With the annual break in the rhythms of life now thrust upon us - giving strange echoes of lockdown, don’t you think? - your Friday morning ritual of pawing through Camdenist can happily continue, regardless.

Hopefully our weekly dispatches over the festive period serve as an anchor of familiarity, steadying your ship with cultural inspiration to see you safely through the unpredictable yuletide storms.

Around that somewhat overblown maritime metaphor, this week we’re looking back at some of the very best local stories we’ve told over the last 12 months - a fond reminder of why this part of the world continues to thoroughly beguile us all.

With multiple links to savour once all the mince pies and familial interactions inevitably run thin, keep it in your inbox to dip back in to across the week, and happy reading…

FOOD & DRINK

A few of this year’s new places to chow down, here for you to digest

🦐 What happened when we went Wild at The Cross, the 90s nightclub reincarnated as a posh restaurant (at least on one of its five floors), yet retaining suitably hedonistic tendencies?

🚂 Without doubt the grandest of all local dining rooms was reborn this year, evoking the golden age of railway travel glam for diners and cocktail-sippers.

🐓 Before The Parakeet opened (and swiftly became among London’s hottest tables), we explored the transformation of a local boozer with plenty of history already under its belt.

🍵 Conscious credentials now get trotted out with every new opening, so it’s nice when somewhere like Good Company has them intrinsically hardwired into every element of their coffee shop/tap room.

🐚 London Shell Co's two floating restaurants have been a delightful feature of Regent’s Canal over recent years, making their sailing in to save a Bournes fishmongers and turn it into a Parli Hill seafood destination doubly exciting. (see below for a whopping 50% off in Jan…)

🥯 NYC style bagels blew up in the ‘hood big time this year, here’s where the schmear is being smeared.

🥘 How one Camden Market food trader ended up expanding big time… by taking over the site of a two Michelin starred success-story in St James’s for their second outpost.

🥩 Camden’s North Yard was also given a 2023 foodie glow-up with the arrival of serious newcomers including Middle Eastern American diner fusion Epicurus, experimental drinks joint Ester and the perennially good The Good Egg.

LOCAL PARTNERSHIP

Adventurers are going down the tube

This week we’ve been speaking to David from Mission Breakout, the popular escape room based in the long-disused - and reportedly haunted - Kentish Town South tube station.

He tells us about the three very different games you can play down there, all inspired by their unique surroundings, his investigations of the station’s paranormal side, and the challenge of working without daylight for the last seven years.

Read the interview and find out more about the games 

CULTURE

A few of the wonderful local creative endeavours we’ve highlighted in 2023

☎️ Ambitious plans to open up the former telephone exchange buried beneath Holborn were announced, including the country’s deepest licensed premises. The London Tunnels aims to be the capital’s hottest new cultural attraction within three years, plus we looked at other subterranean attractions you can visit today.

🧱 Repurposed urban infrastructure is also the name of the game at Gospel Oak’s thriving Undercraft creative community, where a warren of forgotten car parking under flats has been transformed into a multi-use space including arts and fashion classes, the London School of Mosaic, a radio station and a boxing gym.

🎧 Podcasts continue their seemingly unassailable dominance of today’s media landscape, and Camden is home to people who make some of the most listened-to ones out there. They were joined in 2023 by newscaster hero Jon Snow, so we unearthed 10 quirky facts about the local legend to celebrate.

👨🏼‍🎨 New openings in King’s Cross are generally world class, but the arrival of The Lightroom with first David Hockney, and now Tom Hanks fronting the shows has comprehensively blurred the lines between film, art, theatre and immersive experience.

GO PREMIUM!

MUSIC

Remembering when we got the Adult Autistic Choir to sing Christmas carols aboard a canal boat

Readers (and certainly our crew 🥶) will remember that this time last year we battled the elements, including a frozen solid canal, to bring you daily performances from aboard the Molly Anna floating open mic boat, throughout the festive break at King’s Cross.

Despite the bitter cold, plenty of local talent took to the stage, a selection of which you can enjoy again in these videos, including the Adult Autistic Choir who performed on the fist night up at the Gasholders, when the locks simply proved too frozen to allow our passage to Granary Square! 🧑🏼‍🎄🎄

CAMDEN DIARY

The weekly column about of living, working and playing in the borough will be back next year

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