Us Brits have a strange relationship with very mention of ID cards.

Never liked ‘um. A step towards authoritarianism. As un-British as Bobbies carrying firearms or measuring beer by millimetre. Unthinkable!

It’s a kneejerk reaction that dates back to their post war abolition, and one that still comes loaded with emotion today. Perhaps we’ve just watched too many movies where jackbooted officers demand ‘show me your papers’ and a burst from the string section rachets up the tension…

So, there’s a predictable resistance to the government floating the rather sensible exploration of ID cards as an effective way to combat true ‘illegals’, rather than simply tubthumping mass deportation fantasies.

But such arguments about the loss of personal liberty and privacy if we’re all compelled to carry such cards really rings hollow in the age of GPS-enabled mobile phones, let alone algorithms that know our deepest desires far better than we do.

Having a digital ID would certainly cut the ludicrous rigmarole of suppling PDFs of bank statements and taking photos of passports when applying for financial products, new flats and all the rest.

It would also solve the messy situation at the door of many London music venues today, where onerous licensing conditions require ID scans, and the random application of odd rules such as ‘no photos of passports acceptable’ now ruin nights out all the time.

Having said that, I’d really prefer if the scans didn’t happen at all. Treating music fans like they are visiting a prison upon entry is not conducive to a great atmosphere or attracting much-needed new, young audiences.

Worst of all, the creep towards rock solid age and identity verification is resulting in the sad loss of the fake ID, once a rite of passage for anyone 14 and over.

I’ve spoken to countless people who attribute a lifetime career in music or culture to their formative underage sneaking-in days. Having to wait until hitting official 18 years of age to attend nightclubs may well be driving the ‘kids don’t go out anymore’ problem, which has dire implications for the formation of new social and cultural scenes.

The formal over-digitisation of our lives seems to suck out so much valued humanity, in favour of gaining vague little conveniences. And having to get your photo taken and identity recorded on a database just to go out dancing certainly isn’t a convenience to anyone other than the licensing officials determined to santise ever more of the rough edges of all we hold most dear.

Digital ID cards feel like an inevitability soon, but as with our phones themselves, it is always how we choose to employ such powerful tech that really matters. When it crushes too much of the human spirit - including the time-honoured desire of teenagers to slip into the odd all-night party undetected - it robs us of our creativity.

As the technology will only get more sophisticated, and its ability to categorise and police us more total, I have to hope that we start to build in a bit of flex; to preserve the liminal spaces that we absolutely need to exist in the margins of society’s growing regimentation.

If we appreciate that the power of a live gig or an all night rave is in its subversive (but obviously still safe, Mr licensing officer!) edge, then we may need to teach our A.I robots the importance of that, too.

Perhaps then the face scanners might identify a wide-eyed and nervous underage enthusiast, and realise the value of letting them slip in.

FESTIVALS

👮🏼‍♂️ Stage dramas, reinventions & high st catwalks

Oh dear. Things only got worse for the beleaguered Camden Music Festival this week, after we first reported it was experiencing problems in last Friday’s Camdenist. Since then, three of the four advertised stages have had to be scrapped, leaving a small two-day event, 13th - 14th Sept, on Inverness Street linked to the Good Mixer pub.

The organisers, who also were forced to pull 2024’s event, blamed protest marches and tube strikes, with the arrangements for tickets, refunds and line-up changes still as confusing as ever, while disappointed bands and DJs scrambled to find alternative places to play locally.

The confusion is a setback to the momentum behind the Council’s Camden High St pedestrianisation trial, where dreams of car free, socially activated streets hits up against the tough task of safely policing one of the capital’s more lively strips.

🗺️ Meanwhile, Buck Street’s traditional community party of recent years, Camden Inspire, has decided to move indoors and focus on a series of climate action workshops in place of the usual live music stage, food and craft stalls. That feels like a completely different event to me, but it retains the name, and (somewhat confusingly, unless you are a real neighbourhood strategy nerd) also gains the subtitle of being a Camden Green Loop Takeover.

The Green Loop is yet another hard-to-easily-fathom initiative that nevertheless delivers high quality local improvements, so we’ll stop asking questions and let them get on with it. Anyway, book a workshop, or drop in to an art session, panel discussion, live podcast or salvaged art auction next Sat 20th Sept.

👗 Then, on Sun 21st Sept, the end of summer festivities finally get back out onto the car free high street itself, which is being transformed into a catwalk. The runway show will feature reimagined pieces and sustainable collections from established designers, local sellers and makers, and the best emerging talent from the neighbourhood.

🪴 It’s the last hurrah at The Story Garden behind the British Library on Tues 23rd Sept, with a special fundraising sendoff for the much-loved meanwhile space, which has been home to all manner of growing and making projects over the last six years. With the Garden’s permanent home now established nearby on York Way, there’ll be a mood of celebration for the next chapter rather than sadness, with food and drinks flowing, music, performances and activities all included in your £50 ticket.

🐕‍🦺 There are so many mentions of the word ‘dog’ in the events at King’s Cross this weekend, 13th - 14th Sept, that it can only mean the return of The Big Woof, a festival dedicated to the canines in your family. Attend with fido if you want to get suckered into such delights as dog wellbeing workshops, including sound bathing and doggie massage, dog tarot card readings, giant ball pits and other increasingly ludicrous things to do with your excitable pet in Coal Drops Yard.

🗣️ Last chance to get tickets for HowTheLightGetsIn next weekend 20th-21st Sept up at Kenwood House. As the world’s largest ideas and music festival, you’ll hear from our recent Guest Editors alongside the likes of Brian Cox, John Gray, Diane Abbott, Alastair Campbell, Alain de Botton, and loads more. With debates, talks, comedy, and live music across the weekend, you’ll listen to the world’s top thinkers give their views on the most urgent issues facing society today. As partners of the festival, Camdenist is offering an exclusive 30% off tickets with code CAMDENIST2025. Get your discounted tickets now, and we’ll see you there…

DEVELOPMENT

The new purpose-built tower at King’s Cross loses its only tenant

If you’ve passed through King’s Cross in recent months you’ll no doubt have marveled at quite how quickly the shiny new £1bn life science ‘discovery centre’ has been going up, radically transforming the views all around the station and historic St Pancras, too.

When it was first approved, there were howls from the likes of The Victorian Society, The Georgian Group and Bloomsbury Conservation Area, saying that it was way to big, but the economic benefits of a gleaming new research facility by US pharma giant Merck (MSD) won the argument.

But this week the drugmaker scrapped it's promised plans completely, torching the idea for bringing a life science centerpiece to the Knowledge Quarter alongside the labs at the Crick Institute and Regent’s Place, and with that the promised 850 jobs, permanent exhibition and public access spaces that were due to make it all feel like an exciting asset for locals.

Instead, the future of this brand new purpose-build facility, due to open in 2027, now hangs in the balance, while the UK is damned by MSD for being ‘uninvestible’. I find the scale of such a U-turn quite staggering, and it highlights once again how our built environment is never more than chaotic patchwork of historic twists and completely unplanned turns, often decided by the flick of a pen in a boardroom, but experienced for better or worse over decades by everyone at ground level.

The down-at-heel art deco storage building previously on the site, known as Belgrove House, was hardly a looker, (although Oasis shot the video for Supersonic up on the roof), but to now have the making of a massive white elephant of that scale and spec rising in its place is borderline ridiculous. We can only hope another operator with similar objectives and deep pockets might quickly step in to fill the void, but how likely is that?

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