Nick, a community champion and pub campaigner from Stoke Newington, died suddenly on 1 October, at the age of 52. Nick served as chair of the Hackney Society during the campaign to save the Wenlock Arms in Hoxton from demolition. He was a well known activist and planning expert who played a leading role or otherwise advised numerous campaigns involving threatened pubs. These include the Wenlock Arms, the Chesham Arms, the Marquis of Lansdowne, the Prince Edward and, most recently, the Albion. He was a founder member of the ‘Stokey Local’ campaign that opposed the overbearing supermarket and residential development adjacent to the historic Abney Park Cemetery, which saw him eventually challenge both Hackney Council and the developer in the High Court via judicial review. An IT expert by profession, Nick had a razor sharp mind and a love of technical detail. He was an accomplished film maker and, along with the Stoke Newington History Society and ‘Nerd Night’, would produce, engineer and co-host legendary online seminars during lockdown. These came from his home ‘studio’ and control room; the equipment would have given any professional broadcaster a run for its money! Nick was passionate about the built environment, local history, transport, and LGBT+ rights and was an active member of numerous civic groups. He was a devoted friend of the London Transport Museum, for which he would regularly volunteer at their Acton depot. He was a great ally to community groups and would freely offer the benefit of his vast campaigning experience, always delivered with warm encouragement and enhanced by his quick-witted charm. His wisdom, counsel and sense of humour will be greatly missed around Hackney, and in the reassuringly niche circles in which he mixed. He is survived by his beloved husband Andrew, to whom we offer our condolences.
James Watson