Neighbourhood news, features, and comment
people, obituaries, celebrities
By Fiona Green Mike Pentelow in make up for a play. Photo: Fiona Green. Mike and I became friends when he first came to Fitzrovia. He had heard that Martin and I held a “safe house” in Tottenham Street for the African National Congress (ANC) to meet when their offices in Rathbone Place were being …
Continue reading "Mike Pentelow was loyal, generous and funny"
Mike Pentelow enjoying music and a drink at the King and Queen pub in September 2018. The death of Mike Pentelow is very sad -- I still can’t believe he’s gone. I have lost a friend and colleague on Fitzrovia News, and the Fitzrovia community has lost its chronicler, historian, archivist and activist. The extent …
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By Nick Bailey, Helen Haigh, and Mairi Mills Dave Ferris (left) with partner Adrian Dowson. Dave Ferris, who died in April, was a community worker at the Fitzrovia Neighbourhood Centre for more than two decades, and was highly regarded by his colleagues and the management of the organisation. Generous in spirit, and genuinely democratic, it …
By Peter Kirker Mike Pentelow enjoying music and a drink at the King and Queen pub in September 2018. Mike Pentelow, who died suddenly at home in April, was a long serving contributor to Fitzrovia News and Tower, its predecessor, editor-in-chief for 13 years, and an accomplished trade union journalist and author. His book Characters …
Continue reading "Mike Pentelow: much-loved journalist, communist, and author"
Mike Pentelow enjoying music and a drink at the King and Queen pub in September 2018. Fitzrovia News has been overwhelmed with the number of tributes paid to Mike Pentelow, editor-in-chief of the newspaper, who died suddenly at his home on Nassau Street on 1 April aged 73. He had suffered a short illness which …
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We are saddened to hear of the death of Dave Ferris. He was from 1976 to 2001 a community development worker at the Fitzrovia Neighbourhood Centre, and was part of the Fitzrovia News editorial collective. Dave was born in Canada and lived in Bloomsbury until his death in April this year. There will be an …
It is with great sadness that we report that Mike Pentelow, editor of Fitzrovia News, author, and friend of many in the neighbourhood died peacefully at his home on Wednesday 1 April 2020. Born in 1946, Mike moved to Fitzrovia in the early 1970s from Essex where he was a trainee journalist on the Thurrock …
Irving Howard Brecker is one of the founding partners of the Robert Irving Burns estate agents in Margaret Street. He and his two colleagues set up the business in 1962. Irving Howard Brecker has been working as an estate agent in Fitzrovia since 1962. “Great Portland Estates had just sold off all their residential properties …
Continue reading "The estate agent known as ‘King of the Showrooms’ during rag trade heyday"
A memorial service will be held this Friday (21 September) at a church soup kitchen for a man who died while sleeping rough in Whitfield Gardens public open space. The man, known as Igor, was originally from Ukraine and died in his sleep on 31 August near where his friends were also sleeping rough. According …
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Sally Fiber who was conceived and born in an upstairs room in the pub that gave Fitzrovia its name has died aged 81. She lived above the Fitzroy Tavern for the first 17 years of her life while her parents ran the pub that was the hub of London's bohemian society and loved by writers. …
Continue reading "The ‘most purebred Fitzrovian of them all’ dies at age 81"
By Celine Hispiche I first met Sally Fiber in 2012 through our mutual friend Beth Saunders. Both Beth and myself were working on projects about Betty May the Tiger Woman, a bohemian muse who frequented Sally’s family pub ‘The Fitzroy Tavern’, 16 Charlotte Street, in the early part of the 20th century. It was even more …
The family of DIANA SIMMONDS who sadly passed away on 30th April 2017 would like to invite all who knew her to a celebration service. When: 20th May 2017; Where: Holy Cross Church, Cromer Street, King’s Cross, London WC1H 8JU; Time: 12 midday.
Rebecca Carrigan runs the BlueberryBlue catering and event company from Fitzrovia. Rebecca’s previous job was a film production manager, in the office that produced commercials, TV shows, feature films and the well known Comic Strip series from the 1980s to 1990s. After her daughter was born in 2008 Rebecca wanted a career that did not …
Continue reading "From ‘Take One!’ to bake one, Rebecca takes the biscuit"
Racing cyclist, jazz musician, author and photographer Leo Zanelli has lived at Holcroft Court in Fitzrovia for 15 years. He was born in 1930 near Kings Cross, to Italian parents (his father was a chef, his mother a waitress). His early childhood was spent at the Angel Islington. In 1939 his family moved into Soho …
Ron Gauld one of the organisers of the very first Fitzrovia Festival has died after a short illness. He was taken ill a few weeks ago and later died in University College Hospital. His partner Janet was with him when he passed away on Tuesday. He was aged 83. Gauld who lived in Ridgmount Gardens was very …
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Local author Stephen Oram lives on Cleveland Street and has been a resident of Fitzrovia for over twenty years. Stephen was born and brought up in Kettering Northamptonshire. “It’s a small market town and growing up I felt on the fringe of things and a bit of an outsider," he says. "When punk came along …
Continue reading "Author hopes to challenge readers’ assumptions with near-future fiction"
Dylan Thomas who was born 100 years ago today felt constantly pulled between Wales and London. He first appeared in Fitzrovia in 1934, seeking out the area's pubs and its literary scene, and in 1936 he was to meet Caitlin Macnamara who would become his wife. He twice lived in Fitzrovia: he moved in at …
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By Patrick Hamilton-Eddy May Geraldine Hamilton-Eddy was born on 15 May 1919 in Streatham, the daughter of the Revd. Charles Chaloner Lindsey OBE and May Lindsey. Her father had served as an army chaplain throughout World War I and subsequently was appointed vicar of Little Leigh, Cheshire. May was educated at St. Elphin's School, Darley …
Maya de Souza passes through Fitzrovia on her commute to work from Highgate to Millbank. Cycling from the north to the south of the London Borough of Camden and into the City of Westminster gives her the opportunity to see at first hand the challenges of managing London's environment. It's something that comes in handy …
Continue reading "My commute: Maya de Souza cycles from Highgate to Millbank"
By News Reporters Naomi Blake the artist who created the sculpture which sits in Fitzroy Square gardens recently celebrated her 90th birthday. This month The Curwen & New Academy Gallery are holding a special exhibition to celebrate her work which will include highlights from throughout her career. Alongside the exhibition a book -- Naomi Blake: Dedication in Sculpture -- which catalogues …
Continue reading "The fascinating life and work of Naomi Blake"
