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You may have already caught some of the comment outrage over this week’s ‘big angry polarised talking point’ - that the O’Neill’s pub in Wardour Street is charging £2 on top of all their prices for any drink served after 10pm.

To be honest, the storm-in-a-pint-glass is, er, small beer compared to the exhausting stream of shock headlines/reactions vomiting their way over from the US for the foreseeable, but it’s interesting to watch how the story has suddenly blow up across both legacy and social media, especially as the pricing system has been operating for some time.

It has, of course, got all the ingredients for a decent fury-flurry of soon-to-be-forgotten column inches and comments, however, the obvious punter outrage at the idea of a pint of Brewdog IPA jumping from the already wince-inducing price of £7.40 up to the frankly ludicrous £9.40, still needs to be seen in context.

We quite merrily accept that standard drinks prices will drop during a ‘happy hour’, so does cranking things up in the other direction after hours (this pub has a rare 3am licence) really break an unwritten contract with pub-goers?

Probably. And that’s because the ‘cost of a pint’ is such a big cultural deal. The crazy price increases that have poured down upon us all in recent years make further surging towards the £10 threshold - even if just for a few hours a day - feel like a trip to the pub becomes another example of ‘rip-off Britain’, rather than one of the ‘Great British’ hospitality experiences.

That’s dangerous, at a time when we’re still losing near on 80 pubs a month to permanent closure across the UK.

Some people have argued that flexible pricing might be the lever that saves the industry, but you can also see that it means going out later at night inevitably becomes the more costly option, which could actually hasten the demise of the cherished boozer culture.

Surge pricing is already a piss-poor stain on modern life, apparently scamming us whenever we’re getting a cab, booking a holiday or, most infamously, trying to score Oasis tickets (if that’s really your thing). I’d suggest that swapping the trad chalk board for an algorithmically-driven ever-changing display is not ultimately going to do many pubs a favour - and certainly not its drinkers - yet to some degree, you get the feeling it’s already inevitable.

You’d also have to suspect one of the key reasons O’Neill’s have been ‘getting away with it’ - seemingly without backlash, until now - is that people are simply tapping their cards, squiffily oblivious to the inflated charges being rung up.

People do genuinely want their favourite pubs to thrive, and they also want to spend time in them, and while the spiraling costs that now prevent that from being economically feasible can’t be blamed on one particular factor, if the drinkers get the scent that there’s a money grab taking place, woe betide the future prospects of our beloved locals.

Tech bro ambition is busy disrupting so many parts of our culture without much thought for the repercussions, and we’re only just seeing the damage this reaps on things we all would prefer undisrupted, thankyou very much. I suggest that the pub trade at very least think of the fallout from embracing a Ryanair-style approach to procuring a pint of the good stuff.

We should be encouraging the late night economy, not making it feel even more impossible to enjoy. Or else pubs demonstrate in simple terms how surge pricing benefits their drinkers at the bar, not just the algorithmically-driven bean counters behind the scenes.

Cheers! 🍻

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FOOD & DRINK

🍢 Let's get skewered!

🍢 Hotori is the new beak-to-tail yakitori skewer spot that joins Holborn’s restaurant line-up from next Mon 18th Nov. Expect expertly tender chicken on the bamboo stick spit, alongside expanded salmon and veg options, too.

🥦 Kicking off with a residency at Shoreditch House, the husband and wife duo behind Delmina Townhouse have since expanded their in-demand Eastern Med cuisine to three more locations, including opening the latest outpost in Covent Garden just last week.

🍺 Sister pub to the lovely beer-focused Euston Tap, the Holborn Whippet has been closed since some lengthy redevelopment scenario way back in the dark days of 2020. But they team have happily just announced that the pub will return in the spring, boasting four times the space and a whopping 29 beer lines. The news came via X, so we’re not going to link to it, (because, Musk) but that’s all the news so far, so just keep reading this weekly newsletter for updates free from the X-sanctioned hate speech and conspiracy nonsense 😉

ART

Hypha Studios announce 13 free art studios and an exhibition space in Kentish Town

Despite the hoo-ha we’ve endlessly reported over creating a cinema at the former Polytechnic that sits directly opposite, Camden Council have been busy pressing ahead with a new ‘Neighbourhood Spaces’ programme, debuting at 2 Prince of Wales Rd - ironically itself a former local fleapit dating from the 1920s.

The idea is to create “a new type of building where local organisations, businesses, and residents can come together to take action, test new ways of doing things and shape their local neighbourhood.”

So they’ve partnered with the excellent meanwhile gallery space providers Hypha Studios to deliver 13 free studios and a shared gallery space to organised groups of local artists, starting in Jan 2025 for three months, but with the potential to stay put for the whole year.

The aim for these new spaces is to form bustling hives of imagination and activity, governed by the community and self-funded through enterprise that supports local people, so there will be more than just the artists sharing the site, with everyone contributing to the Council’s ‘Civic Action Lab’ events, led for and by Camden locals.

Apply for a spot by 1st December 

Join us for our art, design and interiors event on Thursday 21st Nov

Announced via her Guest Editor slot in last week’s edition of Camdenist, acclaimed local artist Caroline Chinakwe will join a panel of other fashion, design and art experts from the borough at an exclusive event hosted at Camden Goods Yard next Thursday 21st Nov. It will include Will Jennings, visual artist and curator from the aforementioned Hypha Studios, Amy Tsang, Head of Europe at the King’s Cross-base sustainable fashion and textile tech hub The Mills Fabrica and be chaired by neuroscientist and local resident Daniel Glaser, of the Royal Institution.

Expect food, drinks, craft workshops and live music, plus the chance to explore the show home of Camden Goods Yard, the area’s brand new neighbourhood off Chalk Farm Rd.

Congrats to the winners of last week’s tickets! Reserve one of the last spots yourself here.

MUSIC

🎵 Meshell leads this weeks’ local picks

🎙️The 11-time Grammy nominated, two-time winning neo soul legend Meshell Ndegeocello is at KOKO tonight, Fri 15th Nov, celebrating her recently-released 14th album, plus iconic musical history.

🎧 Back at KOKO again on Saturday 16th, it’s an epic 10-hour DJ set from the one and only soulful house hero Kerri Chandler, who already has a solid following at Camden Town’s late-night hotspot following his four week residency in 2023.

🎷 The EFG Jazz Festival rolls back into the hood with the sax-led meeting of musical minds that is AuB for a rare live outing for their uncompromising sound at Parklway’s The Green Note on Sun 17th Nov.

🎸 One of the UK's most exciting alternative bands, Monster Florence prepare to blow up King's Cross venue The Scala with their jazz-punk hip hop on Wednesday, 20th Nov.

🎤 Guitarist and vocalist Sarah Howells, aka Bryde, has been making music for over 20 years, having been raised on 90s grunge and 00s emo like Deftones and Hole, Tori Amos and Jeff Buckley later shifting to Bon Iver, Cat Power and The National. She plays St Pancras Old Church on Wed 20th.

STAGE

🎭 Climate collapse and hip hop comedy live on stage

👓 Brooklyn Queens comes to Kilburn from Sat 16th Nov in The Purists, a high energy comedy featuring DJ sets, rap battles and unforgettable beats at The Kiln Theatre. A legendary emcee and a hall-of-fame DJ are forced to question their attitudes on race, sexuality and music when two new rappers appear on the local scene, and the duo need to decide what it really means to keep it real. Until 21st Dec.

🌏 I, Symbiont taps in to the COP29 despondency with a play about aliens who learn about Earth’s climate implosion through the medium of a laptop they find. It’s on this Fri & Sat, 15th-16th Nov at Camden People’s Theatre.

🎄 Don't mention the C-word yet - please! - but we do need to flag that A Christmas Carol(ish), the big festive show at Soho Place, opens this Sat 16th Nov. and runs until New Year’s Eve.

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