🎹 The latest viral videos from St Pancras got us thinking on pianos

This week, the socials were abuzz with footage of US R&B queen Alicia Keys tinkling the free public ivories down at St Pancras International.

Her impromptu(ish) appearance came hot on the heels of homegrown talents Rod Stewart and Jools Holland, who made use of the station for their very own concourse swing session the week before - complete with band and backing singers. 😄

This kind of FOMO-inducing viral video stuff always causes a frenzied, if fleeting hot media moment; great for the artists, and also the profile the station, and what it offers beyond just hopping on a train (indeed, you might want to take a look at the Camdenist interactive St Pancras advent calendar from 2021 at this point… It’s info is mostly still relevant today, and is a fun, seasonal way to explore).

Artist Luke Jerram’s Play Me, I’m Yours project is credited with starting the trend for street pianos, which can now be found all over the world.

Despite the global ubiquity, they remain synonymous with St Pancras after a canny decision to keep Jerram’s pop-up pianos in situ, following their installation for his project during the London 2012 Olympics.

It’s all just the latest chapter in Camden’s historic association with the manufacture, distribution and celebration of the instrument, including the period 1870 and 1914, when we had over 100 piano works across the neighbourhood…

The buildings in our midst that used to churn out pianos

From the outrageously luxe loft apartments in Chalk Farm’s former Chappell & Co building, which once made instruments for Beethoven and Strass, to the last one standing, Heckscher & Co (which closed in 2017), come with us on a Google Streetview tour of Camden’s many converted piano factories, and indulge your #propertyporn fantasies for this week.

ARTS & CULTURE

6 unexpectedly thrilling festive shows if you seek more than just bog standard panto

• 🔮 Only at Christmas time, Euston’s hidden headquarters of The Magic Circle open up their clubroom and theatre to the public for a short series of spellbinding celebrations of magic and mysteries, performed by their world class members.

• 🕵🏼‍♂️ Small off-West End gem Marylebone Theatre is currently mashing up the festive stories of Dickens and Doyle in the off-Broadway transfer A Sherlock Carol, taking place just a stone’s throw from 221B Baker Street, no less. Until the 7th Jan.

• 👯‍♀️ Weimar-punk superstar Bernie Dieter’s Club Kabarett is currently singing the eyebrows off enthusiastic theatregoers with its blend of death-defying acrobatics, fire-breathing circus sideshows and saucy songs, all in Soho’s intimate new Underbelly Boulevard (pictured).

• 🏳️‍🌈 With just a few tickets left tonight or tomorrow, it’s your last chance to catch Camden People’s Theatre’s current celebration of chosen families, queer community and survival of self, the fabulously titled A They in a Manger, all performed…inside a wardrobe.

• 🏴‍☠️ We told you all about Pirates! at The Place here last week, (congrats to winning Camdenist reader Tash and her 5-year-old, who are going to see tomorrow), and remember, you can read the exclusive Camdenist interview all about the show, then grab some tickets. It’s on until next Sunday.

• ⛷️Ticket for the festive run have been so in-demand they’ve completely sold out, but if you want to get someone a camp present, the dramatisation of Goop founder Gwyneth Paltrow’s recent bizarre ski accident court case, Gwyneth Goes Skiing, happily returns with extra early 2024 dates (30th Jan - 16th Feb), back at The Pleasance.

MORE ARTS, CULTURE & THINGS TO DO

• 🎨 For years, art gallery-cum-hairdressers Flaxon Ptooch showcased exciting and affordable art on Kentish Town Rd, with hedonistic show launch parties in the salon and its back garden. And now, NW5 legend Michael is back at it for Xmas. He’s taken over the former Italian deli Lo Sfizio a short walk down the road, (at no.119) and stuffed it full of art, crafts and brilliant gift ideas from renowned local artists, plus some really big global names, too. It’s open every day until Xmas eve.

• The Joy of Kilburn is a book of photography that’s a love letter to the diverse and entertaining people of Kilburn High Rd, c/o the artful eye of @kilburnmyroad. The ideal gift for any proud local, it has a forward by Zadie Smith, too, and copies can only be bought at Queen’s Park Books or the Priory Tavern, if you’re quick.

• 🐺 Camden Rd’s railway arch brewery Werewolf have a mini beer fest today and tomorrow, with 7 limited edition guest taps alongside their own, creating the 12 beers of Xmas.

• 🌖 The premier of the second show to take over King’s Cross Lightroom, The Moowalkers: A Journey with Tom Hanks, was a real star-studded affair last week, as this toothy video reveals. It’s booking until April, although not every show will have Mr Hanks personally introducing it, or the a-list attendees, by all accounts it still has plenty of wow-factor.

• 💶 The Bank of England Museum is giving away free glass Christmas tree baubles, stuffed with shredded banknotes at a special festive event next Thursday evening (21st).

• ✡️ Positive news for The Jewish Museum, which closed it’s Camden Town home after 13 years this summer. They’ve partnered with Swiss Cottage cultural centre JW3 for a series of activations as a ‘museum without walls’ and a home while they look for a longer-term new site.

BECOME A VIP

📊 This week’s poll question

MUSIC

A week of soul, carols and raucous pop shindigs

• 🎶 Wildly popular 80s soul sensations Loose Ends are back at the Jazz Cafe tonight - an extra date with some availability, having already sold out next Wednesday and Thursday nights at the venue.

• 🎤 Talking of great British soul, there’s a chance to join legendary torch-bearers Don-e, Junior Giscombe and Omar on Sunday (Dec 17th) at Pizza Express Live Holborn for their fully collaborative show as The British Collective.

• 🎄 If you like singing along to festive classics then Sunday’s vast Carols at Roundhouse should be fairly special. With tickets for only a tenner and the promise of special guests, it’s about as seasonal as it gets.

• 🎸 Critically acclaimed brothers and sisters pop-rock quartet The Magic Numbers play King’s Cross venue Lafayette on Sunday too, as part of their mini Christmas Love-in tour.

• 🎅🏼 With the recent death of Shane MacGowan, expect a particularly poignant but no less raucous show, as top tribute act The Pogue Traders Christmas Shindig takes over Dingwalls this Thursday (21st).

CAMDEN DIARY

Festive parties remind why it’s so good to live in this city

The weekly Camdenist column: a week of living, working and playing in the borough…

SATURDAY: To a proper neighbourhood Christmas house party on our road. It’s an annual affair, and much like the life-affirming summer get togethers of the local crop of street parties, this winter version is a reminder of just what a cosmopolitan and interesting bunch of people cling on to living in - or at least regularly frequenting - Camden, despite the Borough’s stratospheric housing pressures. Across ages and demographics, politically progressive, vague bohemian, always highly driven types still abound ‘round here. Yes, we’re sadly occupying a bit of a bubble - perhaps even a bubble within the wider London bubble - where forward-thinking ideas around identity, acceptance and community genuinely do cut through the depressing, manufactured differences that seem to preoccupy too many people elsewhere. But everyone is welcome to join and widen Camden’s bubble of tolerance and creative thinking. In fact, we’d solve a helluva lot of social problems if more people did - and that’s not just the mulled wine talking…

MONDAY: Former Guardian journalist Dave Hill’s OnLondon website is a fantastic source of info and commentary on the ins-and-outs of the city’s politics, environment and culture. He was throwing a festive bash/year in review for supporters of the site, and the great ‘n’ the good from an assortment of London’s key organisations and governing bodies. The pervading sentiment? That 2023 has been damn hard for everyone, and the state of national and global disorder has done us no favours in dealing with the challenges on our doorsteps. Little to disagree with there, but also - as there should be - a hushed optimism is built in to such talk. Good things emerge from times of adversity, and while we might not be there yet, London’s dynamic ability to capitalise on whatever hits us next might just see 2024 - dare we say it - start to see some more positive outcomes emerging.

This weekly Camdenist newsletter is run on Beehiiv.

It’s the new all-in-one tool tailored for growing email newsletters (rather than plan old marketing mails), so it’s the ideal platform for us – and one you might want to explore too.

Try Beehiiv absolutely free with no credit card required.