FOOD & DRINK

🍺 We went inside The Constitution this week to see what they’ve got planned - and it’s properly ambitious

We’ve always been pretty spoilt for decent pubs right across Camden, even with plenty of sad closures over the years, too.

But seriously bucking the national trend - and hopefully pointing towards a brighter outlook for hospitality in 2024 - is the cheery news that no less than four currently shuttered local boozers will be back serving customers again imminently.

This week we had a nose around one of our absolute faves from the past, Pancras Way’s The Constitution, complete with its enviable waterside beer garden and legendary off-the-Camden-circuit basement music venue.

It was mothballed suddenly in 2020, and although owned by brewery Young’s who at least always intended to reopen it as a public house again, with Covid and ambitious planning applications in the mix, the building and its sun-trap garden has sat forlornly, frustratingly quiet (other than the squatters) for four years.

As you’ll see, Young’s are currently giving the place a complete overhaul, including a new all-weather rooftop dining terrace atop a big new extension.

There’s plenty of news about their plans for the food, music and comedy too, and how they really want the local to feel like the place is theirs again when it opens back up in February.

Three more cherished locals that will soon be back on the map

• The Lady Hamilton, Kentish Town Rd - Closed down earlier this year, (on account of the hospitality industry’s myriad challenges being exacerbated to breaking point by Kentish Town tube station being shut until next summer), this historic high street pub is set to return under new management in early 2024. Intriguingly, the incoming operators currently own a boutique hotel on the outskirts of New York City, so we await their interpretation of a North London local. It’s fantastic to hear that the old gal should be back serving pints soon, though.

• Lord Southampton, Southampton Rd (pictured) - Now this one is a real unexpected turn-up for the books, as it’s exactly the type of backstreet boozer that almost inevitably ends up converted into flats. When it went to auction a few months ago, all signs pointed to that outcome, but instead the successful new owners have applied for a fresh drinks license, meaning the public house will return! It’s unsure whether the affordable hostel accommodation upstairs will continue, and sadly, objections have already been lodged by some very uncompromising neighbours, but while the application goes through, you can take a peek inside via this very revealing video, to see just what a hidden gem it is, assuming a lick of paint - and the support of locals with their patronage.

• Duke of St Albans, Swains Lane - As we reported back in the summer, this historic staging post before the big horse-drawn hill climb up to Highgate was left abandoned, with the tables still laid, when previous wine bar operator, Swains, couldn’t pay the rent. It has sat empty while the dust has settled on the place settings, with a blackboard offering ‘easter specials’, ever since. But word is that a new operator will soon be reopening the spot, which boasts a lovely central horseshoe bar. Incongruous rumors that ‘an estate agent’ was set to take over the pub circulated online recently, but have been squashed in favour of - if not a proper pub - almost certainly a place to sit with a decent drink after a walk on nearby Hampstead Heath.

MORE FOOD & DRINK NEWS

• 🥗 It’s odd to think that Ottolenghi’s hasn’t already got a Hampstead branch, but that anomaly is about to change, as they soft-opened on the main drag this week, and will be fully up and running for Monday.

• ☕ Also opening this week is Long Acre’s latest cafe-by-day, wine-bar-by-night Capilungo, which aims to bring Puglia to Covent Garden.

• Time Out and the Evening Standard have been among the over-excited food media dutifully doing their nut this week about the arrival of ‘the UK’s biggest ever kebab house’ on Oxford Street. Kebhouse is big in Spain and Italy, with the London branch including three-floors of video games, art installations and immersive fun for while you chomp on their acclaimed ‘babs.

ARTS & CULTURE

A’hoy! Them there’s some Pirates! at The Place

Christmas family shows don’t have to be just frumpy Widow Twankies and comedy beanstalks, as Euston dance institution The Place are proving once again, from 16-24 December.

They’ve invited the excellent Scottish Dance Theatre aboard, who are bringing dancing zombies, strange underwater creatures and a wicked Admiral in the festive family show Pirates!

Read all about it in today’s Camdenist interview with their artistic director, where you can find out more about the show, buy tickets - and if you fancy a punt at winning some…

MORE ARTS, CULTURE & THINGS TO DO

• 🛥️ The Widgeon Theatre Boat is currently moored at King’s Cross (next to bookshop barge Word on the Water) with a programme of events, including wreath-making and a floating comedy show tonight headlined by Phil Kay.

• 💚 Camden New Journal’s local answer to environmental summit COP28 takes place this Saturday, with free-to-attend talks, activities and a sustainable fair, all at the Irish Centre on Camden Square.

• 🎨 Another new piece of public art has arrived to celebrate the grand opening of the new Brent Cross West Thameslink station this Sunday. It’s 48 metres long, by artist Giles Round, and you can watch a 1-min video all about it here.

• 😢 Chalk Farm’s innovative art gallery the Zabludowicz Collection has announced it’s sudden closure at the end of next weekend. With our interest is arts spaces on Prince of Wales Rd, as explored at the recent Poster Sale/cinema pop-up, we asked them what might be happening next in the space, but all they told us (twice!) was “all options are being considered, and there is much hope to be able to continue the building’s community use.” Hmm.

• 📽️ Following in our esteemed footsteps (we like to think), Camden Young Filmmakers are running their very own free pop-up cinema this Sunday at Lissenden Gardens, showing community shorts on the tennis courts.

SHOPPING

It’s not just pubs, either - a new record shop just opened, too

• ⚫ New vinyl emporium, coffee shop and alcohol-free bar, Raven Records, has opened on Camden Rd, well-placed for tapping into the area’s considerable enclave of heavy metal fans.

• 📦 In more local vinyl news, long-time pop-up crate-diggers Kozmic Record Fair are now at Hawley Wharf every day until Xmas, offering an epic present-buying opportunity for the record-lover in your life.

• 🕯️Interiors and accessories people West And Hill currently have a festive pop-up (until 24th Jan) on the pastures of Parliament Hill on Swains Lane, offering gift ideas and nice things that are sure to improve your life through lovely design.

• 🧱 Our friends at gift designers Brick Sixty had so much fun opening up their studio last month that they’re doing it again this Saturday, and like before, Camdenist readers get 10% off just by flashing this email when at the till.

CIRCULAR ECONOMY

• 💻 Second Chance Store is a pop-up where you can find 1,000s of products that have been returned to Amazon selling for up to half price, with all profits going to charity Barnardos. It’s open at Brunswick until Tuesday (12th).

• 🔫 The good folk at Library of Things are pushing the idea of borrowing the tools you need over Xmas (or when battling the elements keeping your home warm in the colder months) as opposed to buying them. Check out loads of ideas from thermal imaging cameras to detect drafts to sewing machines for making your own DIY fashion presents.

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MUSIC

Lively local gigs all week, as the festive season bestows its musical bounty

• Dingwalls’ Canal Bar is the place to go tonight for a special showcase of four raucous north London bands: Say Yes Do Nothing, The Tiger Moths, Levee and Lana Shelley Band.

• 🪩 Join club music vocal royalty tomorrow (Sat 9th)at the Jazz Cafe when Julie McKnight belts out the high energy seasonal soul at a pre-Xmas disco extravaganza.

• 🎻 London’s favourite all-singing all-cello-playing band The Massive Violins throw a Christmas-tinged bash at Cecil Sharp House on Tuesday (12th)

• 🎶 House Gospel Choir will be fusing their trademark blend of vocal influences at 02 Forum Kentish Town this Wednesday (13th) with a special rousing and festive concert.

• 🎸 Northern Irish rockers Therapy? are back at Electric Ballroom on Thursday (14th), and it’s the only London gig of the current UK-wide tour supporting their latest LP.

  
  Pick of the week’s local gig highlights in association with Halibuts.com

CAMDEN DIARY

AI questions and AI rappers

The weekly Camdenist column: observations and frustrations from living, working and playing in the borough…

TUESDAY: Camden’s local/global innovation, education and science cluster, Knowledge Quarter, were running a lunchtime introduction session by their latest member: AutogenAI. I first heard of this fast-rising tech company when they were the Kentish Town neighbourhood-based business that raised over $22m back in the summer. Now in larger, swanky premises closer to the UK’s AI hub of King’s Cross, their team presented to representatives from 40-or-so KQ organisations, who came armed with -and eager to ask - A WHOLE LOT of questions. Despite our hosts explaining what their cutting edge product can do (it speeds up and massively improves the process of bid writing and grant applications) in as simple terms as our tiny minds could comprehend, it quickly became apparent that most people are really still trying to get a handle on how they feel towards AI in general. Therefore the questioning often segued from detail about a simple but powerful time-saving tool, to wider issues on the ethic of getting computers to write brilliant text for us. The overall effect was a strange one. Clearly, we’re right to be cautious in the face of some mind-bendingly powerful AI tools coming at us, but equally, it felt a bit like the assembled audience were going through the same tech-phobic motions as those who thought the advent of radio would kill off theatre, or that photography might steal a bit of our souls. In fact, we need to adapt to these totally new perameters of work faster than ever, to avoid willfully obsoleting ourselves through the age old fear of the unknown. We’re likely all using AI tools daily already anyway, and it’s really not the ones that might save us hours of lengthy form-filling that we need to be suspicious of.

WEDNESDAY: Last year I was blown away by a night of live performances at King’s Cross-based rehabilitation charity Only Connect. And the annual evening was back again this week, featuring a new cohort of talented rappers and singers plus, for the first time, a programmed AI ‘vocalist’, too. The show was just as entertaining and inspiring this time around, as was the chance to hear more about the charity’s work on the topics or relationships and money - the main two reasons that most people end up doing time in prison. It was also eye-opening to be surrounded by others who work in the rehabilitation sector, from the bakery mentoring (and damn fine bread being served) by The Dusty Knuckle to the resilience-building programmes of Catch 22. What stood out was how much everyone working in these services absolutely loved their work. Whether it was the reward of seeing offenders start to flourish, or the lifelong camaraderie that working together on making music produces, there’s a whole lot to be said about not giving up on the members of society that many people would rather lock up and forget.

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