Fitzrovia – Media glare on the neighbourhood

Fitzrovia was hardly out of the news during November as Rebecca Hossack competed with Derwent London plc to be the darling of the hacks and radio hosts.
Rebecca grinned her way through the Camden New Journal and the Evening Standard and featured on Robert Elms’ Radio London show extolling the virtues of growing veg on the most expensive allotments in the world.
Derwent London managed to get a mention in the Financial Times, the Evening Standard (twice) and various building and property magazines about their plans to turn part of Fitzrovia into a bohemian theme park or bijou destination hang out. Derwent even produced their own media for the occasion called Your Fitzrovia. Earlier editions missed out the “Y”.
Even retiring Max Neufeld was hauled out of bed early one morning to talk on the Radio London breakfast show with Joanne Good and Paul Ross to talk about Derwent London’s desire to please their shareholders. But poor Max had to deal with Jo who kept confusing Derwent’s upright pile of bricks, glass and steel with Stanhope’s (nee Candy & Candy’s) pile of rubble down the road.
According to the tabloids, Ronnie Wood, the Rolling Stones’ guitarist, is reported to have paid £6.5 million in a divorce settlement to his wife after his well-publicised rendezvous with a Russian nubile in a sleazy Goodge Street dive.
The notorious venue, also know as the Capricorn Club, was later busted in a police raid at the end of November. The Sun newspaper declared: “Lap bar is busted as brothel!”
Detective Inspector John Anderson, of the Metropolitan Police said: “It is hard to believe that these shady dealings were blatantly going on.”
Obviously the perplexed plod had never watched national television and the Channel 4 programme that exposed the club’s activities over a year ago.
Even the pigeons on the pavement in Goodge Street knew what was going on there.