In partnership with

As the Starmer government beds in, there’s something reassuring – from a Camdenist’s perspective, anyway – about having ‘a local’ in the top job.

In a time of growing conspiratorial thinking, (which looks primed to get a lot worse thanks to the unchecked application of AI tools, before/if it ever gets any better), we’re less likely to fall for the latest social media nonsense about elites and the deep state when we’re used to having seen the now PM trudging through the pissing rain to his constituency surgery at Queen’s Crescent Community Centre, right?

And it’s a whole lot more relatable having Sir Keir in charge – he of knocking a ball about at Talacre, sinking a pint (or, er, having a traffic prang) outside The Grafton, and dad-dancing to Dig It Soundsystem – when compared with the lofty Old Etonians and global tech billionaires formerly in his position.

Local broadsheet journos Esther Walker and Ben Dowell had some fun pointing this Norf London familiarity out in their own ways in The Times the other day: Cheerio, Chipping Norton set. Here comes the Kentish Town crew (paywall alert). And while the experience of bumping into the local MP-turned-PM at the Owl Bookshop might still be as alien to most of the country as gladhanding Trump on the links at Mar a Lago, it feels way more preferable to elect leaders with genuine community roots, as opposed to those more interested in gated country piles and international schooling.

Honestly, where better than Camden, with its hardwired diversity and tolerance going back generations, from which to inspire a more optimistic worldview for the country, and therefore begin to showcase these progressive values on a global stage once more?

It doesn’t look like the trappings of power will spoil Starmer the NW5 man (he recently told the CNJ he’d just renewed his Arsenal season ticket), so let’s instead keep an eye on whether the spirit of the Borough can spill out, via the PM, and positively impact the culture and experience of those who currently look to the heavens and say he’s little more than the latest member of the maligned ‘metropolitan elite’.

With a local leading the country, like him or not, we’re all Camdenists now… 😉

FESTIVALS

Back to the roots in Euston

🕺🏼 Next up in the street fair season is the Regent’s Roots Festival, back for a third year of celebration in the heart of Euston, and coinciding with the wider festivities of South Asian Heritage Month, next Saturday 3rd August. As always, the festival is a collaboration between local estate residents, the Old Diorama Arts Centre and Fitzrovia Youth in Action, meaning you can see loads of exciting free performances from high octane hip-hop to international dance styles, enjoy workshops, interactive and playful arts installations, pop-up games and browse a vibrant marketplace. And there’s a free lunch feast laid on too. 😜

🏖️ We’d somehow overlooked the return of the popular summer Hampstead Beach to the JW3 Centre on Finchley Rd, but it’s already been running throughout July and you’ve still got the whole of August to take advantage of it’s seasidesque simulation. Best of all this year is the fact that the Centre’s Dorfman Piazza, which host the beach (and the ice rink in winter) now has a swanky retractable Wimbledon-style roof, so even if the heavens choose to open, you can still bask with a bucket and spade (or cocktail) on the sands.

💦 The next event to grace the picturesque canalside plaza at Hawley Wharf will be Grassroots Summer Splash this Saturday, 27th. It’s a day of fashion, photoshoots, music and trading from a collection of Black creatives promoting unity in diversity.

FOOD + DRINK

🍕Has Parkway hit peak pizza?

The latest incarnation of lovely former pub Camden Stores is to be… drumroll please… a new pizza restaurant. Japes will soon join a strip already positively bursting with pizza options, including vegan pioneers Purezza, fast-expanding indie chain Pizza Pilgrims and trad Italian Goodfare Cafe all clustered around the very same junction, let alone the big old Pizza Express just a tiny bit further up Parkway, and plenty more dedicated joints all down Camden High Street, too.

Can one area possibly support so many pizzerias? Probably. The exact same thing has taken place in the other part of town I regularly write about, Hackney Wick, where the pizzeria proliferation has become a running joke, but still they come.

Japes does bring something different to ‘the local scene’ though, specialising in Chicago-style deep dish pies, a type of pizza strangely overlooked in London up until now in the face of the capital’s unrelenting sourdough obsession.

🍕 In more local pizza news, Tarantino-themed slice shop True Romance packed up and left the difficult railway arches of Hawley Wharf this week, promising to reveal a brand new location for their New York-inspired ‘big ass’ pizza in the coming weeks. But will it be on Parkway?

🍕 The Romancer's sister venue, Lost Souls just down the road on Eversholt Street, have roared back into action of late after the fire which devastated their vampire-themed venue last year. Look out for a secret password on their Instagram that gets you two of their famous black charcoal pizzas for £20 every Wednesday, too.

SUPPORT CAMDENIST SIMPLY BY CLICKING ON OUR SPONSOR’S MESSAGES 👇

We know THC products aren’t even legal round these parts, but that hasn’t stopped US brand Moonwlkr wanting to advertise via our network. If you happen to be a US reader, let us know if you get a freebie, meanwhile intrigued locals are encouraged to click the ad to see what the future might look like when our cannabis laws inevitably change.

Free THC Gummies for the Next 300 People

Moonwlkr has pioneered the hemp-derived THC market for years. With over 200,000 customers, now is your chance to see what all the hype is about. They’re handing out free packs of their best selling THC gummies that will ship directly to your door in any state in the US. Moonwlkr has navigated the legalities so you don't have to.

No med card is required! Follow the link below before they’re sold out.

Try it for Free!

📊 This week's one-click poll

STAGE

Shows to see at Camden Fringe & beyond this week

📷 CAMDEN FRINGE HIGHLIGHT, WEEK 2: Things Between Heaven and Earth is a psychological thriller sees a widow discover her husband's affair - and murder - through a book written by their close friend. It explores issues around sexuality across different cultures and the ethical implications of writers using their and others' lives as material for their work. This week we’ve been speaking to the show’s writer and performer Jun Noh about how he came to write it, and what he feels about the shifting identities we all adopt. The show plays at The Rosemary Branch Theatre 3rd & 4th August, and then at the Hen & Chickens Theatre on the 4th & 5th August.

👞 Meanwhile, Camden People’s Theatre begins its run of That Boy Has No Shoes on Monday 29th (dates until Aug 3rd). It’s a personal account of South Africa’s shameful years of Apartheid, as seen through the eyes of someone too young to really know it, via a series of conversations with objects that were central to the oppression. We spoke with the show’s writer and performer Lara van Huyssteen about her work in last week’s Camdenist interview.

🤣 Intriguing improv hits The Water Rats stage this Monday 29th, and also next, Aug 5th, as comedy quintet Be Right Back demonstrate that there are six degrees of separation between everything, including what random members of the audience search for on the internet in their Fringe show Six Degrees of Improvisation.

🧘🏾 Pub theatre The Lion & Unicorn is showing What’s Wring With Me? - The Musical, a new comedy set in a self help retreat run by influencer and so-called yoga master, as five people come with their unique, first world problems to try and fix their lives. Thurs 25th - Sat 27th July.

🎹 Saturday night and Sunday afternoon (27th & 28th July) sees a special show by the Isokon Enseble at Hampstead’s diminutive Pentameters Theatre as they perform Schubert’s Winterreise and Beckett’s That Time as a double bill on music and stage.

MUSIC

🪩From dub to deathcore: 5 local gigs this week

_{The weekly Camdenist newsletter runs on Beehiiv, which we think is the best platform available for running this kind of email community. Find out more andtry Beehiiv free with no credit card required. If you then sign up, we’ll get a referral fee, and we’ll support your own newsletter to our readers by way of thanks} 🙂