Launch Email 3

Sizzling summer highlights for you

An email to stimulate you with ideas, events, culture and good reads, all bubbling up from London's most creative and innovative neighbourhoods.

> Friday 31 July 2020

Hi, fellow Camdenists. An all-new essential list of only the best local picks for you here, in today's 

Weekly C Time

. With the relaxation of lockdown bringing optimism, fear, but mostly confusion to the masses, these succinct links should to make the week ahead a little easier to navigate. And breathe.

If you've got something

 locals should know about via this email and the pages of 

, reply to this message with the details and we'll happily help spread the word. 

   1. Music at the Market  

Camden Unlocked is a series of live outdoor gigs happening over the next few weekends on a stage at the heart of Stables Market. Tickets are very limited, but totally free if you're fast enough, with acts ranging from guitar-strumming singer Newton Faulkner alongside DJ legend Don Letts, to an acoustic performance by mod band Stone Foundation, or the retro harmonies of the stylish Puppini Sisters. Exploring a virtually tourist-free Camden Market is a rare and wonderful opportunity for locals at the moment, so get reacquainted with all the stalls and railway arches, they've really scrubbed up a treat in recent times.

  2. Return to Drummond St  

Euston's famous destination for South Asian cuisine is returning next week, as leading restaurants Diwana Bhel Poori House, Drummond Villa (pictured) and Ravi Shankar all welcome guests again. Camden Inspire Award-winning health food shop Bio Organix joins them. It's an exciting time for the neighbourhood, with plans for summer street dining and a long-term regeneration strategy to combat disruption from HS2 building work.

   3. Dancing Through the Pandemic  

Contemporary dance centre The Place have been speaking in the latest of the Covid Stories series, about the challenges ensuring their students graduated, a schools outreach programme continued, and 200 casual staff didn't get forgotten, all at the same time during lockdown. Somehow, they still managed to thrive, which you can now enjoy by also watching the remotely-produced graduation show Cyber Rats, despite it all... an explosion of digital and physical creativity. The Place also have a youth summer school coming up, with live online sessions being held by teachers from around the UK.

 4. A Beer Garden at the Brewery 

Opening of the brand spanking new bar room at Camden Town Brewery may have been delayed by coronavirus, but the cobbled mews out front makes for an ideal pop-up summer beer garden instead. Just raise a flag, and beers (poured fresh from the tank), plus burgers and loaded nachos (c/o Prairie Fire BBQ) will be whisked over to suitably-spaced tables. It's best to book in advance, although thirsty walk-ins can usually be accommodated too.

 

 5. A Festival in Late August? 

London's anticipated summer of street parties, park concerts and large festivals have all been virtually wiped off the calendar, however some entrepreneurial types are working hard on salvaging some kind of party, if they can. Kaleidoscope presents Unlocked is scheduled to take place up at Ally Pally on August Bank Holiday Sunday (30th Aug). With full COVID safety measures assured, and a money-back guarantee in case Government guidelines change, you could yet be enjoying the cancelled Notting Hill Carnival legend Norman Jay MBE, and AV hero DJ Yoda alongside many more.

Like what you're reading? There's loads more to see on the website with the Covid Stories series, and more to come...

  • The national Eat Out to Help Out scheme kicks off on Monday, offering discounted dining (Mon-Wed), throughout August. Avoid soulless fast food temptation from the obvious chains and support local independents by looking up who's involved using Government's official online restaurant finder tool.

  • An impressively opinionated group of students from Acland Burghley School have appeared on ITV News, discussing teaching of black history in the national curriculum. Here's the video report, where you can't help feeling proud at the inclusivity that's long characterised Camden's schools, if not all others quite yet.

  • The mighty Bloomsbury Festival has announced the first highlights its October programme, which combine safe real-world events with digital explorations, under this year's very apt headline: 2020 Vision.

  • Castlehaven Sports Pitch has reopened for fiva-a-side, hockey and other games. Quick! You'd best book a slot now as it's inevitably going to be popular, and then you can explore the uncharted territory of attempting socially distanced team sports.

  • Even if you're not planning to catch a train anytime soon, St Pancras Station makes for a destination in itself, particularly for taking photos of its soaring Barlow shed ironwork, Tracey Emin's neon art, and now the pink and floral-themed coffee and cake sensation EL&N. They've opened one of their highly Instagrammed cafes near to the Eurostar, with a suitably travel-focused set of fabulous photo ops.

  • Cycling, and its many positive effects on our cities, health and wallets is having a huge surge  of interest in this COVID era. If you've got a dusty ride in need of servicing, there's no need to wait for Boris's promised voucher, as free bike checks are available in King's Cross every Wednesday afternoon in Lewis Cubitt Square.

  • Craft beer emporium Caps and Taps have put together a tasty blog post in honour of today's 33 degree basking temperatures, brimming with beer ideas from London lagers to Belgian Patersbiers, all perfectly suited for quaffing on Hampstead Heath.

  • And finally, the Heath also seems to be seeing an increasing number of impromptu socially-distanced live music gigs. Keep an ear out; last night alone there was a brass and string ensemble to be discovered in the woods near Parliament Hill, and a Coldplay rendition from a violinist lying in the long grass nearby.

 Well worth following, too...