Neighbourhood news, features, and comment
Local residents and business people are invited to view and comment on a draft neighbourhood plan for Fitzrovia West at a public exhibition on Monday. The planning document -- which will guide land development and environmental improvements -- was first published in February and this will be the last chance to shape the Fitzrovia West …
Continue reading "Exhibition and final say on draft neighbourhood plan for Fitzrovia West"
All of us city dwellers tend to live our lives much more in the public domain: in the streets, cafes and public spaces of our neighbourhood. My twenty-four hour diary gives a glimpse of how I use our streets, not only as a thoroughfare, but as a breathing space and a meeting place. 3.00pm Tuesday: …
Continue reading "Twenty-fours hours in a central London neighbourhood"
Camden Council's Bloomsbury ward Councillors are hosting a meeting to discuss air quality in Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia, and Camden’s Licensing Policy this Monday. Councillors Sabrina Francis, Adam Harrison, and Rishi Madlani invite Bloomsbury ward residents to views on the air quality problem, and how licensing policy could better address local concerns about the social impact of sales of alcohol. …
Continue reading "Air quality and licensing under discussion at Bloomsbury community meeting"
By News Reporters Independent hospitality business Cubitt House is planning to open its biggest restaurant to date, at Fitzroy Place on the site of the former Middlesex Hospital. The trouble is, the space available is not big enough. Planning permission is now being sought to create what would be one of Fitzrovia's largest restaurants. It …
Continue reading "Cubitt House plans 230 seat restaurant at Fitzroy Place"
Camden Council has this week added extra steel bollards to a closed off street in Fitzrovia to prevent recidivist rat-running drivers using the pavement to get around the street closure. Drivers of cars were seen to use the pavement to get around the bollards that were placed across Warren Street after the road was closed …
Continue reading "Camden squeezes out drivers using the pavement in Warren Street"
By News Reporters A tree is to be planted in Whitfield Gardens on Tottenham Court Road, in memory of the architect Bertie Dinnage who for many years led the Friends of Open Spaces Fitzrovia community group. A paperbark maple tree will be planted in a ceremony which will take place at 1pm on Saturday 30 …
Continue reading "Tree in memory of Bertie Dinnage to be planted in Whitfield Gardens"
The prestigious Michelin guide to restaurants and hotels has continued to recognise Fitzrovia restaurants and has also awarded new eateries. In its 2014 edition published this month nine Fitzrovia establishments are listed. However, food and restaurants arouse passions in the neighbourhood in many ways. Three restaurants -- Dabbous in Whitfield Street, Pied à Terre in …
By News Reporters Members of the Fitzrovia Trust put on their gardening gloves on Friday to plant new shrubs in the Fitzrovia Children's Playground in Whitfield Street for an autumn horticulture session. The improvements to the gardens were carried out ahead of the Teddy Bears' Picnic which is to be held on Saturday 5 October …
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By Denise Julien Fitzrovia has some areas with very wide pavements that we can either allow the media industry to litter with phone kiosks and advertising boards, or we can create green spaces with floral-lawns and rain-gardens. A Rain Garden is an urban-greening-alternative that absorbs carbon dioxide and excessive rain. A floral lawn is made up of …
Continue reading "Floral lawns and rain gardens will improve the environment around Holcroft Court"
By Frances Taylor This short piece about the gardens is an adaptation of an article written by a resident of Ridgmount Gardens and published in about 2001 in Ridgmount Review, the former magazine of the Ridgmount Gardens Residents’ Association. Her article tells us not only about the history of the gardens but also gives a lively …
Continue reading "The secret of the gardens at Ridgmount Gardens"
By Angela Lovely Derwent London are trying very hard to make friends with people. Over the space of a few months they've gone from looking like the bad guys to trying to appear to be the good guys. They had gained planning permission from Mayor Boris Johnson to demolish and redevelop the Saatchi Block on Charlotte Street, …
By News Reporters It seems residents in Fitzrovia will be expected to be in two places at once if they are to have any say about two very important environmental changes affecting the neighbourhood. Or they have to make a choice. Camden Council have scheduled two public consultations on the same evening and at different venues. …
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http://youtu.be/Yz5yKxvu0go By News Reporters Forty years ago Dutch elm disease swept through Britain killing millions of trees. Now a conservation charity which helped bring elm trees back to the streets of Fitzrovia has won an award for its short film about London elms. The Conservation Foundation has won the 2013 Creative Award for its short film The …
Continue reading "Film about London elm trees wins award from GLA and Forestry Commission"
By News Reporters David Heath CBE MP Minister of State for Agriculture and Food kept people waiting in the cold this morning for a ceremonial tree planting on the corner of Market Place and Great Portland Street. The liquid amber tree was planted to celebrate the completion of more than 500 trees planted on the streets …
Continue reading "Tree planting at Market Place marks the completion of greening project"
By News Reporters The Charlotte Street Association, the longest-running campaign group in Fitzrovia, are to hold their annual general meeting on Tuesday 14 May. Now in their forty-third year, they comment on planning and licensing applications and campaign for more affordable housing, open space and environmental improvements in Fitzrovia. They initiated the Fitzrovia Area Action …
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By News Reporters Residents living near the junction of Warren Street and Cleveland Street in Fitzrovia are angry about the loss of a healthy tree which was cut down by Camden Council because its roots were potentially a threat to a nearby building. A note was posted on the tree in March saying it had …
Continue reading "Anger at loss of “flourishing and beautiful” tree in Warren Street"
By News Reporters Camden Council are seeking the views of local people before improvements are made to The Warren playground and open space at Whitfield Place. Camden have commissioned landscape architects Land Use Consultants Limited to draw up plans. The Warren is one of three public open spaces in Fitzrovia. There will be a public meeting …
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By News Reporters Camden Council has allowed Fitzrovia's best-loved public garden to be vandalised by a group of unsupervised workers who were turned loose with saws and tools to prune trees and bushes. Crabtree Fields is a small public open space squeezed between Charlotte Street and Whitfield Street and was created as a result of …
Continue reading "Cutting of 25-year-old holly bush in Crabtree Fields is an act of vandalism"
By News Reporters Warren Street has been permanently closed to through traffic. This week no entry signs and bollards have been placed across the street stopping motor vehicles but allowing cycles to pass through. Camden Council closed the street as part of a number of changes to traffic movements in Fitzrovia following a public consultation in 2011. The …
Continue reading "Warren Street closed to through traffic except cycles"
By Max Neufeld The underused Alfred Place and North Crescent have for sometime been seen as a potential open space. The idea has now been enshrined in the Fitzrovia Area Action Plan which identifies it as a potential open space to, in small part meet, the desperate open space deficiency in Fitzrovia. The average open …
Continue reading "Turn Alfred Place into public open space immediately"
