Neighbourhood news, features, and comment
Two new buildings and one refurbishment in Fitzrovia have been short-listed for design awards, and one Fitzrovia-based architecture practice has five projects nominated. Conservation-led development. dMFK and Bureau De Change have transformed The Gaslight, an Art Deco building on Rathbone Street The New London Awards "celebrate the very best architecture, planning and development schemes making …
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Camden Council has awarded the contract to create a new public open space in Fitzrovia to its parks maintenance contractor idverde. How the new park at Alfred Place could look according to illustrations produced by LDA Design. The works to create the new park at Alfred Place will begin in September and be completed by …
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Camden Council has approved plans for "streateries" and "boozeries" in Cleveland Street and Warren Street to help the hospitality trade during Covid-19 restrictions. Plans for "boozeries" and "streateries" in Cleveland Street and Warren Street. The move follows on from other schemes in Fitzrovia approved by Camden and Westminster councils, where on-street car parking is removed …
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You would think that having declared a climate emergency and made a commitment to refurbish rather than demolish buildings, architects designing a building on Tottenham Court Road would be proposing a state-of-the-art, environmentally-friendly refit. Prudential UK Real Estate have applied for planning permission to redevelop 247 Tottenham Court Road. But not so. Because it is …
Camden council has given the go ahead in principle for on-street car parking spaces in some streets in Fitzrovia to be replaced with "cattle pens" to enable outdoor eating and drinking to support the neighbourhood's increasingly desperate restaurant, cafe and pub trade. Charlotte Street will have parking spaces converted for outside dining and boozing. Cyclists …
Police and an ambulance attended a large and noisy "end of lockdown party" at a short-let apartment in Fitzrovia on the morning of Sunday 5 July after someone was taken ill. Police and ambulance attend after someone is taken ill at the party on Sunday morning. The party, at 64 Charlotte Street, started at around …
On Saturday 4 July some of Fitzrovia's hospitality traders will take a small, tentative step forward as pubs, cafes and restaurants open for the first time for more than three months, after the government eased Covid-19 restrictions. A handwritten sign on the door of a pub in Fitzrovia welcomes punters back for 4 July. Only …
Continue reading "When Saturday comes, Fitzrovia will limp back to life"
New legislation making its way through Parliament this week could turn streets into "large outside bars" if it is not amended says the organisation representing community groups in London's West End. The Business and Planning Bill is being rushed through Parliament. The Business and Planning Bill includes a range of measures to help businesses recover …
The campaign encourages people to rediscover their local high streets and town centres. An email from The Fitzrovia Partnership’s chief operating officer this week invites the business group's members to read about a campaign to get the London economy up and running again. The Because I’m A Londoner is a city-wide initiative which claims to …
The Fitzrovia Neighbourhood Association (FNA) has called on Camden and Westminster councils to consider making Fitzrovia a Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN), in line with the Mayor of London’s Streetspace plans to help people with social distancing and enable walking and cycling. The FNA has asked for both the Camden side and Westminster side of Fitzrovia …
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Plans released by the largest commercial group in the West End to steer a path to recovery when the lockdown is eased show it to be completely out of touch with the stark reality facing London. In a week when Westminster council were approving more ambitious plans to tackle air pollution and encouraging a modal-shift …
Continue reading "The New West End Company wants more car parking and no road charges"
While often (sometimes unfairly) seen as the rotten borough with regard to taking action to clean up its air, Westminster Council has now decided to "be more ambitious in its commitments to reduce air pollution". Fitzrovia News understand that reports put before the council's cabinet on Monday 11 May have been approved, paving the way …
Camden Council is asking people living in the borough to put forward their ideas for making our streets better for safe travel by walking, cycling and social distancing. In some parts of the borough they have already made improvements. Now it's our turn. "We want to make it easier and safer for people to walk …
Continue reading "We need Camden to make good on its promise for safer streets in Fitzrovia"
The developer of an underground hotel in Great Russell Street has taken the first step in seeking planning permission to squeeze an additional 42 guest bedrooms into the former car park four and five storeys beneath street level, in a move the Bloomsbury Association says is an "abuse of the planning system". Centro Planning Consultancy, …
Nickie Aiken's Bill to regulate pedicabs in London, due to be presented on Tuesday 21 April when Parliament opened, had to be postponed due to MPs having to take time to debate setting up a "virtual Parliament". The MP for Cities of London and Westminster said: "I was due to present my Bill to the …
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Nickie Aiken the MP for Cities of London and Westminster is to introduce a Bill to Parliament on 21 April for the regulation of pedicabs to carry paying passengers. The Pedicabs (London) Bill would allow Transport for London to regulate the use of pedicabs in public places in Greater London for hire or reward, and …
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An early campaigner to preserve the Georgian and Victorian buildings in Fitzrovia was artist Harry Jonas, who lived at 35 Maple Street. Our attention was drawn to this recently from a reader who is researching the life of artist Harry Jonas (1893-1990) and wanted to know if we had any information on the campaign to …
A soup kitchen feeding the homeless and hungry in central London has issued an urgent appeal for financial help after experiencing its busiest day ever where they struggled to serve a long queue of people while maintaining social distancing to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Alex Brown the director of the long running Soup …
A bungled attempt by planning enforcement officers in Camden Council to stop illegal short term letting at a building in Charlotte Street ended with permission being granted for AirBnB-style use to continue on a permanent basis. In a case which is believed to be the first of its kind in Fitzrovia, Camden Council have issued …
Camden Council has been criticised for its choice of contractor to undertake the restoration of the Fitzrovia Mural and the way it handled the competitive tendering process. Kristina O'Donnell, whose father and uncle are depicted in the mural, says she is "heartbroken by the decision" to award the contract to Global Street Art to restore …
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