Neighbourhood news, features, and comment
Playgrounds, community buildings and places of worship in Fitzrovia have closed to protect public health because of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. The closures came ahead of the government's announcement that all but essential workers must stay at home and follows the closure of schools, pubs, cafes and restaurants to stop people from spreading the virus.The …
The Fitzrovia Neighbourhood Centre, which will be closing in June, was a product of its time and was one of several community advice centres being established across Camden and other inner London boroughs in the 1970s. The opportunity arose as a result of funding provided by the Home Office to tackle inner city problems. This …
Continue reading "The life and changing times of the Fitzrovia Neighbourhood Centre"
The Fitzrovia Neighbourhood Centre will close its doors in June for the last time after five decades of delivering a housing and welfare advice service and numerous community projects from the Tottenham Street building. Camden Council, which owns the site and needs to carry out repairs and plans to redevelop the listed Georgian building, has …
Continue reading "The final days of Fitzrovia Neighbourhood Centre"
Architect and artist Alejandro Haiek Coll from Venezuela will be speaking about improving public spaces at a free event next Tuesday (5 April) in Grafton Way. In his architectural work Haiek Coll is interested in the design of a logistic chain of events with a strong social component and are focused on the renewal and resuscitation of inactive …
The 1970s were an extraordinary period of protest, disruption and change in many major cities. London was no different and it was in this decade that urban redevelopment, slum clearance and road building provoked local communities to form protest movements. Fitzrovia is often compared with its neighbouring ‘urban villages’ of Soho and Covent Garden. All …
Continue reading "Today’s Fitzrovia owes a debt to 1970s activism"
The Fitzrovia Community Centre in Foley Street is to reopen this autumn under a new name after a rethink by staff and trustees who want to bring more appeal to the building. Funded by Camden Council and with income from room hire the Fitzrovia Community Centre was opened in 2012 by Sarah Hayward, the leader …
A short film has been released describing the organisation and activities that led up to the Community Christmas Dinner at the Indian YMCA in December. Made by the On Road Films project at Fitzrovia Youth in Action the short documentary is presented by Eden Steenkamp. Steenkamp visits the Surma Community Centre in Robert Street, Regent's …
Continue reading "Film tells story behind Community Christmas Dinner 2014"
Readers and contributors We're having our regular monthly editorial and social evening at 7pm tonight (Tuesday 2 April) at Fitzrovia Neighbourhood Association, 39 Tottenham Street, London W1T 4RX. Come along and meet the neighbours and enjoy some food and drink. Please tell us what you think of Fitzrovia News: take a few minutes to complete our readers' survey http://news.fitzrovia.org.uk/2013/03/17/readers-survey-what-do-you-want-to-read-about-in-fitzrovia-news/ And here's a …
By News Reporters Fitzrovia has a thriving voluntary sector but it is threatened by a lack of new people to continue the work of an increasingly older generation of volunteers, cuts to funding, rising costs, and a town hall that considers residents a nuisance, according to some of the speakers at an event on Monday …
By News Reporters Fitzrovia has a long history of community activism. Since the 1970s there has been a steady growth in the number of organisations concerned with improving the quality of life in the neighbourhood in the face of increasing commercial development. Today a number of groups survive at a time of decreasing government and …
Continue reading "An active community and voluntary sector survives in Fitzrovia"
A series of events will celebrate the opening of the new community facility on Thursday 28 June 2012 By News Reporters The Fitzrovia Community Centre will be officially opened by the new leader of Camden Council Sarah Hayward on Thursday 28 June 2012. Throughout the day there will be a series of events open to …
Continue reading "Fitzrovia Community Centre to be officially opened by leader of Camden Council"
Olive Leonard has been interviewing older people in Fitzrovia for a history project. "The best bit of the job is hearing people’s life stories. Its been a good reminder that a skilled interviewer needs to remain impartial in response to any strong views made by interviewees. My job is to interview people and try not …
Continue reading "Fitzrovia – Olive Leonard is making a world of difference"
Kaupthing have confirmed they intend to sell the former Middlesex Hospital site and are no longer prepared to go ahead with allowing temporary allotments to be created. Documents were sent out last week to allotment stakeholders confirming that the community project would not go ahead. However, when the company were made aware of the strength …
Continue reading "Fitzrovia – Garden allotments on Middlesex Hospital site in jeopardy"
By News Reporters In November 2009 Derwent London plc announced plans to redevelop some of their properties in Fitzrovia. They received a lot of positive media coverage and Fitzrovia News ran a critical article in our December issue (115) on pages 6 and 7. In February of this year Simon Silver, a director and head …
By News Reporters Residents are angry about the lack of affordable housing being proposed on the former hospital and Victorian workhouse site in Cleveland Street and overdevelopment in a conservation area. Residents were invited to view an exhibition in November where summary plans were displayed. University College London Hospital NHS Trust who own the site …
Continue reading "Fitzrovia – Hospital amputates affordable housing from workhouse site"
