Digest: Actor's hire bike nightmare, a facelift for Kentish Town and a parakeet reunion
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SQUEEZED LIMES
LET’S start this week’s digest with Robert Powell and Babs Lord, who have spent the last four years trying to clear the hire bikes from outside their home in Highgate. Of course, the story has been lifted by the nationals since it appeared in the Camden New Journal on Thursday – it’s the man a certain generation will never forget for his star turn as Jesus of Nazareth after all. But it was quite a sight to see Mr Powell in person lug one green and white bike out of the way after another last week. They aren’t light. You can be in favour of a hire bike system, with its greener travel benefits, and still think the parking system near hotspots like Primrose Hill and Hampstead Heath needs some significant refinement. Camden’s threat of impounding bikes not left in the right place doesn’t seem to have materialised, and Mr Powell said he had felt “ignored” by the council. More bays are being plotted for different parts of the borough – but will this be the answer?
WE REMEMBER HIM
A FAMILIAR face popped up in the Islington Tribune as a charity warned that “reckless” comments were putting asylum seekers in danger. Shadow home secretary Chris Philp is of course a former councillor in Gospel Oak and parliamentary candidate in Hampstead. He could be found near a hotel in Old Street used for refugees amid claims that they were working as delivery drivers illegally. The charity Praxis said that giving clues to the location of their temporary accommodation was wrong given the scenes outside hotels in other parts of the country last summer. Mr Philp wasn’t having it: “This is nonsense. Nothing in my footage identified the hotel. Praxis should reserve their confected indignation for the waves of illegal immigration Labour is presiding over.”
HERE COME THE VIKINGS
THE creators of a new Viking attraction heading for the Stables Market are confident it will not go the same way as the Tomb Raider Live experience, which flopped and closed after just 18 months. It will open in the same spot offering a virtual reality experience which will take visitors on board a longboat and into a Nordic raid. The debate is endless: what should go into Camden Market and has the independent vibe of little traders been replaced by these big budget extravaganzas? Owners Lab Tech say they are driving more business to the smaller units by bringing in more tourists looking for memorable attractions. Viking Planet’s Rasmus Ramstad said he loved what the company had done to the famous market in recent years, insisting: “We feel our attraction will appeal to both tourists and the local community.”
THE LONG SHOT
IN no way are we encouraging gambling, but there was something sweet about the staff and regulars at the Sheephaven Bay pub in Camden Town chipping together to buy a racehorse. Sheephavenbaystory, collectively owned by a group of friends at the pub called ‘The Tipsy Tipsters’, gave them a shock when it came in first at 18-1 odds at Brighton last week. You can see its dramatic late surge to the line here:
It’s a bittersweet tale, however, as the victory came soon after the death of John Boon, the pub’s quiz night compere who had been an enthusiastic supporter of the horse-racing syndicate idea. Landlord Pat Logue said he definitely would’ve been down at the seaside course cheering it all the way to the finish line.
JUMP THE GUN
TALK of a new left-wing political party has been bubbling on for several months but things came to a head when Zarah Sultana, the Coventry South MP, announced she had quit Labour and would be co-leading an alternative with Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn. We still don’t know all the details of what’s going on, but it looks certain now that something will be in place before next May’s council elections, potentially changing the complexion of the polls –particularly in Mr Corbyn’s home borough. We saw last year how some Labour members were torn about what to do as loyalties were tested. Having worked with Mr Corbyn for so many years before he was booted out of the party, leftier activists found it a sharp change of pace to be then campaigning to unseat him. The same tribes may find themselves running up against each other on the doorstep again as Labour looks to hold onto its dominant stranglehold on Islington’s council chamber next year.
THE YEAR IS 2045
EVERYBODY has had a good look at what the council thinks a redeveloped West Kentish Town Estate could look like. This one has been rumbling on for a while and, as with many projects of this scale, many of the councillors pushing it may well have gone on to different things by the time it’s finished. Danny Beales, for example, is now an MP on the outskirts of west London but was in the thick of the action as a Labour cabinet councillor at the beginning of this scheme. Who knows where any of us will be in 2045 or later, when the last brick is laid? The controversy is familiar. Camden is trying to be creative to get people better quality council homes (and a sprinkling of new ones), and leaders are happy to take you to meet happy residents from previous projects. But it’s all about what you give away to get what you want, and people living around Queen’s Crescent say that the private blocks used to finance the scheme (let’s hope whoever moves in uses local schools) mean it will all get too dense and too big. ‘Mega blocks’ was the description used by one critic.
SCHOOL DAZE
THE place where you went to school almost becomes an anchor in your life, you expect it to still be standing there 40 years later so you can bore on to your own kids where you split your knee in the playground. So former pupils at Highbury Quadrant Primary School – all grown up now – could not ignore their last chance to walk down memory lane last week. The summer holidays are nearly here but the end of the school term means the very final day is looming following Islington Council’s decision to close it on the all too common grounds of their not being enough children enrolled. It is a point of argument about whether it actually needed to be shut, but those doing the farewell tour were warned it might be their last glimpse.
ICYMI ROUND-UP
THOUSANDS packed into Coram’s Fields yesterday (Sunday) for the annual Mela. Look out for our South Asian Heritage Month features in this week’s edition of the New Journal. Each year there are greater attempts to make this part of the annual event calendar
CAMDEN’S new chief executive Jon Rowney said the council was open to the introduction of AI to help improve services, but he said that people would not be left speaking to robots. With some fearing a tech revolution that will gobble up everybody’s job, the new Town Hall boss said: “I don’t think you can just jump in with two feet, you have to be very intentional how you are going to use it.”
A CAMPAIGN to end ‘floating bus stops’ is gathering pace with the National Federation of the Blind of the UK now appealing directly to the government to intervene. These are the stops where you can step off the bus and walk almost directly into a cycle lane. Simon Munk, from the London Cycling Campaign, offered a counter view to MPs when he told a committee last month: “They appear to have very low collision rates, and are safer for pedestrians than many other road features not under scrutiny in general.” What’s your experience?
UNIONS held a demonstration outside the famous Working Men’s College in Crowndale Road (pictured above) last week calling for cuts to courses to be reversed. When we asked the college’s principal Dipa Ganguli what was going on, she blamed a lack of funding including from government. “Adult education isn’t an extra – it’s an essential,” she said. The dispute at the college is likely to continue for a lot longer yet.
THE family of an Islington woman who died after being stabbed at a children’s birthday party say they wanted her killer never to be released. Hope Rowe was sentenced to a 23-year prison term last week after being found guilty of the murder of Charlotte Lawlor, Ms Lawlor’s 15-year-old nephew had cradled her in her dying moments. The judge awarded the teenager with a witness reward of £1,000 to recognise what he had done.
PLUS: A rat and a snake had a confrontation on Hampstead Heath, with the rodent proving to be surprisingly bold (see the New Journal’s feed on X for the footage).
Our reporter Dan Carrier and his friends were behind the decks as the DigItSoundsystem rocked the bandstand on Hampstead Heath on Friday night.
Arsenal have been on a transfer window spending spree with Noni Madueke expected to be confirmed as a new arrival from Chelsea.On the subject of the Gunners, a court heard that a stroke victim smiles when he hears the team’s name during legal proceedings to decide whether UCLH are doing more harm than good with continued feeding tube treatment.
Marx de Morais quit as the chair of the Conservative Association in Hampstead and Highgate on the eve of its AGM – see the North London Bubble for more.
Police figures showed there had been more than 900 mobile phone snatch thefts in Camden Town in the last year – those are just the reported ones.
Camden said it would be running awareness campaigns aimed particularly at students after a rise in drink-spiking cases.
Conservatives called for changes to the consultation process after claiming Camden was ignoring the results of its own survey about transport schemes in Hampstead.
AND sturdy shoemakers Dr Martens reported improved global sales at its annual general meeting held at its offices in – where else? – Camden Town.
WHAT WE’VE BEEN REVIEWING
Daisy Clague braved the Finsbury Park moshpit to see Fontaines DC.
Theatre editor Lucy Popescu enjoyed the slapstick farce of Fawlty Towers – The Play at the Apollo Theatre.
Dan Carrier learned about insect explorer Yikai Zhang’s astonishing search for a rare bug – with a surprise ending.
Lucy also went to see SHOUT! The Musical at Upstairs At The Gatehouse – three and a half stars.
LAST UP
IN this hot but lovely weather, who doesn’t want a little jaunt down to the south coast? Rambi the parakeet was no exception when he disappeared from his home in St Paul’s Road at the end of last month. His owners were distraught and put out a ‘have you seen this bird?’ appeal across north London.
It turned out Rambi had flown a little further afield and was found by rescuers near the New Forest, nearly 100 miles away. At a rescue centre in Bournemouth, Dorset, a ring around his foot confirmed his identity and a reunion with Yianoula, and Chris Evangelou was quickly arranged.
“It’s pretty amazing. It’s a miracle,” Yianoula said. “We just broke down, I started crying, my partner was in shock because we honestly didn’t think he would go that far. To think he’s flown that far away is just incredible.”
That’s it for now – but look out for bonus features later this week and our politics column, the North London Bubble, at the weekend. Thank you for your generous support. Not a penny is wasted – it all simply goes into covering the costs of what we do amid the most challenging economic conditions for local media.
A bloody brilliant edition 🙌