This time of year in London can feel quite insular. The reliable murk of winter is dragging its heels towards the shaky promise of spring, offering an all-too-easy reasoning behind another night in on the sofa.

When you factor in the still-hard-to-comes-to-terms-with prices of everything, plus the post Covid hangover of reported social anxiety and myriad screen distractions, you might think that the feelgood rewards of community participation are now in short supply.

However, belonging to something greater than oneself is a basic human need, and the retreat of our real world communities in the shadow of those of the unsatisfactory online echo-chamber variety has, I suggest, been greatly exaggerated. We just have to be a bit more proactive about leaving the lure of the algorithm behind, and getting out there to find our tribes.

This month marks 25 years of an iconic Camden institution; Triyoga. I’ve been a regular for (ahem) 22 of those, and had a great chat this week with some of their team about the deep sense of community that exists there, despite yoga often being portrayed as an inward-looking, potentially quite intimidating discipline.

The resulting story is a bit long to include here in the newsletter, so you can read it on camdenist.com now instead, and perhaps I’ll even see you upside down on a mat there soon…

This week, over in my other neighbourhood sphere out East, we’ve been celebrating a groundbreaking community-focused milestone of a different kind. Years of open dialogue between Hackney Wick’s residents and grassroots artist community with a few forward-thinking property developers is beginning to bear real fruit, as we report in The Wick.

Hardwiring in community ownership of local buildings, places and spaces for the long term is a really exciting way we might break the classic cycle of urban regeneration, where the very creativity that makes rundown and ignored areas hip and desirable is then thoroughly priced out in the resulting property goldrush.

Gifting of assets for community uses makes sense at a time when traditional ground floor retail units have a tendency to sit empty, but it does require a developer to be truly invested in the future of their site, not just in the cash pile they can stack up upon it.

Closer to home, 15 years of Global Generation’s moveable skip-based gardens has resulted in an odd but welcome triangle of the gleaming King’s Cross estate being leased to them for 1000 years; their first ever (very) permanent home. With community co-design and education at the heart of the project from the word go, this is another hugely positive example of an open-to-all community that’s thriving, not withering, in today’s urban situation.

Conscious efforts to promote participation in their gardens, particularly by targeting otherwise hard-to-reach locals, define each stage of the process, from the site build and maintenance to the crop growing and eventual cooking and eating of the produce in the on-site kitchen. Big ‘C’ Community at every step of the way, and all you have to do - quite literally - is head on over there and get your hands dirty.

There are countless other examples of flourishing groups to join all around us, where you can find that essential feeling of peer acceptance and belonging. Perhaps the one that sums it up most visibly, though, sparks into life every Wednesday just a short walk from the Triangle Site garden.

Outdoor salsa session Rueda Libre has just kicked off its weekly 2025 season of epic circular Cuban dancing (main picture above), bang in the middle of Coal Drops Yard. If you’ve ever chanced upon the sight of the whole central square moving in rhythmic formation on a balmy evening, you’ll likely agree that London seems instantly a lot more welcoming and community-friendly than perhaps advertised (even if it takes some resident Cubans to prove it).

As people of all ages discover a yearning for time away from devices and therefore value IRL at a premium, we may well in fact be on the cusp of a golden age of real life community participation.

📊 This week’s one-click poll

Do leave us a comment after voting too, as it’s always great to hear your thoughts and feedback

Last week’s results to the question: Which type of restaurant technology do you least enjoy?

App, QR code or phone-based ordering
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 82% (emphatic!) 

Booking systems where you can never get the date or time you want
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 5% (obviously a convenience worth the occasional hassle)

Dubious recommendations, reviews and listings
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 13% (these don’t any most of you as they do me, then…)

and some of your comments:

“Whoever is writing these tech philosophy editorials is doing a great job. Whereas it was a useful email before, I wait for the next one to land with genuine curiosity to see where the thought leadership is going next.”

“I hate having to whip out my phone and reading glasses to order. ”

“I can't stand being in a restaurant and having to spend ages staring at a screen trying to work out the menu, the setting, and how to order. I prefer being able to talk to someone about what they would recommend, or a human to explain the dishes. When I go out to eat it is a social experience, to chat and catch up, not for us to be spending time looking at screens.”

“I just refuse and ask for a person to take my order and payment, and leave if that's not possible. But it usually is. I am quite old though and shamelessly use this to my advantage, feigning inability with the tech (not actually true) :)”

“Having to use a phone, especially when the place in question doesn't even offer free wifi access, small matter ... feels too much like ordering a takeaway ... so anti social as it disrupts conversations at the table and reduces waiting staff to pure delivery function ... glad I'm not the only one!”

“All of the above should have been an option!”

FOOD & DRINK

All change at these local kitchens

🪙 There’s been a complete relaunch at Euston Road’s most glamorous dining room, the Midland Grand, following a reshuffle of big hitting chefs in the kitchen, as reported on Hot Dinners. They say you can expect some ‘tableside theatre’ with flames and other finishing flourishes happening right before your eyes, which sounds befitting of such a, well, grand space.

🌯 Now cooking up a Mexican storm at the recently opened Imperial Palace of Big Red rock bar (formerly The Monarch and Monarchy) in Chalk Farm, Chola Cantina comes from the family behind Euston’s excellent and always packed Mestizo. You’ll find a new menu of authentic dishes from queso frito to ceviche, plus all the usual big hitters and great homemade tortilla chips.

🥟 Up in Belsize Park, a former branch of Starbucks is about to become the first Von Crumb, an express schnitzel concept with plans to roll out elsewhere soon, too, serving hearty schnitzels either plated, in a sandwich or on a salad.

🍗 A further update to our recent story on the Kentish Town-born Maginhawa Group’s expanding Mamasons ice cream empire is that their West African/Caribbean takeout, Moi Moi Island, is to be rebranded as Goodwood by Guanabana (their excellent South American/Caribbean restaurant in the same strip). Look out for some spicy staples being cooked up soon.

🔚 With the shock news only announced this week that Hanway Place’s famous original Hakkasan is closing down tonight after 24 years, it’s hard not to instantly speculate about what might move into the plush backstreet basement and one-time celeb fave in its place. But then with the equally huge and lavish rooftop space briefly known as Cavo still sitting empty atop Outernet’s Now Building right across the road, it may not have the power to be reborn in the challenging hospitality climate of early 2025. We shall see…

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MORE CAMDEN CULTURE

📚 A brand new independent bookshop is opening in Chalk Farm

Big news for fans of actual browsing, the musty aroma of fresh paperbacks and all you conscientious Amazon objectors out there is that a large, independent and totally new Camden Town Bookshop is opening next Fri 7th March in what used to be the Bird chicken restaurant on Chalk Farm Road.

Popping my head around the door this week as they were filling the shelves revealed that it is a long-planned addition to The House of Books group of indie booksellers, who readers may already know from other local high streets including Muswell Hill, West Hampstead, Crouch End, Upper St and Holborn’s Brunswick Centre.

It’s a generously-sized store, and the team say they will be guided in the topics to focus on by what sells in the months ahead, so make sure to drop by and show them what you’d like to see more of in stock with a judicious purchase or two.

I can’t think of a new bookshop opening around that way for decades, during which time the same strip has lost the legendary Compendium and Offstage Theatre & Film Bookshop, so it’s fantastic to see a new era of bookselling back in Camden’s main drag mix.

☕ Much missed local coffee-counter-in-a-record-shop Pepita Coffee are back in the NW5 ‘hood again tonight, Fri 28th Feb, with a special one-off event in partnership with Fatboy Slim, who you may remember designed one of their limited edition collectible coffee tins. Tonight, street artists like Mr Cenz, TBOY, Catman, Mas Vandal, Being and Curtis Creationz unveil their own stunning designs at The Art of Coffee, a free event Kentish Town’s Stay Club where the artists will also share insights in a special talk, plus there’ll be drinks and music, too.

🖼️ While you’re in the area, make sure to also go take a look at the diminutive Spring Up Art Gallery, just around the corner on the salubrious KT backstreet of Spring Place. It’s a shop window for local artists, of which the current exhibition, Stella Alleva, The Art & Style of Photographic Portraiture, is the 23rd such show. You can see them all collected on the website, too.

STORIES YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED

🎭 People Power! 30 Years of Camden People’s Theatre

👩🏼‍💻 AI, social media danger & how thinking local can save us

🚂 The ‘Navvies' of Chalk Farm: fist fights, rowdy pubs and a dead body

🍞 Camden’s ‘left behind’ market

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