Digest: Things that have happened that are not Starmer's speech or the heatwave
The return of pie and mash, a pub saved, a George Michael dance-along and the closest planning vote of all
We probably don’t need to tell you that Sir Keir Starmer has announced his resignation as the leader of the Labour Party – and he will soon leave Downing Street, so we’ll leave that one for the reactions that will be in Thursday’s print paper. You also probably have realised it’s very hot out there this week. Keep those hydration breaks coming.
This is our digest of everything else that’s been happening in Camden and Islington.
LET’S GO OUTSIDE
IT was only after the Wham! singer George Michael died in 2016 that lots of his secret charitable donations were revealed, including helping to fund several community projects in Highgate. He wasn’t craving good guy headlines, he just wanted to help as a resident in the village.
On Saturday afternoon, ahead of what would have been his 63rd birthday on Thursday and the tenth anniversary year of his death, he was remembered with a big sing-a-long in the square close to his former house. The clips of the dancing that we have posted on Facebook have got everybody smiling and insisting that they want to join in if it happens again next year.
The event was part of the Highgate Festival which came to a close on Sunday.
THE CASTING VOTE
THE close call vote which saw the ‘Camden Film Quarter’ development score planning permission is unlikely to be the end of the debate. Few schemes have generated as big a response as Yoo Capital’s plans to transform Kentish Town over the next few years.
The company completed the overhaul of Earl’s Court and must know that these giant builds will attract criticism. Anything that promises to change the skyline in the way that their project here will is going to have its supporters and opponents.
A big thing among those who did object is whether people in the area really are aware of the scale of the changes that are coming. The Film Quarter certainly has secured good press from people outside of the area who think the idea of a mini-Hollywood of studios and film schools transforming that bit after Camden Town on the Northern Line is a great thing, but many in the area are less excited about the size of the towers and the pushing of social housing to the outskirts of the development, including above a recycling centre.
The approval, in the end, all came down to new planning chair Labour councillor Liam Martin-Lane who used his casting vote to split a committee deadlocked last week over whether or not to let it go ahead.
WOODBINE ALL FINE
MEANWHILE, there was good planning news if you’re a fan of north London’s characterful pubs. Islington Council has turned down an application to build six flats above the popular Woodbine on Blackstock Road.
The proposal, put forward by Bank Estates Limited, would have reduced the pub’s ground floor by about 30 per cent, prompting concerns it could threaten the business’s future. Around 300 people submitted objections.
Regular Cat Barry coordinated much of the campaign response, supported by online efforts from Joe Meekel and backing from councillors, CAMRA and various community groups who all stressed the pub’s value as a community meeting point.
“The pub space is used by such a diverse range of people: residents, families and football fans,” she said. “It was a vote of confidence that the council are actually looking at our points and listening. It’s nice to know that as residents, neighbours and members of the community your voice is being heard.”
Two other pubs in Islington, however, have recently announced closures – Brendan The Navigator and the Charlotte Despard.
Bank Estates didn’t seem to want to talk to us, but we did try and get a comment.
CAUGHT IN THE ACT
YOU might think all the tags on the walls in Camden Town and beyond come from nocturnal sources, but a reader came out of Sainsbury’s the other day to find a man spraying away in broad daylight. Not only did the time – it was mid-afternoon – not seem to be much of a problem for the near middle-aged bloke with the paint, but they also weren’t bothered that they were marking a house of God. St Michael’s Church in Camden Road, to be precise.
Councillor Pat Callaghan, a ward councillor for Camden Town, said: “Is nothing sacred anymore? Surely places of worship should be left without being graffitied. I think it’s totally disrespectful and would hope that people learn lessons from this and not deface very important religious buildings.
“There are so many other areas for graffiti – it shouldn’t be a place of worship.”
She said she would be trying to arrange for its removal.
PICKFORD’S BIG MOUTH
WITH all that said about what’s art and what isn’t when it comes to painting on walls, an official bit of street art has gone down like a lead balloon in Chalk Farm. As we have reported – and it’s a bit of ongoing debate about whether this is a positive thing or not – big brands and marketers have in recent years swapped out boring billboards and tried to blend in with street art culture.
So big mural spaces which once might have just been a place for expression are now often a paid-for ad – such as Budweiser beer’s World Cup mural in Ferdinand Street. It’s an ‘interactive’ mural, apparently, because Jordan Pickford’s huge mouth is also a window.
An eyesore was one of the kinder comments about the finished work – but, still: Come On England against Ghana tonight. Other beers are available.
SCHOOL DEAL ‘BETRAYAL’
IT’S been sad in both Camden and Islington when schools have been forced to close due to a lack of pupils. They are all part of our area’s history, and people’s childhoods.
This was certainly the case at St Jude’s and St Paul’s in Kingsbury Road, Islington, where parents did their best with a ‘save our school’ campaign but were told there was no way it could continue. The sweetener was a promise that the site would be used for community good.
That definition has done some heavy lifting in recent weeks after the campaigners learned that it has actually been sold by the London Diocesan Board for Schools to a profit-making private school. The Children’s House, which charges £7,644 per term, has snapped it up. That’s more than slightly different to an earlier pledge for it to be used as an adult special educational needs service.
The word ‘betrayal’ has been used. “To find out it’s going to a private school, it just makes it feel like our kids’ education doesn’t matter because we don’t have the money,” said parent Andri Andreou.
More on the Islington Tribune’s website.
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MASHING NEWS
THERE’S some heartening news for anyone with a soft spot for Islington’s old-school institutions: after lying dormant for a few years, the beloved former M.Manze pie-and-mash shop in Chapel Market has reopened its doors.
The Grade II-listed premises, which first started serving its signature eels and liquor back in 1911, closed in 2019 to the lament of generations of locals who had grown up on its simple, comforting fare. Now, under new stewardship, it has returned as ‘No.74 Chapel Market’ – with the same handsome tiled frontage, and same warm atmosphere.
Martin Savage, who has taken on the lease with business partner John Gordon, said: “We want to respond to people’s desire for something classic.”
ICYMI ROUND-UP
- HARRIET the tabby cat has been crowned Donor of the Year at the Royal Veterinary College for repeated donations which have helped save the lives of sick and injured pets through the hospital’s vital transfusion scheme. Specialist Dr Karen Humm has appealed for more feline recruits to join the programme. Animals receive treats, fuss and a free health check-up in exchange for their life-saving donation.
- GRAB a copy of our current print papers for our Windrush special, as we celebrate the contribution the Caribbean community has made to north London. They included a big preview to the Homecoming event in Talacre Gardens in Kentish Town over the weekend, which drew thousands to see live music and dance performances, and get a bite to eat from the food stands. There is also a new mural to look out for next to the sports centre there.
- EVERYBODY seems to want a ticket to Harry Styles’ run of concerts at Wembley Stadium – and that got a charity thinking. Four hundred fans of the Watermelon Sugar singer were given one after helping out with a clean-up, paint job and makeover at Brookfield Primary School in Highgate. It’s all organised by EARNT whose organiser Lauren Scott-Harris said: “We turned 400 of Harry’s Wembley tickets into 1,600 hours of community action — fixing up schools like Brookfield and community centres around the capital.”
- FORMER Islington Council leader Terry Stacy has been handed an OBE in the King’s Honours List for his services to the LGBT+ Community; he is chair of Tonic Housing, the UK’s first and only LGBTQ+ housing association. In Camden, there was recognition for Ray Simonson, the chief executive of the JW3 centre on the Finchley Road, who was awarded an MBE for services to Jewish Communities and to Community Cohesion. Can you believe the centre has now been open for 13 years already?
- PLUS: A Pomegranate juice bar in Kilburn says sales have increased since a GB News presenter claimed on his podcasts that shops in London selling a wall of fruit could not be paying the right taxes;
It looks like it’s all over for The Alliance pub in West Hampstead which is shutting down without much notice after being sold;
New driverless taxis from York Way-based Wayve have been shown to London Assembly members ahead of a launch this summer;
The former Lemongrass restaurant in Camden Town is going to be turned into a flat;
A closure order notice has appeared on the front of the Lebanese Grill in Leather Lane;
The King William IV pub in Hampstead is back open after a maintenance problem last week;
The LSE men’s rugby club in Holborn has been suspended for the year after complaints about members wearing ‘derogatory’ T-shirts in a uni bar;
There are fears the Trussell Trust foodbank in Euston could be forced to close amid financial uncertainty;
Police have deployed facial recognition cameras in Camden High Street again to hunt wanted suspects;
A rise in fake Arsenal shirts has been reported in areas like Camden Town since the club’s Premier League title win;
Camera crews behind a Ben Stiller romcom are planning to film in several roads in Primrose Hill next month:
AND the Barfly has made its comeback in Camden Town, reopening with a gig from Frank Turner and erecting its own blue plaque outside to mark the moment.
WHAT WE’VE BEEN REVIEWING
- THE author Xandra Bingley wrote a lovely account of her friendship with artist David Hockney, who died earlier this month, for our papers. She ended with the line: “Maybe now he is painting somewhere in another time. He did say ‘For all I know, there might be another adventure.’ I hope so.”
- THERE are plenty of fresh theatre reviews on our websites from Lucy Popescu, including Driftwood at the Kiln Theatre, a debut play from Martina Laird. The cast is ‘top notch’ and the set will take you to Trinidad.
- FOR his film section, Dan Carrier gave four stars to Lesbian Space Princess – ‘a weird, funny, occasionally beautiful, sometimes cringey and always original intergalactic space adventure’.
- DAN also spoke to DJ and producer Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphy about how the UK might just be the world’s best at putting on music festivals. She was speaking ahead of the Love Supreme festival in Sussex between July 3 and 5.
LAST UP…
AS supporters of independent newspapers, we have some solidarity with the Social Spider group which tries to keep the flame alive in other boroughs with the Enfield Dispatch, Barnet Post and Waltham Forest Echo. Anybody trying to keep a local news service thriving without resorting to clickbait celebrity and crime news has a job on their hands – which is why, of course, we keep asking readers to upgrade their NewJournal+ subscription if they can.
Anyway, away from that ongoing battle, those papers’ editor David Floyd has an alter ego as a poet. His new collection reflecting on the eccentricities of everyday life has just been released and is called A Night At The Snooker.
He told the Islington Tribune there was a “wide landscape” of topics discussed in the collection, from oat milk to the “impact of arbitrary bureaucracy”. The majority were produced in the past few years, but some date further back.
Mr Floyd also hosts the poetry reading group “the Poetry Lounge” at the Boogaloo on the first Wednesday of each month, and advised anybody interested in poetry to “get along to local open-mic meetings and have a go”.
He will also be performing at the poetry stage at the Caledonian Road Festival on July 5.
• A Night At The Snooker is available for £10 at: https://hearingeye.org/publications/a-night-at-the-snooker-2
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