We’re getting lots more lovely places to stay… or at least to drop in

Ok, we know most Camdenist readers will have an existing bed they can call their own right here the borough already, but it’s nevertheless alluring to hear about a few hot new hotels opening up nearby too, right?

Whether your interest is purely practical (handy spots to know if accommodating an overspill of guests when your cramped London home just can’t/won’t) or impurely decadent (a plush new option for late night cocktails, or a travel-free destination for a sexy overnight escape, perhaps 😏) there’s a tasty slew of such places incoming right now.

• 🍸New boutique townhouse hotel Broadwick Soho has been counting down the days to its imminent opening by posting a series of lush photos online, variously trailing sumptuous bedrooms and lounges with 1920s stylings. Their new rooftop bar, Flute, boasts a wraparound outdoor terrace and a showstopping bar - it all looks very tasty.
  

• 🛎️ Nearby on Marylebone Lane, The BoTree is already offering lashings of Instagrammable luxury, having opened last month in a prime spot: the former site of loved/hated brutalist classic Welbeck St NCP car park, which the hotel’s owners controversially bulldozed. In its place has risen an eco-conscious palace reminiscent of Vegas or Singapore, (which is apt, as the in-house Italian restaurant Lavo has outposts in both cities).
  

• ⛪ The Wesley Camden Town is the second local hotel under that name, following on from the Euston original, but this time situated up the road, on Plender St. It adopts the same innovative model, whereby the local Methodist Church turns part of their historic building into a series of snug urban hotel rooms, capitalising on the church’s enviable locations while making good reuse of a bit of surplus prime real estate.
  

• 🏦 A bit further north, historic Hornsey Town Hall in Crouch End has been revamped with the addition of an arts centre, restaurants, posh flats and - you guessed it – a stylish new hotel. You’ll soon be able to sleep in rooms that have original ironmongery and wood paneling from the one-time award-winning municipal hub, each with their own kitchens, too. There’s a rooftop bar for cocktail-hungry blow-ins, if that’s more your intention. It’s trickily known as Dao by Dorsett Hornsey Town Hall, which belies it as the latest addition to a Hong Kong-based chain, already operating a similar aparthotel concept in Shepard’s Bush. That one is right next door to the legendary Empire music venue - good to know when planning a gig-based staycation out West.

ART

🎨 Meanwhile - attractive things to buy

Another proposed hip hotel development, this time at the top of Chalk Farm Rd, was the reason the incumbent Domino’s Pizza and Bite Me Burger had to leave their long-standing units not so long ago.

But with the complexities of the big bucks construction business, the first spade has yet to go into the ground (or whatever), meaning that the area has gained a couple of very lovely ‘meanwhile’ art spaces, both in situ for the foreseeable.

As mentioned in this newsletter previously, impressive pop-up gallery and creative hub provider The Koppell Project (who can also be found just up the hill, hanging art in the cells at Hampstead’s old Police Station) have taken one of the units.

Next door, expanding into the area after a spell in Covent Garden, Adorn The Common is a beautiful minimalist shop space, filled with carefully curated, often cheeky art and attractive homeware.

Look out for pieces by Camden Black Creatives founder Caroline Chinakwe, which really light up the room, or grab a clever gift that’ll still wow that difficult special someone who ‘has everything’.

3 MORE TO TRY

• 🎓 Holborn’s bright and cheery Not Just A Shop is packed with home decor, fashion and gifts all designed by students and alumni of arts uni UAL. Not only is it a great place for scooping up one-of-a-kind pieces, but all the proceeds go back into supporting students and graduates to set up their own design businesses.
  

• 💥 Celebrating the area’s long and colourful street art history, Camden Open Air Gallery treats graffiti with the respect and cultural importance it has rightly earned. You can pick up pieces by some of London’s most talented urban artists.
  

• 🪑 South End Green’s celebrated Grade I listed Isokon Gallery, was the modernist pre-war enclave of influential artists, architects, authors and spies. You can take a look around for free at weekends, however the 2023 season ends in a couple of weeks, so you’ve got to be quick. Their shop offers exclusive items ranging from minimalist mugs and postcards to classic Isokon plywood furniture pieces, and items dedicated to the building’s most celebrated resident, Agatha Christie.

FOOD & DRINK

Oh we do love a glam rooftop, even if we have to wait

If you thought that the forthcoming top floor bars at Broadwick Soho and Hornsey Town Hall were already an embarrassment of rooftop riches for one edition of the newsletter, we come bearing news of an even bigger one.

It might not be open for some time, on account of the building not being anywhere near completion, but the sizeable development at Camden Goods Yard has announced a ‘farm to fork’ restaurant, as part of the plans for its rooftop urban farm.

As passers-by may have spotted, the towers are rising swiftly on the former railway yard that was once home to that big local Morrisons superstore, and the site promises ‘cafes, restaurants and shops’ as part of the final package, which are sure to have enviable views right across Primrose Hill and Regent’s Park as you sip those sundowner cocktails.

Meanwhile, we still patiently await updates on the two huge local rooftop hangouts previously mentioned, due to arrive at some point overlooking different sides of Piccadilly Circus.

The Skybar on the roof of the former Trocadero seems to have been indefinitely delayed, and while we’re talking hold-ups, whatever did happen to the opening of the 200-cover restaurant space atop Hawley Wharf, earmarked with fanfare a couple of years back by Michelin-starred super chef Richard Corrigan?

He seems to have focused his top floor aspirations on the (indoor) dining rooms down the road at the National Portrait Gallery instead, so the prime Camden Town roof remains a top spot for an ambitious operator who can pull the crowds - but who might it be?

🍹 27 more Camden rooftops where you can eat and drink with a view.

CAMDEN DIARY

What a mind-boggling waste

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

TUESDAY: To an odd early morning rendezvous in the loading bay of a building near Holborn. Until recently, the vast floors above were occupied by a banking firm, but the whole place is currently being cleared for new tenants. That means ripping out everything - complete kitchens, miles of carpet, hundreds of glass partitions, bespoke solid wood reception desks, lighting, even electrical sockets - all so that the next company can install pretty much the same things in a slightly different configuration. This is the not-so-secret scandal of the waste involved in today’s corporate (and indeed retail) refits.

We’d been invited down as part of a circular economy initiative to try and divert some of this ‘waste’ to reuse rather than refuse. Expecting it all to be fairly shocking, the scale of the unwanted, almost brand new fittings was still overwhelming. Our guide regaled us with further eye-watering tales of other clearance jobs involving destroying hundreds of never-used chairs, and how many thousands of unwanted tables we could pick up if we could receive them all this week before they ran out of storage space.

Obviously efforts to reduce this profligate waste are happening, with clever startups dashing into the market, but it’s quite clearly the tip of a very big iceberg. A whole rethink about how we kit out buildings - of any kind - is overdue. One where we take pleasure in making do, rather than ripping out and starting again. Big companies might feel it reflects badly on their carefully honed corporate image, but if the waste story behind every gleaming HQ was revealed, that would surely end up looking a hell of a lot worse.

WEDNESDAY: Age UK London has published a report into what it’s like to be one of the capital’s older crowd. The day’s headlines seemed to focus on the finding that ‘just 13% of Londoners over the age of 60 believe the city is a place where older people are valued’, yet actually -and far more positively - the majority (59%) of older respondents said they ‘loved life in the capital and struggle to imaging living elsewhere.’

As with all such snapshots, everyone quickly identifies a hot take that fits their political or social agenda, but the cliche of a resentful and neglected older generation doesn’t line up with the enthusiastic 60+ Camden residents to be found deeply enjoying urban life, all over the borough. Not everyone dreams of a quiet retirement out in the sticks, and we’d have preferred to see news stories about just how many older people positively thrive on the culture and bustle on their doorsteps, since the report did contain plenty of that, too. If you want to make up your own mind, you can delve into the full report here.

MUSIC

Live gigs to go see, all on your doorstep this week, whatever your age

•  🕺 Catch the cult funk ensemble Brooklyn Funk Essentials along with house music legend Alison Limerick at Camden Town’s reborn backstreet venue The Forge tonight.

• 🎸 Broaden your global musical horizons courtesy of a rare visit from Nepalese folk, rock and blues fusion band, Sabin Rai and The Pharaoh, who perform at the Scala tomorrow (Sat. 21st).

• 🎻 Top chamber ensemble London Mozart Players play Purcell, Handel, Bach and Vivaldi in the lovely hall at Henrietta Barnet School this Sunday night (22nd).

• ⚡British electronic duo Overmono take over the main space at Chalk Farm’s epic Roundhouse on Wednesday (25th) with only a few tickets left.

Gig highlights in association with Halibuts.com

MORE GOSSIP & THINGS TO DO

• ➡️ Tomorrow (Sat 21st) sees local arts, crafts, fashion and jewelry alongside music, food, Funkin’ Cocktails bar, panel discussions and more at Camden Collective’s free all-day event Black Creators Market.

• ➡️ Ales and Antics is the new weekly stand-up comedy show at scenic tow-path tap room 3 Locks Brewery every Tuesday evening, with host AMJ, under the arches and the twinkling lights at Hawley Wharf.

• ➡️ King’s Cross-based advertising agency Havas ended up with a full-on Extinction Rebellion protest in their foyer last week. The issue? Taking on oil and gas giant Shell as a client. Not sure how this squares with their status as a supposedly squeakily ethical B-Corp, so expect to see more such eco-kerfuffles on Pancras Square.

• ➡️ St Pancras Cruising Club have been in touch with news that this Saturday (21st) is your last chance this year to go up the historic waterpoint tower, with a free 1-hour tour where you’ll discover loads of King’s Cross railway history.

• ➡️ Locally-based architectural dynamo Thomas Heatherwick has been railing against buildings that are too flat, plain, straight, flat, shiny, monotonous, anonymous and serious as he launches his new book on the topic, Humanise. He reserved praise for Highgate Road’s quirky new build The Arches, though, which is certainly none of the above.

• ➡️ Bravo to all-round hospitality good eggs Green & Fortune, who won two prestigious awards the other night for their events, sustainability cred and charitable outreach in King’s Cross and across town.

FREE TRAVEL - HAVE YOU HAD YOURS?

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