For anyone over a certain age – the threshold of which seems to be decreasing towards the mid-teens – there can often be the sense that we’re ‘living in the future’.

Unsettling moments of reflection remind us that the tools, structures and practices of daily life are racing away from the ones we felt we knew, just a few short years back.

As more and more of modern life resembles something we’d previously only encountered in sci-fi dramas, this is an understandable, unavoidable reaction. How can our poor hunter-gather brains ever be expected to cope with this pace of change?

Nowhere – at lease locally – represents this hyper-exciting-yet-scary tension more tangibly than King’s Cross. It’s the thrusting juxtaposition of the solid, analogue Victorian railway infrastructure with the complex ambiguity behind the ‘statement’ office towers we’ve witnessed rise up all around.

Inside these shimmering edifices, many of the AI breakthroughs responsible for our collective sense of future shock are being developed. Stand in the middle of it all and that customary feeling of wonder/overwhelm at human progress can be enjoyed/feared in its full utopian/dystopian realisation.

No matter which of those opposing viewpoints resonates most, we all seem to agree that these rapid changes will require us to learn new skills if we hope to keep on top of things, and that doesn’t just mean getting CoPilot to write a bland email for you.

The popularity of activities that put us back in touch with our neglected physicality, humanity and consciousness demonstrate this appetite. Which is why King’s Cross is also - naturally - where you’ll find the current, ongoing Equanimity Festival, offering all manner of digital respite, right in the belly of the beast.

Need proof? Witness the wobbly flesh of rosy-flushed bodies emerging from wooden sauna caravans and plunging into steel baths of icy water, chanting and snoozing inside the Slomo tipi, that’s all been happening directly outside the doors of Meta’s gleaming London HQ over recent weeks.

As part of this fiesta of much-needed reconnecting wellbeing, I took up the offer of ‘reviewing’ the MOT check-in offered by Coal Drops Yard therapy-as-a-high-street-service operator Self Space. Their approach is well suited to our current predicament, treating a 50-min mental health drop-in as one of modern life’s consumer essentials.

I rolled up in the midst of yet another financial crunch day on the perma-precipice of operating local media titles in this disruptive era, so I was quick off the mark in venting a few of the challenges.

I do love a bit of therapy, since having an approved space for talking all about me feels delightfully self-indulgent - even more so if we can tease out a nugget or two of genuine self-realisation in the process.

The ‘MOT’ format is far from the standard long-term client-therapist relationship, but that’s the point. You can rock up without planning, and have a chat about anything.

Art Psychotherapist Kristina zoned in on my work-related frustrations; the disproportionate time and efforts put in for the revenues received. Much like the semi-clad bodies outside Facebook just round the corner, it felt like I was bringing the raw challenges right to the source.

Realising that I had accepted a freebie in order to discuss how I shouldn‘t be working for free was suitably meta. There was just enough time to explore how such pressures might be coped with, but the impossibility of really knowing how our work, play and all the rest is being transformed loomed large.

Last week, Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of another nearby company, DeepMind, (now at Microsoft) predicted in an FT interview that the majority of jobs that involve ‘sitting down at a computer’ will be fully automated within the next 18 months.

That coincided with the viral essay smash hit of the week (84 million views on X/Twitter alone, and very much still counting) by AI researcher Matt Shumer, who compared this moment to February in 2020, when the Covid pandemic was about to hit.

This approaching AI/job tsunami will be more dramatic, though, he said.

While these AI guys have certain amounts to gain from taking a highly shareable headline-grabbing position, the direction of travel is clear. If you feel like you’re living in the future now, just wait until… the spring, or the end of the year.

The high street of the future may be hollowed out by Amazon and Deliveroo, but new outlets like Self Space are sure to be filling some of the empty units, as the need to talk, to find our humanity, and to make the space to think about what we do next, becomes all the more important.

Just as King’s Cross represents the meeting of the old and the new, making sure we also have some connection with the now is going to be more important than ever. We’re lucky to have it all out there on our doorsteps.

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After the soaraway success of last Friday’s indie bookshops trail, this week we thought it might be time to shine a light on some lovely hidden spots to grab a decent coffee and pastry, or perhaps something more substantial, at the best little local cafes that are otherwise hidden from view, inside somewhere else…

🍵 HOME Café - Venture deep into the handsome backstreets of Primrose Hill to find this special café inside the area’s reborn yoga hub, now called HOME. You’ll find Mission Coffee Works beans, masses of herbal teas and gut-friendly brews and a vegetarian all-day menu from local producers like Natoora and Hodemedod’s, picked for their minimally grown produce and British grains and pulses.

🍵 The English Folk Dance Society’s home base at Cecil Sharp House also has a weekday café to enjoy if you venture inside, offering freshly made breakfasts, sarnis and more.

🍵 The impressive former Methodist chapel now operating as Camden Arts Project has a delightful arty pit-stop cafe in the reception, with Little Bread Pedlar in charge of the coffee and pastries, open Wed-Sun on Prince of Wales Rd.

🍵 Remember to head up to the mezzanine level if you’re buying some plants at Camden Garden Centre, to enter the oasis that is Pritchard & Ure, where not only do they serve exceptional food and coffee, but you’ll also be able to browse books and antiques in their quirky cerebral space as you happily while away some time.

🍵 Berkeley Bake House is the latest café operator inside Triyoga on Jamestown Rd in the heart of Camden Town, which is always a serene escape from the madness on the High St. It certainly smells nice, but there’s little info online about it, so I can only say follow your nose…

🍵 Up on Finchley Road, Camden Art Centre’s Bar Bicicletta (pictured above) is a popular indoor social hub and garden terrace spot serving a seasonal range of dishes, from organic breakfasts through to small plates of Italian inspired food and curated wines after dark.

🍵 Modern urban street art specialists Camden Open Air Gallery have a suitably stylish café just inside their doors if you are looking for a more genuine hangout on Camden’s main drag, and a spot to sip a cappuccino sat on their bespoke plywood furniture while contemplating some art.

🍵 You will need a ticket, but the Dickens Museum’s Artful Tea Room rewards you with hot brews and sweet things in the Victorian townhouse where the great author wrote some of his most famous work.

🍵Up in Hampstead, the café at Burgh House is renowned for its fruit scones and Cornish cream teas in a lovely garden and courtyard setting at this Grade I listed early Georgian historic property and art collection.

Know any other hidden spots Camdenist readers should head out to discover? Reply to this email with you own favourites and we’ll add them to the list ☕

CLUB: 🪩 Techno hero Mr G is going to be digging deep for an extended DJ session tonight, Fri 20th Feb, as the Jazz Cafe pays homage to one of the scene’s most enduring talents.

MUSIC: 🎹 Fat Concubine play their distinctly unhinged live electronic dance sounds tonight, Fri 20th Feb, at Farsight Gallery as dancefloor euphoria meets mosh-pit chaos in this backstreet West End spot.

SOCIAL: 🌅 The Sunrise Club is a regular gathering of early-risers at the top of Primrose Hill at dawn each Saturday morning. Then everyone heads to Roots Café on Regent’s Park Rd for discounted coffees and vibrant social interaction.

RUN: 🏃🏻‍♀️‍➡️ The NW5Trotters are a new, small but growing local running group who meet on Wednesday mornings at 7am at Lilac Coffee in Kentish Town (near the tube) and take a 6k loop around the ponds on Hampstead Heath at a steady pace, before returning for some of Lilac’s excellent coffee afterwards.

MUSIC: 🎸 The Campaign for Musical Destruction has been going for 36 years, with Napalm Death headlining pretty much all of them. The crew are back with thrash metal legends Whiplash, punk rockers The Varukers and an as yet unannounced special guest on Tues 24th Feb at Electric Ballroom.

COMEDY: 😂 The 4th edition of Soho Calling sees 30 exciting emerging comedy talents hitting multiple stages including The 100 Club, 21Soho, Phoenix Arts Club, The Social, B.R.A.T, Anotherland and Third Man Records on Wed 25th Feb.