Oh look, there’s Tottenham Court Road in the 80s! Aww, remember the legendary Dionysus kebabs!! Fag billboards!! Nipping into Our Price for a tape, Gultronics for a Walkman, and two branches of Ann Summers!!! Surely, the best of times.

Nostalgia is one of the few sure-fire methods left to grab a few seconds of our attention (alongside outrage, violence and kittens, of course) in today’s scroll-based lobotomised media badlands.

And of all the emotionally resonant tricks, it feels like the most innocent, right? A momentary reminder of fond youthful memories, of ‘simpler times’ and the last vestiges of continuity in today’s race towards relentless redevelopment and the future.

On platforms like Facebook, photos of the past offer blessed relief from all the synthetic garbage and ads that top and tail them, and the many communities/groups that specialise in such historic imagery have huge followings.

Often, comparing then/now photos of familiar-yet-different London streets, taken 80 or so years apart is fascinating, as are the memories posted beneath them in the comments. But this is social media in 2026, so there are also plenty of examples from less well-moderated or politically motivated groups featuring a rapid descent into conspiratorial thinking and casual prejudice.

It’s all too easy for misty-eyed reminiscences to slip into anger that today’s London (“Khan’s London”) isn’t as good, and the immigrants are to blame. Alongside the harmless retro-obsessives sit bad actors, bots and big money, all busy leveraging the power of a good image to suggest some kind of previous utopia, and whip up anger as to why it has apparently been ‘lost’.

The “I just want my country back” switcheroo, from people who have literally just been discussing how rough and gritty it was growing up in Camden in the 50s, or 60s, or 70s, or 80s…. Valid resentment at being priced out of beloved childhood neighbourhoods twisted into a reason to blame the less well off who have no choice but to live wherever they can.

Nostalgia-bait is harmless until it isn’t.

We could all do with checking our natural instinct for donning rose-tinted glasses when looking at the past, and remember that all life - especially our cities - is in a constant state of flux and change. If ever we feel the intended twinge of grief at the loss of those ‘simpler times’ in a photo, well, we’d better just face up to the uncomfortable truth that it reminds us of our own aging and mortality - and that really isn’t the fault of asylum seekers, lazy Gen Z’ers or whichever other arbitrary scapegoat it’s more comforting to put it down to.

The quite overwhelming outpouring of emotion on local streets over the last few days at Arsenal winning the Premiership is the nostalgia of the future. Millions of memories seared into Gooners’ consciousness to be drawn upon when that future inevitably ends up turning out ‘not as good as it used to be’.

All the same emotive elements; a sense of belonging, continuity with what’s gone before and the pain of the passage of time, fed into the horn-honking, song-chanting, flag-waving joy and chaos.

Yet in this case, they worked to bring everyone together in a shared moment - pure nostalgia in action in it’s rawest, most human sense - free from the tinkering of those who might want to harness it to divide us. For fans, the last 22 years of missing out on titles haven’t been rose-tinted at all, which is actually a rare but far more truthful way of reflecting on the past.

It’s up to us to stay vigilant as to how our fondest memories can easily be used against us. Arsenal fans today are full of excitement at what lies ahead, despite the absolute knowledge that the good times will always make way for something that feels… less so.

When we look at life today being the nostalgia of the future though, it makes us much more likely to want to jump up and down cheering with a stranger rather than sneer at them for being ‘other’, and to realise that the present day will always be the best of times, as it’s the only time we’ve truly got.

🍺 The Fleet Tavern is the new moniker for the beautiful but recently troubled former White Horse pub in South End Green (pictured above, 100-odd years ago), which reopened this week in it’s latest incarnation. Having been known as various short-lived pub, wine bar and social meeting space concepts over recent years, the new team are already successfully running local boozers including The Lord Stanley and the Tufnell Park Tavern, so this might be the one that sticks. The intentions certainly look good, with decent pub food, no music and convivial local vibes planned for an ace Victorian classic that should be a local destination in an area with plenty of pubs to flit between after a walk on the Heath.

🥳 Iconic local The Camden Eye has just reopened too after a major spruce-up and is back to running regular DJ and comedy nights as well as serving Camden Town’s thirsty travellers as the road splits outside the tube.

🍀 Holloway’s much-missed proper Irish boozer The Mother Red Cap is about to reopen after being boarded up for two years (sine the previous landlord retired) and the usual last-minute delays. Get ready for the craic.

🎶 It might only really be a name change, but Chalk Farm Rd’s legendary music pub currently known as Camden Assembly is preparing to bring back it’s old name, Barfly, which (if you didn’t know) has huge history as a hotbed for nurturing grassroots musical talent, so is getting all the heads a flutter in yet more nostalgia news this week.

👒 The epic beer garden at The Edinboro Castle was thoroughly revamped earlier in the spring and has reopened looking mighty swish, just in time for the recent hot weather plus the arrival of al fresco World Cup screenings next month.

🦄 There are few updates on last month’s news of the proposed return of historic music pub The Unicorn on Brecknock Rd, however we did spot the architect’s approved plans here.

🍻 Down in town, Wetherspoons have just announced they are to open a massive boozer on Shaftesbury Avenue. To be called Piccadilly Hall, it will take over a chunk of the former Trocadero Centre, most recently occupied by the unreconstructed bar-dancing cowgirl themed Coyote Ugly Saloon.

🚧 Work continues behind the tarpaulin-cladding on restoring beloved King’s Cross backstreet pub McGlynn’s by the artist Peter Doig, who bought the space and ran some unexpected pop-up art shows there last year. No idea when the grand reopening will be, but it’s being watched eagerly by pub aficionados after Doig’s claims it will return as a proper unpretentious little backstreet watering hole.

❓ However, questions remain over several shuttered locals, including the defunct Brewdog cast-off The Camden Road Arms, Gordan Ramsay’s ex, the recently squatted Grade II-listed York & Albany on Parkway and The Haverstock Tavern, aka the historic Load of Hay, which shut down suddenly a couple of weeks back, with no sign as to what will happen next. Let’s hope to be adding those three to the next successful round-up of saved and reborn boozers soon…

ART: 🖼️ Taking Shape is the latest major exhibition at Camden Art Projects showcasing new and recent works by influential British Pop Art pioneer Allen Jones. The exhibition, which opens with one of their excellent launch reception events on Thurs 4th Jun features paintings and sculptures alongside a major piece created specifically for this presentation, celebrating Jones's defining graphic style, vibrant use of colour, and provocative exploration of the human form (see pic above). Runs to 31st Aug.

MUSIC: 🔊 I went to the debut a year ago so have no hesitation in recommending all Jungle and D&B original heads go to Ray Keith presents The Renegade this Sat 30th May at The Jazz Cafe, as you’ll find the pioneer himself melding classics from 30 years of the London-born genre into a live band performance.

STAGE: 🎭 Catch a new play devised by members of Camden Youth Theatre, The Place We Made, tonight and tomorrow Fri 29th & Sat 30th May at New Diorama Theatre as 12 teenagers have had enough with modern life, to decide to make their own world to escape reality deep in the Scottish wilderness.

NIGHTLIFE: 🎛️ If you can stomach the sky-high final release ticket prices, then you’re likely going to be suitably wowed by perennial house music maestro Armand Van Helden who’s in town to smash the granny out of KOKO tonight, Fri 29th May.

STAGE: 🤡 It’s the kickoff of the 10th annual London Clown Festival with the traditional high energy Opening Cabaret showcasing many of the festival’s key acts in a special preview up at Jackson’s Lane on Sat 30th May before a fortnight of shows at Soho Theatre.

FOOD: 🍽️ New York’s celebrated French bistro, Bavette, which had a Covid-era fail at its first attempt to crack London over in Notting Hill, is opening in lovely Neal’s Yard this Thurs 4th Jun with an all-day menu of les grands classiques de la gastronomie Française and more besides.