That’s a provocative headline up there ⬆️ for this edition, right? Do bear with me while I explain.

Camdenist comes to you from the highrise suburbs of Singapore this week, where I’ve been visiting family. It’s a fascinating city state - at once miles ahead of us in factors like bold urban planning and zippy public transport, yet also strikingly old fashioned when it comes to social structures and laws.

Alongside the famously clean streets, crime rates are amongst the lowest in the world – a mix of hefty fines, fear-based media messaging and the long, colonial-era shadow of caning and the death penalty all doing their bit to make nefarious undertakings a poor lifestyle choice, even for the most desperate.

That means your phone is very unlikely to get swiped as you walk down the city’s pristine covered walkways, despite bikes sharing these spaces rights alongside the pedestrians.

Contrast against the ever-present risk us Londoners feel about getting our phones out publicly, even briefly, and especially when emerging from Underground stations, a zero snatch-rate should be a 100% good thing (if you ignore the somewhat oppressive means to this end, at least).

But urban life is complex, and if there’s one topic I come back to in this newsletter time and again, it’s the unintended ripple of consequences – with both positive and negative nuances – that taking any action, or imposing any measure, upon a large and diverse range of people inevitably generates.

So, while it is lovely to know there’s a vanishingly small chance of anyone’s phone getting snatched in Singapore, one thing the city’s streets are noticeably littered with is people walking around staring at TV shows, playing video games or lost in texting.

Phone theft may rightly be one the most hated parts of navigating the mean streets of places like Camden, but ‘solve’ the problem, and the simplistic, tough-on-crime utopia beloved of our keyboard populists assuredly just surfaces a whole new menace (albeit a significantly less intimidating one) - an army of screen zombies that need to be swerved at all hours of the day and night.

Flexible high streets need flexible minds

As this rather laboured point hopefully delivers nevertheless, finding a sweet spot in an ever-changing cosmopolitan environment is never simple; it requires endless adaptability, compromise and imagination.

Just before flying to Asia I headed south, to Canada Water, for a sneak preview of new food hall-cum-jazz venue-cum-vertical farm, Corner Corner, (which is now open daily, so you can head down there and check it out yourself).

It’s a venture between Camden-born streetfood tub-thumpers KERB, urban farming gurus Harvest, and music-led event and spaces specialists Broadwick, whose Simeon Aldred I sat down with for a chat on one of their plentiful comfy green sofas.

I’m a big fan of Broadwick, having worked closely with them in the past, developing apps and content for their fantastic alpine music festival, Snowbombing, for a number of years. It’s been amazing to see them grow into one of the world’s most innovative culture-focused regeneration operators, partnering with the development sector to demonstrate how large-scale events and venues can be central to revitalising areas, in sharp contrast to the not too distant days when such things were seen as little more than a lawless, noisy nuisance.

“We’re calling this a super-hybrid space," says Aldred. “We believe that there's an evolution in venue space happening. The label of ‘theatre’ or ‘jazz club’ or ‘concert venue’, they're all blurring. We like operating these highly flexible spaces where the bar might be in a different position the next time you visit.”

Broadwick now operates 30 large scale venues across the world, from the 10,000 capacity Depot Mayfield in Manchester, to a similarly sized brand new venture in Brooklyn NYC and, of course, the mighty 15,000 Drumsheds in Tottenham’s former IKEA.

“We’re also a problem-solver for some of our landlords. We create fame, create roots in a place, then get out of the way while the landlord does something magical, and then we come back in.”

This is the project taking shape at Printworks, the former Daily Mail plant turned leading nightclub and event space at Canada Water, a stone’s throw from Corner Corner, that will return as a permanent flexible use venue right at the centre of British Land’s substantial redevelopment of the area.

“The masterplan here is being run by Roger Madelin, who did King's Cross,” Simeon continues, “and in the next decade British Land and AustralianSuper are going to generate 20,000 new homes, jobs, office space, and more. But there need to be pioneers down here, right? There needs to be the first-movers.”

So how did they settle on a hybrid streetfood market and urban farm?

“Iceland and The Range were moving out of the old shopping centre, and phase 1 of the development has already seen all this money spent on a stunning new bridge and wetland in front of us, so they were looking for something really special to bring this facade up to scratch. Food halls are a big thing, but I know the economics don’t always work. Wherever we operate, there’s always got to be a generator in the mix - we usually use an electronic music venue to provide the thousands of people, but here we’re using an exhibition hall, and have done a deal with Minecraft for the next year. To leave their exhibition you have to ‘exit through the gift shop’, so to speak - and that’s Corner Corner.”

The name comes from the situation of the vast space, and the many references to corners in famous jazz tracks. Live music is, naturally for a Broadwick venture, key to the changing faces of the ‘food hall’ throughout the day.

“We understand what a Tuesday morning will look like in here, with lots of mums and pushchairs, and we also understand what a Friday night will be like, and the differences in the ways people behave.”

Aldred and his team are pushing the frontiers of regeneration, pointing towards a new vision for beleaguered units on ‘the high street’ everywhere. Bringing a huge vertical farm into the venue is evidence of that thought process.

It’s capable of sprouting 30 tonnes of salad and fresh herbs destined for London’s restaurants and food markets every year, and will have a schools educational programme up and running soon.

It may seem strange to have gone from throwing massive raves to farming salad, but that’s the adaptability and agility that regeneration requires, particularly if you are going to bring existing local residents with you on the journey. Sometimes the seemingly most counter-intuitive moves end up making the most sense.

As designer and place visionary Wayne Hemingway told us when he was guest editor of Camdenist last summer, charity shops are actually a signifier of a thriving modern high street, even if local councils need to be convinced otherwise.

“A lot of what we do is experimental,” says Simeon. “Broadwick now actually put on more weddings than we do raves - there’s a headline for you!”

The Corner Corner experiment will be important in the sense that it if works, expect to see it be copied, tweaked and further developed elsewhere by others, and of course Broadwick themselves. As a vision for how having too much retail space to know what to do with may work on high streets across London and up and down the country, it’s brimming with optimism and promise.

Perhaps even the inevitable unintended consequences will lead us towards the next radical idea for how our spaces and places might end up being be used/reused in the years ahead.

If you can morph from music festivals to salad farms, and phone theft actually preventing rampant anti-social pedestrians, anything might truly prove to be possible.

📊 This week’s one-click poll

Do let us know your alternative suggestions in the comments, either when voting or via the online version of this post…

Last week we asked the question: Should there be more options for feedback and participation in Camdenist each week?

Yes, it's great to feel part of an even more active local community
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 18%

No, online spaces always end up in negativity, arguments and trolling
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 13%

Maybe, try out a few things and let's see if it's a positive experience for all
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 69%

and some of your comments:

“I really do appreciate the work that you do to create the Camdenist. It makes me feel part of something and more proud of where I live. Thank you!”

“Sorry to hear about your infection Tom. I hope you enjoy your holiday to rest!”

“Try to take conversations OFFLINE, aka real life - we all need it.”

FOOD & DRINK

🍻 Pub refurb bingo a-go-go

🍺 Primrose Hill’s 150-something-year-old boozer The Engineer has just reopened after a thorough scrub-up, and with a brand new menu, to boot. From the posh dining room to the lively walled beer garden, it’s a sympathetic and effective reimagination of a well-loved space.

🍺 It follows a similar brief refurb-based closure/reopening a few weeks back at nearby Regent’s Park Rd corner pub Queens. It’s run by Young’s, who are known for very lavish if sometimes a little soulless decor. Thankfully, the new dusky green exteriour and higgledy-piggledy picture framed walls inside have gained loads more character than before, and they too have a ‘meticulously curated’ new menu on the go.

🍺 Last week marked 10 years since LGBTQ+ cabaret pub The Black Cap closed, and the protracted battle to save it began. Despite the brilliant news late last year that the pub will indeed be open soonish, the complete refit is (of course) taking a lot longer initially projected, meaning that the weekly ‘vigil’ outside the boarded-up front of the pub continues each and every Saturday afternoon (pictured above).

STORIES YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED

🎵 KOKO reopened 3 years ago this month - read our interview with founder Olly Bengough

🍕 Updated! The best reader-voted indie pizza spots across Camden 

🏢 Find out more about the new neighbourhood of Camden Goods Yard

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