More developments on our upcoming pop-up weekend in NW5’s proposed cinema

Following the announcement of Poster Sale! last week, we’re happy to reveal further info about this exciting pop-up, which takes place across the weekend of 23rd - 26th November in Kentish Town.

We’ve teamed up with much loved, locally-based refugee charity Choose Love so the event will be in aid of their tireless work with the world’s dispossessed.

They’ll be bringing their famous line of fund-raising Choose Love merch to Poster Sale!, adding yet another reason to visit this unique pre-Christmas market that’s celebrating movie, music and games posters - and the artist who make them.

We can also reveal that complementary drinks at the private view will be provided by Brockmans - distillers of the Properly Improper Gin.

You can try both their intensely smooth original and also Brockmans Orange Kiss gin, where triple sec is added to the botanicals for a drink akin to ‘sunset in a glass’… so do make sure you join us for an autumnal sundowner (or two) on Thurs 23rd from 6pm-9pm. Full info here.

PARTNER OFFER

🧱 Brick Sixty are having a studio sale - and Camdenist readers get 10% off

We’re big fans of local product designers Brick Sixty and their iconic, hand cast range of London brick-shaped soaps, candle holders (pictured), chocolate bars and more.

And this Saturday (11th Nov) we all finally get the chance to peek inside their studio, which can be found - suitably enough - in those lovely red brick arches on Pancras Rd, the last remnants of the huge Victorian era Somers Town Goods Yard that once operated there.

The event is also the debut of a range of limited edition Giclée prints, which will be available exclusively for the first time at the event, too.

Read more about Brick Sixty, the prints, studio sale and founder Billy in this week’s Camdenist feature here.

FOOD & DRINK

Promising openings, shock closures and a few refurbs for good measure

• 🍷 Hot on the heels of opening a new backstreet Bar Rioja in King’s Cross courtyard, trusted Spanish fave Camino have knocked through from their main restaurant to a retail unit on Pentonville Road and are opening an aperitivo bar there next week. Look out for a range of all the regional classic spirits and wines with accompanying charcuterie, cheeses and quality lunchtime sarnis.

• ☕ Popular nerdy coffee and brunch specialists WatchHouse have just opened a beautiful new corner cafe in the former carpet shop on Haverstock Hill, where all your wildest rare flavour profile and pour over dreams can now be realised.

• 🥕 The Camden Town branch of vegan champions Mildreds has reopened after a bit of contemporary restyling, which looks to have fitted in a far few more tables. This is obviously a good thing, as it’s been bumping in there every night this week.

• 🍺 Off-Piccadilly Circus pubs tend to be a little trad-tourist, but the reopening of the Devonshire Arms has two acclaimed food/pub experts driving the project, so all looks very promising. They’ve turned it back into a proper boozer downstairs, and are also bucking the trend that we highlighted a few weeks ago for plain font pub signage by fully embracing all things gold leaf and hand-painted, as this beautiful video shows.

• 🍝 NOTTO, the quality-but-affordable pasta bar from Michelin-starred chef Phil Howard, is opening a new branch in Covent Garden next week and it’s already looking set to be another smash hit.

• ☠️ Shock immediate-effect closure news of the week was CAVO, the £multi-million 240 cover mega-restaurant that’s been open less than a year at the Now Building on Tottenham Court Rd. It was tricky to find, cost big bucks to visit and earned this withering review from Jay Rayner, so not the best of starts, really. As per last week’s musings on the environmental cost of ripping out one style of eatery just ‘coz it doesn’t fit the theme of the next, we’ll be watching this one closely to see who/what appears there next - and how.

• 🍻 Scenic waterfront railway arch brewery 3 Locks celebrates its first birthday tomorrow with a full day of live music, freshly brewed beer and festivities at Hawley Wharf.

• 🌹 As it’s Remembrance Sunday weekend, Primrose Hill’s plant-based Manna is doing a special £24 three-course menu in support of the Royal British Legion, but do make sure to book ahead.

• 🍖 Black History Season is the gift that keeps on giving, including a special pop-up supper club tonight at top local Tapping The Admiral, courtesy of neighbouring front garden grill guys Vibe ‘n Go and a spoken word supper at Inverness St’s Ma Petite Jamaica on Wednesday. Book both here.

MORE GOSSIP & THINGS TO DO

• 🎭 If you are scared by all things big tech and want to help shape a new piece of theatre (a play about about mothering against a backdrop of technocapitalism based on Mary Shelley, no less), then join the open rehearsals this week at Camden People’s Theatre for a show to be called Mary & Her Monster. The finished work can then be seen at the Pleasence Theatre’s Futures Festival next month.

• 📸 Google’s Street View will soon be going underground, offering a visual map deep down inside key local tube stations including Camden Town, King’s Cross and Euston. It’s great for accessibility and pre-planning cross town travel for anyone - look out for the camera-in-backpack team shooting the pics in the coming weeks to dodge being one of the fuzzy-faced commuters captured in the footage.

• 🤗 Lacuna is the new museum of empathy and emotional intelligence based at Camden Collective auction rooms on Buck St. Their mission is to improve our mental health via workshops, exhibitions and regular Friday night chess sessions.

• 🧑🏽‍🎨 Fault Lines is an exhibition by Lebanese artist Ramzi Mallat at Chalton St’s P21 Gallery with art that explores the socio-political impact of globalisation on notions of identity and self. Runs through to 25th Nov.

• 🌏 The Brunei Gallery at SOAS is celebrating the Society’s bicentenary with Extraordinary Endeavours a show that uses their collection of rare books, manuscripts, paintings, photographs, and maps to reveal how Asian works of literature, art, and religion made a lasting impression on British culture.

MUSIC

Live shows happening ‘round here this week

• 🎙️ Contemporary folk singer Hannah Scott performs her powerful songs at the intimate (and still threatened) King’s Cross music pub The Harrison tonight.

• 🎷 EFG London Jazz Festival kicks off this weekend with Hampstead Jazz Club as one of the key smaller venues. Many of the shows are already sold out, but if you’re quick you might be able to grab the final tickets for blues singer pianist Jeremy Sassoon tomorrow night (11th).

• 🎤 South African punk/glam rock sisters The Soap Girls (pictured above) are bringing their raw and exciting tour to the Dublin Castle on Saturday (11th).

• ⚡ Disruptive Japanese music agency WACK host their first ever overseas showcase at Underworld on Thursday (16th), bringing with them a selection of nonconventional acts that continue to make waves at home - and now in London too.

Gig highlights in association with Halibuts.com

CAMDEN DIARY

After all this time, will Bloomsbury end up with a dull tower where culture was once incubated?

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

SATURDAY: A visit from some out-of-towner friends presented the opportunity to experience Camden Market as the 13 million or so tourists who visit each year do. Putting cynical local preconceptions aside (always a good exercise) and delving into the relentless crowds that teem around the Stables reveals quite the full-throttle multi-sensory day out that’s delivered to wide-eyed visitors. It may not be the treasure trove of quirky fashion, antiques and bohemiana that it once was, but for an era of short attention spans, descending into the fluro onslaught of Cyberdog or marveling at the queues for £10 Insta-fabulous chips is nevertheless a signature London cultural experience. One day, people will be reminiscing about all this madness too. Despite the annoying hordes, there’s plenty for locals to uncover here (The Good Egg, Epicurus and Ester are all new and doing great things), and if nothing else, giving in to being a tourist in your own back yard is really rather fun.

TUESDAY: Holborn residents are up in arms over the proposed redevelopment of Museum Street, which goes to planning next week. As per the usual narrative, the application is for a fairly bland-but-big tower, aiming to claim significantly more height and girth than the incumbent buildings. Residents say it will ruin the look of historic Bloomsbury, and breaks a whole raft of local environmental promises. The developer says it will improve the streetscape and includes affordable housing and green space (yes, as always). It’s the latest chapter in a particularly drawn-out saga for this corner of the neighbourhood, which has had various plans and owners come and go over the last 15 years. Culturally, the loss of The End nightclub and it’s upstairs bar/restaurant AKA on West Central St back in 2009 was a major blow to London’s then world-beating nightlife scene. A whole generation - who experienced many a formative, life-affirming moment in those underground postal tunnels - have sat and watched in disbelief as the proposed repurposing of the building has endlessly failed to materialise. Having had my own viral editorial hit a whole decade ago via a feature about the closure of this and four other lost 90s nightclubs, it is a reminder that cities are in a constant state of flux, but also that change can often take bloody ages to happen. If the application is granted, it will finally see the end of the once-hallowed rave spot - but with such strong local opposition, further years of urban impasse are not inconceivable.

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