West Hampstead Life

Consultation on 187-199 ends on Feb 14th

2012-01-28T16:55:00.003Z

Not really news as these plans went into the council before Christmas. If you've no idea what I'm talking about then gen up on the background, maps, pictures etc.. In a nutshell: 203 flats to be built on the land between the tube and overground lines to the west of West End Lane, fronted today by the shops from Café Bon to Michael Leonard Estates: 187-199 West End Lane.

The planning documents are lengthy and incredibly detailed, To access the whole lot, you need to enter ref 2011/6129/P into Camden's planning search engine, click the application number when it comes up, and then click "View Related Documents". I've linked to a few of the critical ones below, and the main planning document is here - I've drawn your attention to some paragraphs with red borders

If you want to comment on the plans you need to do by February 14th. You can do so via the Camden planning site (it's easy enough to find). The sort of issues that have exercised people include:

Height - at 12 storeys high, the middle tower will dwarf anything else in West Hampstead;
Potential loss of daylight for houses close to the development (developer's report here);
Whether the existing local businesses on the site will be allowed to continue operating until demolition is essential, whether they will be offered first option on the new commercial premises included in the proposals, and whether that would be at a reasonable rent (retail floor plans top left here, and see 6.30-6.33 in the main planning document);
The impact on traffic and transport in the area, despite being nominally a zero-parking development (developer's report here).

There may be other issues you're concerned about - although do check the documents to see if they've already been addressed. It's probably fair to say that the plans are not going to be summarily dismissed by the planners. There is a need for housing, the land has aleady been identified as suitable for residential development, and it ties in with the London Plan that calls for 800 new homes around the stations in West Hampstead over the next few years. The details - especially the height - are up for debate though.

Local residents group WHGARA has been most vocal in its opposition to scale of the development, and is exhorting people to "Act now".

Placeshaping - the draft report

2012-01-28T15:04:00.000Z

If you've been following for a while, or have ever clicked that handy "Latest Planning News" link on the right, you'll probably have seen me talk about Placeshaping.

Here's the recap: Camden council is conducting "placeshaping" exercises in many areas of the borough in order to identify the concerns of locals and try and guide the planning and development of these areas to the extent they can. I have been fortunate enough to have been asked to participate in some of the meetings, and some of you have contributed with thoughts via this blog, which I assure you are read by the team drawing up the report.

Developing a unified place plan is not a quick process. The first meeting I attended was back at the end of June and now we're at the draft report stage. Kate Goodman from Camden, who is our Placeshaping officer, has given me permission to post this draft report, which is currently in two parts but will evenutally be merged.

As you read this, please do note that it is only a draft. Your comments though (perhaps not on any typos) are actively welcomed, especially on the second part which outlines the vision and action plan. Reference copies are also available for viewing at West Hampstead Library.

I've ringed in red some of the more interesting bits (you may disagree with what's "interesting") for those of you who just want to get the basic idea. The major issues covered are planning, and especially the large developments in the pipeline, the local retail environment, public services , green spaces, and movement between stations. Although parking is discussed, it's notable that no mention is made of whether parking for the local shops might be addressed, despite it being raised regularly by local businesses as a key issue in boosting visitor numbers to the town centre (as it's called). It's also a shame that The Winch doesn't get a mention in the youth services discussion despite being relatively close by, especially for people living the Swiss Cottage side of West Hampstead.

Click the little cloud icon to download the document, or the document title above the slides to go to the web version.

West Hampstead Place Plan Pt 1 - DRAFT

West Hampstead Place Plan Pt 2 - DRAFT

If you're interested in being involved in the next meeting, which is planned for the next couple of weeks, please contact Kate.

Love is in the air

2012-01-28T11:16:00.001Z

I realise that V-day is still more than two weeks away, but if I don't write this now I never will.

If you're the sort of person who goes for the typical dinner for two on Valentine's Day then you shouldn't need my help. Haul yourself along to one of West Hampstead's many dining options and let nature take its course over a bowl of pasta (Spiga), a plate of salmon (The Wet Fish Café), a hearty boeuf bourgignon (Mill Lane Bistro), wild boar sausages (Walnut), or a seafood platter (Hidden Treasure).

If, however, you're a bit "yawn" about V-day, but still like the idea of doing something nice for the one you love - or the one you'd like to love - without having to avert your eyes from salivating couples then here are a couple of ideas. They do require you to pootle over to Hampstead - but nothing's too much trouble right? Right?

First up, on V-day itself, why not whisk your date off to a screening of one of the greatest films of all time? The Hampstead Film Society (yes, there is one, and it's not run by some octogenarian luvvie) is screening Chinatown on its 15' wide screen. Head over to Hampstead Town Hall (213 Haverstock Hill in Belsize Park). You can take the C11 'cos nothing says "I love you" like a ride on a London bus. It starts at 7pm.

You can become a member of the HFS for £15/10conc. and then it's £4 a screening, or as a one-off it's £7 a film. There's a bar so you can get your date tipsy. Not that you would.

Not into film? Well it's not about you is it? Hmmm? Chinatown is one of my all-time favourites, and if you've not seen it I recommend it wholeheartedly. Luvvie duvvie it ain't.

If you're after something a little less rough around the edges than a classic film noir then I have another suggestion. This is actually on the Sunday before Valentine's - and there's a special offer for West Hampstead Life readers. Oh yes.

At Burgh House in Hampstead, there's a Valentines Champagne Concert on Sunday 12th Feb. Actually there are two: one at 3pm and one at 7pm. "Debonair pianist" and "self-confessed romantic" Warren Mailley-Smith will perform a selection of classics "guaranteed to tug at the heartstrings". The concert will include Chopin, Grieg and Prokoviev, finishing with Gershwin’s famous Rhapsody in Blue. And you get a glass of champagne.

As an avid reader of West Hampstead Life, you also get a 10% discount. Come. On.
Click here for the 3pm performance.
Click here for the 7pm performance.

What have I missed since January 16th?

2012-01-23T10:43:00.001Z

While royal yachts came and went, what was floating your boat in West Hampstead?

There was a major fire in the Taplow tower in Swiss Cottage. Candles and a lot of newspaper were believed to be the cause of the accident on the 17th floor last Monday. Amazingly, no-one was hurt after fire crews evacuated 130 people from the 22-storey building.

Sustaninable development initiative Transition West Hampstead relaunched with a grow-your-own food project, and a "draught-busting" scheme for locals in older houses, especially with sash windows.

The deadline for submitting your views on the 187-199 West End Lane Ballymore development draws nearer. More on the blog this week.

An appeal was launched to raise £60,000 for a local child to have an operation in America so he can walk.

After yet more glorious sunrises and sunsets, there's now a West Hampstead Views Pinterest page that collects some of the best (and a few other local snaps).

Those of you in Brent no longer need to separate your recycling.

Peacocks, with stores on Kilburn High Road and Finchley Road, went into administration. It is hoped that it will be sold as a going concern and the shops will remain.

Part of West End Lane was resurfaced after contractors used the wrong type of tarmac first time round.

A man suffered a cardiac arrest by Kilburn High Road station on Friday.

BBC legal drama Silk took over The Wet Fish Cafe for filming on Wednedsay.

The Kitchener is on Twitter @JNCookshop.

New restaurant Sea Lantern has closed already!

Tom enjoyed his Priory Tavern tart.

Coming up
Jan 31st Whampbooks at West End Lane Books: 7-9pm, 20% of all books, and free wine!

Tweet of the Week

Transition Whamp: Grow your own

2012-01-18T09:03:00.003Z

On Monday, a bunch of locals met at The Gallery to re-ignite Transition West Hampstead. Marcia MacLeod reports:

"Fancy growing your own veg? No garden? You could put your name down for an allotment - but Camden's waiting list was, the last time I checked, 40 years, and unless you can see yourself tottering around with a Zimmer frame as you water the tomatoes, there's no point even trying.

Flowerbed planting at Kilburn tube. Photo via Kilburn Times

But there is another possibility: Transition West Hampstead's food growing project - and if you walk down Abbey Road later this year, you might just see the first green shoots behind St Mary's Church.

The church, at the corner of Abbey Road and Priory Road, has donated some land to Transition West Hampstead to enable local residents to experience The Good Life. Led by David Abrahams, the group plans to turn the 20 square metre space into raised beds in time to start planting in the spring.

Any crops grown will go to the people who worked on the site and the project hopes to include Abbey Community Centre and other community groups.

Once Priory Gardens Food Growing Project gets off the ground, there are likely to be more. Even London Overground is apparently keen to see food growing at West Hampstead. Hmmmm....beans and cabbages would certainly make a change from graffiti!

Transition West Hampstead is always keen to recruit new volunteers so, if you're interested in finding out more, contact David at drdabrahams@googlemail.com or call him on 07724 894145."

What have I missed since January 9th?

2012-01-16T09:39:00.000Z

It was a hectic week in the world of West Hampstead between police helicopters and the biggest Whampather yet. So lets dive straight in.

A large police operation on Tuesday afternoon caused consternation as the police helicopter hovered over West Hampstead. A man with an airgun was holed up in a block of flat in Childs Hill and was later arrested and charged with criminal damage.

A man was found hanging from a basketball hoop in Hilgrove Road on Wednesday morning. Police are not treating the death as suspicious.

HS2 is back on the agenda, and will pass through South Hampstead although homes around here shouldn't need to be demolished. HS2 would also mean the end of the Queens Park to Euston section of the Overground.

Local MP Glenda Jackson asked about HS2 in the Commons; here's a list of Glenda's surgeries through June.

Thameslink says the northern (old) entrance won't reopen until Jan 30th - it was supposed to be mid-January but apparently they've had to redesign how the ticket machines are mounted.

Brent's Kilburn ward posted a news update.

There are some Kilburn High Road retail units available (around WH Smiths).

The two Café Bons, are no longer owned by the same person - the original one may need to change its name.

Are the Liberal Democrats invincible in Fortune Green?

The beleaguered West Hampstead Community Centre is looking for a new manager.

Whampgather was a big success, and we raised £530 for The Winch.

Tweet of the Week

Photo of the Week
After a week of glorious sunsets and dramatic sunrises, here's the pick of the bunch courtesy of @SJAttree

We came, we saw, we gathered

2012-01-16T00:20:00.000Z

I think I can fairly confidently say that the eighth installment of whampgather - the local get together - was the biggest yet. Think over the course of the night we had about 110-115 people through the door of the Priory Tavern.

Big thanks to the Dave Mitchell band - renamed the Priory Tavern All-Stars for the night, for keeping up entertained with their own (very loud) brand of the blues. Also big thanks to Brad & Nicky who tirelessly spent all night selling raffle tickets. We sold 490 raffle tickets, and then Niroch from Ammis Curry popped up with a 4th round FA Cup ticket to auction, which went for £40 and catapulted us over the £500 mark for the night. All the money goes to The Winch - and it was great that Paul Perkins was able to come down and give a quick intro to the charity that evening. (see previous post for a full list of prizes)

There's really not a lot more for me to say - so I'm just going to post some photos of the whampagther excitement and bid you farewell. The next event of any sort is the West End Lane Books "lock in" on January 31st - keep your eyes peeled on here and on Twitter for more details. The next whampgather will be a few months away - the most reliable way to hear about all these things is to sign up to the mailing list.

(photos courtesy of Brad)

What's on offer?

2012-01-12T09:38:00.003Z

Coming to #whampgather tonight? You're in for a treat. Here's a quick rundown of what to expect.

First you'll meet Freddie on the door. Be nice to him, he's a lot bigger than you are. Give him your ticket (&/or name) and let him stamp your hand with a "#" stamp. Boom. You're in.

You probably want a drink. Well, the Priory Tavern has devised a few bespoke cocktails to help us to blow away the New Year blues.

Kilburn Mist: Jameson’s Irish Whiskey, house vanilla syrup, large lemon twist (it’s still a bit chilly, whiskey to warm the cockles). [We had these at #whampgather VII - I'll be on them all night]
Louisiana Jam: Southern Comfort, apricot jam, lemon & apple juices and fresh mint (January blues? Southern delta blues more like!)
Dark’n’Stormy: Gosling’s Bermuda Rum, fresh lime, Angostura Bitters, ginger beer (go missing in your own Bermuda Triangle…)
Blue Note Collins: Bombay Sapphire, fresh lemon, elderflower cordial, soda (fresh & floral, because spring is just around the corner!)
Straight Up’n’Chaser: One “Reverse Martini” Shot and a Tiger (beer) to chase (the only time Tiger hunting is acceptable.)

Not a cocktail person? Fair enough - the blues is more raw, right? Tiger beer is £3 a bottle, as is a glass of house wine. And of course the Priory's frankly astonishing array of spirits and other drinks is available as per usual - just ask Merlin, Lucile, Danny, Casey or Richard for a little bit of what you fancy.

So, the band (the Dave Mitchell Blues Band - no, not that Dave Mitchell - sorry) is playing, the joint is jumping, you've got a Louisiana Jam in one hand and a gorgeous fella/gal/plant pot in the other... feeling peckish? The Priory's even changed its menu for us. Hell yeah.

There are bar snacks, from chicken wings to that southern soul food classic hoummous!
There are mains from Cajun chicken & chorizo jambalaya to the 3/4lb #Whampgather burger.
There are desserts from warm pear & apple tart to Cornish Yarg & Cranberry Wensleydale.

In other words, there's food - more than I've listed here.

Between and after the band, none other than DJ Stoney (aka @Swiss_Cottage) will be providing the tunes. He's a DJ who actually likes taking requests! Then at around 10.15ish there's the award for Tweet of the Year, and then it's time for T H E R A F F L E.

So, we all know the raffle is for a good cause - and it really is. The Winch needs your cash, but also your time and on the night you'll be able to find out more about how you might be able to help. But we have some amazing prizes to win. You do have to be present to claim your prize I'm afraid. Absentee ticketholders means a redraw! But why would you want to leave?! Here's what's on offer.

CDs from new bands courtesy of Charm Factory
Hair care products (gender appropriate, oh yes) from Rock
The Bake-a-boo cookbook
Four free tickets to the Good Ship Comedy (come on!)
A haircut for the man in your life from Mill Lane Barbers
Chocolates from Cocoa Bijoux
3 x £20 vouchers for Gourmet Burger Kitchen
2 x £25 vouchers from Me Love Sushi
NW6 (or a different postcode if you're an interloper) branded clothing from ILoveMyPostcode
£30 voucher from West End Lane Books
A voucher for the Kitchen Table
A meal for two at Little Bay
A meal for two at Spiga
£50 towards a meal at The Wet Fish Café
Cooking classes from Ammis Curry, and then dinner for your friends
Dinner for two at One Blenheim Terrace in St John's Wood.

If that's not worth digging a little deeper into your pockets for - especially when every penny goes to a good cause - then you have no soul. Nicky and Brad - the raffle ticket sellers on the night - will even come to you. It couldn't be easier to relieve you of cash. If you buy 17 tickets you could win everything - although you may not get out of the pub alive.

See you all later.

What have I missed since December 19th?

2012-01-08T23:09:00.001Z

It's been a while since the last news round-up. Happy New Year, and all that jazz. Hope everyone enjoyed their break and thanks to those who came to #whampdrinks the week before Christmas. It's been a fairly quiet time around West Hampstead, but amid the wind and the rain there have been a few things afoot.

The planning application for 187-199 West End Lane is in. It's enormous.
You'll need this reference: 2011/6129/P for this form.

South Hampstead tower block residents suffered flooding after the theft of metal pipes (which also hindered the fire service's rescue)

TfL announced a £3.4 million investment in Camden - including the contentious 20mph speed limit and two-way cycling schemes in West Hampstead as well as signage improvements between the three WH stations.

Meanwhile, West Hampstead featured in a short BBC news piece about TfL fare rises.

It used to be so different - one of the best "Then and Now" photos yet?

Camden's police force is trying Twitter again. And a new account: @WHlocalplod also began

Some news on our local eateries:
Bake-a-boo is closing weekdays in January.
Me Love Sushi has opened (on the former Strada site).
Spiga is now open 7 days a week, and there's 10% off for take-away (collection).
Bon Express seems to be expanding into groceries!
Guglee is the restaurant moving into what was (briefly) Costello's.

A tree blew over on Pandora Rd luckily missing the parked cars.

The utility works on Kilburn High Road finally finished.

The Kings Troop is preparing for its final departure from St John's Wood. There'll be no more disruption as 40 horses trot up West End Lane.

Here's the latest steam train pulling into West Hampstead

Swiss Cottage youth charity The Winch has been confirmed by Camden as a 'preferred partner' to run Belsize library.

On the blog
Tom was disappointed by a Moment salad.
I don't think anyone got all 11 questions right in my Quiz of 2011.
But did any of your predictions for 2011 actually come true?
Jon Kelly won Tweet of the Year.

Finally, #whampgather preparations continue apace. Looking forward to seeing lots of you on Thursday. We've got the band, we've got the cocktails, we've got the DJ, we're going to blow away the New Year Blues. Tickets have all gone, but always worth chancing your arm on the waitlist.

Coming up
Advance warning of the WHAT AGM on Tuesday 24th January

Tweet of the Week(s)
We've got a tweet from the very end of 2011 and a photo from the start of 2012 for you

A year in 140 characters

2012-01-01T12:54:00.004Z

Every week, the round-up of the previous seven days' events includes a Tweet (or Photo) of the Week. I thought I'd take the best of them and see whether they revealed anything more meaningful about the year we've just experienced in West Hampstead.

They don't. But some of them are quite funny.

I'm sorry I haven't included every single one here, and there have been some weeks where the competition for Tweet of the Week has been stiff, so some people have missed out on the prestige of being able to add the letters TOTW to their business cards despite some excellent witty and pithy tweets. At the end (you'll need to let the Storify widget load fully) is your chance to vote for Tweet of the Year.

Here then, without further ado, is the run down of the things that made us tweet in 2011:

Your browser doesn't support iFrames :( Vote for this poll here.

2011 Whamp Quiz of the Year

2011-12-31T21:10:00.001Z

As the sun sets on West Hampstead for the last time in 2011, it is of course a time to reflect - and pose a bunch of silly questions to see whether you've been paying attention, or whether the intake of alcohol at the various whampevents has addled your brain.

There are - as last year - no prizes for this. So sit back, click away, and enjoy remembering the whamp year that has passed. Thanks once again for all your support, tweets, blog comments, e-mails, appearance at events, and - in the case of one whamper - throwing your home open to a bunch of strangers for a massive barbecue. On with the quiz!

THE QUIZ
1. Which creature helped stop the plans to develop Gondar Gardens?
2. Which retailer moved into the former Woolworths' site on Finchley Road?
3. Which singer was immortalised in graffiti form in West Hampstead?
4. Which café featured in a kids prank show, featuring yours truly?
5. Who opened the new Sainsbury's Local on West End Lane?
6. Which Hampstead & Kilburn electoral candidate admitted to causing criminal damage this year?

7. How many units are being proposed for the 187-199 West End Lane development?

8. Which cake put Café Bon firmly on the map?

9. How did short-lived cafe/restaurant Costello describe itself?

10. Which local endeavour got national news coverage?

11. Which advertising legend came to West Hampstead this autumn?

It's the end of the year as we know it

2011-12-30T17:08:00.002Z

It's the last Friday of the year and as those of you on Twitter will know, Friday is traditionally the day that people tweet "Follow Friday" - back in the days of yore (2009) this was a nice way to introduce your followers to some other people they might like to follow. Now it's become little more than a shout out for people you like. I hardly ever "follow friday" anyone, but thought that for the end of the year I'd make an exception.

How did you do?

2011-12-30T15:51:00.001Z

At the start of the year, I asked you via Twitter for your predictions for 2011. Most were silly, a lot were funny, one or two were semi-serious, and a couple were outlandish. But how many were accurate?

Transport
Tubes and trains were popular topics. Back in 2010, the Jubilee Line closures were a major talking point and if I remember, were due to finish in March. They ran until October. So @simontreanor's "The Jubilee Line will often be closed on weekends. It's a long shot I know", turned out to be pretty much on the money.

Meanwhile, It took 12 months for @Sparklegirl21's prediction to come true "They actually build something at the Thameslink station instead of playing with their diggers".

We did however eventually get what @David_Stringer optimistically predicted "One weekend, just one, the tubes AND overground will both work". In fact it happened more than once. Long may it continue.

We're still waiting for@RandomCarlos's prediction that the "Jubilee Line will be converted into a moving walkway so we can get into town more quickly" to come true, or for @blueskyflowers' hope that "Mill Lane gets pedestrianised!"

It was always a gimme that @aktaraja would be right that there'd be more "roadworks/gasworks/electrical works on WEL", but no-one foresaw the level of disruption on Kilburn High Road that's only just finished.

Shops
The imminent arrival of a Sainsbury's Local on West End Lane exercised many of you, but none of your predictions that Waitrose would move in, or that Tesco & Sainsbury would collapse in the face of revived localism came to pass. Perhaps the most accurate was again from @RandomCarlos: "The combined effect of both Tesco and Sainsbury delivery vans will cause national gridlock."

Despite the recession, @Cyburn's prediction that a poundshop "or maybe a £2 shop" would open in West Hampstead didn't happen either; and although @marmitetoast was wrong that more estate agents would open in West Hampstead, the one that closed (Brian Lack) was replaced by a new one (Goldschmidt & Howland).

@flyperson was overambitious in suggesting that coiffeurs would overtake estate agents, but he was at least directionally right as we saw the opening of Rock Men's Salon and Geezers (which did not close down, despite @bobbymann's prediction).

Meanwhile, we're still waiting for @leonora1 to "finally open my own craft shop!"

Food & Drink
Given that whampers seem predisposed to eat and drink out a lot, how were their predictions?
@nickhudgell suggsted that "glo gets let to a mexican burrito joint.". In fact it became Ladudu.
@sblower wondered whether "ShakeTastic will produce a drink mixing peanut butter with fruit, and... roast veg." Not quite, but it is now doing herbal teas.
@gitfinger, ever prescient, predicted that "The restaurant formerly known as Le Petit Coin closes and reopens under a new guise. Twice" Well, it was Lite for a bit, but has just reopened as The Sea Lantern.

Sport
The WHampstead 7-a-side team didn't have a great start, but once the league became 5-a-side, things took a turn for the better. @nickhudgell predicted that the team would win the league - and the West Hampstead Wanderers did just that. The following season Whamp Athletic (the other team that spun off from the 7-a-side team) picked up the title with Wanderers just behind them. Sadly, @SamWong1's assumption that the Wanderers would be bought by an Arab billionaire has yet to happen.

World news
Twelve months ago, Osama bin Laden was still alive. We only have the US government's word that he was killed in Pakistan. Perhaps @DanDrillsma was right: "Bin Laden found directing global operations from the back room at Lower Ground Bar..."

So that was 2011 - any thoughts for 2012? Leave them in the comments below

Whampgather VIII - Blow away the New Year Blues

2011-12-23T17:03:00.001Z

I know we're still in Christmas mode, and it's not even 2012 yet, but preparations for the next installment of #whampgather have been underway for some time.What's #whampgather? I suggest you read the FAQs!

Once again, I'm raising the bar. Alongside the usual delights of the raffle, a DJ, and a hundred or so locals all up for having a spectacularly good time... to blow away the New Year blues this January 12th, we're going to have live music courtesy of the Dave Mitchell Blues Band. Don't say I don't do anything for you.

Regulars at The Priory Tavern, which is once again hosting whampgather, will know the band - they're members of 12 Bar Blues, which plays the Tavern regularly. Very kindly, Dave and the band have agreed to do the gig for free as we'll once again be raising money for The Winchester Project - a local youth charity that we've supported for the past couple of years.

Whampgather is still free to attend, although I hope you will all be generous in your raffle ticket purchases. Back in September we raised £350 for The Winch and I'd love to get that nearer to £500 this time around. There'll be the usual selection of excellent local prizes - I actually lost count of how many we gave away last time, but there were at least four meals for two at local restaurants, a bottle of champagne, stacks of music, local books, tickets to comedy at The Good Ship and more.

Here's where you need to pay attention. You will need a ticket. September's whampgather sold out faster than Take That's comeback tour. Places are limited to the pub's maximum capacity of 120 - last time they were snapped up in less than 24 hours and the waiting list stretched to 60. It is worth being on the waiting list - people do drop out (and then tweet to say they regretted it), so if you're too slow for a ticket then I'd recommend adding your name anyway.

Event management for Whampgather VIII - Blow away the New Year Blues powered by Eventbrite

What have I missed since December 12th?

2011-12-19T10:02:00.000Z

As Christmas hurtles towards us as fast as a North Korean missile (you never saw Kim Jong Il and Santa in the same room did you? Huh?), what's been exercising the West Hampsted workers collective over the past seven days?

A man died on Monday after an accident at the junction of Quex Road and Kilburn High Road.

The same morning, thieves stole £10,000 from a security van in Swiss Cottage.

Mayoral candidate Ken Livingstone opened the new West Hampstead Thameslink station on Wednesday.

Sidings Community Centre won nearly £25,000 of funding for each of the next two years to continue delivering its Youth Services Programme.

Labour councillor Mike Katz continued his crusade for a new school in the area.

Local PCSO Charlotte Louis de Canonville will be leaving the West Hampstead Safer Neighbourhood Team in January to take up another role in the Met.

Beware of two men door knocking in the area saying they've "come to lay carpet". If you see them, please dial 101, preferably with details of their van.

A household of #whampers was profiled in the Australian Times.

The #whampreview of Ladudu finally was published.

There's been a bit of steam train action this week too.

Coming up
Monday: For those of a Maida Vale persuasion, #elgingather is tonight at the LVLounge.
Tuesday: #whampxmasdrinks downstairs at The Gallery from 8pm. All welcome.
Sunday: CHRISTMAS.

Tweet of the Week
Winter and Thameslink in one tweet/photo. Perfect.

No #whampnews next week, but expect some other blog action over the holidays, with a quiz, a few #whampawards and a run down of the Tweets of the Year. Hope you all have a lovely holiday, and the newsletter will return in 2012. Of course, you can keep up with news on Twitter as always!

Twenty two do Ladudu

2011-12-12T14:14:00.002Z

On Thursday, we took over a good chunk of West End Lane's popular Vietnamese restaurant Ladudu in the latest installment of whampreview.

Unlike previous reviews, we had a set menu and arrived all at once - setting both the kitchen and front of house a sizeable challenge. Complimentary prawn crackers and green and jasmine tea arrived promptly and the conversation across our three tables started to flow as we waited for our appetiser platters. Several people had been to Vietnam and expectations were high.

The first dish to arrive was a green papaya salad (one of my personal favourites and also popular with Eugene) surrounded by summer rolls filled with prawn, vermicelli and mint. These had very clean flavours - although my table felt the mint was a little overpowering giving what Sam described as a "toothpaste" finish. Other diners thought the mint made these rolls fresh, light and fragrant. Stefanie thought this was typical of what she'd eaten on her travels. In contrast to these sharper flavours, a plate of fried calamari, fried prawns, and vietnamese spring rolls had a lovely chilli warmth to them - the squid in particular was "bang on", according to Thom. Paula thought they were light and tasty, although James thought the spring rolls were nice but not distinctive.

The dipping sauce that Daniel and Sheena said really helped bring these bite-size morsels to life was a bit slow to my table. Alicia wondered whether a sweet peanut dipping sauce might be a good addition although she loved the summer rolls. Overall, most of us agreed with Tom, who loved the style, presentation, tastes and textures of the platters.

Having demolished the starters, and moved from tea onto wine and beer, we were then served a hot and sour prawn soup. This was laden with prawns, white fish, squid and er.. pineapple, which caught a few people by surprise - "I saw it, and left it," said Claire. It was generally very popular though; "a great mixture of tastes that somehow came together perfectly," said June. It also briged the gap nicely as we waited for our main courses. Nicky thought it would make a "nourishing winter cold remedy". Simon liked it but thought it meant the whole meal was quite a lot of food. Tom declared it to be "wonderful". "The inclusion of big pieces of squid and things really made it a dish I would eat as a main. Perfect balance of flavours too." Daniel called it the "Goldilocks of soups".

For a main course, each table got a bowl of beef curry and a bowl of chicken curry (our token vegetarian got her own vegetable curry). Simon liked the curries but preferred the starters, Bill thought they needed a little more kick, and SJ said they were nice but she wasn't blown away. Alicia, however, thought they were tasty. Tom D summed up Nicky's table's view of the curries, saying they felt a bit generic south-east Asian. Eugene had a similar perspective, comparing them with a Wagamama's curry. It's probably fair to say that although everyone liked these dishes, no-one was bowled over.

Luckily all the other elements of the main course were much more successful. We also had rice, rice noodles, a chicken stir fry dish, fried noodles, and morning glory (which Wikipedia tells me is designated a Federal Noxious Weed in the US, but was one of the most popular dishes for whampers - Bill declared it the highlight of the main course). On my table at least, there was quite some time between all these elements appearing and probably more rice and fewer vegetables than we needed.

The chicken stir fry (or veg stir fry) was a big hit. Paula commented that the smoky mushrooms brought the dish alive, and Mark agreed it was well done. The fried noodles were also very popular on my table but took a while to arrive on Tom's table, although once they did they were well received.

The wine continued to appear - house white for my table, a Marlborough Pinot Noir on Tom's table that he raved about, and white and red for Nicky's gang. It seemed that first-time whampreviewers were quickly getting the hang of the whole thing (eat, drink and be merry).

Most of us had room for dessert - especially when it came in the form of Ladudu's truly outstanding ice cream, which is probably the best in West Hampstead. Coconut and pandan, lychee, vietnamese coffee, and black sesame ice cream all elicited gasps of amazement. James said his was "the best lychee ice cream I've ever eaten" (yes, it was the only one - but I think the sentiment is valid). Nicky reckoned the black sesame ice cream was worth going back for all by itself - and the waiter enigmatically promised that they are working on a new improved sesame flavour "which will be as black as my Asian hair". Alicia was the sole dissenting voice, saying her ice cream could have been sweeter.

The other dessert option was a "celebratory glutinous rice cake with coconut reduction" - this was a bit heavy for Dominic and Isabelle, who failed to finish theirs. On my table, only Sam was in favour while Claire said it wasn't to her taste. Tom's table were more enthusiastic, with Paula saying it was "savoury, interesting and chewy".

Each table had a designated waiter or waitress, and service was friendly and well-informed if a bit slow at times as the kitchen tried to get everything out together. Large groups and set menus are also a relatively new venture for Ladudu, so it's likely that they'll iron out some of the kinks - and of course going in a small group or as a couple would be a very different experience.

Overall, the evening went very well. Some dishes disappointed those who'd been expecting more exciting food, and those who had eaten at Ladudu before felt the menu hadn't necessarily showcased the best of the restaurant's food. However, other elements of the meal were really successful, and there was a strong sense that people wanted to come back.

The cost: we paid £25 a head for the menu (£20 for the vegetarian option), with drinks and service on top. Tom's alcoholics ended up with a £38/head bill, Nicky's table was £36, and mine was £35.

The scores:
Nicky's table 7.6
Tom's table 7.2
Jonathan's table 6.6
Average: 7.1

Ladudu
152 West End Lane
NW6 1SD
T: 020 7372 3217
E: food@ladudu.com
W: www.ladudu.com

What have I missed since December 5th

2011-12-12T09:25:00.000Z

While David Cameron vetoed something - although no-one seems quite sure what - storms lashed the country, what was creating waves closer to home?

Two people have been arrested and charged for @TheGalleryNW6 robbery and will be remanded in custody before appearing in court in February.

Armed robhbers who targeted the McDonalds in Swiss Cottage were jailed for more than 30 years.

The Guardian published a day in the life of a West Hampstead-based mounted police officer.

The historic Ebenezer Chapel in Kilburn Vale has been definitively safeguarded for the future.

Camden submitted its own comments to the Boundary commission regarding Fortune Green's possible change of consitutency.

The Winch launched its new Promise Academy initiative.

Parking and planning topped the agenda at Monday's Area Action Group.

New plans have been submitted for the Gondar Gardens reservoir site.

West Hampstead overground station will get new lifts.

The wide walkway up Iverson Road to the new Thameslink station opened.

The West Hampstead Christmas market was a resounding success.

Twenty two of us went to Ladudu for whampreview - write-up later today!

West End Lane newcomer Costello has already closed - it will become an Indian restaurant.

The Save the West Hampstead Girl Guides campaign made the local press.

Coming up
Santa and his elves will be at LoveFood on Dec 17 & 18 from 3-7pm. £4 per child including a present and a hot chocolate.

Gondar Gardens development meeting at the synagogue hall on December 14th.

Reminder that #whampxmasdrinks will be at The Gallery on December 20th.

Save the date: #whampgather VIII will be on Jan 12th. People on the mailing list will be the first to hear the details, get tickets, etc.

Tweet of the Week

Are new Gondar Gardens plan a-go-go?

2011-12-11T17:57:00.001Z

The Gondar Gardens reservoir is back on the planning agenda. Here's the story so far. Gondar Gardens is a large patch of green land that sits over a disused Victorian reservoir.

The land is owned by Linden Homes and Wates, who submitted plans to build a series of homes on the site in what was generally described as "Teletubbies style". These semi-subterranean homes were deemed to be out of keeping with the area, and the threat to local biodiversity - most notably the local slow worm population - was enough to see the plan rejected after a vociferous campaign.

The developers are appealing the decision, but one would assume that they're not especially confident of winning as they have invested in an entirely new and completely different plan for the site, which they were exhibiting at the library last Wednesday.The new plan take up much less of the site and instead just front onto the west side of Gondar Gardens road.

The previous plans took up the space marked by the inner red rectangle

There would be 19 private homes and 9 affordable housing units. To keep the environmentalists happy, the development goes big on managing the remaining open space (which is far greater under this proposal than the previous one), and once complete the land would be handed over to a trust with covenants restricting any future development.

Architecturally, the designs so far apparently try to reflect the neighbouring buildings but in a modern style.

At the exhibition there was some debate as to whether this had been successful yet - the current design being very boxy and angular compared to the bay windows and pitched roofs of the houses around. The developer suggested that the design was a work in progress. At least, unlike some other developments locally, this one would not rise above existing buildings.

On Wedensday December 14th, there is a Camden Development Management Forum at the synagogue hall on Dennington Park Road. This is a chance for the public to hear more about the proposals and ask questions. Registration will be at 6.15pm for a 6.30pm start and the meeting shouldn't last more than two hours. This is not a formal consultation meeting as no plans have yet been submitted.

The exhibition boards are visible below, or you can download them from www.gondargardens.co.uk.

At the West Hampstead and Fortune Green Area Action group meeting a couple of days earlier, Fortune Green councillor Russell Eagling seemed to imply that this development was much more in keeping with the sort of thing the council would look favourably on. It is also worth noting that these units would not count towards the 800 new homes required under the intensification plan that emanates from City Hall - that is focused entirely on the land around the three railways lines.
Gondar Gardens exhibition boards

Parking and planning dominate December's AAG

2011-12-11T17:14:00.003Z

The turnout for this week's West Hampstead & Fortune Green Area Action Group was higher than usual, with parking, planning, and local business on the agenda.

For those of you not familiar with the AAGs, they are an opportunity to meet local councillors, hear about the latest developments in the area, and for the public to share their views and ask questions.

Parking changes in Camden
The council is reviewing its parking policies. We had a quick rundown of changes over the past few years: fewer parking tickets, no clamping, allowing taxis to park on yellow lines for ATM access.

The borough is introducing cashless parking via mobile phones (meters will still accept coins), and is reviewing how its permit system will work with auto-renewal systems, e-permits and simplifying the visitor permit system with half-hour visitor permits being abolished. It was also made clear that the parking zones won't be extended as that encourages short journeys and more parking pressure around stations.

Parking turned out to be an issue that people got quite exercised by. There was a question about all the proposed housing developments and the impact on parking in the area. All new developments are encouraged to be car free and residents will not be allowed to apply for permits on nearby streets. The view was expressed that new residents would find a way around the rules. There was also a suggestion that if there was basement parking in new developments it could then be used as public parking during the day.

There was grumbling about changes to visitor permit system and the common complaint councils face up and down the country: that they are "using motorists as cash cows".

Parking wardens came in for flak for being too picky over permits. The representative from Camden explained that the appeals process will look at such issues. The masses weren't impressed and the view was expressed that the permits were too complicated yet there was no process by which the public could look at getting them changed.

The parking review will also look at the details for each controlled parking zone, including on Fortune Green Road where parking for the 24hr gym is causing some local residents a degree of angst.

Planning
Next up, James Earl from the Fordwych Residents Association explained the concept of the Neighbourhood Development Plan, which you can read more about here. One local development was being displayed at the meeting - Handrail House on Maygrove Road is likely to be turned into flats. The developer is throwing money at local community centre Sidings, including astroturfing the pitch, in order to ease any objections. If plans are cleared by April then the developer will avoid the Crossrail levy that all larger residential developments in London will have to pay.

I asked whether there was any way in which we could get the Mayor's London plan to enlarge the area designated for intensification (800 homes over the next few years) so that all the homes wouldn't have to be clustered so tightly along the railway lines. Almost certainly a futile notion, but local councillor Flick Rea suggested that if there was ever a time to lobby politicians it was in the run up to an election and we were about to prepare for another Ken v Boris battle (and lets remember Ken lives locally so would at least be au fait with the particularities of the area). This would not be about reducing the number of new homes in West Hampstead, just spreading them out a little more. Developers themselves might not be so keen, under current planning frameworks, it's much harder for councils to reject developments that flank railways.

Flick also mentioned that it was possible that the council offices on West End Lane (better known as the Wickes/Travis Perkins building), which are also destined to be flats, could end up as being entirely affordable housing as part of a deal with a (hypothetical) developer. So much for integrated housing projects.

Someone asked what our councillors' own view was about the future of West Hampstead; I think suggesting that there was too much of a "our hands are tied" attitude. Councillor Keith Moffitt said that they had a clear vision, which was to preserve the villagey feel of the area, while recognising the need for new homes. One can imagine that this will translate into planners insisting that some of the larger developments lop a couple of floors off their proposals, or tone down any architectural oddities, but that any wholesale rejection of housing developments is unlikely.

I bumped into James later in the week and asked if there had been a good response after the meeting in terms of helping set up a steering group for the NDP - and it seemed like there had been. This will be a lengthy process though, and is very much going to focus on the developments that aren't even on the table yet rather than those already under discussion.

There was a brief discussion on the new proposals for Gondar Gardens, which I've tackled in a separate blog. Questions were also raised as to whether there really was a need for new housing in the area, and weren't there already too many houses on the market (the idea was firmly rebuffed by the estate agent contingent who said demand outstripped supply at the moment). And someone asked whether ownership of new flats could be restricted to Londoners or "people who need them". You can imagine the answer.

Councillor Gillian Risso-Gill spoke briefly about the fledgling West Hampstead Business Forum and introduced David Matthews from Dutch & Dutch estate agents who has offered to chair the group. It will be interesting to see what comes out of that in the coming months.

The meeting concluded with short presentations / plugs for the financially challenged West Hampstead Community Association by Geoff Berridge, and for the financially more secure Sidings Community Centre by Sue Measures. Both run all manner of classes, so do check them out.

There were two off-agenda items that came up in final questions. The first concerned the cycle permeability scheme (allowing two-way cycle traffic on many of our one-way streets), which some locals think is a recipe for disaster. The consultation period for this has passed, but the councillors suggested that comments even now might well be considered.

The second was an impassioned plea regarding Netherwood Day Centre. This specialist Alzheimers unit just off the Kilburn High Road is teetering on the precipice again after an initial stay of execution following a high profile campaign involving local celebrities such as Ricky Gervais.

And that was that

What have I missed since November 28th?

2011-12-05T09:57:00.000Z

More economic woes, a large-scale public sector strike, and a sudden interest in pandas characterised the week in the news. What was piquing our interest closer to home?

The Gallery was victim of an armed robbery late last Sunday.

Gondar Gardens development plans are back on the table. There'll be a public meeting about it on the 14th. The previous plans were rejected.

Monday is the last day you can get your comments in to the Boundary Commission about Fortune Green being assigned to another parliamentary constituency.

Local youth charity The Winch had a big open evening and presented its new vision of the "Promise Academy". Contact them for more details or to get involved.

A campaign has launched to save West Hampstead's Girl Guides.

Camden is introducing cashless parking meters this month.

Ken Livingstone talked to young people in Kilburn on Monday.

No sign of snow yet, but when it comes Camden is making more snow shovels available to community groups.

The most asked question of the week on Twitter was "Where can I get Christmas trees from". The answer: Homebase, or Kilburn High Road (check out @ShanRoseFlowers), or the Mill Lane community garden centre.

#whampxmasdrinks will be on December 20th at The Gallery. This is the last event I'm organizing of 2011 (a few of you have asked if I'm doing a New Year's Eve party - I'm not). This is a completely informal "just turn up" get together. The next proper #whampgather will be in early January.

Here's a song dedicated to Kilburn High Road.

Ammis Curry - a Sri Lankan restaurant/take-away - opened on the High Road.

A new nail shop - Vivi Nails - is opening on Broadhurst Gardens. Looks like it'll open before Christmas.

Me Love Sushi is opening on the old Strada site in January.

CocoaBijoux joined the Twitter revolution.

Silent Witness was filming at St Augustine's church in Kilburn.

A car went into the back of a 328 bus on Friday on West End Lane.

David Walliams was signing books at the Waterstones in the O2 centre on Saturday.

Coming up
Tuesday: the next West Hampstead & Fortune Green area action group meeting. Come along to learn about what's going on in the area.
Wednesday: the Gondar Gardens exhibition.
Saturday: The West Hampstead Christmas market is on West End Green from 10am-4pm

Tweet of the Week

What have I missed since Nov 21st?

2011-11-28T09:20:00.000Z

While the tabloid press has been hauled over the coals, and Curiosity disappears off to Mars, it's been a fairly quiet week in West Hampstead - but there are quite a few things coming up over the next few days.

A suspect has been arrested and is being held on remand in connection with eight recent burglaries in the South Hampstead conservation area. The local SNT is also warning people not to leave garden tools lying around in the communal gardens, as some are being used to gain access.

Jedward were spotted in Cricklewood.

Strada closed down, and new fish & chips operation Sea Lantern opened.

A new sign has gone up at Vini Vivi on Mill Lane and the refurb of the dentists also includes a rebrand and sparkly sign.

Tom checked out West End Lane newcomer Costello, while another local posted a review of Ladudu (site of December's whampreview).

Demolition work's started on the Blackburn Road site that's going to become student accommodation.

Coming up
On Monday, La Brioche hosts the Return of the Short Story, and on Friday, the owner's band will be playing.

Tuesday is West End Lane Books' Christmas bonanza day with 20% discount on all titles, mulled wine and other Christmas treats from 9am (bit early for mulled wine?) to 6pm.

On Thursday, The Winch is inviting people to come and hear abouts its exciting plans for the future. Definitely worth attending.

There's a cookbook sale at Kitchen Table on Dec 4th, donations of your books very much welcome.

Photo of the Week
You really can never be too careful in Kilburn, as this photo by @CodinginLondon of an innovative bike locking device shows:

Locally Sourced

2011-11-25T14:10:00.000Z

No, not a post about foraging for wild mushrooms down Bill Fury Way, but rather about Locally Sourced Productions. Let me let Paula take up the story:

"It sprouted out of a casual conversation at David’s Deli one summer’s day, and over the past 15 months has gingerly settled into an unpredictable routine of literary and musical events. We started with a poetry reading at the Deli. Since then, around every six weeks, we’ve presented story-telling, travel writing, writers reading from their first novels, composers, jazz musicians, singers, short stories, and most recently a rousing night of sea shanties. The point of the evenings is two-fold: to bring together our community for a bit of free fun and camaraderie and to have an opportunity to enjoy and discover our local artists who so kindly give of their time and talent.

While I have your attention, I just want to publicly thank a few local stars: Elias at David’s Deli who packed the audience in for many months and continues to support this endeavour down at La Brioche, where we moved three events ago; photographer and neighbour Dominic Lee who so generously prints the posters I hope you see in the window at La Brioche advertising the events; Roger Evans, our delightful host at La Brioche, and you, who come out on the occasional Monday night to meet up, support the talent, and make West Hampstead an especially wonderful place to live. If you have any ideas for events or want to participate yourself, let me know."

Here are the details for this Monday's event (and the evening of December 2nd, Roger's own band will be playing in Brioche)

The Winch: A time for new dreams

2011-11-25T12:39:00.001Z

Some more recent arrivals to West Hampstead Life may not be aware that I actively support local youth charity The Winchester Project. You can read a bit more about the genesis of that support here.

If you'd like to know more about the excellent work The Winch does, then I would urge you to go along on December 1st to hear about a "Time for New Dreams". This would be an excellent opportunity to find out how you might be able to support the organization (whether financially, or by giving your time, expertise, or opportunities through your network), and to learn how it's moving forward.

Hope that I'll see lots of you there! Click the pic for a larger version and more details.

Whampreview - December 8th, Ladudu

2011-11-21T10:26:00.000Z

On December 8th, the next whampreview takes place at Ladudu - the popular Vietnamese restaurant on West End Lane opposite the Iverson Rd junction. We're looking to take around 20 people for an 8pm seating. We'll be trying out the restaurant's Christmas menu. This hasn't been finalised yet, but there'll be a platter of appetisers, two savoury courses and a dessert course for £25 (£20 if you'd like the vegetarian option). Ladudu will throw in some prawn crackers and tea as well, other drinks will be extra.

As usual, if the event is oversubscribed then names will be drawn out of a hat this Thursday morning.

Whampreview basics: we'll meet beforehand for a drink and, during the evening, Tom and I will note down comments about the food/service/value etc., which will go into the write-up. The evening is really more about meeting people though rather than being ultra-critical about restaurants. The bill is split equally unless there's been a large discrepancy in consumption. Any questions, just ask, or check the FAQs.

To put your name forward, simply mail or tweet me @WHampstead before the end of day this Wednesday. If your name is picked, I will need a mobile number and active e-mail address from you. Please don't commit to this on the offchance - we're making a reservation for a large group at the restaurant, so it's not fair on them if we suddenly have lots of dropouts.

Of course, there are always one or two genuine last-minute dropouts, so even if you're unlucky, I may come back to you at short notice to see if you're still interested.

What have I missed since November 14th?

2011-11-21T10:17:00.000Z

Straight onto the news this week

The northern entrance to the Thameslink station closed (it reopens in January), and the temporary side-entrance next to the almost finished Iverson Road station opened.

This has meant that the bookseller has moved - he was outside Costa after apparently being told he couldn't set up nearer the new station [perhaps while it's being finished?]

Read the report on the proposed 12-storey tower block in West Hampstead.

Apparently, Camden Council is to withdraw staff supervision from the adventure playground in Kilburn Grange park.

Has West Hampstead community centre been thrown a lifeline?

West Hampstead featured in the BBC's Homes Under the Hammer with a house on Narcissus Road and lots of shots of West End Lane.

Gardens Grocery on Broadhurst Gardens had its lower glass panel on its door broken. Not clear if there was also a break-in.

New bike racks will be installed at West Hampstead stations.

There was a kick-off meeting to see what level of interest there was in reinvigorating some form of West Hampstead traders association.

Indhu Rubasingham takes over from Nicolas Kent as artistic director of the Tricycle.

Tom visited Small & Beautiful - what did he think?

Camden History Society joined Twitter.

Local playwright Bernard Kops talked to the Ham & High about the "terror of death".

The O2 centre's Christmas tree is up.

Coming up
The next whampreview will be December 8th at Ladudu.

Sea Lantern, a fish &chips restaurant on West End Lane, opens this Friday (Liam Gallagher & family were spotted in well-established rival Nautlius this week).

The Kitchen Table is collecting cookery books for a sale in aid of Cancer Research on December 4th Donate in-store.

New West End Lane café/bar/restaurant Costello is having its launch party on Friday 5-7pm. Free glass of house wine/coffee/cocktail and 25% off everything before 8.30pm.

There's a public meeting in West Hampstead library next Tuesday about school provision and education in the area.

Tweet of the Week
Decided I couldn't have two weeks running about pigeons and the Kilburn High Road, but then I thought screw it...

West Hampstead schools - what's the future?

2011-11-18T18:28:00.000Z

Next Tuesday there's a public meeting about education in general and local schooling in particular at the library. It's organised by the West Hampstead Labour party but anyone is welcome to attend.

187-199 West End Lane: The Ballymore proposals

2011-11-18T18:03:00.001Z

"We actually live here, it's not just a 'place with great transport links', it's our home"

Last week, quite a large group of locals turned up at Sidings Community Centre to hear a presentation from the developers and architects of the 187-199 West End Lane site. It was chaired by Frances Wheat, Head of Development Control at Camden's planning department.

Full minutes will be written up, and I'm not going to try and cover everything that was discussed in the session which ran for two hours. I've already covered the basics elsewhere, so I'll try to shed some light on some other issues that arose and set the context very briefly.

The area around the three stations (known as "The Interchange") has been designated as an area for intensification in the Mayor's London Plan. That's a done deal - the expectation is for 800 new homes by 2015. Therefore, land such as this strip which runs between the underground and the overground lines will be developed for housing, but the scale and type are not set in stone.

The site is ~450m long

The boards that were exhibited beforehand are now accessible on the architect's website (see these for issues I haven't covered here, for example the parks, gardens and environmental issues, or site constraints). Some changes have been made since the last designs were discussed - the "public" square (presumably private space) has been made bigger to accommodate potentially the fillip that is a farmers' market, and more smaller retail units have been added.

West End Square

Scale
First up, perhaps the most controversial of the issues: the height. There was quite a lot of confusion and, I have to say it, obfuscation, on the part of the architects here. At the exhibition the previous weekend I'd been told point blank that the highest building would be 11 storeys. Yet, JamesEarl from Fortune Green Residents Association had been told it would be 12 storeys. It's a fairly basic fact without much room for error. You'd think. As Eric Holding, architect at John Thompson Partners ran through his presentation he rather hurriedly said that the highest building would be 11 storeys "from West End Lane".

When it came to audience questions, the first was: "how high are the buildings?". No clear answer was forthcoming, with talk about the top floor being set back from the sides of the buildings, and the land sloping away, and no flats on the ground floor. The audience was getting a little irate, and it took someone (me) to shout rather loudly "how many metres tall is the highest building from the ground to the roof and how many storeys is that?" before we finally got an answer: 36m high, 12 storeys. So there we have it. That's the height of the highest building, which would sit in the middle of the site. "From West End Lane", it will have a relative height of 11 storeys because (presumably) the plot is about 3 metres lower than the road level.

Equal size blocks on the left, proposed layout on right

Everyone clear now? Why the developers would think that evading the question (or giving the wrong facts) would be helpful or win sceptics over when we'll find out eventually is beyond me. The heights are also notable by their absence on the exhibition boards. The building heights running east to west (away from West End Lane) are 15m (5 storeys), 24m (8), 30m (10), 36m (12), 30m (10), 24m (8) and then a longer block that looks to be 6 or 7 storeys high at the back of the site.

They explained in more detail why they had decided to go for this 'rise and fall' design rather than having the buildings rise steadily with the tallest block at the back or have a uniform height across all the blocks. Some of this was aesthetic, and I agree that their design is more pleasing this way. This also means that the 30% of affordable housing that the scheme proposes can be in family home-size dwellings at the back of the lot rather than somewhere in the middle dwarfed by blocks around them (more on this issue later).

There was also the issue that if the tallest building was at the back it would block the light (think of those lovely whampsunsets) from the rest of the site. They also argued that the trees that flank the site (none of which are actually on the site and thus their long-term future cannot be guaranteed) give adequate screening for the larger buildings, although the photographs that tried to prove this were taken before the leaves began to come off the trees - they said they would be taking pictures again in winter.

Click for larger view: red outline shows building behind trees

There was understandable concern from residents in streets that are closest to the site about the effect on their light. The developers explained that they had tried to take natural breaks in existing housing into consideration - but it feels like this issue could run and run as it may well have a big impact on some houses.

From Iverson Road

Big change to view looking north

In total, the development will have around 200 units (roughly equal to 540 people). I asked what was driving the total number of units - i.e., why 200 not 230 or 170, and what the minimum number of units would be that would still give the developers a reasonable return.

Naturally the second part of the question was ignored, as I expected (and having asked a question (and heckled to get a straight answer over height) I was subsequently passed over for more questions, which was frustrating as both my other questions were very straightforward). The answer to my first about driver of total size was a bit vague, but talked about the need for housing in the area, balancing the affordable housing requirements, the need to make a profit (absolutely valid) etc. It also pointed out that the density (594 habitable rooms/ha.) was below the legal limit of 700 that the site could take. This didn't convince everyone in the audience and there were mumblings of "why are you doubling the height of West Hampstead's buildings".

Architecturally, the buildings seem reasonable. Unlike the initial proposals for the Iverson Rd garden centre site with its bizarre aeroplane wing roof, these are fairly simple blocks, and are a modern attempt to reflect the traditional red brick and white render of much of the area's long-standing architecture. Given the noise from the trainlines, the apartments will have internal cooling systems so windows can remain closed, although lots of flats will have balconies, for those who really like to hear the trundling of trains. Corner balconies also reduce the visual boxyness of the buildings.

Tallest building would be 2 storeys higher than left/centre image here

Affordable housing
Thirty percent of floorspace is designated as affordable housing, split into 25 "intermediate" units and 20 "social housing" units. Note that Camden's guidelines are for 50 percent affordable housing (by floorspace not no. of units) in mixed-use developments, which this falls well short of. As I understand it (and happy for someone to correct me as I've not had time to wade through the reams of planning docs.), developers who fall short of the guidelines may be/are? asked to pay the council a set amount based on a formula that is put towards building affordable housing elsewhere in the area.

Cllr Mike Katz pushed for more details on the decision to keep all the affordable housing at the far end of the site, suggesting this might not aid what he termed "community cohesion", ie., the integration and mix of people that generally leads to more harmonious social outcomes.

To the developers' credit they had quite a full answer to this, and referred largely to the specifics of the site: the end location would allow for gardens attached to properties rather than the communal gardens and "pocket park" that sit between the other blocks. This relates to the elevation relative to the railway lines and at ground level this would be the quieter end of the site (note that an "acoustic wall" will flank the southern side of the site using foliage as sound proofing against the noise of the trains). This is clearly seen more as family housing than single occupancy housing. It would be interesting to know, however, whether the developers have looked at integrating the non-family affordable units into the other blocks rather than forcing all the less affluent residents into the far end of the site.

Traffic
The development is classified as "zero parking". It won't surprise you to know that this doesn't mean no parking. There was will be 20 disabled parking bays, five car club spots (enlightened), and five commercial parking spaces. Residents will not be allowed to apply for parking permits on nearby streets. The developers argued that given the site's current use as a car wash and repair yard there would actually be less traffic once the development was finished than there is today - suggesting an 85-90% reduction.

It's true that there is a steady flow of traffic into the site today, but hard to believe that lots of the residents won't be ordering their parcels from Amazon, or their shopping from Ocado, Tesco and the like. Not to mention service vehicles, refuse collection etc.. It may not be a increase in traffic, but I would like to see the evidence that leads to the conclusion that there would be such a large drop in traffic. In addition the single road that would run the length of the development will also be the pedestrian access for the whole site, but I wasn't able to ask whether it would be a single track or a two-way road.

A question was raised about whether residents who needed vehicles for work - e.g., tradesmen, would therefore effectively be excluded from moving to the development if they couldn't park. There seemed no clear answer to this.

Part of the scheme involves changing some of the West End Lane streetscape around the interchange. The zebra crossing by the Overground would be replaced by one more or less where Rock hair salon is now, and the newish southbound bus stop (long fought for by WHAT) outside the post office would be moved further north to roughly where Greene & Co. is. The idea of moving the bus stop prompted outrage from some in the audience, given the battle they'd had to get the new stop put in in the first place and there was a rapid assertion from Camden and the developers that these proposals were in their very early stages. The zebra crossing makes sense, but I didn't understand the rationale for moving the bus stop.


red zebra crossing/bus stop = existing; blue = proposed

Retail
As we know, right now there are six businesses with West End Lane frontage on that site, from Café Bon to M.L.Estates, as well as the auto-related businesses behind including the motorbike shop and the repair business. The buildings they inhabit would be replaced by "West End Square". There will be seven smaller retail units in the new development as well as a large 600m², which is metro format supermarket size - and, if I understood correctly, one of them will be let only temporarily because it will need to be demolished at a later date because of something to do with the Overground station infrastructure. Apologies for the lack of clarity here, this was the second question I wanted to ask but wasn't allowed to. I have followed up with JTP and am waiting for them to get back to me.

The architect argued that the number of units on the site was rising from five to seven (they are counting Rock and the car hire place as one unit I presume), but this clearly doesn't translate into seven similar permanent small units for these or similar busineses to occupy. The exhibition boards say "There could be scope for some of the existing retailers and businesses to take new premises in the scheme and the developers would be happy to discuss potential tenant requirements at the appropriate time". I find the plan for the shops baffling in terms of the first floor and ground floor plans. I look forward to being enlightened on this.

Do the ground and first floor plans on the left match those on the right?

There will also be 650m² of commercial office space. It seems that this could be used for all manner of purposes and would not necessarily be let to one business but might be shared use (in theory this could be a great idea for shared office space for local independent sole traders - a business hub sort of thing, but I'm getting ahead of myself).

Construction
There were inevitably questions about the construction itself, which would take place in two phases and if all went to Ballymore's plan would start in spring 2013 and take two years. The idea of both the Blackburn Road development and this overlapping should alarm anyone who already finds West End Lane traffic a problem.

The site's location between rail lines limits the access points, and cunning ideas like adding a tunnel from Iverson Road were rapidly ruled out on cost grounds.

Summary (and "my two cents")
Overall, the audience was initially respectful, with a few exceptions. As the meeting went on, things became a little more confrontational, and some frustration was directed at the chair who some thought was moving things on a little too quickly, not allowing all questions to be asked or pursuing answers adequately. Of course some people just wanted a good old rant and were inexplicably permitted to do this on more than one occasion, which meant other people's legitimate questions were missed out (I'm not just talking about me here by the way).

Sadly, not all the members of the panel looked as engaged as they might have done when not speaking. As one woman in the audience pointed out "We actually live here, it's not just a 'place with great transport links', it's our home", and it does feel insulting if the people planning large-scale changes don't at least pretend to be interested, even though I'm sure there are plenty of things they'd rather be doing on a chilly Wednesday night in November than dealing with a bunch of disgruntled locals. Credit to David Laycock, from Ballymore, who did in fact make an effort to engage throughout.

What do I think? As longer-term readers know, I tend to try and be reasonably balanced on such matters, especially those where emotions can run high. I don't oppose development on the site, and I think that there are some good ideas within these proposals.

I think the height is a major concern, as it is out of keeping with the character of the area (reference to the 8-storey student accommodation being built is fair, but that is on lower ground still, so "relative to West End Lane" it won't be as dramatic), and has the potential to affect some properties' light quite considerably. I also hope that existing businesses are given first option to take over the retail premises and that the inevitable and justifiable increase in their rent is realistic.

I do wonder whether in shooting for such high buildings, the developer is prepared for a challenge and will be happy to "compromise" at e.g., 10 storeys, which might have been just as hard for people to swallow had it been the initial proposal. But then I can be very cynical. I also hope that if the height IS a problem, the retail spaces aren't sacrificed for extra flats in an attempt to recoup any lost profit.

I think that West End Square has the potential to be an asset to West Hampstead. It will vastly improve the image of the area for those arriving by tube and, together with the large open space by the new Thameslink station, it gives the community more flexibility for events, markets etc. I'm also acutely aware that given that this area is earmarked for intensification, the developers have a trump card up their sleeves. Should Camden refuse the plans that will be submitted later this month, an appeal to City Hall could see them passed anyway with fairly minimal concessions, which was what happened to the Blackburn Road student residences.

(all photos taken from the JTP exhibition boards)

What have I missed since November 7th?

2011-11-14T10:31:00.000Z

We bade farewell to Europe's most, er, "flamboyant" politician and watched England's boys in white prove that the best team doesn't always win. But what made the headlines in West Hampstead last week?

First Capital Connect services were severely disrupted last Monday due to major signal failure around City Thameslink. Passengers flooded through West Hampstead to catch the tube. Refund info here.

There was a good turnout for Wednesday's public meeting about the proposed 200-flat Ballymore development at 187-199 West End Lane. Look out for a blog from me this week on this topic. Meanwhile, Cllr Flick Rea wrote about general local developments, and Iverson Road in particular.

TfL is consulting over changes to Finchley Rd nightbuses.

Starting today, Danny Hewitt is the new temporary police sergeant for West Hampstead & Fortune Green's Safer Neighbourhood Team. He will be in place for 4-5 months. Priorities in Fortune Green are residential burglary, drug dealing, Templar House & Cricklewood [which seems quite a broad priority!]

Meanwhile in West Hampstead, there are concerns that more benches on West End Lane could lead to more anti-social behaviour.

Residents around Mill Lane and some neighbouring roads combined forces to remove (painlessly) local foxes.

A restaurant application in Fairfax Road was turned down for very unusual reasons.

Whampgather went Stateside.

The mini-Christmas trees that adorn West End Lane were put in place

A fourth man has been charged in connection with the murder and attempted murder of two young men back in April.

Mill Lane Barbers joined Twitter.

There are increasing reports of front yards overflowing with recycling boxes and bags as well as with dustbin bags.

Volunteers are needed for the Christmas market on December 10th.

Abbey Road studios turned 80

Coming up
Wednesday: the new Business Forum launches to give local traders a voice

Tweet of the Week

Whampgather goes global

2011-11-08T17:49:00.000Z

One of the lovely things about the whole #whamp world is that people actually meet up and do stuff. But it goes beyond the boundaries of West Hampstead, NW6, or even London... if you find yourself in a strange city in a foreign country, there's always the possibility that some other #whampers might be there too. And before you know it you've got your very own Whampgather. People who've never met before end up going out for drinks in Sydney, Paris and now New York... I'll let Sarah take up the story:

"October saw the inaugural 'whampgathernyc' take place in Manhattan. It was a sort of hybrid between 'whampgather' and 'whampreview': four ex pats from West Hampstead now living in New York City met up for dinner and to reminisce about our haunts back in the day.

Esther, Olivia, Tam and myself met at French restaurant Epistrophy in Mott Street. We were met by exceedingly grumpy service after one of us was late for dinner hence delaying our sitting (drama school student Tam made it up to us with a rendition of one of her show pieces on the night), however we refused to let this spoil our fun. Dining somewhat in reverse, we started with a delicious (and very large, such is the supersizing in these parts) plate of cheese before moving on to share main courses.

Over the food, we chatted about the glory days back in West Hampstead and tried to work out by which of the six degrees of separation from our mutual Twitter friend @WHampstead, who put us in touch in the US, we knew each other and friends back home.

The standout theme of the night was Esther and me trying to explain the appeal (or otherwise) of both the Lower Ground Bar and Lately to Olivia and Tam, who have yet to experience their pleasures. We didn't go into too much detail at this point, agreeing that what happens in the Lower Ground Bar should stay in the Lower Ground Bar. We were also fairly hazy on our experiences in Lately, which pretty much sums us up every time we've been there. Overall we fondly remembered our favourite places: The Alice House, The Wet Fish Café and the sense of community in the area.

Our shared main course of a bizarre couscous salad with aubergine and tuna (even food critic Olivia had a hard job explaining that one) was a sharp reminder that we were no longer at home. At this point a La Brocca pasta plate would have hit the spot quite nicely. Not wishing to complain for fear of incurring the wrath of our French waiter, we moved swiftly to dessert. Or rather Tam did, as the rest of us were full from our cheese and are not required to do five hours dance practice a day, so we watched her savour a dreamy chocolate pudding.

I remembered a tweet from @amyfallon before a recent NW6 whampgather “Can Twitter friends become real life mates? About to find out soon at my first #whampgather #thepowerofsocialmedia”. I think the answer is clear from our experience in New York City - in Olivia, Esther and Tam I have found friends to hang out with in Manhattan. With plans for more meetings already, the power of social media is clear.

Thanks to Jonathan for “hooking us up” as they say in the big US of A!!"

You're very welcome Sarah! Follow more of Sarah's stateside exploits on her blog. If anyone else has an overseas whampgather, do let me know!

What have I missed since October 31st?

2011-11-07T10:30:00.000Z

Freaks and fools and ghosts and ghouls, but no decent fireworks display in West Hampstead this week. So what did we get up to instead?

On Wednesday, initial proposals to develop the Iverson Road garden centre site were presented to an unimpressed audience. A block of thirty-eight flats and some strange architecture apparently didn't win people over.

On Saturday, the amended proposals for 187-199 West End Lane were put on display. Eleven storeys anyone?

A meeting on Monday discussed the merits of setting up a Neighbourhood Development Plan.

The Swiss Cottage Area Action group raised all mannner of hot topics.

Cllr Mike Katz wrote a piece on Community Cohesion in Kilburn.

Hellenic Restaurant on Finchley Road is set to become an "Art Gallery Kitchen" (no, I don't know either).

Whampreview at Spiga was a great success.

Thameslink trains are losing some first class seats.

Spice 212 is becoming a branch of Sew - hopefully better at sewing than spelling.

A couple got engaged in spectacular fashion on the Overground as it came into South Hampstead station

Scampa (formerly Romeo's and Maya) is now to become Rouge Lounge.

Costello's finally opened - no-one on Twitter seems to have been yet though!

Coming up
Meeting on Wednesday to discuss the 187-199 WEL development.
Jazz at La Brocca on Thursday.

Tweet of the Week
Halloween and Bonfire Night meant stiff competition for this weeks' ToTW... but this one made me laugh more than most

Change of rhythm

2011-11-06T23:28:00.000Z

Lets move away from planning for an evening and chill out to the sociable sounds of our very own Simon Whiteside and his jazz band at La Brocca on Thursday night. It's free people! FREE!!

Nice.

The only way is up.... it seems.

2011-11-06T23:19:00.003Z

A market square; bustly shops and cafés; new influx of residents; 12-storey building... wait, what now?

On Saturday, architects John Thomson & Partners held an exhibition in the church hall on Sherriff Road to show their latest proposals for the strip of land that slopes west from West End Lane between the tube lines and the Overground lines and is currently fronted by the parade of shops including Café Bon, Rock, and Peppercorns.

The amended proposal will house 200 flats, with a mix of 1- 2- and 3-bed apartments (the majority being 2-bed), along with some affordable housing, giving a total population of around 500 people. The affordable housing (all tucked away at the far end of the site away from West End Lane) comprises 30% of the total floorspace, although I understand that the council stipulates 50% of floorspace should be affordable housing.

The proposal is for six blocks of flats, each separated by green space - some of which will be accessible to residents only, and some of which will be small park space. The block facing onto West End Lane, behind the "market square" (remember this would be private space masquerading as public space) would be 5-storeys high. The next one back 7, then 9, then 12, then 9 then 7. To give some context, the highest buildings along West End Lane at the moment are 6-storeys high - most are four or five. [update: i was initially told by an architect from JTP to my face that the tallest building would be 11 storeys. It was only under some pressure at the public meeting the following week that they admitted that from the ground level, it would be 12. Such disingenuousness does nothing to win residents over]

We heard a few technical things, such as that that buildings would be on springs - as used in earthquake zones - to absorb the vibrations from the passing trains and that ventilation would be provided so windows wouldn't need to be opened. The buildings would be predominantly brick. But I think for most people, the materials and technical specifications weren't the issue - the size was. Some artists impressions of what the site would look like from West End Lane made good use of tree cover to minimize the impact - trees, for example, owned by Network Rail and that could be chopped down at any time.

(it's behind the trees, look closely)

(think you can see it here quite clearly)

In all honesty, it seems very hard to imagine that the council is going to pass an 12-storey building, or even a 9-storey one. One option would be to have all the buildings at, say, 7 storeys. This might look even more monolithic though. I wondered whether the developers (Ballymore) and architects have already built this into their equation - a reduction in the number of private flats would increase the proportion of affordable housing to the statutory requirement.

There will be more retail space than the site has presently, although some will be on a first floor level, rather than directly on the street. There is also a space large enough for a small supermarket, and apparently Partridges has expressed an interest - although this is all very early days.

There is a public meeting on Wednesday about this, where the architects will present their proposals and take questions. I strongly suggest that if you are interested/concerned/delighted/offended about the idea then go along. Two things to bear in mind: a) no plans have officially been submitted yet; b) this land will be used for housing. You may also want to come the local Area Action Group meeting where the issue of a Neighbourhood Development Plan will be raised.

One thing that would be nice (if you're reading this Camden) is for the consultation area to extend to Broadhurst Gardens area. A woman I was speaking to at the event lives on that road and had no idea about this exhibition until a friend mentioned it to her, despite the fact that she lives much closer to the site than many other people in the consultation area.

(What would be REALLY fun is if the student accommodation building on Blackburn Road, and whatever ends up being built on this site, are being thrown up at the same time. You think the traffic is bad on West End Lane now?)

Spiga pulls out all the stops

2011-11-06T21:16:00.001Z

On Thursday, 24 of us took over Broadhurst Gardens' newest restaurant Osteria Spiga in the latest (and largest) edition of #whampreview.

With so many of us, we staggered the tables over the evening and Tom and I had selected a slightly shorter menu than Spiga's full offering although there was still plenty of choice.

We received a generous complimentary glass of prosecco on arrival, and there was bread and olives on the table. Starter portions were sizeable - Anna was sceptical as to whether we were receiving "critics portions", but from my previous experiences at Spiga I think we were getting the usual dishes. Over the course of the evening, despite a few errors and inconsistencies, it was obvious that there was skill and flair in the kitchen, and the evening was a great success with the vast majority of food receiving glowing praise.

The wild mushroom and poached egg starter (£4.50), especially popular on my table, was certainly a whole lot of mushrooms on a plate. It was "lovely and garlicky" according to Nathan, if "very rich" as Adrian and I both thought. June "thoroughly enjoyed it", but Alex wasn't sure whether the poached egg really went with the mushrooms - both parts cooked well, but did they merge together successfully?

Poached egg featured with the asparagus starter too (£5.50), which was the most popular dish on Tom's table although there seemed to be a few egg issues with Tom's and Doron's a little undercooked while Rajiv and Ryan's was perfect - everyone loved the asparagus though.

Those who opted for the cold meats platter (£5.90) were presented with an enormous wooden board of hams and salamis along with smoked mozzarella ("amazing" said Lauren) and Will cleared his board proclaiming it "excellent". Eugene thought it was well presented and agreed the portions were generous. In fact, this is really large enough to be a sharing plate.

Claire T loved her smoked salmon salad (£6.30) "a delicious combination of smoky oily fish with creamy mascarpone" and Tom, who tried a bite, reckoned he'd happily have it as a main course with some bread.

The fried goat's cheese (£5.20) was also a potential main course. Rahki said hers was "very tasty" and Amy said it was "substantial and rich, but it could benefit from more balsamic to balance the flavours", while Mark looked on enviously.

Matt and Emily (perhaps ambitiously) opted for risotto (£5.50) as a starter. Matt liked the "delicate flavours" and said the "asparagus really shone through", but admitted it was "too big for a starter". Emily liked the "creamy texture", but would have liked a grating of parmesan on top.

After starters came a complimentary pasta course - perhaps a course too many for some of us. It was a pumpkin and amaretti ravioli (two pieces) and an accomapnying ladleful of gnocchi in a tomato sauce. The ravioli divided opinion - it was on the sweet side for most people, but the almond flavour came through. "It tastes like Bakewell tart" said Mark and Anna, while Alex and Stefanie thought it a "bit too marzipanny". The gnocchi was more of a hit - I'm not a great fan of gnocchi but I could have happily eaten a bowl of this for a main. All in all, a mixed success, although the generosity was definitely appreciated.

Already quite full, the main courses started appearing. The duck in orange sauce (£9.80) was a popular choice although several people thought their's slightly overcooked - in Claire T's case, enough to send it back although she raved about her replacement calling it "sweet and fruity" and she said the duck leg croquette was "amazing". Matt and I found the sauce a little too sweet, but Claire J said it was perfect and Phil enjoyed his, while Ryan liked the "top notch presentation". The croquette divided opinion - I felt mine lacked depth of flavour and perhaps was underseasoned. June was pleased with her rare duck - cooked as she wanted.

Nathan went for the vegetarian version of the Fagotini (£8.00), which did have to go back to the kitchen after a misunderstanding led to the first attempt having bacon in it. When he got the right one he thought it was "quite nice, but slightly bland".

Rakhi and Tom went for the gnocchi - Rakhi sensibly opting for the starter size (£5.80). She found it "tasty". Tom's main course portion (£7.80) was a "nice wholesome dish with delicate flavours", atlhough both of them thought it needed more salt.

The sea bass (£12.50) looked excellent - two large fillets on a bed of ratatouille. Rajiv reckoned it was "one of the best sea bass fillets I've ever had. Juicy, flaky and simply excellent". Will gave it "top marks", while Emily thought it was "very generous, but the ratatouille is too strong".

The steak (£14.50) was a hit, although Stefanie realised she'd now doubled up on the mushrooms after the funghi starter. It was "excellent and well presented" according to Eugene, who also liked the peas and stock side dish that comes with all mains at Spiga (and is delicious - you don't need to order sides here!).

Nathalie loved her veal chop (£14.90) although found the size overwhelming. Adrian enjoyed it but found it quite rich and would have preferred the potatoes as a side dish rather than on the plate. Doron's was overcooked and was sent back - the replacement was still slightly over for him, but he thought it was "very tasty". Tom's table, who had all three of the returned dishes, got wine on the house as compensation.

Alex gave his chicken (£9.30) 8/10, and was very happy with it, although he thought his orange juice disappointing.

Dessert menus were generally waved away - everyone was very full by this stage. Will did find room for a crème brûlée (£4.20), which looked lovely and was "really good". Matt's table shared a tarte tatin (£4.30) and a chocolate torte (£4.60). The tarte tatin was more popular although Anna thought it too bitter and Claire J suggested the addition of salted caramel! Matt thought the torte "unadventurous", but as Phil enigmatically pointed out "if you order a chocolate torte you'll get a chocolate torte".

A couple of grappas, coffess and a vin santo with cantuccine made their way to my table, and of course complimentary limoncellos all round.

Matt's table hit the Chianti Classico (£21), which they preferred to the house red. My table was on nothing but the house red (a Merlot/Sangiovese blend from Umbria), which we all thought was excellent value at £12.95, and Tom's table also enjoyed it, while Claire T upgraded her white wine having been unconvinced by the house white. Claire J simply liked the size and shape of the wine glasses!

So that's the food - but what about the service. It was, simply, excellent. This was a big ask for the two waitresses helped by Sandra (whose chef husband Sokol was responsible for about 75 plates of food that night), and they rose to the occasion. Tom praised the "outstanding and very warm" service and his table wholeheartedly agreed - remembering that they had the most problems. He particularly mentioned how hard Sandra worked to rectify the problems.

With so much food and plenty of wine, I think most people were surprised at the final bill. Matt's table (drinking pricier wine) came to £33 each, my table averaged at £30 each with a bit of juggling for Alex who wasn't knocking back the wine like the rest of us, and Tom's table was £28.

The all important scores:
Tom's table: 8.1
Jonathan's table: 7.6
Matt's table: 8.0

The bottom line seemed to be that even with very minor quibbles people enjoyed it very much and were very keen to come again. The warmth of hospitality is very genuine and that comes across. I'll leave the last word to Eugene: "fantastic service, well-run, good value - a strong example of what a neighbourhood restaurant is".

Osteria Spiga
182 Broadhurst Gardens
LONDON
NW6 3AY
T: 020 7372 8188
W: www.osteriaspiga.co.uk

Photos by Lauren / Jonathan

Planning for the future of West Hampstead

2011-11-06T11:35:00.001Z

We are entering a new phase in the evolution of West Hampstead. Does that sound like hyperbole? Well, there are so many large-scale plans waiting to be submitted that if they were all to be implemented as they stand, the look and feel of the area would change substantially.

On Monday there was a meeting chaired by Cllrs Keith Moffitt (West Hampstead) and Flick Rea (Fortune Green) at the behest of James Earl from the Fordwych Road Residents Association. James's idea is to bring together all the local RAs, and other community groups such as WHAT, to form a Neighbourhood Development Plan.

I'm not going to go into all the details of what an NDP is here, partly because there are many issues still to be clarified (there's a bit more here), but it's part of the Localism Bill that's going through parliament at the moment. The general idea is to give people more power over local developments, although almost certainly not as much as many people would like: the plan must fit in with the borough's plan, the London plan (which has already earmarked West Hampstead for intensification and 800 new homes) and national planning strategy, and it cannot propose less development, only more or a redistribution of sites.

Nor is this going to happen overnight - it will be spring 2012 before NDPs can be submitted. Which is a problem in terms of mobilising to address the more imminent plans for the 187-199 West End Lane site (see next blog).

The meeting was reasonably productive, although inevitably people have differing views about development, which might make it hard producing a plan that pleases everyone. The idea of RAs joining forces was broadly welcomed, and the topic will be discussed at the next West Hampstead & Fortune Green Area Action Group, which is provisionally scheduled for December 6th.

There was some criticism about the lack of impact the place shaping workshops had seemed to have, although the outcomes of those will more guide what happens to council-owned sites that will be developed, such as the Wickes/Travis Perkins building.

Even if the NDP may not have much impact on sites where plans are being drawn up now, it could be very influential on land that might come up for development over the next few years - such as the O2 car park (long talked about as ripe for development), or swathes of Iverson Road.

There are some issues to resolve about the boundaries of any plan, and who should be involved. People living on the western fringes of Swiss Cottage ward, for example, are very much part of West Hampstead and would certainly be affected by developments around the tube/Overground interchange area (yet bizarrely aren't included in the consulation area for the 187-199 West End Lane site).

Anne Heymann, chair of the Local Consultation Group (set up some years ago to address the large-scale interchange project that would have merged all three stations and was then shelved) argued that sitting down with architects and developers and putting in the legwork was what really made a difference to plans.

It'll be interesting to see what the perspective from the broader community is when the idea is discussed at the AAG, but it's encouraging that groups from across the area want to come together to discuss proposals that might not have an impact on their immediate street.

What have I missed since October 24th?

2011-10-31T09:37:00.001Z

The news this week was of eurozone bail outs, thermal imaging of tents and the demise of Jimmy Saville. Goodness gracious me, what do we have here? Why, it's the weekly whampnews of course.

The West Hampstead community centre got plenty of coverage for its current woes - related to funding and premises. Will it stay open for the Christmas panto on December 18th?

The council launched consultations on two-way cycling on many of our one-way streets, and on turning all of West Hampstead into a 20mph zone.

Camden released its annual parking report.

A few more Overground trains will pass through West Hampstead from December.

Lots of you noticed the steam train that unusually whizzed past on the Chiltern Railways line rather than the Overground. Apparently, it was a special service from Marylebone to Birmingham to mark the retirement of Chiltern boss Adrian Shooter.

Thameslink released photos of the station development.

We discovered that we came close to having a motorway passing through the area in the late 1960s.

Camden arranged for some new planting in Kilburn Grange park, which turned into a photo-op for councillors.

Sarracino got a plug on The Guardian's football podcast (ff to 28'10").

Vertigo Films shot a short film for the Cultural Olympiad on the Alexandra & Ainsworth estate. Camden meanwhile is grumbling about a lack of central funding for the Games itself.

Roger Samuel estate agents and Kilburn's newest pizzeria/wine bar Raw Brick joined Twitter.

A new wine shop - Vini Vivi - opened on Mill Lane, joining new bike shop Jazz Cycles.

The whisky & chocolate tasting at The Gallery was a hit.

Coming up
The Swiss Cottage Area Action Group on Monday evening (7pm, Crossfield Centre) will focus on recycling/rubbish.

Watch out for parking suspensions on Fordwych Road this week due to ongoing pavement works

There's a meeting on Wednesday about possible new flats (up to 5 storeys) on the Iverson Rd garden centre site.

Residents associations are meeting on Monday evening to discuss a coordinated response to the various large-scale planning developments.

Sadly there are no free fireworks displays in the immediate area this year. The Roundwood Park display has been cancelled, as has the Alexandra Palace display for the second year running. Westway is the nearest for most people. Or relive the excitement of 2009 - the first Bonfire Night with enough people tweeting to make it interesting.

Tweet of the Week
Stiff competition this week, but this one sums up lots of people's views about West End Lane's café culture:

If your whampstead house needs haunting...

2011-10-28T09:38:00.001+01:00

Halloween time again. An excuse to dig out the facepaints and get your goth on, or to hide indoors munching a large slice of pumpkin pie. The choice is yours (Mmm... pie).

What are your options this year for spooky revels? Surprise surprise, The Gallery and The Alice House once again lead the way with their Halloween parties. The Alice House's kicks off at 7pm on Saturday and runs through to 1am with a DJ. There are prizes for the best costumes (1st prize - dinner for two, 2nd prize - bottle of bubbly [does that mean not champagne?], and the best dressed group wins a round of shots).

Over at The Gallery, well, it's much the same. No DJ, but the bar's open until 2am, which is confusing because the clocks go back at 2am on Sunday morning, so does that mean an extra hour of drinking? Fancy dress is still encouraged (although when I walked past last year, most people seemed to just be wearing black).

The Priory Tavern has a pumpkin carving competition on Saturday from 3-6pm (max 15 entrants/teams). The regulars will vote on the winners (which is a scary prospect in itself), who'll be announced on Bonfire Night and will win a decent bottle of red wine. The popular 12 Bars blues band are playing Saturday night and on Halloween itself it's the usual 2-for-1 on house cocktails on "Happy Mondays" (seem to have missed the point of Halloween there!)

Over in Kilburn, the North London Tavern has a Halloween Horror night finishing at 1am. Prizes for the best dressed, ghostly drinks specials all night, and apparently tricks and treats!

The Railway is your Halloween antidote - it's decided not to do anything special this year, so if you want to escape the slime-coloured shots and zombie-clad wannabes, this is the place for you on Saturday night.

The Good Ship prides itself on not overly pandering to or exploiting Hallmark holidays, but it likes to give a nod to Halloween, so on Saturday night, there's an evening of Halloween fun with a spooky short film and then four live acts from 8-11.30pm and of course DJs until 4am.

It won't have escaped your notice that all this is happening on Saturday, which is NOT the 31st. Halloween itself is on Monday night and where better to spend it than laughing your little vampire socks off at The Good Ship comedy club, where host Ghouliet Stephens (don't blame her for that, I came up with it all by myself) will be introducing a top night of comedy headlined by the outstanding Pappy's (if you've not seen them, now's your chance), and she's claiming there might be pumpkin pie.

Have a fun weekend everyone - look out for our three local spooky tweeters @ghostontoast, @Ghoul_of_London and the deliciously strange @MarmiteGhost. And if you think it will make any difference whatsoever, here's a poster the West Hampstead Safer Neighbourhood Team have circulated for those who aren't in the Trick or Treat mood.

Click and Treat for full-size

Life in the slow lane

2011-10-25T18:10:00.002+01:00

Not only is Camden hell bent on letting cyclists ride whichever way they choose up one-way streets, it's also trying to slow traffic down in West Hampstead as well. It's almost like there's some sort of concerted plan to improve things in the area. Crazy.

As with the cycling plans, this will be paid for by TfL and the rationale seems to be safety. Much of West Hampstead (aside from West End Lane) already has a 20mph limit. However, many of the residential roads to the west and West End Lane itself are still 30mph and the council claims these roads have a relatively poor safety record compared to neighbouring 20mph streets. Indeed, between September 2007 and September 2010, 39 collisions were reported, resulting in four serious injuries.

In addition to signage, traffic calming measures are being proposed. On the residential streets, the junction of Sumatra Road and Glenbrook Road will be raised and road humps will be added at the junction of Solent Road and Glenbrook Road (just on Solent Rd, not the entire junction).

Click for larger version

On West End Lane itself, the 20mph zone will run from the junction with Quex Road in the south, to the junction with Mill Lane and Fortune Green Road in the north.

There will be three other measures to improve road safety: the pavement running north from Inglewood Road will be widened - the council claims this will improve the aesthetic appeal of the street and the narrower road will help slow traffic. An island will be added to the zebra crossing that links Barclays Bank to the library, apparently in response to observations that cars do not always wait until pedestrians have completed their crossing before driving on (remember your Highway Code?). Finally, the island on the crossing at Lymington Road (the one by Tescos) will be removed and the pavement on the southern edge extended. In addition, all the signs indicating a change of speed limit to and from West End Lane can now be removed, reducing street clutter and there is the potential to remove more signage (this has been mooted for some time and some steps have already been taken around the entrance to the tube station).

Click for larger version

The residential road changes seem like no-brainers. I would be interested to know how many of the collisions that have taken place on West End Lane have happened at speeds in excess of 20mph, given that during the daytime the traffic is so slow-moving anyway there is little opportunity to reach 30mph. I am certainly in favour of removing excess signage and street clutter, although narrowing the road seems unncessary, given the number of buses and delivery vehicles that already contribute to bottlenecks on the road. The aim should surely be to encourage free-flowing traffic moving at a safe speed.

As with all speed limit issues, be it on motorways or residential streets, the issue is one of enforcement more than regulation.

For more comment on this issue, see Georgia's article in the Camden New Journal.

The council is keen to hear from local residents and businesses to find out whether there is broad support for the proposals for the side streets, and whether the proposals for West End Lane would cause disruption during and after implementation. You need to make sure your letter or e-mail is received by November 11th and send it to:

London Borough of Camden
Culture and Environment Directorate
Transport Strategy Service
FREEPOST RLZH-UEYC-ACZZ
LONDON
WC1H 8EQ

or e-mail costa.kakouratos@camden.gov.uk, making sure you include your postal address.

Here's the full document on the side streets, and on West End Lane.

Will cycling the wrong way soon be right?

2011-10-25T12:47:00.000+01:00

Several of the roads in the southern half of West Hampstead are one-way. This is generally a good thing as it allows for on-street parking while keeping the traffic moving. However, if you're a cyclist these restrictions may prove rather frustrating and the temptation is great to take a short-cut by cycling the wrong way down a one-way street. Aside from the illegality, this can be hazardous if neither cars nor pedestrians are expecting it.

Camden has decided to investigate this and is proposing to make some of these streets two-way for cyclists only. This is apparently called "cycle permeability". Good ol' local government and its penchant for language.

Making these changes is relatively cheap - a bit of signage is really all that's needed - and will be paid for by TfL. The following roads would be affected: Priory, Canfield, Greencroft, Sherriff, Messina, Gascony, Fairhazel, Smyrna and Kingsgate Place.

Click for larger version

The council would like to hear from anyone who would be affected by the changes in terms of access to property/deliveries during the changeover, or from the eventual new system. The ward councillors on the Swiss Cottage side of West End Lane (to the east) have expressed their view "that local residents who use these streets every day as pedestrians, car drivers and cyclists should have a real input into decision making."

The work is scheduled to be carried out betwen November and March. If you wish to comment on the idea, you need to make sure your letter or e-mail is received by November 11th and send it to:

London Borough of Camden
Culture and Environment Directorate
Transport Strategy Service
FREEPOST RLZH-UEYC-ACZZ
LONDON
WC1H 8EQ

or e-mail costa.kakouratos@camden.gov.uk, making sure you include your postal address.

Here's the full consultation document [pdf download].

Progress at Thameslink station

2011-10-24T10:45:00.003+01:00

We're geting nearer to the completion of the new West Hampstead Thameslink station on Iverson Road, and this morning I was sent some photos of the work so far by Roger Perkins, Thameslink Programme and King's Cross Communications Manager for First Capital Connect, which I thought I'd share with you.

For more information on how station access will work over the next few months, please see my earlier blog.

Thameslink station photos

What have I missed since October 17th?

2011-10-24T09:41:00.001+01:00

So, Ghadaffi was killed (thanks everyone for the gratuitous photos) and New Zealand finally fulfilled its rugby destiny. I was away all week, so apologies if I've missed any news.

A 71 year-old woman died after apparently being hit by a motorbike in Kilburn.

A rail worker suffered spinal injuries after an accident at the Thameslink construction site.

Scrap metal thieves have been targeting the cemetery.

At the Kilburn (Camden) ward Safer Neighbourhood meeting, it was announced that the area's first Neighbourhood Watch group had been set up in Kingsgate Road, the dispersal zone will not be renewed when it expires on Nov 4th, and the dedicated High Road team and seargeant won't be cut as had been feared.Popular SNT PC Winston Davis is moving to Barbados though!

Read more about the dispersal zone issue, and the latest on crime in the Swiss Cottage ward in this report on its Safer Neighbourhood meeting.

West Hampstead's BinCam was on TV!

Two new photos were added to the amazing Hampstead & Kilburn Then & Now flickr set

A team of councillors were beaten 5-2 by a team from the Somali cultural centre in a charity football match.

An article appeared in Stylist magazine about West Hampstead's online (and offline) community.

Fancy playing rugby?

Tweet of the Week

Anyone for rugby?

2011-10-21T17:50:00.001+01:00

Adam Hirschovits contacted me recently and asked if I could post something about his local rugby club. Always happy to oblige, I suggested the best person to write about it was probably him. So he did:

"UCS Old Boys Rugby Football Club ("UCSOB RFC") was founded in 1892 by some ex-pupils of University College School. However, it was not until 1979 that UCSOB RFC started playing its home matches in West Hampstead, which has always been our spiritual home.

We train and play our Saturday home matches at UCS Playing Fields, Ranulf Road, NW2 2BH. Training is every Tuesday and Thursday from 7-8.30pm and matches are on Saturday afternoons.

These days, the 1st XV competes in the highly competitive London 2 North West league - a remarkable feat given the size of the club. Its 2nd and 3rd teams compete in the Hertfordshire leagues, with the occasional friendly for our 4th XV.

The great appeal of UCSOB RFC is that it can cater for all your rugby needs: if you are looking to train hard and join a competitive and ambitious club, then our 1st XV could be for you. Our 2nd and 3rd XVs bring together young players who wish to challenge at a higher level, those who have been at the top and fancy something a little less intense, and those who are just there to take part and enjoy the camaraderie!

We have been fortunate enough, over the past three years, to have had two ex All Blacks represent us (Taine Randell and Anton Oliver), one of whom just wanted a run-out with his mates, and ended up playing in the 4th XV!

After our Saturday matches (all in and around London), players tend to stay in our (subsidised) bar, and if you're not interested in moving very far, you can always find a group of people happy to walk home via a bar crawl along West End Lane.

So, whether you are a serious competitive rugby player looking for a new club, or someone who has never played before but would like to give it a try, come down to one of our training sessions and get involved. Everyone who wants to play will get a game.

If interested, please contact Geoffrey Boxer on g.boxer@ucl.ac.uk or on 07984 467189."

And before you ask, I checked with Adam, and the teams are men only at the moment but naturally women are welcome to join in the post-match drinking!

Whampreview at Spiga November 3rd

2011-10-19T16:39:00.000+01:00

After the success of our first "jumbo" whampreview earlier this month at The Wet Fish Café, the excitement continues. Our next visit will be to Osteria Spiga - the new Italian restaurant on Broadhurst Gardens.

Regular readers will know that Tom and I went to Spiga on its opening night and were impressed, and I've been twice since with the same experience. So, this promises to be a good night.

As with the last event, we will be staggering the tables so that the kitchen doesn't get slammed and Tom and I are also going to propose a reduced (although definitely not limited) menu for the night - though we promise there'll still be plenty of choice for everyone.

The average cost of a 3-course meal + wine and service at Spiga is ~£30/head, and we'll get a free glass of prosecco as an aperitif (each!)

A few basics:

We'll meet for a drink beforehand - a great chance to meet folks before you sit down
Each table's bill will be split equally unless there's been a dramatic difference in consumption
We have 24 places available. If you'd like to come then please or tweet/DM me (@WHampstead) before midday Friday. If the event is oversubscribed then, as is customary, I shall draw the names out of a hat. If you're one of the lucky ones, I shall be in touch Friday afternoon and I will need a mobile number and active e-mail address from you.
Please don't commit to this 'on the offchance'. Once I've contacted you to say you're in, then that's basically a restaurant reservation you've made. Of course there are always odd very good reasons for last-minute dropouts, but for the restaurant's sake (and mine!) please try and commit to the date - that's much appreciated.
For more info on whampreview, or to read about our previous experiences, check out the FAQ.

What have I missed since October 9th?

2011-10-17T07:58:00.000+01:00

Liam Fox finally quit, Wales got booted out of the rugby world cup, and I spent three days in Paris. So what did I miss in West Hampstead this week?

BinCam still dominated the news, joining Twitter, featuring on BBC Radio London and triggerering some heated comments on my blog. Most interestingly though, the council has started cleaning the area around the bin more frequently - so a positive result so far.

A Harry Potter actor from Messina Avenue was charged with having a petrol bomb during the August riots.

Kingsgate Primary School will receive a pupil Premium of £106,384 next year, reflecting its high intake of pupils on free school meals.

Residents have started a vigil outside Kensal Rise library after the high court refused to overturn Brent council's decision to close six of its libraries.

Two celebrities were spotted in West Hampstead: Olly Murs, and Spud, the actual Dulux dog.

Lots of people reporting problems with mail deliveries - prompted this response from Royal Mail.

The first overseas #Whampgather took place on Bleeker Street, New York City

A new pet shop is opening on Fortune Green Road, opposite the gym, and a sushi restaurant is opening on Finchley Road where Doon Valley was.

WhampAthletic won the league, having been runners up to the now disbanded WhampWanderers last season.

Someone produced a handy field guide to the elk of North London.

Tom ate sardines at Sirous.

Tweet of the Week

What have I missed since October 3rd?

2011-10-10T08:06:00.002+01:00

In this week's global news: Knox, Fox, and Jobs. In this week's local news: um... well, read on!

There was a fire above a pizzeria on Kilburn High Road.

Boris was in town to wield a shovel as work started in earnest at the new Jewish Community Centre on Finchley Road.

La Brocca held its annual oyster festival, and had a 1am licence granted for Thursday nights.

Fortune Green residents are starting to mobilize over the risk of being booted out from the Hampstead & Kilburn parliamentary constituency.

Meanwhile, Pam Chesters, former leader of the Tories in Camden has ruled out standing in Hampstead and Kilburn.

The lease of the famous Cock Tavern in Kilburn is up for grabs.

West End Lane's Montefiore begat Le Petit Coin begain Lite begat... a chicken place apparently.

Estate agent Goldschmidt and Howland are ready to move into the site left vacant by Brian Lack.

Thameslink announced how the station will operate between mid-November and mid-January.

Someone has set up a BinCam to monitor fly-tipping by Sainsbury's - and has become something of a cult figure.

Are you interested in helping preserve a local nature reserve?

Kilburn shoppers were "wowed" by apple juice from local trees.

The Sainsburys local on the corner of Cavendish Rd is closed until October 14th for a refit.

Are you a Jubilee Line user? WHAT needs your help.

Residents associations are trying to coordinate to tackle all the large local planning issues.

We went to the Wet Fish Café for#whampreview - what did we make of it?

Coming up
It's #makeaboo at Bake-a-boo on Thursday.

Next Saturday, there will be a very special exhibition on the building of the Alexandra & Ainsworth estate, and a guided walk with Neave Brown, the architect of Rowley Way, at 2pm

Tweet and Photo of the week
Posted before the sad death of Apple CEO Steve Jobs, but now even more apposite.

The Wet Fish Café under the microscope

2011-10-09T18:30:00.001+01:00

This was a whole new venture. Not one, but two tables for the first #whampreview of the autumn. Seventeen of us assembled at The Lion beforehand - and it was great to see so many new faces alongside one or two of the usual suspects.

Tom escorted his table of eight across to The Wet Fish Café first, where an entirely separate party of 12 was already seated. There was no doubt this was going to be a challenging night for both the kitchen and the front-of-house staff. But how can you not love a restaurant that has the "#whamp" twitter hashtag secreted on its menu?

By the time my table of nine appeared some 30 minutes later, the place was already buzzing and the chat from Tom's table suggested they were having a good time - reinforced by the generous free glasses of Prosecco that we all received.

As well as being the first time we'd gone for a larger group and staggered tables (to help the kitchen), it was also the first time that a restaurant knew we were coming to review it. As I explained in the set-up post, I am moving these evenings slightly away from an attempt to anonymously review local eateries, and more towards a sedentary (and gastronomic) way to meet fellow whampers.

Not that this means we won't be talking about the meal in the write-ups!

New menu
The Wet Fish Café has just launched its autumn menu, and there are some new faces in the kitchen. Owner André is feeling bullish about the coming months after what has been a tricky period for lots of local businesses who have been feeling the economic squeeze. The ethos of the menu is still much the same as it tries to deliver on the restaurant's tagline of "modern comfort food", but it's been pared down slightly and a couple of lighter dishes have been added. It reads well, and has a contemporary feel to it - unpretentious and very appealing.

On my table, the pear and stilton salad was proving a popular choice and everyone seemed to enjoy it: "excellent," said James, and Carl said it was "beautifully presented".

Three of us shared a half-dozen Colchester native oysters, which came with the requisite shallot vinegar and lemon. Maybe a bottle of Tabasco could be put on the table too? Tom's table shared a couple of the main course platters for starters, which they found a little disappointing, especially as the advertised ciabatta and olives were missing completely. The platters aren't really big enough to share between more than two people, but at least everyone got to try the chorizo, which was the undisputed hit. Eugene praised its "unusual chilli kick", while Carl suggested all the other West Hampstead restaurants come to see how chorizo should be served. Ant simply said "10/10".

Zoë and Anna's crayfish cocktail and calamari starters looked nice enough, but they weren't blown away by either.

The main attractions
Given how busy the small kitchen was, we weren't expecting super quick service, so we tucked into the wine. Both the tables liked the house red - a Merlot-Corvina, and I think the house white is one of the better value white wines in West Hampstead. The next red up the list - a Cabernet Malbec, divided opinion. Tom really liked it, while Kat was unconvinced.

Tom's table were a course ahead of us, so we watched as they enjoyed their mains. The broad consensus was very positive, with a few quibbles. Kat had the sea bass, which initially arrived without the broccoli and mussels, despite correctly having potatoes instead of noodles as requested; Eugene's sea bass came out perfectly, so presumably this was just a communication mishap caused by the switch. The table also had trouble with a side order of kale, which arrived cold and undercooked. I had kale with my main and it was fine, so seems like a glitch rather than an intrinsic problem with cooking kale.

The salmon, which was popular on both tables, seemed to be the most consistent dish. Tom described his as "beautifully seasoned and cooked, and it worked with the wonderful intense celeriac", while Claire T also described it as beautifully cooked. Next to me, Sarah's salmon certainly disappeared quickly and this looked one of the most attractive dishes. Ryan agreed it was fresh and a good size.

The tempura cod, one of the new dishes on the menu, was another popular choice. Debbie was very pleased with hers, as was Claire D, who confessed she likes ketchup with most things, but this didn't need it! James enjoyed his, but admitted that he wasn't sure that the fact it was tempura batter made a huge difference. He did, however, say it gave him "a warm feeling on a cold night." Jen's was tempting enough that Anthony wished he'd ordered it.

Zoë sadly experienced a foreign body in her food: a small piece of plastic, maybe off a piece of tupperware. It rather put her off her grilled vegetables with quinoa main course, although she also said - with some justification - that it would be better described as quinoa with grilled vegetables given the relative proportions, and it needed more feta.

Ana and Ant both had the fillet steak - a large hunk of meat for both. Ana, who had been on a fish diet for some weeks, seemed to devour hers at pace. Ant, having ordered it medium-well, thought his steak was undercooked. He also thought it was a bit too chewy, which is certainly odd for a fillet steak. I know André is really pleased with this particular cut of meat, so something clearly had gone wrong here. Ant did say that the potaotes were good, and the sauce was delicious, and that he'd have welcomed more of it - perhaps even served on the side.

We tested most of the menu out. Brad had the pasta of the day, which was "tasty" and "filled me up quickly", Carl had the platter, and I had the braised oxtail, which I enjoyed immensely. The meat fell off the bone perfectly and the proportion of meat to mash to veg was just right.

By the time my table had finished our main courses, it was getting late and only two of us opted for dessert. Tom's table had been more eager. Tom himself chose the carrot cake with ice cream, declaring the cake "moist and substantial" with a big kick of ginger. Debbie and Ant enjoyed the warm chocolate cake ("Yum! Best thing of the evening," said Ant). Kat and Claire tried the fig and honey croissant pudding, which had "a very light and spongey texture, not overly sweet and with a subtle crème anglaise". I had poached pear with ice cream - or at least I tried to, but when I popped back from the toilet, half of it had mysteriously vanished and there were some guilty faces around the table.

Verdict
One might argue that three big tables within 45 minutes of each other was an ambitious ask for a neighbourhood restaurant but, by and large, the food delivered the comforting feel the menu promises. WIth its subtle lighting and well-judged soundtrack, it's easy to see why Anna said that she wanted to love the Wet Fish, even if she'd been a bit underwhelmed on this visit. However, she did say she'd give it one more go because it's such a nice place.

The price per head differed considerably between the tables. Tom's bunch of alcoholics ended up paying £42/head, while my relatively abstemious group only had to shell out £30 each. Anthony (paying £42) felt the prices were a little high, while there was a sense of a welcome surprise around me that our meal had come in under budget.

In the days of old, we used to score food, service, value and overall enjoyment separately. That would take too long now, so everyone just gave an overall score out of 10.
Tom's table: 6.9
Jonathan's table: 6.3

Overall, the evening was definitely a success - plenty of new friends were made, the chat was suitably silly and entertaining, and the Wet Fish atmosphere won the day. I still think that for a "special" meal out in West Hampstead, this is the place to come.

The Wet Fish Café
242 West End Lane
LONDON
NW6 1LG
T: 020 7443 9222
W: http://www.thewetfishcafe.co.uk

(photos courtesy of Brad and Anthony)

All change please: Thameslink's next phase

2011-10-09T11:06:00.000+01:00

Lots of you will have noticed that the new Thameslink station on Iverson Road is nearing completion. So, I thought it would be worth clarifying what's going to happen over the next few months as the station transitions from the northern to the southern entrance. Handily, Thameslink have produced a useful guide to just this.

On November 14th, the existing station closes temporarily as work begins on a new ticket gate. This means passengers will have to enter the station by the side of the new station in Iverson Road. This will coincide with the work site hoardings along Iverson Road being pushed back to create a much wider pavement, although not yet to the full width we'll see when the project is complete.

The new entrance will lead on to the new footbridge, although the old footbridge will stay open to allow people to change between platforms 2/3 and 4, but the stairs from platform 1 will be closed because the work for the new ticket gate enclosure will straddle the top of that staircase. The lifts on the new footbridge won't be working until the new station building is complete in December.

Closing the existing entrance will mean today's ticket office will be separated from the station. However, there will be two ticket machines at the Iverson Road entrance and staff will be available during normal ticket office hours with portable machines to sell people the full range of tickets.

On December 12th, the new station on Iverson Road will open, along with the public area in front of the station. Ticket office staff will relocate to the new building and the old ticket office will close. When the station is manned, passengers will pass through ticket gates inside the new building to reach the footbridge.

In mid-January the new ticket barriers will open above platform 1, and the original entrance will re-open. So, the station will have two permanent entrances and exits, and work will be complete. There will be a new ticket machine at the existing entrance and two machines at the new station building.

The ticket office hours will remain the same as today – 0615-1930 Mon-Fri; 0645-2000 Saturday and 0740-1715 Sunday. Outside these hours, people will access the platforms via the night entrance alongside the building, which will also be the temporary entrance from November 14th to December 12th.

There will be two touch-in/touch-out Oyster card readers at the Iverson Road night entrance, as well as Oyster readers on the new permanent ticket gates inside the station and at the existing entrance once the ticket gate enclosure there is complete.

For more information, visit the Thameslink programme page.

Bin there, dump that

2011-10-08T11:25:00.000+01:00

No question what the story of the week has been in West Hampstead. For once, I was scooped by the local press and wondered why the Camden New Journal was exhorting me to to turn to page 3.

The answer: Bin Cam.

You can read the full story, or go straight to the Bin Cam website, where William Robertson posts (very) frequent photos and videos of the Camden council bin that sits on Fawley Road by the side of Sainsbury's.

Robertson had got fed up of people fly-tipping around the bin, so has decided to keep a record of the comings and goings on the street. Inevitably this means capturing all sorts of other incidents, such as a woman falling over, and a man taking a leak.

My personal favourite part of the site is the BinCon level widget (based on the US military's Defcon settings).

The serious idea behind all this is to show Camden that it might want to increase the frequency of emptying the bin. It will be interesting to see if it works.

Crafty times at Bake-a-boo

2011-10-08T10:52:00.000+01:00

Next Thursday, Bake-a-boo relaunches its "create and do" workshops with an open evening full of tea, cake "and something bubbly". Head down to the shop on Mill Lane between 7 and 9pm to meet the workshop hosts. If you're on Twitter, make sure you follow the #makeaboo hashtag for updates this week.

Coordinating West Hampstead planning?

2011-10-05T19:13:00.001+01:00

Last week, the Fordwych Residents Association discussed concerns about the number of large developments being proposed in the area. James Earl, vice-chair, told me that the meeting came up with this list of 10 developments that have been recently built, are under construction, or have been proposed:

NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN WEST HAMPSTEAD & FORTUNE GREEN
Sager development (FortuneGreen )	Residential block – built
Mill Lane	Residential block – under construction
Maygrove Road	One Housing Group/residential block – under construction
Handrail House (+car park), 65 Maygrove Road	Possible demolition & new residential block
Liddell Road	Proposed new school [pdf p39] & possible residential development
Iverson Road (old garden centre)	Likely development of hotel or flats
156 West End Lane (council building)	Likely demolition & new residential development [pdf p38]
Blackburn Road	9 storey student block approved & to be built
187 West End Lane	Proposed 9-11 storey residential development
O2 Centre car park	Possible future housing development

The meeting concluded that there seemed to be no over-arching plan to deal with these developments, which are all very close to each other, and which have the potential to change the character of West Hampstead and Fortune Green for ever.

At the recent placeshaping events, residents have expressed a desire to preserve the 'village' feel of the area; to reduce traffic and to create more green/open spaces. These developments, argue the residents association, appear to be focused on the complete opposite.

The FRA is proposing that a coalition of local residents associations use the powers of the Localism Bill (now going through Parliament) to create a "Neighbourhood Development Plan" for West Hampstead and Fortune Green. It is proposing that this issue to be on the agenda of the next Area Action Forum - with the aim of having a draft document in place by the end of the year.

WHAT's up with the Jubilee Line

2011-10-05T18:36:00.000+01:00

Two members of the WHAT (West Hampstead Amenities and Transport) committee recently attended the Camden annual transport meeting with TfL. The Jubilee Line spokesperson reported that problems on the line are almost solved.

However, as many of us know, this doesn't match the reality. At the last WHAT Committee meeting, members decided to keep personal logs of any problems we encountered on the Jubilee Line. These
will be collated and forwarded to TfL.

If you would like to participate, please note dates, times and reasons given for the delay and forward to whatnw6@gmail.com. The committee suggests we monitor for the whole of October.

What have I missed since September 26th?

2011-10-03T10:14:00.000+01:00

It's still party conference season, but unseasonably warm weather has been the main national talking point this week. But what's had tongues wagging in West Hampstead over the past seven days?

City Hall has said it will address Kilburn's traffic problems.

West Hampstead had a double-page spread in Thursday's Metro.

Camden is reviewing parking regulations in the borough.

Hampstead School's class of 1961 had a 50th reunion.

Lymington Road residents association is launching a talent competition.

Network Rail is running a photography competition for the new Thameslink station.

Couple of new local Twitter accounts you might want to follow: Fordwych Road Residents Association (@FordwychRA), and Camden Police (@MPSCamdenPolice) (I'm working on getting the local Safer Neighbourhood Team tweeting!)

I know it's too soon for Christmas, but if you want to help the West Hampstead Christmas market now's the time to put your hand up.

Ariana II was a runner-up in Time Out's new cheap eats awards.

Coming up:
There's a public meeting to discuss next year's Kilburn Festival at Kingsgate Community Centre on Oct 4 from 7pm.

The first West End Lane Crooks book group at West End Lane Books is also next Tuesday

KJTuition is hosting a free music class at Love Food on Oct 7th at 10am. Parents + kids 1-5yrs welcome.

Tweet of the Week
A tweet/photo combination this week

Get involved in the 2011 Christmas market

2011-10-02T19:48:00.000+01:00

You may remember that last year there was a very successful Christmas market on West End Green. Well, good news whampers - plans are afoot for a second one. However, to make it happen the organisers need a little bit of help from some of you.

Cllr Gillian Risso-Gill who is coordinating the event, is looking for some specific expertise and support.

People with experience in marketing/PR/promotion, including social networks (ok - there's got to be SOMEONE reading this who fufills that criteria).
Stall holders, particularly local craftspeople or traders
Additional business sponsors.

If you're interestedin helping, having a stall, or sponsoring the event, then please register your interest at westhampsteadxmasmarket2@gmail.com or call Gillian on 07798 845919.

Get snapping for Thameslink

2011-09-28T18:48:00.003+01:00

We're only a few months away from the new Thameslink station opening on Iverson Road. To mark the occasion, Network Rail is running a photography competition. The winning photographs will be reproduced and displayed at the station for all to see.

The theme - not incredibly original, one has to say - is "Connections". Photographers can interpret the theme as they see fit, with entries falling into two categories, under 16 and open.

Tim Galvani, Network Rail project manager, said: "Passengers are really going to benefit from the opening of the new station and will get the chance to see the picture gallery on the back of the new Iverson Road wall. It’s a great space that will be seen by everyone that travels to and through the station."

To enter, fill in this form. You can either send digital copies of your photos on a disk or USB stick or e-mail them, together with the entry form to thameslink@networkrail.co.uk. Closing date for entries is 30th October 2011.

Talent seeking

2011-09-28T14:48:00.000+01:00

Richard snapped this earlier... if you want in to this Lymington Road residents association event, the contact details are at the bottom of the poster (click for large version). Frankly I'm upset that I haven't been asked to be a judge. This must be what Cheryl Cole feels like.

Whampreview is back - October 6th

2011-09-27T08:49:00.001+01:00

After the summer break, #whampreview is back - and it's bigger than ever.

If you're new to all things blog/Twitter around here, then some background: over the past couple of years, we've tried out 11 different local restaurants and rated them on food/service/value and overall experience. Each time just eight of us have gone - with the exception of Barraco when I was full of the Christmas spirit of generosity. It's a different eight each time and for many people this is a calmer and quieter way to meet some locals than the party atmosphere of whampgather. Plenty of friendships have been forged at whampreviews and I think each one has been a great night out.

What now?
As the whamp community has grown so has demand for places at whampreview. It got to the stage where I was turning away more people than I was taking. Time for a rethink. We're going to start increasing the number of people now, the precise number will depend a bit on the restaurant. Where possible, we will still order off the à la carte menu. No longer will we be anonymously reviewing the restaurant - that's simply not feasible or fair with large numbers, the event is more about trying out somewhere new or different or that has a new menu, and getting to meet each other over a plate of food and glass of wine.

So, where are we going next?
Next up is perennial favourite The Wet Fish Café on October 6th. Despite its popularity, we've not reviewed the WFC before, largely because it wouldn't have been possible to do it anonymously but that is no longer a concern. However, the restaurant has just this week launched a new evening menu so it seems like an ideal time to go and check it out. Owner André is also throwing in a free glass of prosecco for us all as an aperitif.

I want in! How does this work?
I'm lovin' your enthusiasm. We have 16 places available. If you'd like to come then please or tweet me (@WHampstead) before midday Friday. If the event is oversubscribed then, as is customary, I shall draw the names out of a hat. (NB: this is not first-come-first-served as whampgather was). If you're one of the lucky ones, I shall be in touch Friday afternoon and I will need a mobile number and active e-mail address from you.

Please don't commit to this 'on the offchance'. Once I've contacted you to say you're in, then that's basically a restaurant reservation you've made. Of course there are always odd very good reasons for last-minute dropouts, but for the restaurant's sake (and mine!) please try and commit to the date - that's much appreciated.

What's the bill going to be like?
We always split the bill evenly, although we do try and take into account any large discrepancy in alcohol consumption. The Wet Fish is not the cheapest restaurant in West Hampstead and a three-course meal + wine + service is likely to run at ~£40/head. We may decide to share starters to bring this down a bit, and we'll stick to house wine, but don't come with a crumpled £20 note and expect that to be enough this time around!

Anything else?
If you go here, you can see links to all the previous reviews. Note that from now on we won't be scoring every element of the evening. I'll jot down some comments during the evening to incorporate into the write-up, but this is a bit more about socialising together and a bit less about hardcore restaurant reviewing than it used to be.

Woohoo!
Quite.

What have I missed since September 19th?

2011-09-26T09:47:00.001+01:00

What were locals murmuring about this week? As usual, everything is documented here. If you're out of time to check the blog remember you can sign up to an automatic newsletter that reveals everything. I'm reckoning that's enough R.E.M. references for now, though there might be a few more buried below.

There was an armed robbery in Kilburn on Friday.

The Tricycle is going to dramatise the summer riots.

There's a monster cat seemingly on the loose in West Hampstead.

Is Ed Fordham set for the pageantry of the Lords?

Hellenic, the restaurant on the corner of Finchley Road/Rosemont has closed - it's set to become a café apparently.

West End Lane's Spice 212 has also closed.

Property was big news this week. The new Mill Lane residential development claims to be in a green nature reserve.

West End Estates has launched on a new adventure as Edmund Cude.

West Hampstead featured on Location Location Location, and on the BBC's To Buy or Build later in the week.

There was a great write-up of last Saturday's honky tonk night at The Alliance.

Also at The Alliance, art students from College of NW London are exhibiting at the moment.

There's a write-up of the Hampstead celeb charity cricket match on the blog.

Tom's Diner visited Gourmet Burger Kitchen.

The Alice House had its first comedy night, and The Gallery celebrated its 15th birthday.

Finally, the new lights on the Black Path seem to be a hit.

Tweet of the Week

Celebs turn out for local cricket match

2011-09-20T08:56:00.001+01:00

Last Sunday the Hampstead Cricket Club hosted its third annual charity celebrity cricket match. Andy Sarner (@bubela) was on hand with notebook and camera to report

"The HCC Celebrity Cricket Match was, as always, a thoroughly pleasant affair. Due to Chairman and organiser Jim Carter's role in Downton Abbey there was a distinct Downton presence this year, including Dan Stevens (playing) and Penelope Wilton (watching).

HCC chairman Jim Carter commentates

Local actor/author/tweeter Michael Simkins played a great match, and Greg Wise - sporting huge sideboards for a film - bowled the winning ball after his wife Emma Thompson had bowled the opening delivery.

Greg Wise strides off the pitch

Michael Simkins looks focused

Yes, I think the celeb team (albeit including a Middlesex player) beat the Club team, though I was too busy perusing the cakes and food stalls to watch much cricket. Jim Carter did his usual witty commentary on the match and the following raffle draw. The weather was lovely, the crowd picnicked and, as soon as everything was packed away and we'd all gone home, it rained."

Emma Thompson and Phyllida Law

Imelda Staunton

What have I missed since September 12th?

2011-09-19T10:59:00.002+01:00

Turned out to be quite a busy week for local news, so just as well that I was away all week and wasn't able to stay on top of all of it. Nevertheless I've put together a few bits and pieces for you

The electoral Boundary Commission released its preliminary proposals on Tuesday (although they were leaked a day early). If they go ahead then there are major changes for Hampstead & Kilburn - but that's a big if.

The Ham & High published a very positive write-up of #whampgather.

The Swiss Cottage Odeon finally re-opened - it now sports an Imax.

There was a fire in the flats above ShakeTastic on West End Lane - no-one was hurt

Meanwhile, West Hampstead fire station celebrated 110 years with an open day on Sunday.

Sunday also saw the third Hampstead Cricket Club charity match.

The Gaumont State in Kilburn was part of this weekend's Open House programme, and plenty of people went to see the Wurlitzer.

The Priory Tavern celebrated its first anniversary under its present owners.

Café Bon's empire expanded again with the opening of Bon Express, replacing Wood Grill with what looks like another kebab shop.

Monday's public meeting on the 187-199 West End Lane development didn't seem to have much outcome, other than to reinforce what we already knew.

Hilariously, the Marriott hotel on Kilburn High Road is not only on Twitter, but describes itself ther as being "In the heart of Bohemia"

Coming up this week
There's a Safer Neighbourhood meeting on Wednesday.
On Saturday, the Gallery celebrates its 15th birthday.
A new bike shop opens on Mill Lane this week.

Tweet of the week

Odeon Swiss Cottage reopens with Imax

2011-09-14T09:23:00.000+01:00

On Friday, the Odeon cinema by Swiss Cottage tube station reopens after months of redevelopment. Mark "Kermode" Ledder (@MJL77) went along to the press launch for West Hampstead Life.

"After a £3m redevelopment, the Odeon at Swiss Cottage is reopening its doors on Friday 16th September. New features to the 5-screen, Art Deco venue include north London’s first IMAX screen and, at the top of the building, a large bar area called 'Ambar'.

The first thing that strikes you is how bright and welcoming the cinema now is, it has benefitted from the lick of paint and feels modern and fresh. Reassuringly, it is still the labyrinth of old, with the narrow staircases and never-ending corridors, but unfortunately the large "retail" area that dominates your eye line on entry is still American in both look and feel.

The new bar area upstairs is a very welcome addition.It's spacious and comfortable and works as a meeting place. Odeon is offering 30 different types of wine as well as a selection of appetisers and desserts here. If you were being cynical you could say it is a blatant attempt to take a larger share of their customers' wallets, but I would rather spend my extra dime here, than on some popcorn and a drink downstairs.

The other major change is in the nature of the cinema's five screens. They have been split into three distinct groups. The Imax is an impressive state-of-the-art facility that will show modern classics (Dark Knight, Inception) and Imax events. Two of the other cinemas are standard multiplex screens with 100 or so seats. The third and most interesting category comprises the two 'club' cinemas, which will house 60 guests and offer a premium experience (think Everyman in Hampstead).

I was impressed overall and will return, however I did have an issue concerning the film rota strategy and pricing.

In a normal week, the four non-Imax screens will share only three films. One each for the first multiplex and club screens, and then a third will show in a standard multiplex screen and in the second club screen.

This, coupled with the pricing strategy (10.75 Adult std vs. £16 Adult club) looks slightly misguided and overpriced. A comparable club ticket at the Everyman in Hampstead or Belsize Park is £13.

So, overall, the Odeon Swiss Cottage has made a welcome return to the neighbourhood and is a great place to watch film. However if you're pushing the boat out for a premium experience there are cheaper options available."

Happy Birthday The Gallery

2011-09-14T09:10:00.000+01:00

First La Brocca turned 20, and now The Gallery is celebrating its 15th birthday with a party on Saturday the 24th.

Safer in your Neighbourhood

2011-09-14T09:05:00.001+01:00

Want to meet your local coppers? The Fortune Green and West Hampstead Safer Neighbourhood teams are holding a public meeting the evening of Wednesday September 21st in the synagogue hall on Dennington Park Rd. Why not go along and say hi (they're a friendly bunch) and find out the latest on how they're helping the community. I don't think you're expected to stay for two and a half hours!

Boundary review: securing H&K for Labour?

2011-09-12T16:34:00.005+01:00

[this article has been updated several times]

The Boundary Commission's inital proposals to change electoral constituencies were published a day in advance it seemed by political blogger Guido Fawkes. Today they are online on the Commission's own website.

There are a lot of changes across London, including to our own Hampstead & Kilburn constituency. If you recall, the seat was won by Labour's Glenda Jackson in 2010 by a whisker from Conservative Chris Philp, and Lib Deb Ed Fordham wasn't much further behind. H&K was the closest three-way seat in the country.

Inevitably, therefore, any changes to the constituency are likely to affect the next election. There was talk earlier in the year that the seat would lose its Brent ward, and pick up two of the Westminster North wards, which would swing it clearly in favour of the Tories.

However, the commission's review suggests something entirely different.

We would keep Kilburn and Queens Park in Brent, but add Gospel Oak, Kentish Town and Highgate that were part of Frank Dobson's Holborn & St Pancras constituency. This means losing some wards. Oddest of all, Fortune Green would become the only Camden ward in the otherwise Barnet-dominated seat of Finchley & Golders Green. Belsize meanwhile becomes part of a new Camden & Regents Park constituency with four north-eastern Westminster wards and the rest of Camden.

Context
Lets remember first of all that these are just proposals. Why are they happening? The government asked the commission to reduce the number of constituencies in England by 29 to 502, and every constituency had to have a population between 72,810 and 80,473. This is a major change to preview boundary reviews. These sought to try and balance the number of voters in each seat, but it was not a legal imperative. At the moment in England, electorate numbers per seat range from 55,000 to 111,000.

The proposals are up for discussion as the Commission's report explains at great lengths. If you want to attend a public meeting about it, then there are two for our whole region (North-West London) will be held at Brent Town Hall in Wembley on Thursday October 20th and Friday October 21st

Implications
What does this mean for the constituency of Hampstead & Kilburn? It's almost impossible to tell, but it's definitely not great news for Chris Philp, who is surely looking for a safer seat than one that keeps two Brent wards and loses Belsize.

Gospel Oak - home of Alastair Campbell - seems to be fairly strong Labour; Highgate elected two Labour and one Green councillor last time around - so not immediately obvious that it would be an easy task for a Tory candidate to win over voters there; Kentish Town meanwhile appears resolutely Labour.

In other words, the changes would seem to suit Labour more than any other party at least in H&K. Glenda has announced she won't run again, so if the proposals are adopted will this be seen as a moderately safe seat for someone to snap up? Fiona Millar - Campbell's wife and free school advocate Toby Young's worst nightmare - has said she won't stand. But we're almost certainly still two to three years out from the next election.

Indeed, changes elsewhere in the country could leave high profile Labour MPs without a seat and H&K might be one to move to. Most notably Ed Balls and Hilary Benn may have to decide who stays and who goes as their West Yorkshire constituencies are redrawn around them. Closer to home, London MP Tessa Jowell's seat of Dulwich & West Norwood could be split into three constituencies if the proposals are implemented,

For other parts of Camden, the picture is very different. Frank Dobson's safe Holborn & St Pancras looks much more marginal as Camden & Regents Park as it picks up Belsize and some Westminster wards and loses Highgate (which returns to the fold of the old Hampstead & Highgate constitutency that Glenda represented for so long before H&K). This might explain this tweet from Labour councillor and former Mayor of Camden, Jonathan Simpson: "The review is a bit bonkers, can't let this happen".

And what about Fortune Green? Well, the seat it's joining changed hands from Labour to Conservative at the last election, and could be fairly close again. In the council votes, the Tory candidates were just ahead of their Labour rivals, but both were well behind the Lib Dems. Oddly, therefore, Fortune Green's 7,000 voters could still have some impact in the vote, but to be the only ward from Camden in a seat dominated by Barnet does feel strange (if you look at how far south-west Fortune Green ward covers - right down to Maygrove Rd - this feels strange. Don't expect too many canvassers down there)

I've left in the info on how to have your say in the abridged version of the document below, which has details for most West Hampstead Life readers I think.
Abridged Boundary Commission Proposals Sep132011

What have I missed since September 5th?

2011-09-12T08:51:00.001+01:00

Clearly the main global news this week was Whampgather. So I guess we'll lead with that.

Thursday saw the SEVENTH edition of local get together know as whampgather.

West Hampstead was all over the national news this week thanks to squatters who were keeping a pregnant woman out of her home. They moved on, but initially only round the corner.

Netherwood day care centre - reprieved from cuts earlier in the year - is on the chopping block again.

This Monday there's a meeting with the developers about the 187-199 West End Lane site. Fortune Green cllr Flick Rea wrote a slightly polemical piece about local planning issues earlier in the week.

La Brocca's 20th anniversary party has been going on all weekend. Earlier in the week, we profiled the owner.

The glass frontage was installed at the new Thameslink station.

Lots of local businesses were interviewed on camera.

The Made in South Kilburn book was released.

A ferret went missing on Thursday, but seemed to have been found later.

Perennial reality TV fave Come Dine With Me is looking for NW londoners.

AITComputers joined Twitter.

Ladudu adopted its new opening hours of 10am-11pm (6pm-11pm on Tuesdays).

This marks the the 1-year anniversary of "What have I missed since...". A year ago, the news was about weekly rubbish collections and problems at nightclubs on Finchley Road.

Tweet of the week
Despite lots of nice comments about #whampgather, a joke about a hummus shortage, and even anecdotes of a woman riding a mop like a broomstick, we close with the other big story of the week:

Meeting on 187-199 development

2011-09-11T17:47:00.001+01:00

If you're interested or affected by the development of the 187-199 West End Lane site (for background, I suggest reading this), then you might want to go along to the meeting on Monday night. The relatively newly formed West Hampstead Gardens Residents Association (with its 'rhymes with Viagra' moniker of WHGARA) is certainly going to be represented if this flyer is anything to go by.

The Whampgather Story - Vol. 7

2011-09-10T23:03:00.004+01:00

Photo via @anthonymarsh

I don't think it's too much of an exaggeration to say that Whampgather VII went quite well. The hyperlocal cocktails went down a storm - we had #whamppunch, Kilburn Mist (my personal favourite), Made of Ale (geddit?) and an SJW with a touch of sparkle. DJ Sid Trotter did an outstanding job - even getting me onto the dancefloor, which as many of you (too many of you) will have realised is not something you want to see every day.

Huge thanks to Lucile and Merlin at the Priory Tavern for making it such a great event. Thanks to everyone who bought raffle tickets - we raised £350 for The Winch, and a lot of that should be credited to Nicky who spent her evening brilliantly badgering you into buying them.

Photo via @gitfinger

Most of all, thanks to all of who you came and made it such a success. We had more #whampgather virgins at this one than we've had for a while, which is brilliant. It was great to see everyone mingling and it seems like quite a few friendships were forged on the night.

Photo (c) Lauren Geisler

It's worth keeping in mind that pretty much every single person at #whampgather (except for the flatmate or friend you might bring with you) has met at a whampevent. I know one or two people understandably felt that this was a big gang of people who already knew each other - and while it's true that the group of us who have become friends has grown, this is how we all met so everyone recognises the situation.

Enough prolesityzing from me. As always, the best people to tell the story of #whampgather are the people who were there. I could only include a small fraction of the tweets people sent about it, and it's still a long ol' Storify. But hopefully it rekindles some memories of a great night.

For more photos, go visit Lauren's Flickr page, and for a pic of Lauren herself in action scroll to the end! [update: also check out Michael's excellent pics].

Photo via @gitfinger

David Locke of La Brocca reflects on 20 years

2011-09-09T14:14:00.001+01:00

All this weekend, La Brocca is celebrating its 20th birthday. Moya "Scoop" Sarner, spoke to the owner:

The impressive figure of David Locke, usually found dominating a bar stool of West Hampstead local La Brocca, is familiar to many of us. He opened the restaurant 20 years ago today, and one of his first customers was his granddaughter Yasmin, then a baby in a moses basket. Today she’s the warm, sparky brunette, working as a waitress in the bar upstairs. It’s very much a family business, as he explains: "My wife Edda does all the hard work in the back office, our daughter Laura is the manager, and I’m in charge of 'marketing, strategy, and drinking'". Sounds like a damn fine strategy to me.

The bar is much the same as when it opened – but the area certainly isn't, he says. "West Hampstead has changed totally in 20 years. There wasn't much here back then, but it's grown more and more upmarket. When they opened the Jubilee Line through to Canary Wharf [in 1999], all the pine doors and brass knockers appeared, and property prices doubled". That's reflected in more sophisticated tastes – so the bar sells more champagne and prosecco, and the restaurant has branched out from pizza and pasta into meat, fish, and other specials. But, he is quick to point out, "West Hampstead is an amazing place to live. Although it's gentrified a bit, it's nowhere near as up itself as Kensington or Chelsea – in my view, it's still one of the last villages in London."

The regulars – and they are many – haven't changed at all. Take the two white-haired gentlemen who rarely leave their window seat. "Pen and his friend Peter started coming in about 10 years ago, for lunch," David says. "Now they’re addicted and come every day. They have two large sherries, a bottle of red, three large green chartreuses and two courses – I hope I'm doing that when I’m 87!"

And there are celebrity customers too, from the Crediton Hill mafia's Emma Thompson and Imelda Staunton, to rugby and cricket stars including Ricky Ponting. "And one afternoon", David continues, "I strolled in to find Peter O'Toole sitting at the bar, with his sparkling blue eyes". Then there are the well-respected jazz musicians who started off at La Brocca's Thursday night jam sessions, friends and students of our very own local musician and teacher @cyberdonkey, aka Simon Whiteside. Many are now big names, like jazz pianist Gwilym Simcock, Mercury Award nominee for best album, just pipped to the post by PJ Harvey. "The jazz is a love", David explains, "but it doesn't make me money. You want to know how to make a million pounds out of jazz? Start off with two million."

Jokes aside, David glumly says that La Brocca is not immune to the effects of the economic downturn. "Our turnover's gone down 15 to 20 per cent over the last couple of years. We've had to cut back on staff and wages – we're okay, but life isn't as much fun as it used to be." But David still seems to be having a pretty good time, as do his customers. "Loads of couples have met here in the bar," he says (at this point I decide to spend even more time in La Brocca). "They get married, and they all come back to see us with their kids. When we first opened, I was maitre d', and trying to get rid of a couple who were, shall we say, lingering. It looked to me like it was a blind date, and they were deciding whether to go off together or not. So, eventually, I said 'Ain't you got no homes to go to? Ain't you got a bed?' The best thing was, the guy was called Mr Rutter! Anyway, they came back six months later, married, and they'd brought me a little model of a double bed. 'There you go', they said, 'We've got a bed now!'"

Don’t worry folks, despite the tough economy, La Brocca won't be going anywhere soon. "I want my daughter Laura and the next generation coming up to carry on running the place", David says. "That portrait of me on the wall is about 15 years old – I hope it stays there for my grandchildren and my great grandchildren – for at least another hundred years."

La Brocca turns 20

2011-09-08T08:30:00.001+01:00

This weekend is La Brocca's 20th anniversary! Why not swing by on Friday evening for some live music. Details below. And look out for a guest blog post all about La Brocca and its owner.

What can I win?

2011-09-05T18:29:00.002+01:00

Want to know what the raffle prizes are at whampgather? Well, I'm going to tell you anyway:

The "Streets of West Hampstead" book (courtesy of me)
4 free tickets to a night at the Good Ship Comedy Club
The Bake-a-boo cookbook
A bottle of champagne courtesy of Dass on Mill Lane
2 bundles of promotional CDs and vinyl
Chocolates from Cocoa Bijoux
and meal vouchers from:

Gourmet Burger Kitchen
The Gallery
The Alice House
The Clifton
The Wet Fish Café.

As if all that wasn't enough, there's also a special mystery bonus two-part prize. All will be revealed on the night. And I think there might be one more prize as well.

How do you win one of these lovely prizes? Um... buy a lot of raffle tickets, obviously. We are raising money for The Winch. Specifically, they need a couple of new (and astonishingly cheap) computers, and we think we can probably raise enough to get these for them. Be generous! The draw will take place at ~10.15pm.

A really big thanks to all the businesses who have donated a prize. It's seriously very much appreciated by me, but especially by Paul and the crew at The Winch.

What have I missed since August 30th

2011-09-05T09:14:00.001+01:00

It was a short week this week, and the final hurrah of the summer holidays for many people, so another quietish few days for West Hampstead news fiends. But there are still a few morsels to tide you over.

Media news aplenty as the Ham & High's West Hampstead correspondent Georgia Graham defects to the Camden New Journal. Two of her H&H colleages, are apparently also leaving the paper. Tough times for owner Archant, which is merging the long-standing Kilburn Times into the "Kilburn & Brent Times".

Cllr Mike Katz announced that Kilburn Grange Park adventure playground has been invited to join the OpenHouse project on the weekend of Sep 16/17. The newish apartment block on Fortune Green Rd is also part of the scheme.

Spiga, West Hampstead's newest restaurant, opened during the week. I reviewed it, and so did Tom.

New Kilburn bar 366 also opened.

As did Cocoa Bijoux.

There were a couple of small fires on Priory Road, and a larger one the same night on Kingsgate Road.

The H&H covered last week's Sherriff Rd story.

The Odeon Imax at Swiss Cottage is due to open on Sep 16th.

It was steam train time again.

Coming up this week:
The third and final Camden summit to look at the riots takes place this Tuesday evening at Kingsgate Community Centre.

Whampgather is on Thursday - if your name's not on the door, etc. etc.

And on Friday, La Brocca celebrates its 20th anniversary! (This week, the Good Ship celebrated its 6th).

Tweet of the Week
A few good ones this week and as always the decision to be made between reinforcing West Hampstead's middle-class stereotype or reinforcing Kilburn's reputation for being odd. Have sided with West Hampstead this time.

Want to see your company name here? Sponsorship of the weekly news is available

No sign of first night nerves at Spiga

2011-09-01T10:58:00.002+01:00

Last night Tom and I decided it was Our Duty to check out Broadhurst Garden's newest restaurant, Spiga. It was opening night so I wasn't really expecting to review it as there were bound to be first night issues and it's not really fair to give a definitive verdict on such an occasion.

As it was, our meal was verging on faultless. From a friendly welcome from front-of-house manager Marcello through to the cheery goodbyes a couple of hours later, it was refreshingly hard to find much room for improvement. The menu looks appealing, and there's a set menu tucked away on the back page that has an early bird price option before 7pm. An interesting selection of bread appeared swiftly and we were assured it was made on the premises. While we struggled to choose from the tempting menu we ordered some stop-gap olives, which were not the usual dull overly-marinated selection beloved of so many restaurants, but a nice handful of vibrant green and black juicy monsters.

Tom will, no doubt, post his own review, so I'll focus on my meal. I had carpaccio di polipo (octopus) as a starter. This was good, although not as good as I've had in Italy. I like the slices even thinner and a slightly spikier dressing, although that's not to say this wasn't enjoyable. It was served with a few more olives, and a rocket and potato salad. A good start.

Main course was rack of lamb. This was a very generous portion - a rack and a half of perfectly cooked meat. I've had lamb with more flavour before, but rarely as well cooked - certainly not in restaurants at this price level. The lamb had a Grissini crust, and this was the only element of the dish I was less keen on - too thick for me and I could see no benefit in it compared to a traditional herbed breadcrumb crust. It's not on the menu, but main courses are all served with a pea and onion side - sort of like a stew and perhaps cooked in ham stock (vegetarians would want to check)? Sounds odd, tasted great - and again very generous portions.

We'd merrily drunk our way through a bottle of house red - a Sangiovese/Merlot blend that was better than I expected for £12.95. The wine list isn't that extensive, but does befit the vibe of the restaurant. Those that remember the Green Room will recall the rather glossy boudoir look it had. Spiga has gone for a slightly retro 70s look, but it feels modern and welcoming. No red & white checked trattoria tablecloths to be found. I do think the lighting could be dimmer if it's looking to create a more romantic atmosphere.

At this point, Sandra Royer, the French wife of one of the two Albanian brothers who own Spiga and are the chefs, came over to say hello and we felt it was only reasonable to reveal who we were. It turned out she was already an avid reader and fan of Tom's Diner. That boy will go far! She explained that they'd hoped to open a bit sooner but some admin issues, delivery hold-ups, and a minor flood downstairs had pushed them back. It was good to see that we weren't the only diners that evening, and although some punters clearly knew the owners there were others like us checking the place out (and we all stared intently at each other's food).

Sandra told us that most of the food is sourced from Italy, so it is clearly going for the authentic angle. I was surprised to hear this was their first restaurant venture, although her husband has been a chef elsewhere - this was certainly no novice in the kitchen.

Tom grappled manfully with a large slice of chocolate torte and we both indulged in a grappa. We were joined by @moyasarner who saw us as she walked past and was immediately offered a basket of bread and a drink.

I was impressed with the service - friendly and professional throughout, even though the junior waitress was clearly a little nervous and made a couple of minor mistakes, which I heard Marcello pick her up on quietly afterwards.

The mark of a good restaurant is consistency. If Spiga can keep delivering the sort of food and experience that we enjoyed then it will do well. In ambience and menu it has kept itself suitably different from very close neighbour Sarracino and while I always found the Green Room to be style over substance, I think Spiga marries the two rather well.

Spiga
182 Broadhurst Gardens
020 7372 8188
(website still under development!)

If you go, do leave comments below.

Cocoa Bijoux opens

2011-08-31T12:04:00.000+01:00

It's a hive of activity on Broadhurst Gardens at the moment. New Italian restaurant Spiga opens tonight (I know we're all waiting for the verdict from Tom's Diner), and Cocoa Bijoux opened with a soft launch at the end of last week. Senses of course closed a while ago (no great surprise), so there is another vacant unit up for grabs.

Cocoa Bijoux's owner Stuart Daniel has been in the chocolate business for 20 years, and it's clear that this is his passion. Having operated as a wholesaler he finally decided it was time to open his own place. Cocoa Bijoux occupies one of the small units in Broadwell Parade and sits between the cigar shop and Luli's barbers.

Stuart has two chocolatiers who create artisan chocolates - he's less interested in the endless matching rows of classic Belgian creams that you might find at Fortnum & Mason's, and more in offering something a little more unusual. Generously he let me sample a few. I had a lovely caramelised walnut coated in dark chocolate and dusted with cocoa powder. He uses very specific French walnuts that are less bitter than many on the market. Then I had a delicious Grand Marnier truffle, but unlike any I've had before (mostly because it was twice the size). And finally, I tried a salted caramel ball. Very fashionable right now of course and I have to say this was the best I've had. Not too salty, not too sweet and with a perfect liquid centre.

Stuart also sells English chocolates from Prestat, which come in gorgeously designed boxes, and all manner of other treats. He focuses otherwise on French and German chocolates rather than Belgian. Cocoa Bijoux also has a table inside and will have some chairs outside for coffee or hot chocolate (made from couverture chocolate of course).

It's a slightly odd site, and a very small shop, but I could see this working. There's not much competition, especially since Wilton & Noble up by Waitrose closed, and being next to another destination shop (the cigar shop, not Luli's) can only help. There is a new chocolate shop - Coco Exchange - opening on Belsize Road, but that's apparently going to have a Belgian focus.

Stuart also seems like he knows what he's doing and is open to trying things out. I wish him the best of luck. He's also generously donated a nice (large!) box of chocolates for the Whampgather raffle, which I thought was very kind given that he'd only just met me!

Those of you who bang on about supporting independent shops - here's another one to add to the list. I know it's not going to please everyone because it's high-end luxury items rather than day-to-day goods, but we have to face economic facts - these are the sorts of shops that are more likely to survive.

I will add a few photos to this post soon - didn't have my phone with me this morning.

What have I missed since August 22nd?

2011-08-29T17:45:00.001+01:00

This week the world said goodbye Gadaffi and Goodnight Irene, but what were the comings and goings in West Hampstead?

On Tuesday night there was a major police incident on Sherriff Rd.

Jobs are at risk at Netherwood day care centre.

Sgt Timms from the West Hampstead Safer Neighbourhood Team will now also be leading the Fortune Green team.

On the blog we took a trip down memory lane, discussed the Jubilee Line, and are giving you a chance to win a book on London buildings with a local buildings competition.

We've had lots of photos of rainbows and amazing sunsets. This was one of the best.

There's a Kilburn Priory ghost.

West Hampstead councillor John Bryant got married this week.

The chocolate shop on Broadhurst Gardens opened. Ladudu will now be opening from 10am not 7am, and The Wet Fish Café will open from midday on Mondays (previously it was 6pm).

Meanwhile, Powers has a new website.

Tom's Diner had tea at Lena's.

What was Bombay Bicycle Club is now to be Costellos - a "funky chamelon concept".

Tweet of the Week

Want to promote your business here? Read how.

Do you know where it is yet?

2011-08-25T18:20:00.001+01:00

When I was asked to review a book about London architectural landmarks, I immediately handed over responsibility to local architecture fiend Lauren. She's starting work on her own exciting project about the Kilburn State, and seemed the perfect person. We also have a copy of the book to give away if you can tackle our slightly challenging local buildings quiz below. But first, here's Lauren's review:

"Those striking caricature-style illustrations of London landmarks that have been appearing on ceramics and tea towels for a while now, have found their way into a book. 'London Buildings – An Architectural Tour' by Robin Farquhar and Hannah Dipper (pub. Batsford) is a neat collection of 45 illustrations by People Will Always Need Plates, the company behind the stylised line drawings of the likes of the Barbican and the Trellick tower.

The bright orange cover (looking almost like a stylish record sleeve) features beloved London landmark Battersea Power Station, and fairly accurately reflects the entire contents of the book. Bright, simple black and white graphic descriptions of the best of this city's architecture; from 16th Century Classicism to 1960s Brutalism and everything in between. Locally, there are some brilliant examples of Modernism in Hampstead at 66 Frognal and its neighbour, the 1930s Sun House.

The big, bright blocks of colour and minimal text set the book out as a good introduction to London's showcase buildings, with an eclectic selection including tube stations and gas towers. With minimal detail and lack of background distractions, these drawings are clearly intended to get you thinking about how you read the built environment. The unique illustration style is what makes this quirkier than your average photo-filled coffee table architecture book - it would make a great gift or a fun 'beginers guide' for exploring London's architectural history."

Quiz time
Interest piqued? Good. To win your own pristine copy of London Buildings all you need to do is correctly identify the name or location of the nine local landmarks pictured below. Some are easy, one or two are a little trickier. Click on the image to see a much bigger version, which might help (or not).

It's possible no-one will get all nine, so even if you only have 7 or 8 it's probably worth a bash. The person with the most correct answers wins, and if there's more than one of you then the winner will be decided on a tiebreaker judged by Lauren and me.

Tiebreaker: In no more than 15 words tell us your favourite local landmark building and why.

UPDATE: WE HAVE A WINNER
Congrats to Ian Farrar who correctly identified all the photos below. 1) Clock by Kilburn Grange park, 2) Wet Fish Cafe, 3) Cholmley Gardens, 4) Swiss Cottage Library, 5) West Hampstead library, 6) Sidney Boyd Court, 7) Czech National House, 8) West Hampstaed tube station, and 9) Kilburn State.

Ian's favourite building is Lately's "for its enlightened door policy of turning people away for not being drunk enough".

Have your say

2011-08-25T10:56:00.001+01:00

Now it seems that order has been restored to the streets of London after the rioting and looting of a couple of weeks ago, Camden council has set up three public meetings to discuss the borough's response. Camden Town and Chalk Farm were the worst affected parts of the borough. Nevertheless, as we know, the problems were fairly widespread, with even the relatively calm Kilburn High Road having one shop looted.

The nearest meeting for NW6ers is at Kingsgate Community Centre on September 6th.

Jubilee Line finished, but closures persist

2011-08-24T11:27:00.000+01:00

I'd spotted last week that the Jubilee Line had more weekend closures scheduled for September and October. I was a bit confused, because I was fairly sure that the upgrade work was complete, we were now getting an incredible three trains more an hour (yet I still had to wait more than 5 minutes for one yesterday), and all was hunky and dory on the Stanmore-Stratford silver subway.

Then a tweet this morning from the BBC London's transport correspondent Tom Edwards explained the situation. The four weekend closures still to come (see below for details) are actually because the Metropolitan Line work is unfinished. Given how close the lines are to each other it's simply not safe to have people working on the Met Line while Jubilee line trains swish past. Yes, I know the Met Line has been open sometimes when the Jubilee has been closed, but the Jubilee closures have been about signal work and testing more than track work.

What does this mean for us? Well, as West Hampstead is one of the stations where trains can "turn round" as it were, it doesn't mean much for southbound passengers. All the closures are between Stanmore and West Hampstead, so the station will be open for those wanting to go into town. Those of you who use stations from Kilburn north are back on the (frighteningly expensive for TfL) rail replacement buses.

Naturally, there is political capital to be made of this. Val Shawcross, London Assembly member and Labour's transport spokesperson said "On at least five separate occasions this year Boris Johnson has promised an end to weekend tube closures on the Jubilee Line and each time he has broken his promise."

Ken, sensing a chance to have a swipe at Boris and of course himself an avid Jubilee user, has been up in arms about it, asking for a halt to the autumn closures, although as The Scoop points out, the Met Line work does need to be done.

According to the BBC report, a spokesperson for the Mayor said, "We appreciate that this does mean further frustrations when some interconnecting lines need maintenance and upgrade work."

What do you think? Has Boris just been shafted by the whole shoddy process or should he and TfL been more creative in finding ways to minimize the weekend closures that have blighted NW London for what now seems like for ever?

Here are those closure dates:
Sat 3rd & Sun 4th September
Jubilee closed Stanmore to West Hampstead
Met closed Harrow-on-the-Hill to Aldgate

Sat 17th & Sun 18th September
Jubilee closed Stanmore to West Hampstead
Met closed Harrow-on-the-Hill to Aldgate

Sat 1st & Sun 2nd October
Jubilee closed Stanmore to West Hampstead
Met closed Harrow-on-the-Hill to Aldgate (Sat), Uxbridge to Aldgate (Sun)

Sat 15th & Sun 16th October
Jubilee closed Stanmore to West Hampstead
Met closed Harrow-on-the-Hill to Aldgate

Note that there are other closures on the Met Line on other weekends, but they are mostly north/west of Wembley Park. There is a Baker St-Aldgate closure on the 8th/9th October and the 6th November.

A trip down Kilburn's memory lane

2011-08-24T10:36:00.002+01:00

I got sent a fantastic link via Twitter this morning. It was to a photograph taken in 1965 of the State building on Kilburn High Road. The photograph is interesting, but the history site that it's part of turned out to be a treasure trove.

Click on any of the seven photos of Kilburn taken around the same time, and you'll find a few dozen comments from people who grew up in the area. It takes a bit of diving into the site to find all of them - some are comments to the initial memories, and so on. They paint a picture of post-war Kilburn that in many ways we could recognise today: a lively, bustling, rough-around-the-edges neighbourhood that people generally have an affection for, with characters such as Biff Lewis (who of course gets into a fight) and Susan the Swedish employee at Woolworths.

Naturally there are also some big changes - not least in the number of cinemas. One person recounts four different ones: the Ionic, the Grange, the Essoldo and of course the State.

I shall leave you to browse the site, but here's one of my favourite excerpts as Fred Parker's recalls trips to the cinema:

"Every Saturday evening I would go to the 'pictures'.. with a group of friends. Often we would have to queue to get in and maybe stand for some time once we got in. We sat in the 1/6d seats. Films ran continuously in those days and we often saw the end of the film before we saw the beginning. We would walk home after the cinema and probably buy a bag of chips plus a pickled onion if we were flush."

Thanks to Jon Kelly for the original link. Look out for an architecture competition on the blog in the next day or so. And if you want to read about some West Hampstead history, check out this post about how our part of London fared during the Second World War.

Update 4.30pm, 20th Century London sent me a link to some more great old photos of Kilburn including one of the Rolling Stones backstage at the Gaumont State.

Cooling down with Orange

2011-08-23T12:11:00.000+01:00

Get your barometers out whampers!. On the 25th and 26th August, Orange (the phone people) will be driving round London with an ice cream van handing out... well, ice cream. The only real question is which ringtone they'll use for the van.

Anyway, London is a big place right? And the van is only in town for two days. So, if you want it to come up to these parts then you need to get active.

There are two ways to get them up here:
1) Head over to The Feed and submit NW6 (just the first part of your postcode is required). If the first part of your postcode is NW3 or NW8 then you can damn well afford to buy your own ice cream.
2) Head straight to Twitter and just tweet "NW6" to @OrangeTheFeed along with the hashtag #keepmecool.

The more mentions NW6 gets, the better the chance of Orange taking a turn through the hood (although if they choose Queens Park over West Hampstead there'll be trouble). Get on it people.

The ice cream will be free, but if it doesn't satisfy your craving, pop along and give your custom to this Kilburn ice cream van with its, um, ominous jingle.

Sponsored Post

What have I missed since August 15th?

2011-08-22T09:25:00.001+01:00

It's been a week that started with more hand-wringing and has ended with major world news. But has it been silly season in West Hampstead?

There was finally a report on the stabbing in Kilburn from the week before.

The local Somali asylum seeker family got a lot of coverage.

The man who attacked someone by the Tricycle back in February was sentenced to 8 years.

Agents from Greene and Co. were found guilty of parking fraud.

Café Bon is taking over Wood Grill as well as Caffè West.

Two chocolate shops have moved into the area. The Cocoa Exchange on Belsize Rd, and a yet-to-be-named placed on Broadhurst Gardens.

The report of June's place shaping workshop for West Hampstead was published.

The blog launched a new section: Tom's Diner.

West Hampstead Wanderers won the league.

Can you help drive some old people to social events?

David Miliband came to LoveFood.

The New End Theatre in Hampstead has been forced to close - whether temporarily or permanently isn't clear.

West End Lane Books has launched a crime writing readers' group.

The Green Room has become Spiga - but is yet to open.

Whampgather sold out rather quicker than anticipated. If you have a ticket you know you can't use, please release it back or let me know - the waiting list is lengthy!

Tweet of the Week
More of a sort of public service announcement this week in a double-header ToTW:

At the diner on the corner

2011-08-19T09:41:00.002+01:00

If you raise your eyes ever so slightly to the menu of pages under the logo, you'll spot a new one: "Tom's Diner". Not, obviously, my personal homage to Suzanne Vega (we all know Luka was a better song anyway), but the gastronomic musings of my new Food & Drink correspondent Tom.

Many of you know Tom, and will be aware that there could be no-one more enthusiastic about eating and drinking. Those that don't know him should understand that he probably contributes more to the local restaurant economy than the rest of us put together.*

His very personal thoughts on his drinking and dining experiences can be found here. We both hope you enjoy them.

*blatant exaggeration

Contact the Elderly needs you

2011-08-17T13:25:00.001+01:00

A guest blog by Charlotte, who needs your help:

My friend Kathleen recently turned 100.

“What’s your secret?” I asked as we tucked into tea and cake at a special party to celebrate her landmark birthday.

“I always eat wholemeal bread,” came the reply.

Kathleen is one of nine elderly people I really enjoy chatting to and spending time with on a monthly basis at our local Contact The Elderly tea parties.

Once a month myself and other volunteers pick up lonely elderly people in the North West London area who are unable to leave the house by themselves and take them to a tea party.

The parties take place at volunteer host’s houses between 3pm and 5pm – where guests are given tea, sandwiches and cakes and get the chance to chat. Our elderly friends really benefit from this social interaction and it clearly makes a massive difference to their lives.

It is also a lovely experience for the volunteers too, who not only get to enjoy tea and cake, but also all the amazing stories from years gone by.

Kathleen was born an only child in Dollis Hill in 1911 and worked for many years as a teacher in Willesden and Harrow. She has endless stories about travelling the world. In 1936 she made her first visit to Hamburg and then travelled on to Berlin where the Olympics were being held. Since then she has visited most of the European capitals, as well as the USA, Canada and Japan. It is a real privilege to spend time with her.

We rely on the goodwill of our drivers and also the hosts who throw open their homes to elderly guests for the tea parties but with nine elderly members now and not enough volunteers we are struggling.

We are now looking for new voluntary drivers to help pick guests up and also hosts willing to arrange a tea party perhaps once or twice a year.

Many of our guests are frail so any host home would need to have easy ground-floor access, a downstairs toilet available and a space large enough to seat around nine elderly guests comfortably. There will also be about five volunteers in attendance.

If you can help then please email charlotteward@fastmail.fm or call 0208 208 2021

West Hampstead place shaping workshop report

2011-08-16T19:23:00.000+01:00

You may recall that at the end of June I was invited to join a "place shaping" workshop organised by Camden council. I wrote it up, but explained that the full report would be available later. That later is now. I received the document this morning. It's quite long so, although I feel it's a very fair reflection of at least my workshop (there were two in total), I'm not sure you need to read the whole thing unless you're really interested.

Therefore, I've circled paragraphs that I think capture the main points, and made a few annotations. It's important to clarify that the purpose of this was not to find solutions, but to try and establish some common purpose that can inform decisions taken by the council. Of course, much of what came up is not really in the council's purview, and to some extent the least tangible concepts of community are up to residents to demonstrate themselves. Do leave comments and (if they're appropriate) I can pass them back into the whole process.

West Hampstead Shaping the Future Workshop Final Report

Slightly stunned

2011-08-15T12:07:00.001+01:00

I confess to being very (pleasantly) surprised at the speed at which Whampgather tickets went. All the tickets have been snapped up in less than 24 hours. We are now at the legal limit of the Priory Tavern, so I can't release more even though a) I know that not everyone will turn up and b) even if they did they probably wouldn't be there at the same time. But I don't think it would be a very responsible move.

There is a waiting list for #whampgather (register below). I'm quite sure that not everyone who has tickets will be able to make it, so if you've missed out then please put yourself on the waiting list.

If you have tickets and realise at some stage that you won't be able to use any or all of them, please let me know so the waiting list people can have them.

In the meantime, thank you all for your enthusiasm - it promises to be a great night! Ideally, please bring your printed tickets with you, although we'll accept smartphone tickets, and will have the ticketholder names on the door. Afraid that as things stand, we can't take last minute +1s.

Event management for Whampgather VII powered by Eventbrite

What have I missed since August 8th?

2011-08-15T08:09:00.001+01:00

Not sure whether you heard about this, but there was some rioting and a lot of looting on the streets of England this week. There may have been other news in places like... ooh, I don't know, Syria and East Africa, for example. But mostly the news was about stolen PS3s and a "visible police presence". But what happened in and around West Hampstead this week?

Monday night saw some damage in Kilburn and West Hampstead.

On Tuesday night, there was trouble in St John's Wood, although arrests were later made.

Reactions came from the leader of Camden council, local MPs, and Paul Perkins of youth charity The Winch. And from local (apparently) Camila Batmanghelidjh of Kids Company on Question Time.

And, on Monday morning before things really deteriorated across London, from me on the Londonist Out Loud podcast. I also penned a few words about the experience.

Away from the riots and general tension, there was other news. The Jewish Community Centre on Finchley Road is starting to take shape.

There was a "Brooms and Lollipops Protest" planned for Saturday in Kilburn.

The planning application to knock down the historic Ebenezer Chapel on Kilburn Vale was withdrawn.

A steam train stopped at West Hampstead overground.

An inquest heard how a West Hampstead man fell to his death from a flat window.

There was a car accident outside The Priory Tavern on Sunday evening. No-one was hurt.

The horses from St John's Wood barracks caused some disruption on West End Lane.

Mill Lane store Dass has started Sunday morning bread/pain au chocolat deliveries.

Tweet of the Week
Almost impossible to choose this week, especially given the volume of tweets on Monday and Tuesday. In the end I liked this one from SJ, sent on Tuesday around the time I think we all realised we would probably have a calmer night than many had feared.

Whampgather VII - Four Worlds Collide

2011-08-14T16:42:00.003+01:00

It's that time again... no, not Hammer Time; not even "business time". It's whampgather time.

If you've been knocking around the world of whamp for a while, you'll know the drill. Every few months, we organise a large get together. It used to be a tweet-up, but tweet-ups are a bit passé these days, and plenty of non-tweeters turn up (and are very welcome). So, it's more a hyperlocal gathering. On September 8th, we'll have number 7 (read about previous ones).

For this whampgather I've extended the invitation beyond the borders to some of our neighbouring hyperlocals: St John's Wood, Swiss Cottage, Maida Vale and of course Kilburn. Lets make this this biggest whampgather ever!

Very excitingly, this wll be only the second gather where we have exclusive use of a venue. And what a venue. The incredibly popular Priory Tavern has very kindly given us the pub for the night. If you're in the know you'll be aware that this means amazing cocktails (as well as great beer and wine), so look out on the night for some very special customised local concoctions. Food will also be available. We're starting earlier than usual - 7pm, so you might want to come straight from work

I'm also really pleased to announce that DJ Sid Trotter (a regular at The Good Ship) will be providing the music. There will of course be the chance to win fab local prizes in the raffle (with all money raised going to The Winch).

Best of all, there's the chance to meet some fellow locals. I realise some people aren't sure about meeting people "off the internet", but hopefully, the fact that we're on No.7 of these events and each one is bigger and better than the last proves that people enjoy it. So why not take a gamble and come along? Everyone is remarkably friendly, the age range is wider than you might imagine, and it's neither geeky nor cliquey - just a bunch of great people who happen to live in the area.

What now? For the first time, this will be a ticketed event. It's still free of course, but if you'd like to come along then please order tickets here. There is a maximum capacity, so I suggest ordering sooner rather than later to ensure your place.

If you don't know the Priory Tavern, it's on the southern edge of West Hampstead on Belsize Road (between Kilburn High Rd and Priory Rd, near Little Bay). It's a five minute walk from Kilburn Park tube, amd a brisk 10 minute walk from West Hampstead tube. If you're coming from the northern reaches, I'd suggest a bus down the Kilburn High Road and if you're coming from Swiss Cottage or St John's Wood, then the 31 bus.

See you there!

Event management for Whampgather VII powered by Eventbrite

On the record with Londonist

2011-08-12T15:26:00.003+01:00

On Monday morning I found myself in Hackney Wick - bit out of my usual patch. I was there with @BarnetEye to contribute to the Londonist Out Loud podcast, hosted by the hugely likeable and professional N Quentin Woolf.

It was a strange time to be talking all things London. The riots of Sunday night were of course fresh in everyone's mind, but we obviously didn't know that the situation was going to escalate later that day. So, we joined everyone else in speculating wildly about the context. At this stage I didn't feel I had much to add given that north-west London had yet to feel any effects from the trouble. I would have had a lot more to say had we recorded on Tuesday morning, both about the damage and the social media implications.

The whole experience was fun - oddly, aside from the rioting there wasn't a lot of other fascinating London news to discuss, but we seemed to cover a fair amount of ground.

If you want to listen to me ramble on riots, blogging, and communities then you can do so.

Hold your horses

2011-08-12T09:56:00.001+01:00

West Hampstead residents are fairly used to seeing horses clip-clopping their way down West End Lane. As most of us know, we are home to one of the Metropolitan Police's eight stables. Almost every day the horses are taken out for a stroll around the area. Although this is primarily for exercise, it's not uncommon to see mounted police stopping people - they are on duty after all.

Less frequently, we see even more horses on our streets. The King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery is based at a barracks in St John's Wood.

Click for large version

The barracks itself is privately owned, but will close after more than 200 years in operation. The owners announced back in June that they were going to sell off the land, which is expected to fetch more than £250 million.

The "troop" is often seen in convoy on Finchley Road, but this morning was spotted (and snapped by the aptly named in this case @cyberdonkey) heading north up West End Lane, prompting tweets ranging from "makes an amazing noise", to "try and be more inconvenient". They won't be inconveniencing us any more once they move to Woolwich.


King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery on West End Lane Photo via @cyberdonkey

Largely unscathed

2011-08-10T18:56:00.002+01:00

West Hampstead and surrouding areas escaped Monday night's widespread rioting and looting relatively unscathed. Despite the rumour mill working overtime when it came to Kilburn the actual damage there was limited to the Vodafone shop on the High Road. This was broken into and stock was stolen but apparently the police were on the scene very quickly.

Photo via Mike Katz

The Guardian reported that 20 people had been arrested in Kilburn and it seems that generally whenever there was a crowd gathering, the police dispersed them fairly rapidly. This approach appeared to work well.

As I was tweeting into the early hours of Tuesday, I did feel nervous for the first time as there were reports of groups of young men heading down Adelaide Road towards Swiss Cottage and down Belsize Park in the same direction. I had visions of them coming through West Hampstead to get to Kilburn, or just stopping off in West Hampstead itself.

In the end the impact locally was very limited. The bottom pane of glass at Flower Gallery, the florists by the tube station, had been smashed - which could have happened any night really. By Finchley Road tube, Parkheath estate agents was broken into and their posh iMacs were stolen. I heard today that this wasn't really a rampage, but was done quite carefully, and I also heard that they chose to install Windows rather than Apple's operating system, which will surprise the eventual owners.

Photo via @RentalflatsNW6

Anyway, back to the verified facts... the only other casualty in the area was Carphone Warehouse on the corner of Burrard Rd and Finchley Rd, up in the north of West Hampstead. This took a bit of a battering, but that was pretty much it for our part of the world. Real Radio Scotland interviewed a witness.

Photo via @msjlucas

As riots in London continue, Real News speaks to a Glasgow woman who lives in West Hampstead, where looters targetted a Carphone Warehouse across from her flat: (mp3)

I took a walk through Kilburn on Tuesday morning to check the damage for myself. The Vodafone shop certainly had been hit and there was a police car parked outside and police tape round the entrance. Reports of damage to one of Halfords' windows were also correct - just a bit late: this had happened a few weeks earlier. Finally, there was some concern when staff were spotted sweeping water and minor debris out of one of the entrances to Poundland, but a quick enquiry revealed that a pipe in the ceiling had burst. Shit happens.

I took another turn through Kilburn mid-afternoon amid rumours that the police presence was increasing and after the Guardian reported that the police were telling shops on the High Road to close. It was a sunny day, and although not as busy as usual, the main drag was still bustly. Some shops were closed, notably TKMaxx, Primark, Phones4U and HSBC. Others, such as Sainsbury's main store, had strong security on the door. There were no police to be seen. Eventually, I came across four constables heading north on foot patrol and asked one about the instruction to shops. He looked blank and shook his head. He said they weren't advising shops what to do, although some of course were closing and it was an individual choice.

This was contradicted sometime later by a pub landlord and a member of the public who said he had stood there while a café owner had been advised to close although the timings of these events weren't clear. Anyway, as the afternoon wore on it became clear that most larger shops were certainly closing earlier than usual. Sainsbury's obviously had an edict to close its "Local" stores at 6pm, as the shops in Kilburn, West Hampstead and Willesden all shut at the same time.

Despite this, and a distinct tension in the air, West End Lane was busy with people determined to enjoy the good weather, sitting outside the bars and cafés in the evening sun. This wasn't "normal" though. A police car came hurtling up Lymington Road and swung left on West End Lane. Nothing especially unusual about this, but everyone stopped in their tracks and watched it.

Hopefully, as the atmosphere cools in the capital we won't have a repeat of Monday night over the next few days.

Live tweeting a quiet night in Kilburn

2011-08-08T23:16:00.003+01:00

It's been a busy evening on Twitter. Naturally, I have a search set up for "Kilburn" in my timeline and from late afternoon it seemed that every other message came from someone suggesting that riots were going to kick off in Kilburn.

It became increasingly hard to determine fact from speculation from deliberate fanning of the flames - whether for fun or for more sinister motives.

Finally, I began to get more convincing sounding reports, many from people I know and trust, that said there wasn't much happening. It became clear that there was a substantial police presence, and that shops were closing... although it was approaching 6pm, so some were closing anyway. Around 6.30pm someone tweeted that all the banks were closed. No kidding.

There began to be more reports of small groups of young men mooching up and down the road, some with masks. Initially skeptical I refrained from retweeting this, but eventually I was convinced. Several people were doing trawls of the entire High Road to see what was happening - after all Kilburn High Road is a mile long - and reporting that there was no actual trouble. Then there were solid reports that police were stopping some peole and shortly after the Guardian's Simon Rodgers tweeted that 20 people had been arrested in Kilburn.

I'm willing to trust the Guardian, so lets assume this is true. The Guardian's rolling riot coverage read:

"Kilburn, in north west London, has also seen trouble reports Simon Rodgers. He says there have been 20 arrests near Kilburn High Road. Youths are roaming around the area, Simon says."

This seemed a fair reflection of the situation, and was clearly chicken feed compared to the serious situation in Hackney, Peckham and Lewisham.

Unfortunately, the Guardian then tweeted this:

Follow LIVE #LondonRiots updates as trouble spreads to #Croydon #Kilburn and #Birmingham http://gu.com/p/3x4he/tw.

Of course this got RTd to death and suddenly perfectly sane people were understandably concerned. Of course the news moved on, nothing at all happened in Kilburn, and the Guardian carried on talking about the serious problems in Croydon and Clapham. Is it too much to expect a follow-up to say that Kilburn was calm? I know the journalists are stretched, so maybe it is too much. This isn't meant to be a Guardian-bashing post anyway. But it's indicative of the challenge journalists and responsible tweeters/bloggers have in trying to be up-to-date with events while not falling for seductive sounding "breaking news" tweets. People like to give their false reports authenticity... "my aunt says..." "a colleague rang me to say...", etc. But it's fairly easy to weed those out.

Harder to unravel were those messages from people I know who hear something from someone they know and - in a commendable effort to be helpful - ping me to keep me up to speed. With so many people tweeting though, one isolated report without a picture is to be taken with a large pinch of salt. In every single case, further investigation revealed that the reported fact simply wasn't true. Many were either misunderstandings, or nuance was lost in the brevity of Twitter, or it was the product of over-active imaginations. But each one gets retweeted, especially when it's written by someone with a lot of followers, before there's a chance to contradict it and the whole thing starts again.

Part of me wonders whether it's worth doing this - I'm under no illusion that fighting (with some very able allies - thanks to Julius_Geezer in particular) all the misinformation has any impact on what might happen, but it does seem worthwhile to allay people's genuine fears.

More importantly, I would much rather be spending an evening trying to counter some misinformation than writing about looting, arson and general thuggery in the neighbourhood. In the parlance of the day, stay classy Kilburn.