Neighbourhood news, features, and comment
meetings, festivals, events
The regular Fitzrovia community Christmas dinner won't be happening at Fitzroy Square this year due to Covid-19 but will instead be delivered by volunteer couriers to people's homes. The Community Christmas dinner won't be cancelled but it will be different. "This year we are not able to run our Christmas event as we normally would …
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This year’s BFI London Film Festival features full-length movies, many short films to watch free online, and plenty of free events including screen talks (one with musician David Byrne, amongst many others), Q and As and much more both online and in person. Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan in Ammonite. This Saturday, 17 October, sees …
On Thursday night 22-year-old Mo Maynard cycled through London for 12 hours from 8pm until 8am Friday, raised money for charity, and created a piece of digital art at the same time. Mo Maynard pausing on one of the Thames bridges during her overnight cycle ride. As she rode through the streets her cycle computer …
A small memorial ceremony took place in Rathbone Street last week to mark 80 years to the day since firefighters from the Auxillary Fire Service were killed in a night of intense bombing during World War 2. The ceremony also paid tribute to the bravery of one of the survivors who acted quickly to save …
A history of Mortimer Street and its artistic connections will be uncovered in a talk this month given by a curator from the Museum of London. Mortimer Street in Fitzrovia has a hidden artistic history. The streets around Mortimer Street in Fitzrovia became the base for figures as diverse as Virginia Woolf, George Orwell, Karl …
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This September cyclists can get their bike checked over and security marked at various locations in the West End including Fitzrovia. Cycling along New Cavendish Street in Fitzrovia. Cyclists can a get free bike check in September. The New West End Company and Heart of London business Alliance are partnering with Cycle Confident and the …
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The Fitzrovia West Neighbourhood Forum will hold a virtual annual general meeting this month to report on progress in developing a neighbourhood plan, and will feature a guest speaker who will talk about creating a low traffic neighbourhood. FitzWest want to reduce air pollution and make other environmental improvements. The public consultation on the draft …
Graduating students from the Royal College of Art MA photography course will display their work at four Fitzrovia galleries this month in place of their usual degree show which had to be cancelled due to Covid-19. Photo: Nadja Ellinger, at Fitzrovia Chapel. The degree show would not only have been an opportunity to bring together …
A Fitzrovia playwright and an oboe soloist will both join a cast of the many this week to produce a tribute to Beethoven, and fundraise for the NHS and musicians affected by the Covid-19 crisis. Local playwright Sue Blundell and Fitzrovia Music Festival (FitzFest) founder Dan Bates will be joined by musical director Elliott Devivo …
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A round of applause will take place tonight (Thursday 26 March) to give thanks to the NHS staff working tirelessly during the coronavirus pandemic. Organisers of "Clap for our Carers" are asking everyone to clap at 8pm from your front door, window, balcony, garden or wherever you are. The event follows similar rounds of applause …
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All Souls Primary School is holding its annual winter fair this Friday and promises lots of festive and fun activities. There will be lots of stalls to choose from with cakes, popcorn, savoury food, mulled wine and hot chocolate among the many treats on offer. There will also be a Santa grotto, crafts, games and …
A special exhibition featuring 14 artists will reflect on the unique collection of dolls, teddy bears, and toy theatres, at Pollock's Toy Museum in Fitzrovia this month. A Pollock's Gallimaufry will be a month long event showing works by contemporary artists working in a variety of crafts and media inspired by the unique, mostly Victorian, …
Continue reading "Museum is keeping the drama of toy theatre alive with a new exhibition"
The first events of the Bloomsbury Festival are launched today with a moonlight street party in Store Street to celebrate the 50 years since the first moon landing -- the theme for this year's festival. There will be 10 days of events, many of them free, taking in the people and places, art and music, …
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The increasing cost of housing and the lack of homes for ordinary people is happening because the wishes of global capital are serviced over and above the needs of the many. As Architects for Social Housing have observed: “Building more homes does not push house and rental prices down. While the law of supply and demand …
Continue reading "Film: Reclaim housing as a human right, not a commodity"
One of British cinema's most controversial films, and which was shot on location in and around Rathbone Street in Fitzrovia, will be screened on Friday and followed by a Q&A. Peeping Tom (1960) nearly ruined director Michael Powell's career after it was badly received due to its scenes of voyeurism and violence. But it held …
Continue reading "Powell’s film masterpiece set in a shadowy Fitzrovia on big screen"
On Wednesday 18 September the "Objectively Funny Festival" returns to the Albany pub on Great Portland Street with acts from all over the comedy spectrum for a marathon 42 shows over 12 days. The festival will be fresh from Objectively Funny’s success as a production company in Edinburgh, where 10 shows were taken up to the …
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‘Please help me!’ This heart-breaking refrain from Alex Mills’ chamber opera Dear Marie Stopes is drawn from the thousands of letters which Stopes received after her sex manual Married Love was published in 1918. The opera had its stunning premier last year at the Wellcome Collection (reviewed in FN, Sept 2018), and was completely sold …
The Regent's Park programme of autumn events kicks off this Saturday with an open day at the park's allotment garden. Visitors can enjoy apple pressing and tasting, and take home some garden produce. There will be a children's treasure hunt, and "guess the weight of the biggest vegetables" for a chance to win a prize. …
Continue reading "Autumn events in The Regent’s Park will interest gardeners and night owls"
The ninth edition of the Open City Documentary Festival opens this week and runs for seven days at various venues in central London. Celebrating the art of non-fiction, the festival champions the art of creative documentary and non-fiction filmmakers from around the world. Aside from film the events include audio and cross media, as well …
Continue reading "Film festival celebrates the art of non-fiction at London venues"
An exhibition celebrating the life of the leading black campaigner for the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade will open this month at a venue on Tottenham Court Road. Olaudah Equiano (1745-1797) rose to prominence in the late 18th century and his book “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa, …
