Neighbourhood news, features, and comment
meetings, festivals, events
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 …
Continue reading "The forgotten history of Mortimer Street and its artistic community"
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 …
Continue reading "Get your cycle checked and security marked in the West End this September"
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 …
Continue reading "A tribute to Beethoven leads a fundraiser for the NHS and musicians"
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 …
Continue reading "Say thanks to NHS staff during coronavirus pandemic"
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, …
Continue reading "Ten days of events take off in a moon-gazing celebration of Bloomsbury"
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 …
Continue reading "Comedy festival brings Edinburgh Fringe acts back to Fitzrovia pub"
‘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 …
Continue reading "Dear Marie Stopes: ‘birth-control opera’ returns as a powerful melodic reminder"
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, …
Join in the fun and games this Saturday 6 July for another summer fair at All Souls Primary School. At this year's event their will be a child-led talent show, a bouncy castle, raffles and tombola's, games, face painting, music and much more. All Souls Primary School summer fair, 12noon to 3.30pm Saturday 6 July …
Continue reading "Another day of fun ahead at All Souls School annual summer fair"
Don't let the weather put you off cycling to work because Camden and Westminster cyclists have some tips and events to make your journey a pleasure every day. Today (Monday) from 4:30pm to 7:30pm in Kensington Gardens there will be a free Dr Bike Mechanic, "Exchanging Places HGV Awareness", cycle security marking, and cycling information, organised by Westminster …
Continue reading "Cycle to work this week (and every week) in Camden and Westminster"
Scientists sharing research and working with literary and visual storytellers can help spread knowledge to build a better future. That's the theme of an event taking place in Fitzrovia in June. Social science-fiction writer Stephen Oram has been working alongside scientists as part of a project with King’s College London. "They do the science and …
Continue reading "Future research, open science, and the power of storytelling"
A trio of coming-of-age stories about virginity, pleasure, and identity is told by three young women (played by Kara Chamberlain, Vanessa Labrie, Cicely Long and Gina Ruysen) who discover sexual empowerment for the first time. Friday Night Love Poem looks at the challenges girls face when they begin exploring their sexuality in a world fuelled …
Continue reading "Women coming-of-age in a world of stigma, bad sex education and internet porn"
