Will Ladudu do do it?

Vietnamese café/restaurant Ladudu opened today on West End Lane. I popped in at lunchtime to see what was on offer and was given a very friendly greeting. As some readers might know, it has a problem with gas for cooking - namely there wasn't any being piped in. Previous occupant Glo clearly wasn't that fussed about using hobs.

Anyway, it's going to be mid-late May before chef Teresa is cooking on gas according to her front-of-house partner Tristan. Until then, Ladudu is serving from its appetisers menu - 10 "tasty nibbles" including spring rolls, salads and betel beef rolls. I tried a couple of things, both were good although I think it's probably fair to give a place a few days to settle in before really judging the food! Mains, once they come online after the gas is installed, are all under £8. Starters all under £5.50.

The decor is attractive with thick wooden tables and some comfy chairs in a lounge area. There are some larger sharing tables too, but overall it has a clean modern yet warm feel.

For the moment, Ladudu is open 7am to 6pm weekdays and 10am to 6pm weekends. It will close at 11pm once it's fully operational. I understand from Tristan that they fancy their chances against Starbucks and Costa for the commuter coffee business. That may be a tall (skinny) order, given how wedded people can get to their coffee, but why not give it a try and support a local business run by people who actually live here.

No doubt we'll be hearing more about it over the coming weeks, but for now, Good Luck.

What have I missed since April 17th?

As people gorged themselves on chocolate and temperatures and referendum rhetoric soared, what was happening in West Hampstead?

Kilburn features prominently in this short film promoting the Yes to AV campaign.

It also features in this film that launches the South Kilburn Studios.

On Wednesday night two young men were stabbed on the West Hampstead/Kilburn borders, one fatally. Police have arrested a 17 year-old.

A Kilburn High Road shop  that's had a few run-ins with the police has applied for a 24hr alcohol licence.

West Hampstead's churches got some good pre-Easter press coverage - including mentions of their use of Twitter.

Remember the NW5 signpost cock-up? Well, it's been rectified!

After a bad week on the Jubilee Line, this Easter's closures should (*cough) be the last
of the planned engineering works.

West End Lane take-away the Bombay Bicycle Club has shut up shop and moved to Maida Vale. Pizza Hut is allegedly interested in the site. The Green Room in Broadhurst Gardens also appears to have closed (unless the owners are just on holiday). STOP PRESS: The Green Room has closed - it will become an Italian restaurant.

Sport
The two 5-a-side teams started the season with wins: 11-5 for the @WHampWanderers and 9-7 for @WhampAthletic.

West Hampstead's men's hockey team remain on course for the double after they won the
cup last weekend.

Coming up this week
The Glo sign was finally replaced by the Ladudu sign as the Vietnamese restaurant prepares for its soft launch this week.

Next Saturday, the Priory Tavern hosts a jazz and soul "Music in the Raw" event, starting at 7pm.

Tweet of the week
Tough one this week - three great contenders, but the winner was Kate with this heavily re-tweeted scatological offering:

What have I missed since April 10th?

As the country began to go a little bit Royal Wedding crazy, what was happening in West Hampstead this week?

We found out that US daytime TV programme The Rachael Ray Show will be filming at Bake-a-boo next week. About the Royal Wedding.

Lymington Road residents association is holding a street party. Indoors. For the Royal Wedding.

Talking of parties - the sixth edition of #whampgather was another great success and we raised over £130 for The Winch.

The CNJ reported on the impending arrival of Caffé Nero. 

Armed robbers struck in Belsize Park.

Kingsgate Community Centre announced its spring/summer term programme.

There was confirmation of Peacocks moving into the Finchley Road Woolworths site.

The engineering works on the Jubilee Line were supposed to move us from 24 to 33 trains an hour. That's been revised down to just 27. Just three trains more for all that work?

Perhaps steam is the way forward? This train pulled into West Hampstead on Wednesday. But never made it back after breaking down on its return journey.

New on Twitter: @kilburn_ward for Brent Kilburn ward news

Camden's only AV referendum hustings will be held in St Mary's Church on April 27th. Andrew Marshall and David Aaronovitch will be arguing for Yes, and Chris Philp + a.n.other for No.

The West Hampstead Wanderers salvaged some pride in the last match of the season.

Hampstead Cricket Club kicked off its season with a home draw against Cambridge.

Tweet of the Week
For once not a cheeky dig at the eccentrics of Kilburn but something more positive about our own neighbourhood:

Whampgather VI - it just keeps on getting better

The first whampgather was unequivocally a tweet-up. That was back in October 2009. A year and a half later and whampgather is a broader - and much bigger - event attracting blog readers, Facebookers, and of course tweeters (and their friends). This was the sixth one and took place again in The Lion on West End Lane.

I stopped trying to count the number of people who turned up - but it was around 60 in total over the course of the evening. I'm really sorry I didn't get the chance to talk to everyone but I'm going to let a few people tell the story of the evening.



Big thanks to Brad, who took photos - a small selection of which I'm showing here:

 

 

 

 

Positive end to the season for Wanderers

The team was already consigned to the bottom of the table, but was able to salvage some pride in a 5-a-side match that suggests next season's league (revised to 5-a-side from 6 this season) could be much more competitive. Tim reports:

Matchday 12. Monday April 4. KO 7.20
West Hampstead Wanderers 11 – 9 The Gym Utd.

Gym Utd arrived at Fortune Green fresh from their title decider the previous week. Maybe it was the taste of defeat in that match, or having one eye already on next season; but either way, a match between the league runners up and the dead last team coudl have been expected to be a walkover to an outsider.

The Wanderers struggled to field a full line-up for the final match, so it seemed the writing was on the wall. However, The Gym Utd kindly agreed to field a 5-a-side team, which allowed more space in the previously cramped court. Some of the early football played by the Wanderers was reminiscent of the tiki-taka approach taken by some larger, foreign teams.

Wanderers were very quickly two goals to the good, following some simple pass and move with calm finishing from @timcheese and @matthewmargot. The gents from the Gym fought back, and the game was close as half-time approached. In the blur of competition, the writer considers that the scores were around 4 a-piece. Most surprising at the interval was that @timcheese already had a hat-trick under his belt, as he hadn’t scored all season whilst playing in defence. With 10 players on the court, far greater space was afforded with counterattacking suiting the bolder, quicker team.

Following the changeover, Utd looked shell-shocked early into the second half as the plucky Wanderers continued as they had started, with a couple of quick goals from a rejuvenated @samwong1. There was real belief that an upset beckoned. @MartinTse was kept busy in goal, with some quite optimistic defending, and tired legs betraying Wanderers’ ambitions. During the mid-point of the second half, Wanderers started to slow and dictate play, with @thomhoffman picking up two of his three goal tally; one of which involved a sublimely understated use of his eyes to direct the keeper away from his exquisitely placed shot. With that, The Gym Utd were almost broken, and after the addition of a fourth by @timcheese following a dubious handball claim denied, all that was left was to see out the final onslaught. Utd’s goliath effort was finished, David like, by @matthewmargot with the simplest of tap-ins before the final whistle blew.

The match had no effect on the standings, but dead rubber or not, the boys from West Hampstead showed their neighbouring cousins with their 11-9 victory that the battle for next season is just beginning.

League standings:

Kilburn Wizards          P12 W8 D2 L2 GD +27
The Gym Utd.             P12 W6 D2 L4 GD +17
Abacus Athletic          P12 W4 D2 L6 GD -4
West Hampstead Wanderers P12 W2 D2 L8 GD -40

What have I missed since April 3rd?

It's been a relatively quiet week in NW6 but, as always, here's some of the local news you might have missed.

It's been a bad week for the Cock Tavern Theatre: right after it received some great publicity  from the BBC, it was forced to close down.

Mark Riley gave @WHampstead a shout out on his BBC6 programme (sadly getting my name wrong) (from 1h 7' 14")

Last year's Hampstead & Kilburn PPC Tamsin Omond had a magistrate's hearing adjourned.

West Hampstead Conservation Area is looking for a secretary (unpaid).

The ever-popular Spicy Basil on the High Road has closed for a refurb, but customers are eager for its reopening.

Talking of Basil (segue of the week), here's a website devoted to Basil Spence who designed Swiss Cottage Library.

There's some positive news about improvements to the western West Hampstead borders (aka Cricklewood).

Kilburn author Robert Hudson came across a Kilburn tragedy.

Coming up
The sixth local get-together aka #whampgather, takes place at The Lion on West End Lane from 8pm on Thursday.

On Wednesday, a steam train will pass through West Hampstead in the morning and again in the evening.

Tweet of the Week
Tough competition this week but the winner goes to this myth-busting missive.

Cock Theatre closes for good

Earlier this week, the popular and very highly regarded Cock Tavern Theatre in Kilburn was forced to close temporarily when it was discovered that the pub above which it operates didn't have a licence for "upstairs entertainment".

It was hoped that this could be resolved quickly using a series of Temporary Event Licences while a permanent licence was sorted out. But Adam Spreadbury-Maher, the artistic director, announced today that the theatre would have to look for new premises after discovering that complying with Brent Council's Health & Safety requirements regarding the fire exits would be prohibitively expensive. Quite whether the risk was really that great is no doubt moot. At my recent visit, I can't say that I noticed the stairs were especially steep or narrow. UPDATE: The Independent has more detail on this story.

All performances have thus been cancelled and the theatre is in the process of trying to reimburse people while it moves to new premises.

It does seem hard to believe some sort of compromise could not have been reached, and instead Kilburn loses another high-quality arts venue.

Whampgather VI

Hard to believe this will be the sixth local get-together, but 'tis true. On Thursday April 14th, come along to The Lion on West End Lane from 8pm for a great night of catching up with old friends and making lots of new ones.

There are always plenty of new people at each event, so don't be shy - just turn up and you'll be surprised how quickly you get chatting to fellow locals. By all means bring your flatmates/partners/accountants for moral support or just to introduce them to the gang.

Am hoping to sort out a raffle with good local prizes, raising money for The Winch as well.

If you're not sure whether a #whampgather is your thing, read up about previous ones - but trust me, it's a diverse bunch of people and we don't all sit around comparing iPhone apps. I don't even have an iPhone.

Get local and join in.

What have I missed since March 27th?

While protests gathered momentum in Yemen and India beat first Pakistan and then Sri Lanka to clinch the Cricket World Cup, what was happening closer to home?

The PC who tackled last summer's knife wielding man in West Hampstead received a bravery award. Sadly, due an off-duty stabbing, he was unable to attend the ceremony.

BBC London reported on the attempts to save Charteris Sports Centre, but by the end of the week, Brent announced it would close

In better news, the West Hampstead Alzheimers care centre has been saved.

Kilburn's Queen of the Supper Club @MsMarmitelover published her first cookbook.

Arts Council England funding was announced. The Tricycle had funding cut by 11%, while Camden Arts Centre had funding raised by 15.6%

If you're 18-25, living in Brent and have a creative streak this trainee programme might be for you.

Between 2007 and 2010, Camden overall became less deprived, but Kilburn still has a child poverty problem.

Ninety years ago, last Monday, the magnificently named Derek Jules Gaspard Ulric Niven van den Bogaerde was born in Hemstal Road. He's better known as Dirk Bogarde.

Oddbins went into administration this week. There was a lot of speculation on Twitter as to what might take the place of the West End Lane branch should it close.

I went to the Cock Theatre for the first time.

On April 1st there were a couple of bits of breaking news.

The West Hampstead Wanderers couldn't play their penultimate match of the season due to
failed floodlights.

Tweet of the Week

Breaking News

Here's the breaking news of the day - just before midday