my surprise, I found out my name was Elaine. Suddenly I was only called Cindy by a select few of my family.”

As a youngster what Elaine really enjoyed was learning skills from her Grandma.

“I love arts and crafts and really enjoy sharing these skills with others – I’m more of a sewer than a knitter. So many people have memories of family members sewing to repair clothes. It’s a lovely cultural activity and many people can link it into their background. My grandmother was a seamstress. She used to make children’s dressing-up costumes at Dekkers Toys, the factory on Canonbury Lane, near the Compton Arms pub. I had a huge wardrobe with everything from nurses to cowgirls. I think there was even a Womble costume and I’ve just spotted a vintage nurse’s outfit for sale on eBay.”

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Places Elaine Maffrett loves in Islington

1. Caledonian Park. “You can walk through those tiny little woodlands and you can smell the earth and the trees. It’s incredible to do that in the middle of London.” It’s also got sports facilities, table tennis tables, an outdoor gym, children’s play area and a large grass open space. Caledonian Park is open every day from 8am until dusk.” This year the Cally Festival is on Sunday 2 August 2026. Also see info on these websites: Friends of Caledonian Park  Cally Clock Tower Centre  Tolpuddle Café https://tolpuddlecafe.co.uk/ and on insta @tolpuddlecafe
2. The New River Walk. “It always surprises me when I speak to people who live around the borough and who have never heard of it. It’s like a secret garden, almost. I remember as a child little waterfalls, rocks and boulders and then how you see them reflected down Duncan Terrace as they follow the path of the New River all the way to what was the Water Board off St John’s Street. It’s a striking place the New River Walk because on one side you’ve got Canonbury, and on the other side you’ve got what was the Marquis Estate. I know that people who live in the Marquis Estate look across New River Walk to Canonbury and they have a wonderful view, and they often wonder what the people in Canonbury think. I remember with my Grandma walking along New River Walk and into Canonbury, which wasn’t as posh as it is now, but it was still lovely, with those big houses, and peering in the window and seeing how much space they had compared to our little three-bedroom flat on the top floor of Tyndale Mansions.” The route of the New River from its source to the New River Head is here.
3. Past Caring on 54 Essex Road. “When I came back to Islington at 13, it used to be right at the far end, near St Paul’s church and all they really sold was old white Victorian night shirts. But I remember I picked up a pair of 1950 stilettos from there. Very few people would go in, but me and a couple of friends would. It’s still going (now near Packington Street). I just think it’s iconic for Islington and I’ve got items from there, at really good prices, that I still treasure. – a wonderful picture in my bedroom, old tea sets, glass bowls and 1950s vases. They used to do a great sale every year where everything was half price and you’d see queues outside.” Insta @past_caring_islington
4. Community centres. “There’s a fantastic voluntary and community sector in Islington, one to be really proud of.”

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Community vibe

In her 20s Elaine worked in theatre and stage management. But that came to a halt, “when I had a small child and didn’t know what I was going to do for work. I ended up going to the Laundry (then on Sparsholt Road, N19 ), which is now called Hanley Crouch Community Association, or Brickworks, on Crouch Hill. Then I got a job there six hours a week doing some admin while my daughter could go in the half day nursery downstairs. They really supported me to go and get trained up in IT. I did my Stage One in teaching adults and ended up taking on the little learning centre that was there. They really developed and supported me and after about six years I ended up going to work for the council’s adult and community learning service. I got my full adult teaching qualification. They really set me on a road to a career,” she says which includes working as Centre Manager at Hilldrop Area Community Association, on Hilldrop Road, N7 from 2018 – 2025.

“Every little neighbourhood in Islington has a community centre. I’d really encourage people to drop in, see what they offer, see how they can be supported by their community centre, or see how they can support their community centre, see what they have to offer their community centre because the centres survive on volunteers and fundraising. They nurture community, inclusion and integration. Without them Islington would be a totally different place,” says Elaine who was given Islington Mayor’s Civic Award in April 2021 because: “Elaine an invaluable member of the community and she deserves public recognition for her warmth, energy and determination.”

As a community organiser, with a passion for people and accessible outside spaces, it is perhaps no surprise that Elaine is both an Islington super fan and so proud to call the borough home.

Notes*

*Margaret Maden was head teacher at Islington Green from 1975-1983.

Over to you

If you’d like to nominate someone to be interviewed who grew up, lives or works in Islington, or suggest yourself, please let me know, via nicolabaird dot green at gmail dot com. If you enjoyed this post you might like to look at the A-Z  index, or search by interviewee’s roles or Meet Islingtonians to find friends, neighbours and inspiration. Thanks for stopping by. Nicola