Your Friday morning essential read. Five local feel-good highlights, including exclusive special offers and events. Prepared with love by the team at Camdenist

 DRINK: Hot new subterranean dive bar 

This week we're celebrating a raft of local venues that are being brought back to life with exciting new owners and concepts. First up is this stunning new bar that's just soft-launched under an (equally breathtaking) Grade II listed chapel. Below Stone Nest is a stripped back underground drinking den offering a short list of decent beers, mixed drinks and low intervention wines, plus DJs, live music and events. Older Londoners may well have partied here when the entire building was the famous Limelight Club. Now the chapel hosts immersive events such as a radical reinvention of Bartok's classic opera Bluebeard's Castle (until Nov 14th), while the bar - which is for walk-ins only, right on Cambridge Circus - is a welcome shot in the arm for Soho's late night drinking culture. 

 EAT: Gas Station opens in King's Cross 

Reborn venue #2 this week is Gas Station, a brand new

seafood restaurant on the canalside

in King's Cross. It's based in the building formerly occupied by English wine and spirit makers Chapel Down, and includes a big new all-weather outdoor terrace (pictured), for drinks as well as dining. The menu features Maldon or Lindisfarne oysters, huge plates of fruits de mer, grilled lobsters, crab fries and loads more. It harks back to the wild success of pop-up Shrimpy's on this site back in 2012, when a former petrol station kiosk was turned into a kitchen and its defunct forecourt became the hangout du jour for London's fledgling foodie crew. Now in the hands of the team behind Hackney's Mare Street Market, it's set on becoming a buzzy waterfront hotspot once more. 

 CABARET: New Zodiac Bar in Euston 

Fabulous news for lovers of London's much-diminished LGBT+ club scene, as the Zodiac bar is reborn Camden venue #3 this week. Moving from Tufnell Park to a new home in a Grade II listed pub on Hampstead Rd (most recently US-style saloon Shaker & Company), your host Jade Phoenix (pictured) oversees quality drag, cabaret, pole acrabatics and loads more. It's open 7-days a week and although this weekend's launch shows are sold out, the space welcomes all-comers.

 ENVIRONMENT: COP26 explained & awards  

With the race to achieve net zero currently being discussed at the global level up at COP26, Camden Clean Air Initiative are looking to celebrate the locals who are leading the way with their own actions. Voting is open in the Camden Eco Champions Awards, with prizes for kids, young people and adults decided by an all-star panel. And if you want to hear more about how the decisions at COP26 will impact local life, join a free virtual roundtable explainer event this Thursday, hosted by the Knowledge Quarter.

 VIDEO: See historic pics of old Camden 

Following last week's hugely popular collection of before/after images of Hawley Wharf, here's a video featuring masses of old photos and lithographs of Camden, Kentish Town and Hampstead across the last few hundred years. You'll recognise long lost spots such as the Plaza Cinema on the high street (now Urban Outfitters), the early days of Camden Market and Dingwalls dance hall, and see pubs morph, as The Brighton (pictured) becomes today's Blues Kitchen. 

 THIS WEEK'S ONE-CLICK POLL Covid lockdown saw a flourishing of community spirit and neighbourliness, but where do you feel things are at today? 

LAST WEEK WE ASKED:

How do you feel about the ongoing redevelopment of chunks of London, as we've seen with Hawley Wharf here in Camden?

It's a good omen for the traders and the 5-screen Curzon cinema at the brand new Hawley Wharf development, with a resounding majority of voters excited by its arrival and positive about the ever-changing shape of the city at large. Remember, you can wander around the Waterside Halls, courtyards, rooftop and railway arches with Camdenist's essential guide to Hawley Wharf on your phone to discover exactly what is arriving. We update the guide every week, too.

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