January, 2012

Life Tips #3: Rose Hacker, world’s oldest newspaper columnist (1906-2008)

By on January 31, 2012 in Life Tips

Stephen Emms: ‘Rose Hacker was a socialist, campaigner, writer – and, at the time of our meeting in 2007, enjoying a late celebrity aged 101 as columnist for the Camden New Journal. She spoke with an invigorating honesty for a couple of hours in her residential home in Highgate, and afterwards insisted I stay for [...]

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Why It Matters: Bikram Yoga in Queen’s Crescent

By on January 30, 2012 in Fitness, Why It Matters

Upside down, sweat streaming into both eyes, is not a usual position for inspiration to strike. But it was at precisely that degree of akimbo when I realised that this week’s ‘Why It Matters’ had to be about Bikram North. The fact is that the UK’s first ever studio for practicing this unforgiving series of [...]

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Secret Camden: The Colonel Fawcett

By on January 27, 2012 in Drink, Food, Secret Camden

Mrs Kentishtowner is as thrilled as a puppy with a scotch egg. Why? Because she predicts (and boy, is she rarely wrong) that 2012 will be the year of The Colonel Fawcett, and its talented 21 year old Head Chef Dorian Kirk (from Cafe Below). Yes, we declare this unassuming Camden backwater pub the area’s [...]

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Free Weekend? Contemplate A Park Bench

By on January 27, 2012 in Bench Tales, Free Weekend?

Like many addicts, it started with a single line. Except, in my case, it was on a bench, a little way off the main path on Hampstead Heath. I suppose I’d dabbled before, often glancing at a name – an Ethel Campbell or a Dorothy Rather – and spending a moment creating a backstory. Sometimes [...]

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Thursday Music Club: Kentish Town favourites Saint Etienne are back.

By on January 26, 2012 in Music

Folk of a certain age tend to clasp local trio Saint Etienne (the ‘Et’ to their nearest and dearest) close to their (probably more than ample) bosom. For example, Mrs Kentishtowner fondly remembers the day, back in 1992, when she skived off Sixth Form to get her vinyl copy of ‘So Tough’ signed at HMV’s [...]

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In Search Of Falafel: E.Mono to Phoenicia

By on January 26, 2012 in Food

Amidst the recent broadsheet brouhaha surrounding thinking person’s kebab shop E.Mono, I found myself in need of a particular type of sustenance one Sunday evening. Returning from a 1-year-old’s birthday party with a 40-year-old’s bash yet to come, it was high time for something more than watermelon and Prosecco. The children’s event had observed a [...]

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The Wednesday Picture: Classic Camden Graffiti, 2003

By on January 25, 2012 in Art, Wednesday Picture

‘I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love For love would be love for the wrong thing; there is yet faith But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting. Wait without thought, for you [...]

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Life Tips #2. John, 60, Market Stallholder

By on January 24, 2012 in Life Tips, Pinboard

1. ‘If you’re a jewellery seller, don’t ask for a stall nearest the entrance. It’s the first one customers see so they’ll walk straight by, and then you have to hope they haven’t spent all their money when they come back out. You’re better off by the food where people start slowing down.’ 2. ‘Leave [...]

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Why It Matters: Flapjacks Cafe

By on January 23, 2012 in Food, Pinboard, Why It Matters

When I first went into Flapjacks on Kentish Town Road I walked out within a minute and vowed never to go again. I’d asked a simple question, wasn’t given a simple answer, there was some dithering – and so I left. I subsequently found out that Flapjacks is a community project; a social enterprise café [...]

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Free Weekend? Walk Around The Circle Line

By on January 20, 2012 in Free Weekend?, Walks

The 19th century philosopher Xavier De Maistre, in his insightful ‘Journey Around My Bedroom,’ suggests we should try to notice afresh what we have already seen. And so for the second in our ‘Free Weekend?’ series, why not test his idea by walking round the Circle Line? Not only does the enigmatically slow 14-mile circuit [...]

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