Back when the internet was a shiny new thing, one of the most popular breathless, utopian talking points was how it allowed new communities to gather, virtually.

Every first time web user felt that frisson of techno-realisation upon connecting with a long lost school mate on Friends Reunited, coalescing with similarly enthusiastic fans of a band on MySpace, riffing on a niche interest bulletin board or exploring a digital neighbourhood in GeoCities.

But over time, the human value of forming social groups online has proved to be rubbish.

As the networks gradually ate each other, focused primarily on ad revenues and then hardwired themselves into billions of phones/brains to suck up attention, the excitement about tech as an engine for driving community has certainly waned.

Yes, there are all the marriages, vital support networks, passionate hobbyist groups and other brilliant results of hooking up together online, but we’re now much more likely feel that the tech has also wrought all kinds negative impacts on society; and swiftly, discombobulatingly upended ways we have related for millennia.

As someone who focuses a large part of my attention, (or what’s left of it after doomscrolling, anyway), on real world communities, gatherings and culture, it’s the many ways that our perma-connectivity is undermining what makes these things so good that concerns me most.

It might feel social and rewarding to be in constant dialogue online, but we all know how easily the anonymity and disconnect of relating to others from behind a screen can turn bad.

The sheer ferocity of every pile-on cancellation or flag-waving polarisation right now is a result of what happens when the tech oligarchy decide that we’re more valuable if we communicate via their devilishly compelling platforms.

These virtual places are the preserve of angry mobs, grifters, saber rattlers, fear mongers and radicalised factions, but they are not the home of any ‘big C’ community.

This week I attended a series of very different events, which nevertheless shared a common theme of trying to foster vital, real connections in the face of the digital firestorm.

Local entrepreneur, James Eder, launched his book all about the power of real human connection, The Collision Code, with a unique event including networking bingo and unexpected group singing(!) His focus is on the chance one-to-one meetings and opportunities we might miss if we don’t open up. Having 150-odd people in the room who have seen him go through a life-changing heart condition diagnosis certainly made the connections and conversations feel as vitally human as it gets.

Then Google were hosting another of their excellent quarterly Community Engagement events, and the invite list of charities and others making genuine social impact in Camden and Islington is also life-affirmingly human - and worthy of having ‘community’ in the title - (even if we were busy discussing the latest mind-boggling applications of generative AI).

Finally I rocked over to the Creative Industries Placemaking Summit, where the powers that be, from the biggest property developers and policy-makers, to creative types banging the drum for the incalculable value of art and culture in the urban mix, were also - inevitably - discussing how we must support thriving real world communities.

Everywhere, the shock at seeing last weekend’s huge turnout for a far right rally in our city was making the conversations feel more urgent.

If we’re to be saved from more confused social media addicts going down the grievance rabbit hole (and somehow believing that the world’s richest man has the interest of the common Brits at heart with his disgusting calls to arms), we need to support proper community-building now.

That’s simply getting out there, meeting people, sharing experiences and above all, participating in culture of every kind.

No phone signal needed.

FOOD & DRINK

 🍤 HUŎ the latest Belsize big spender leads this week’s refurb line-up

In a mere 18 months it’s been swish-but-doomed Italian eatery Calici, then transformed - courtesy of an eye-watering £400,000 refurb - into, err, the even-more-swish-but-even-more-doomed Italian eatery Caldesi, which lasted only 9 months(!), and now the former Belsize Village boozer is reborn again.

The latest plucky contender to take on the site is the pan-Asian, HUŎ, which already has a popular branch in Chelsea and is from the same people behind Notting Hill’s rather good ULI.

As we feared when Caldezi when tits-up back in January, most of the interior seems to have been ripped out once again for another luxe look. It reopened on Monday, and the food looks fairly fabulous, so fingers crossed this is the venture that will have a bit more longevity in the site.

See this week’s poll below to have your say about the environmental cost of failed restaurants and the new ‘concepts’ that replace them.

🍻Converted mail-to-rail sorting office the Parcel Yard pub has always been a bit of a hidden delight, tucked away up a staircase at the back of King’s Cross Station. It too has just reopened after a refurb, but more of a ‘nip and tuck’ by their own admission than the full Belsize rip-out treatment.

🍻 And finally for this refurb rundown, beloved KT boozer The Grafton has happily reopened after a lick of paint having changed hands once more in worrisomely quick succession. The new owners (themselves recently vacated from nearby pub The Gipsy Queen), seem to have brought plenty of loyal local regulars along with them, as by all accounts it’s been buzzing for the last couple of weeks.

Look out for a return to a decent Grafton kitchen residency, too, as ‘CanAm highway gastro’ specialists, Fervent, are bringing a blend creative cooking from Montreal to Texas, including dishes like a short rib ragu, crayfish rolls and celeriac schnitzel to the dining tables.

CAMDEN CURATED

Your one-stop shop to discover the best things to do ‘round here in the next 7 days

Now that that the long and lively summer festival season is pretty much over, I’m switching up the format of weekly cultural listings in Camdenist once more.

Feedback in recent polls suggests that you want curated highlights, not sprawling lists trying to include every little event, and not algorithmically selected promos either. So welcome to the new Camden Curated section, which aims to inspire your next cultural adventure. Feel free to reply to this email if you love it, hate it, or have suggestions for how to make it even better. 

ART: Trailblazing Londonwide art-meets-workspace instigators, Arebyte, have just opened a new Digital Art Centre in the former home of British Transport Police - seriously livening up that big, bland office block in the centre of Camden Town. The first show is the freshly commissioned PROPHECY by multi-media artist Auriela Harvey, bringing together motion capture, holograms, AI-generated choreography and 3D printing for an interactive installation spanning three immersive chambers. Meanwhile, the block will house up to 100 artist studios and creative offices, so do go check out what’s on offer if you are creatively inclined.

STAGE: Bold Brown British is an hour of poetry and real talk from poet Quarina Sultana. Expect poems that shimmy between the sacred and the ridiculous; aunties, ancestors, activism, and the audacity of being brown, British, and gloriously in-between. At the Etcetera Theatre on Mon 22nd & Tues 23rd Sept.

ART: Central Saint Martins’ Granary Square-based Lethaby Gallery has just opened its autumn show, Re:generating Creativity (now till 7th Dec) which leaps across disciplines from couture and ceramics to hand-cranked AI engines and shape-shifting biomaterials. The free show explores how creativity can regenerate ideas and materials for a more-than-human planet.

IMMERSIVE: Hot on the heels of Ed Sheeran roadblocking the piazza outside Lightroom this week (see video below), the venue has announced the extension Prehistoric Planet: Discovering Dinosaurs and the return of The Moonwalkers: A Journey with Tom Hanks from 24th Nov. Both will run until 25th Jan 2026. Kids are also free on weekends all September with an adult.

STAGE: Riotous high-octane cabaret extravaganza Sabrage has returned to Lafayette, offering a titillating, immersive night out with DJ sets after the show, and interaction with actors in Nola’s hidden private speakeasy. Booking until 31st Dec.

FESTIVALS: Remember it’s the art meets climate action day of hands-on workshops, Camden Inspire, at the Camden Collective this Sat 20th Sept, and then the high street gets transformed into a catwalk on Sun 21st for an official British Fashion Council London Fashion Week show.

FUNDRAISER: It’s the last hurrah at The Story Garden behind the British Library on Tues 23rd Sept, 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.

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